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pinktacofury · 2 years

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Wayward Woman Part- One

Ladies and Gentlemen, I finally get to use a laptop to type out my stuff ^_^ I couldn’t be more excited! I’m re-watching some good old fashioned Bonanza and figure I could try my hand at writing for it a little.

Lurv, PTF.

Warnings- Gun fighting, shooting, blood, cattle rustling, violence, sexual references and some sexually charged scenes.

A/n- I only own Marie and her story line, I do not own any of the other people, places, things, images, or gifs used in this fic.

Summary- Marie moved to the valley just at the end of the Ponderosa property line and strays a little too far, found by the Cartwright boys will she be able to explain herself and keep from making a fool of herself? Or will she look like a complete idiot?.... Well... we’ll see.

The sound of hoof beats caught the attention of one wheat blonde, very distracted, woman. Lifting her head, Marie Elizabeth Aims blocked the sun from her ocean blue eyes, in an attempt to keep the light from obscuring the figures of those who approached, though she made no move to stand from where she’d been knelt collecting wild mushrooms.

“Ma’am, could we speak with you for a moment?” The oldest of the three younger men asked, his voice inviting to her ears, his beautiful paint mount seemed impatient, standing in one place, stepping from side to side.

“Hello, there.” Marie smiled warmly, rising from her knees in one swift motion and wiping her dirt and spore covered hands on the apron of her dress, already stained with the natural color of what she collected, if they’d greeted her any differently, she suspected she’d have let them have it.

“Ma’am my name is Adam Cartwright and, well Ma’am you’re on the Ponderosa.” He gave this sweet, easy smile, that made her want to fan her hand before her face. Then what he said finally registered.

“Oh! I’m terribly sorry. I bought the valley just to the North of your land, I must have wandered a little too far looking for just the right ingredients for dinner.” She felt like a complete fool for not having realized sooner.

“It’s really no trouble at all Ma’am.” The largest man she had ever seen shot her a sweet warm smile and tipped his hat, causing her cheeks to flush pink as she looked shyly away.

“You’re Miss Marie Aims? It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Aims, you might be the only person within the last twenty years to have purchased any land around here without meaning to mine it barren.” The oldest of the four, she assumed he was their father, spoke, leaning his right arm on the horn of his saddle he tipped his hat to her. while it was true, she’d beaten out every other bidder for the land, she wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to mine it, there were a few bidders that wanted to log it as well.

“Oh, please, call me Marie? Why don’t y’all come over for dinner? I’ll feed you proper then give you the grand tour of The Forbidden Valley.” She offered with a wide smile as she made her way through the line of beautiful horses and shook each of the four mens hands. Blushing hard when the youngest of them kissed her bare knuckles.

“I don’t know how we could ever say no to an offer like that, Ma’am.” Adam smiled with a tip of his hat then offered. “ It’s getting quite hot Ma’am, would you like a ride back to your Ranch?” Something about the way he said it, set her heart aflutter.

“I believe that that would be very kind of you, Sir.” She giggled as he lifted his brow at her, if he refused to listen to her request to be called Marie, she would certainly not be using his name.

Adam slid down from his mount and watched with some amusement as the tiny woman before him picked up her basket filled to the brim with wild mushrooms and carrots, a few small roots and enough wild herbs to stock a pantry for a year. As she made her way to the side of his horse Adam paused.

“Ma’am, Sport’s a little tall for you... May I help you into the saddle?” He asked, watching her as she gave him a small smile and shook her head.

“There will be no need, Sir. For I am a capable woman.” She laughed as she took several steps back and then darted forward, throwing herself hard into the air, she sailed clear of the saddle and caught herself just in time to slide into place, with some semblance of grace.

The ride home with Adam had been lovely, the scenery between their border and her Ranch was filled with Ponderosa pine trees and a beautiful fresh water lake sat directly in her front yard. He kept his distance from her back as he rode, though she could tell about half way through the ride back that he was starting to get sore, so she gently pressed her shoulders against his chest, the moment they touched it was almost as if someone had untied a post from his spine, he slumped against her, the warmth of his chest doing nothing to cool the summer heat causing sweat to bead upon her back, soaking her bodice further in sweat.

Now as she lay in her feather stuffed mattress she thought back on her first encounter with the Cartwright men, they didn’t seem at all like the man who wrote out her bill of sale made them out to be. Each and every one of them seemed like the amicable type, she was especially fond of Adam already, the man was like a walking dream, and his younger brothers weren’t bad looking either. She scoffed at herself and pulled the quilt up over her shoulders, to ward of the chill of the night.

Morning came with a smooth layer of fog covering The Forbidden Valley, like a sheet of buttermilk covering every blade of grass, every ripe vegetable in her garden, and hiding her cattle from view. Marie started out her morning as she did every day, first she fed the chickens, collected the eggs, fed the pigs and she cows, then she’d release the herd into the pasture. Then she rode the length of the fence, spent a large amount of her day putting in new posts to line her property, then just as dinner was right around the corner, she slipped inside and began to prepare a meal for five.

The sun had just begun to get low in the horizon as the knock sounded on her door, alerting her to the presence of her guests, she’d just finished the fresh baked bread and had already set the table. Pulling the door to her home open, Marie was greeted by four smiling faces, and four removed hats as she ushered them in out of the cooling night air. Her hearth was warm and the smell of steak broiled over an open fire, on a flat cast iron, seasoned with salt and pepper, seared on both sides with butter, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables and warm fresh bread filled the house.

“It’s a real pleasure to be here Miss Ai.... Marie. It sure does smell good, in here.” Hoss was the first to make his way to stand behind a chair at the table, followed by his brothers and father.

“You need any help carrying things to the table?” Joe Cartwright, perked up, hurrying across the dining room as she picked up a few serving platters from the counter to carry over.

With all of the food on the table and pitchers of Wine set across the table they settled down to a meal, hands washed and a hunger worked up they dug in, murmuring their compliments between bites. Happy chatter was exchanged and Marie was given an open invitation to visit The Ponderosa any time she wished, and Hoss was kind enough to offer her any mushroom she wanted on their land, she was flattered truly.

After several glasses of wine, steaks the size of their head and the freshest vegetables in Virginia City or the surrounding area they were ready for the grand tour of The Forbidden Valley Ranch.

The Cartwright family collected their horses and waited patiently for Marie to saddle hers, as they waited however the Adam and Joe started talking amongst themselves.

“I want to be the first to ask her, just because you’re older doesn’t mean anything.” Joe whispered, rather loudly.

“No one gets to ask her first, the first one to do it, is the first one to do it.” Adam growled, slightly annoyed at his little brother.

Marie came riding out of the barn on her gentile black stallion, his tail proudly lifted behind him as he strutted past, she laughed softly under her breath and whispered something they couldn’t hear into the horses ear. Adam and Joe’s breath caught as they mounted their horses and all four men followed along behind her listening carefully as she explained her land to them, she’d only had it a few weeks but she had already made the area her own.

“And over here, I’ll be building my chicken coop, I just finished the last few things I needed in the barn, new stalls, sturdier walls, that sort of thing.” She seemed more than happy to chatter along about what she planned to do with the land, and as they rode up towards the lake the Cartwright’s were speechless. From atop a small hill, they could see past the lake, between the strong trunks of thousands of Ponderosa Pine trees and straight out to their land, which loomed past the water with vibrant greens and browns.

“I intend to build any building I need without having to use any wood from my Ranch, there’s plenty of good clay rich mud down by the lake, and the little streams running through here, I should be able to use it instead.” Marie turned to look at them when she noticed they hadn’t made a sound in a moment.

“Clay mud? Truly?” Little Joe was the first one to speak, raising his brow and running the back of his hand over his forehead, hat in hand.

“My entire house is made out of Clay, the floor boards are just stuck in the mud for show, every wall, ceiling and floor is made entirely out of clay and dried razor grass.” She shrugged as if it were the most natural thing in the world. To her it may have been, but it sounded insane outloud.

“Well, I’ll be. That’s real amazing Miss Marie.” Hoss whistled low and shook his head.

“It’s nothing really, if y’all would like, you could come by some time and watch me build up the chicken coop, I’ve got the start working on the barn here soon too.” She offered with a beaming smile, which had everyone else smiling too.

“That sounds lovely, it truly does.” Mr. Cartwright agreed, night had fallen and they still had to ride home. They said their goodnights, made promises to visit again and rode off towards the shoreline of the lake, fading from view as the night began to take over.

The next day, while running her fence line, Marie heard the sounds of chopping, slowing her stallion to a walk, she made her way closer to the sound, edging ever closer she finally got a good look at what was going on. Well past her property line, in the middle of her densest clumping of Ponderosa Pine, five men were wielding axes against the trunks of her trees.

Marie knew she didn’t stand a chance against that many, turning her steed around she kicked him into a fast run, heading over her own property line and into the Carwright’s land, riding hard to reach the house before any of her trees were fully poached. By the time she reached the door, her stallion was frothing, she was sore and breathing hard as she slid from the saddle while still in motion, landing on her feet she threw her fists against the door. Thundering footsteps could be heard behind the door, before it swung open.

“Marie?” Was all Mr. Cartwright could get out before she was practically speaking in tongues trying to tell him what was going on.

“There’s five of them, I can’t take them on my own... I don’t have enough cover on those parts to get into any kind of fire fight.” She urged, the men were throwing on their gun belts even before they knew what was going on, better to be prepared than dead.

“You’ll stay here Miss Marie, I know you’re wanting to help too, but it’ll be safer here.” Hoss pulled Marie into the house and before she could even open her mouth to argue, he shushed her. “Please don’t argue, Ma’am. It won’t do you no good.” He stated as he and his brothers tore out into the tree line, their horses seeming to enjoy the swift pace as they stretched out fully each stride.

Marie waited, and waited, for hours. Her finger nails were bitten to the quick, the ends of her hair were twirled together from being constantly wrapped around a worried finger. She had nearly paced a hole in the rug when she heard the sound of hooves approaching the cabin, she ran to the window, peeking out the wooden shutters and then throwing the door open to greet the four men riding in. They looked no more worse for wear than when they had left, except for Adam, who had a clearly visible bloody hole in his shirt.

Marie ran to them as they slid down from their horses, Hoss taking the reigns and leading the group back to the stable while everyone else talked to Marie about how things had gone. No one really got to say anything as Marie was too busy tutting over Adam’s bullet wound to truly hear any of it. Adam was led into the house like a puppy on a rope, her hand wrapped tightly around his as she led him to sit on the couch. He obeyed her every command, watching her as she pulled a small bag from her belt, it smelled like green plants when she released the draw string.

“Would you be so kind as to.... as to.... remove your shirt? I need to be able to see.... the... wound.” She had not expected him to immediately begin to shed the garment, the more of his chest that was revealed, the harder she found it to breathe, or think, forming words had become almost impossible.

“If I’d have known, getting shot was going to get me shirtless and alone with you Ma’am I’d have gotten shot sooner.” He joked as she cleaned his wound, then pressed the green mixture against the open hole.

“Don’t you dare joke like that, Adam Cartwright.” She chastised softly, wrapping the wound gently as she smacked the back of his head with the palm of her hand. “I’ll hear no more of it, if you wanted to be alone with me, you could have asked.” She murmured, Adam was momentarily distracted and almost didn’t catch what she had said.

“You mean it?” He asked, eyes widening as his eyes shot to her face, she was looking down at the clean linen she was tying around his wound and she nodded, a simple bobbing of her head.

His family made their way into the room, chuckling amongst themselves as they laid eyes on Adam and Marie, Adam, with his legs sprawled out infront of him, slumping down on the couch, Marie knelt between his thighs, her tiny hands tying a knot, her cheeks as pink as the prairie rose.

“Looks like Adam has been talking romantic, poor girl looks like she’s had too much sun.” Hoss laughed as he made his way into the kitchen, his father and brothers joining in the laughter, and Marie of course couldn’t help but giggle as well.

“You were right, it turned into a gun fight. We spoke to the Sheriff while we were there, and he’ll be around your place tomorrow to get your recollection of the incident.” Mr. Cartwright stated through his chuckle as she perched herself on the arm of the couch, beside Adam, while the guys lowered themselves into a seat, letting out relaxing sighs as they let themselves calm down after such dramatic events.

“The Sheriff has advised that you don’t stay there tonight, in case there were any more lingering around looking to get revenge. I’m offering you the guest room on the second floor.” He continued as she blinked her ocean blue eyes up at him in both shock and gratitude for his kindness.

“I don’t know what to say.... this is all too kind, I couldn’t possibly ask you to keep me over night.” She raised her hands in front of her, palms forward.

“You aren’t asking, Ma’am. You don’t have to.” Hoss smiled as he made his way out of the kitchen with the cook in tow, carrying dinner to the table where everyone gathered, laughter and stories were exchanged.

A/n- Part two to follow tomorrow ^_^

#Bonanza #Western #Romance #Fanfic #MeTV #Hoss #Adam #Ben #Joe #Cartwright #FYP #OC #Ponderosa #Ranch #Wild west

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