Bonanza - Book 10 - " Things that go 'Bump' in the Night..."

The raven-haired young woman adjusted her hat a little lower onto her forehead to protect against the bright July sun as she rode up Adam and Beth Cartwright's laneway. Her light hazel eyes glanced around, and she could remember just how the area used to look years before: a wide-open meadow that backed onto Lake Tahoe. A meadow where she and her cousins had picnicked before splashing in the shallows of that lake. When she had visited her Uncle Ben's ranch, all those years ago, she had finally met her two other cousins – Hoss and Little Joe.She and Hoss got on very well, but it was her and Joe – being so close in age – who had hit if off immediately. They both had a great sense of humour and fun – not to mention a predilection for getting into all sorts of trouble, and a real talent at pulling pranks – not only on each other, but on the other family members, also...

As she continued up the laneway, she spotted her cousin Adam's horse, Sport, standing in the shade in one of the paddocks. She pulled her own horse to a stop and jumped down, grateful to be out of the saddle; riding was one of the few things in which Dr. Josephine Cartwright did not excel, and for the first time since leaving the East more than a month ago, she questioned whether coming west had been a good idea. But seeing Sport contentedly munching grass in the paddock – living, breathing evidence of how close she was to her adored oldest cousin – the feeling spirited away, and she raced over to the rail fencing. "Sport! Come on, fella!" She reached into a jacket pocket, then held out a shiny red apple. The horse's head popped up on hearing his name, and he ambled over when he spotted that apple. As he crunched it out of her hand, she ran one hand gently along the gelding's neck. "Good boy, Sport." She could envision Adam astride the animal and remembered how handsome he always looked perched on the horse's back. She gave Sport one more pat, swung clumsily up onto her own horse again, and continued up the laneway.

As Josie drew closer to the large ranch house, she smiled at its resemblance to her Uncle Ben's home – though this one was a little larger and had a few more windows to it. When Adam had written her to tell her about building the home and of his marriage to his college sweetheart, Beth McCord, Josie couldn't have been happier for him. When he also added that he'd found out that Sarah was his and Beth's daughter, and later that he and Beth had had triplets – well, how could she not come to see him? She had fallen in love with the Ponderosa as a little girl visiting from Washington, DC, and now, twelve years later, having graduated from the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia the previous year, she had decided the time was ripe for a return. Adam knew she was coming to Nevada, but when Josie's steamship out of Boston, where she had been living with her aunt, Rachel Stoddard, had bumped its departure up by two weeks, Josie had telegraphed Ben and asked him to 'forget' to tell Adam. She reined her horse to a stop, and climbing down, tied him securely to the hitching rail. She approached the door of the great log home with a broad smile on her face – Adam was going to be so surprised!

Josie raised a hand and knocked crisply on the door. She heard a hubbub inside of a young child's voice and some crying in the background. The door was opened by a young girl, who looked just like Adam. Josie's breath caught as she smiled down at the little girl. "May I help you?" the child asked.

"Well – you must be Sarah!" Josie exclaimed, finding her voice again. "You look just like your father!"

Sarah looked at her questioningly, then frowned a little. "Yes, I'm Sarah, but who are you?" Ever since her little sister, Rosie, had been kidnapped the previous year, Sarah was suspicious of strangers who seemed to know too much about her family. Yet this young woman seemed familiar somehow. It took Sarah a few moments to realize it was because the smiling dark-haired lady had the same eyes as her and her pa.