Inger and Little Adam
The Other Love Story

By Sharon Young

Ben Cartwright has stopped earlier than usual on the trail. He glances at his 5-year-old son, Adam; lying down in the back of the wagon and sees how pale he looks. Even though Adam has not told him he is sick, Ben can see for himself that Adam is not well. Silently, he berates himself for not being able to provide better for his son. How long has it been since they have eaten a decent meal? Too long; although you would not know by listening to Adam who always tells him he is fine and has had enough to eat. As Ben puts a blanket over Adam, he feels his forehead and discovers Adam is burning up with fever. Ben goes to fetch some water and when he returns to the wagon, wakes Adam up and tells him to drink some of the cool water. Finally, for the first time, Adam tells Ben that he is not feeling so good. Ben tells Adam that they are not far from the next town and when they get to town the next day; he will buy some real food and find a nice place to stay until Adam feels better. Ben tells Adam to finish the water. Soon after, Adam falls asleep. Ben almost feels relief that Adam was too ill to eat since they had eaten the last of the food that morning. With Adam asleep, Ben takes out his journal and begins to write in it:

Sept 5, 1835

My darling Elizabeth,

I am not doing well right now. Our beautiful boy is sick with a fever and I feel helpless to do anything to make it better for him. I told him that when we got to the next town tomorrow, I would buy him good food and we would find a place to stay that had a real bed in it and stay there until he felt better. I only have 10 cents left to my name; how will I be able to do any of those things I promised on 10 cents? Oh, how I wish you were here with us right now, tonight. You would know exactly what to do for Adam. He needs a mother's love so desperately. I've seen him when he didn't think I was watching, looking at other children with their mothers and I would see him turn away and there would be tears in his eyes. I love Adam fiercely and I know he loves me but we both miss you and need you here with us. I have told Adam that you are always watching out for him. Oh Elizabeth, my love, please look out for him now and show us the way. He is such a special little boy who has done nothing but try to make things easier for me all along this journey we have taken from Boston. Jobs are scarce right now in these parts but I will take whatever kind of work I can find in order to take care of our wonderful son. I just heard Adam stir in the wagon so I must go to him. Watch over and protect our son, Elizabeth and maybe me too. Good night my darling-----I love you.

Ben closed his journal and went to check on Adam. Ben gave him some more water and Adam told him he was a little hungry. Ben told Adam there was no more food but they would eat as soon as they got to town the next morning. Adam told Ben it was OK that he wasn't really that hungry anyway. Adam lay back down and was soon asleep again. This time Ben was the one with the tears in his eyes and as he looked down on his sleeping son, he just whispered "Elizabeth." Ben climbed into the wagon next to Adam and held him tight the rest of the night, more determined than ever to do whatever it took to take care of this precious child beside him.

Morning broke and Ben got ready to move again. Adam was still running a high fever and even trying to drink water seemed to be a chore for the little boy. Ben knew he needed to get Adam some help so they left as soon as the horses were hitched again to the wagon. It seemed like forever before they finally pulled into town and Ben saw a sign that said Illinois House. He stopped the wagon and told Adam to stay there; he would be just a minute. Ben went inside and there were some men sitting at a table drunk and loud. Ben walked up to the bar and asked the bartender if he knew of any place where there was work available. Mr. McWhorter, the tavern owner, who was sitting at the table next to the bar, told Ben there was little work in the area and the men at the table were looking for work themselves. Ben told McWhorter that he would do any kind of job, that he had a sick son out in the wagon and needed to buy food and medicine for him. McWhorter told Ben that the sawmill at the edge of town might be looking for some workers. Ben thanked him for the information and turned to leave when one of the men at the table told Ben he felt generous today and threw a dime at him. Ben looked at the coin and did not pick it up but just stared at the stranger. Then the other man at the table started laughing and told his friend Gunnar that it was obvious the man was a penniless drifter and wasn't worth more than a nickel. When Gunnar agreed and threw a nickel at Ben and told him the town didn't need any more drifters hanging around and that he should take the money and leave, Ben went over to Gunnar and knocked him across the room. McWhorter stopped the fight and told the men that he would throw them out himself. McWhorter then offers Ben a job cleaning up, doing odd jobs including occasionally throwing customers out. He would give him $1.00 a day plus meals. Ben asks when he can start and McWhorter says that is up to him. He tells him he will be back once he gets his boy settled in.

Ben comes out to the wagon and asks Adam how he is feeling. Adam tells him his head hurts and he was getting hungry and Ben tells him that he will go over now to the general store and get some food. Ben goes across the street to the general store and walks in to see a very attractive blonde lady and when she speaks it is with an obvious Swedish accent. She asks him what she can get him and he tells her he'd like some bread and milk. She notices Ben has no pail for the milk so she gets a pail and tells him he can return this one when he is done with it. Ben asks her if she knows where he can get a room to rent, cheap that will not object to children. "Oh, you have children and your wife is with you?" "I have a 5 year old son and we're alone, just him and me." Inger tells Ben that Mrs. Miller has a boarding house across the street and she didn't think she would object to a small child. Right then, Adam comes into the store and tells Ben that he is not feeling so good. Ben tells Adam that he was to stay in the wagon and to come on and get back to the wagon. Inger goes to Adam and feels his forehead and knows that he has a high fever and she looks at his throat and tells Ben that Adam has a throat condition that a lot of children get. She goes to the storage area of the store and gets a jar and hands it to Ben. "This is medicine for the boy, salt pork and onions, an old Swedish remedy. Just have Mrs. Miller warm it up and feed it to Adam and he will be better in no time." Ben asked how much she wanted for the medicine and Inger told him nothing and Ben said he did not accept charity and Inger told him "it is for the boy, I do it because I happen to like children." Reluctantly, Ben accepts the medicine and he and Adam go across the street to the Miller boarding house and get settled in. Soon, Adam is eating up the bread and milk with just the wish there could be jam for the bread and Ben tells him that tomorrow he will buy some real food for them. Mrs. Miller comes to the door and Ben gives her the medicine and asks if she would heat it up and she tells him to come down in a few minutes and it would be ready. Adam tells Ben that he isn't sure about wanting to take that medicine but wasn't the lady who gave it to them just real nice and Ben agrees that she was a real nice lady. When Ben gets up to go get Adam's medicine, Adam asks Ben if he had eaten something and Ben said he would be eating later.

The next day, Ben gets up early to go to work at McWhorter's tavern and before leaving tells Adam to stay in bed and to mind Mrs. Miller and eat the medicine when she brings it to him. Adam promised he would. A few hours after Ben leaves, a knock comes on the door and Inger comes in with Adam's medicine. He is surprised but pleased to see "the real nice lady" again. She sits the bowl with the medicine down on the stand next to Adam's bed and tells him that they have not been formally introduced. "My name is Inger Borgstrom, Adam, and I am very happy to make your acquaintance. So how are you feeling today?" Adam tells her he is feeling better especially after eating the bread and milk. She was happy to hear that and felt his forehead and looked at his throat and agreed he was better than the day before but it would be important to continue the medicine until it was gone. That way he would get completely well and the sickness would not return. So as Inger fed Adam the medicine, she began to ask him about his father, mother and himself.

Inger: "Adam, how long have you and your father been traveling in your wagon?"
Adam: "Since I was a baby. When we first left Boston, Pa told me that the nurse who was there when I was born started on the trip west with us. We left as soon as I could travel. Pa told me that shortly after I turned 2 years old, the nurse decided traveling west was not really for her and she went back to New England. So from then on it was the two of us. Since Pa had to work so much in order for us to be able to continue to travel west, we had only made it through New York when the nurse decided to leave us.
Inger: "My goodness, two years old and it is just you and your father? How did you manage it?"
Adam: "Well, Pa would take work where he could get it and I would stay in the wagon while he worked or sometimes he would get jobs on farms where the lady of the house would watch me while Pa worked their fields. Pa told me sometimes the women would watch me for free because they liked children and other jobs, his pay would be reduced in exchange for watching and taking care of me. Miss Inger, if my Pa seems angry when he talks to you, it's only because he doesn't want anyone to think he can't take care of himself or me. He's really a good, kind man and the best Pa a boy could ever ask for."
Inger: " Well, Adam, with that kind of endorsement, I will surely give your father any benefit of the doubt I might have where he is concerned. I appreciate you sharing that with me. Your father told me in the store that he was not traveling with a wife; it was just you and him. If you don't mind me asking Adam, where is your mother?"
Adam: " Pa told me that my mother died the day I was born. Her name was Elizabeth and she had dark black hair like me and was pale-skinned and very beautiful. Pa told me that she spent the final weeks of her confinement in bed and he would spend hours reading to her. They both had a favorite book and one day shortly before I was born, he was reading to her from it and the name Adam came up and Pa said she stopped him instantly and repeated the name Adam and told him that is what she wanted to name their son. He told me he repeated the name Adam Cartwright and agreed it was a fine name. So that is how and where I got my name from.
Inger: "Adam, that is a lovely story and a beautiful memory your father gave you of your mother. Do you have a picture of your mother I could see?"
Adam: " Pa has a picture of my mother in a small frame but he always carries it with him. But I do have the music box. He carries that in his travel case. His case is on the bed; if you would want to bring it to me I could get the music box and show it to you. I don't think Pa would mind me showing it to you, do you?"
Inger: "No, Adam, I don't think your Pa would mind you showing it to me or playing it for me either. I'm glad you have a few things of your mother's to remind you of her especially since you never got to know her."
Inger goes to Ben's bed and retrieves his travel case and Adam reaches in and takes out the music box and shows it to Inger and opens it up to listen to the music.
Adam: "Miss Inger, if I tell you something, would you promise not to tell my Pa?"
Inger: "Of course Adam, I would never reveal a secret you would tell me to anyone, even your father."
Adam: " Sometimes, when Pa thinks I'm asleep, he'll take my mother's picture out and rub his hand over her face. He starts to cry and writes to her in the journal he keeps. He doesn't know I know this. I try to be as much help to Pa as I can, not to ask for much. Pa has always told me my mother's death was not my fault and he does not blame me in any way but I know he would give anything to have her back. Pa doesn't smile or laugh much and I know it is because he misses her so much."
Inger: "Oh Adam, darling, you must never feel that your father would choose not to have you in his life. Even the short time I've known him, there is no doubt in my mind that he loves you above all else on this earth. There is no way he would wish for your mother to be here and you not to be here. I know that is not true. Please Adam, don't ever believe that of your father. I cannot imagine the two of you separated for any reason. You are a big part of your father's soul. Please remember that always Adam. You mean everything to Ben."

Adam felt so much better once he was able to say that and Miss Inger did seem to understand how he felt and she had made him feel so safe and secure. The only other time he had felt that was last year when he and Pa had stopped in Ohio to visit Pa's brother, John and his wife and their son, Will. His aunt had been so nice to him. Doing all the same things for him that she did for Will. Having her read a bedtime story, fixing all their meals; she had even knitted him a sweater and hat. He felt some jealousy towards Will that Will had a mother who loved and took care of him while Adam felt responsible for not having his own mother. But when Adam was with Miss Inger, he felt like he did with his aunt. Adam decided that he could not imagine a better mother than Miss Inger and he would have to work on his Pa to make him see the same thing. All Adam knew was that when they left Illinois, he wanted Miss Inger with them as Mrs. Ben Cartwright.
Inger continued to feed Adam his medicine all the while listening to the music box play. All of a sudden the door opened and Ben came into the room and went to Adam's bed and took the music box from him and shut it. He asked Inger what she was doing there and she told him she was staying with Adam and giving him his medicine. Ben told her he was capable of taking care of his own son and Inger tells him she realizes that but with him working all day, he cannot take care of Adam. She told Ben that she told Adam it was OK for him to play the music box since it had belonged to his mother Elizabeth but Ben tells Adam that he is never to touch the music box again and did he understand that? Adam nodded yes, he did. Inger remembered what Adam had told her about Ben's temper so she smiled at Ben and told him that Adam was getting much better and that Ben looked like he could use a good meal himself so once Adam was asleep to come over to her house for dinner. Adam smiled at his father and said, "you know Pa she's a real nice-------yes I know son, a real nice lady."

Over the next several weeks, Adam and Ben spent more and more time with Inger, going on picnics, to church and eating most every night at her house beside the general store. Sometimes, Gunnar would join them but mostly it was just the three of them. Those were always special to Adam because it felt like the family he had always dreamed of for himself and for his Pa. Then one day, Pa told Adam to get into the wagon, they were going to leave town. McWhorter had fired Ben from his job when Gunnar told McWhorter that Inger was sweet on that drifter, Cartwright. McWhorter told Ben that he intended to marry Inger and would not let some drifter take her away from him. So Ben decides to leave town rather than possibly have to depend on a woman for help. Adam saw Inger go into the boarding house and could hear their raised voices even outside. Soon after, Inger emerged in tears, running back towards the store. Adam got out of the wagon and ran into the room asking his father why was Miss Inger crying and running away. Ben told him he did not know and then when Ben saw the look on Adam's face, he told him yes, he did know what was wrong and he took off after Inger to try and make things right. Ben yelled at Inger to stop. He comes over to her and tells her he doesn't have much to offer her and he has this young son and nothing but a dream to go west and start a new life and he didn't know if he could ask her. She tells him to ask her and before he has the words out, she says she will marry him. Unfortunately, McWhorter is standing outside and witnesses this exchange between Inger and Ben and can see that Inger does love Ben Cartwright and he becomes determined to do whatever it takes to break them apart. McWhorter finally convinces Gunnar to sell him the store and Gunnar has just finished signing the paper when Ben comes into the tavern to ask Gunnar to come for supper. When McWhorter tells Ben that Gunnar has sold the general store to him, Ben becomes enraged at Gunnar and demands that Gunnar give the money back and get the deed. Gunnar refuses and Ben ends up hitting him and knocking him to the floor. Ben starts to lift Gunnar up to take him back to Inger's but McWhorter tells Ben that Gunnar is drunk and he wouldn't want Inger to see him that way so McWhorter said he would take care of Gunnar and would send him home once he sobered up. Ben leaves and goes to break the news to Inger that Gunnar has sold the store to McWhorter. When Inger finds out she starts laughing and Ben wants to know how it is funny what Gunnar had done to her. "Oh Ben don't you see, ever since we decided to get married, I've been trying to find a way to get up the courage to ask Gunnar to sell the store. Don't you see my darling, now we can pursue your dream of going west and building a new life. You are now my life and Gunnar will have to live his own life." A knock comes on the door and there is a doctor and two men carrying in a beaten and unconscious Gunnar. They take him into the bedroom and the men make it clear they believe Ben had done this to Gunnar. After the doctor leaves, Inger looks at Ben and asks how he could do something like this. She thought once they were engaged to be married, all that anger was gone. Ben could not believe Inger thought him capable of doing such a thing to any human being. Inger went back into the bedroom and Ben comes over to Adam on the couch and tells him to lie down and go to sleep and be good for Miss Inger, that he was going to find out what had really happened to Gunnar.

After Ben leaves, there is a knock on the door and a constable is standing there and tells Inger that he has heard that Gunnar was beaten by a man named Cartwright and the sooner she pressed charges the faster he could arrest Ben. Inger looks over at Adam and tells the constable there will be no charges. The constable tells her that if Gunnar dies, Ben Cartwright is a murderer. Inger tells the constable again there will be no charges and bids him good night. Inger goes over to a chair in front of the fireplace and sits down, staring into the fire.
Adam: " Miss Inger, that man, he said my Pa should be in jail. Is my Pa bad?"
Inger: " No darling, he is not bad; he may have gotten angry and done a bad thing but no Adam, he is not bad."
Adam: " Is my Pa coming to get me?
Inger: "Yes darling, he is coming to get you."
Adam: "Miss Inger, do you love my Pa?"
Inger: "Yes Adam, I do love him."
Adam: "Then why did you send him away?"
Inger: " Adam, I just cannot explain it to you right now."
Ben returned to Inger's and it was obvious he had been in a fight. Ben hoped to stir Gunnar so he could tell Inger Ben had not done this to him. Ben tells Inger that either you love with all your heart or there is no love at all. There can be no room for doubts about their love for each other. As they are talking Gunnar wakes up and tells Inger that Ben did not do this to him. It soon becomes apparent that McWhorter did this to Gunnar in hopes of destroying Inger and Ben's relationship. When Ben starts to leave to get McWhorter and force him to confess to Inger, she tells Ben there is no need, that he was right, if one loves with all one's heart there is no need for proof and "I do love you with all my heart." They tell Gunnar they want to marry as soon as possible and do they have his blessing? Gunnar says yes as long as he can give the bride away.

A couple weeks later, on a brisk November day, Ben and Inger were united in marriage in her church with Gunnar escorting the bride down the aisle. As she looked down the aisle and saw Adam standing there beside his father, tears glistened in her eyes as she remembered the conversation she and Adam had that morning while Ben was out getting things prepared for them to leave town after the wedding service was over.
Adam: "Miss Inger, can you explain it to me now?"
Inger: "Explain what, darling?"
Adam: " I asked you if you loved my Pa and you said yes you did and when I asked why you sent him away, you said you couldn't explain it then." (Inger was taken aback and realized that Adam was indeed a special little boy who had a very keen memory and she would have to remember that he would never forget anything she told him!)
Inger: "Adam, I was very upset that night with your father. I thought he had been the one who had hurt Gunnar. I thought that once he told me he loved me and that he knew I loved him that the anger that had been inside of him for all those years since your mother's death had finally left him. But Adam, I was the one who was wrong, not your father. He did love me with all his heart. I was the one with the doubts and the one who was unsure of my love for him. I am so glad you were lying on the couch that night when the constable came to the door because I might have made a terrible mistake. If I had not turned around and seen your sweet innocent face look back at me, I might have let the constable arrest Ben. I am so grateful that you were there and helped me realize that there must have been more to what happened than I was seeing at that moment. I want you to know Adam that not only do I love your father with all of my heart, but also I love you the same way. I will try and be the best mother I can possibly be to you in a way that honors your own mother. Your father told me at that picnic we went on shortly after you arrived in town, that he was amazed that given all the towns he could have gone through; that he could have easily missed coming through this one and we might never have met at all. I'd like to think that maybe you getting sick and needing to find a place to get food and medicine was not an accident at all. Your father showed me the journal he had kept since leaving Boston and I saw the entry he made the night before you came into town. (She goes over to the nightstand and picks up Ben's journal and opens to that entry and reads it to Adam.)
So you see Adam, I think your mother is the one who brought the three of us together; that she saw it was time her little boy had a mother who would love him like she would have wanted to herself.
Adam: (who goes and puts his arms around Inger's legs) "Miss Inger, do you think my mother would think it was OK then for me to call you Mama after you marry Pa this afternoon?"
Inger: " Oh, yes, darling I think she would think it was just fine and I could not imagine a greater honor for myself than you calling me that. I promise you, Adam that no matter how many children your father and I are blessed with, none will ever replace the love both of us will always feel and have for you. You are our first-born and I can only thank God that you will be the older brother to those children yet to be born. You are the best wedding gift I could have received from Ben Cartwright. Now young man, we need to get ready if we are going to make that wedding on time!
Adam: "OK, MAMA!! (Grinning as he runs out the door.)

When Inger made eye contact with Adam as she was walking down the aisle with Gunnar, she gave Adam a big smile and when she got to where Ben was standing waiting on her, she first bent down and kissed Adam's cheek and whispered, "I love you, son." The wedding went off without a hitch and Inger went back to the house to change into her traveling clothes while Ben and Adam finished packing the wagon. They all said their goodbyes to Gunnar who reminded them that some of his friends called him Hoss, which means a big man with friendly ways. He hoped that when they had a son, maybe his friends would call him Hoss too. With that last thought, Ben, Adam and Inger Cartwright began their own journey out west to continue with Ben's dream. But for Adam, it was exactly what he had wished for that day in bed when Inger was feeding him his medicine and they were listening to his mother's music box; that this real nice lady would be with them when they left Illinois as Mrs. Ben Cartwright and his mother.

THE END

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