BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

It was August 11 when Betsy Kent arrived at the Ponderosa. With a bag with just the most necessary things in it she walked careful to the porch. With each step she made the young woman noticed how big she was.

Arrived at the porch Betsy leaned at the table. ‘Please wait a just a while with coming’, she thought looking at her belly. Betsy put a hand on her belly and felt that it was time. This gave her courage to knock at the door.

It took a while before there was an answer. Till that time Betsy waited near the table. Hoss Cartwright answered the door and looked around the corner to see who had knocked.

“Hello Hoss”, Betsy said a bit shy.

“Betsy, sweetheart”, he said excited.

Hoss walked straight to his big love.

“What are you doing here?”, he asked amazed after he had kissed her.

“Do you know that you stayed with me and my sister Marjorie about 9 months ago? Well, this is the result. My sister wanted that she was going to raise the child so I left for here. Will you look after me and our child?”, asked Betsy.

“Of course I look after the both of you. Come inside fast”, Hoss said smiling.

Betsy got up and walked with her beloved inside. The door got shut right away again.

In the living room Betsy saw her father-in-law Ben and brother-in-law Little Joe Cartwright.

“Pa and Joe, is it alright if Betsy stays here for good. She is expecting our child and her sister wants to raise the child”, said Hoss.

“Of course she is welcome and your child too. Betsy, welcome to the Ponderosa”, Ben said pleased.

“Thank you Mr. Cartwright”, Betsy said clearly relieved.

Hoss helped her on the settee and went to sit next to her.

“When does the little one come?”, asked Little Joe.

“It can happen any moment”, replied Betsy.

“Betsy, will you marry me?”, Hoss asked then.

“Yes, I love to but not the way I look now. I know that you are found of a wedding in June so then we will get married. If your father agrees with it”, said Betsy.

“I see nothing better than my children happy. Then we have plenty of time to arrange everything”, replied the rancher.

Hoss and Betsy kissed each other of happiness.

“Hoss, I want to rest a while before supper”, said Betsy.

They got up and went upstairs together.

In their bedroom Betsy went to sit on the bed and she put a hand on her belly.

“Hoss, I shouldn’t had come much later here”, she said.

“How do you mean?”, Hoss asked amazed.

“The baby is coming”, his fiancée said.

“You go to bed and I let Mrs. Shaughnessy and the doctor come”, Hoss said excited.

Betsy got changed and said in-between the contractions, “I do want that you remain by me during the delivery.”

“I promise that. I just go downstairs to let the mentioned people to be fetched”, said Hoss.

He ran downstairs and called at the landing, “Little Joe, go and get the doctor and Mrs. Shaughnessy at once!. Our baby is on its way.”

Little Joe left right away. Hoss went back upstairs where Betsy laid in bed with heavy contractions.

“Hoss, it won’t be long much longer now. On the way to here I got belly ache all the time. So now I know why”, Betsy said gasping.

Hoss went to sit by her and grabbed her hand.

“You concentrate on what will be happening now and I am by you”, he said calm.

Betsy nodded and looked at her enormous belly.

“I need to push”, she said a moment later.

Hoss looked how far she was and saw that their child was on its way.

“Just start. I will help you”, said Hoss.

Betsy took a breath and began to push along.

In the living room Ben was pacing up and down. It was deadly quiet in the house because his eldest son Adam was away with his wife Sally and their children, the twins Mitch and Pam and the youngest offspring Rose. Only the screaming of Betsy was to be heard. Hop Sing, the loyal cook of the Cartwrights, came out of the kitchen and saw Ben pacing up and down.

“Mr. Cartwright nervous?”, asked the cook.

“Hoss and Betsy are having their baby”, said the rancher.

“Delivery will go alright”, replied Hop Sing.

“I hope so too”, reacted Ben.

Both looked to upstairs where the newest Cartwright was about to be born.

Betsy worked hard to become a mother and that had effect.

“Hoss, I feel the head”, the mother-to-be said.

“I see it already. You do it excellent. Just a while and then it is born”, Hoss said to encouraging.

Betsy took again a deep breath and pushed as hard as she could. With a loud scream she gave birth to a daughter. Hoss received his daughter and began to smile.

“We have a girl”, he said laughing.

He put the baby by the mother who was dead tired but deliriously happy. The baby began to cry out loud right away.

“Our daughter”, Betsy said whispering.

Hoss kissed her of happiness.

Not much later Doc Paul Martin and Mrs. Shaughnessy came into the bedroom.

“The baby came a bit faster than we had thought and expected”, said Hoss.

Betsy and the baby got examined and declared healthy a moment later.

“How will the little gal be called?”, asked Mrs. Shaughnessy.

The quite new parents looked at each other and Betsy said, “After her grandmother, Inger.”

“She is called Inger Cartwright. Even though we are not married yet”, said Hoss.

“Congratulations with your new asset”, said Paul.

“I stay here to look after mother and child”, said Mrs. Shaughnessy.

Paul left the bedroom and went downstairs again.

There waited Ben and Little Joe for news.

“Ben, you have another grandchild. And I think there will come even more”, said Paul.

He left right away. Ben and Little Joe looked at each other and went then upstairs.

In the bedroom of Hoss and Betsy they found the young family.

“Pa, meet your granddaughter Inger”, said Hoss smiling.

Ben got the baby handed over and was right away thrilled with her. But that also went for Little Joe.

His reaction was. “It is good that Mitch isn’t here. He would say about his little cousin: Another gal along. Soon the women take over the ranch!”

Everybody laughed.

“They will see Inger as soon as they are back from holiday”, said Ben.

“Mother and daughter need rest so if the gentlemen would like to go downstairs”, said Mrs. Shaughnessy.

That happened and Betsy and Inger fell asleep.

From that day one a lot would happen behind closed doors but what that would be was for the inhabitants a know and for the other a question.