Building an Empire

Chapter 1

Early 1870

Victoria Barkley rode out to where her husband and sons were tending the herd of now 600 prime head of beef, to watch them work together, to see again how things were coming along. Because they were coming along well, the ranch and the other enterprises growing by leaps and bounds since the war ended. Since her oldest sons had settled into their roles as their father's second and third in commands. Since they had grown used to each other.

Oh, it had its rocky moments. Nick and Jarrod had butted heads with some frequency when it was decided that Jarrod would be Tom's second in command, the one to learn about and be ready to take over the whole operation, including how the ranch was run. After all, Nick was just turning sixteen at the time and was feeling his way into adulthood, and Jarrod had just returned from the war, minus his left arm, and taken the place Nick expected to have. Not that Nick hadn't given it up willingly – he had, because even at the young age, after talking it out with his brother, he knew it had to be him who made the sacrifice, to help his brother adjust to the reality the war had left him with.

As Nick grew out of his teen years and into young adulthood, he knew Jarrod taking over had made sense, too. He had settled into being more the outdoor workman and less the overarching rancher, the third in command rather than the second. He'd become less interested in the associated businesses and more interested in the ranch itself, the cattle, the orchards, the other crops – everything that the ranch produced. Even though he still kept up with what was going on everywhere, Nick was happy for Jarrod to take over things like the winery and the gold and the accounting, and over time he was having less trouble with Jarrod calling the shots even over the ranch operations when their father was not around.

Jarrod was nearly twenty and just home from the war in 1863. All his dreams of being a courtroom lawyer were cut off when that left arm was cut off at a battlefield hospital in Maryland in 1862. Maimed lawyers were not popular in courts, because people did not like looking at deformities, and juries sympathized and appeals were being granted. The firm Jarrod was reading law with told him outright they would not train him to be a courtroom lawyer. Jarrod was crushed, because he could never be what he called a "glorified clerk." He gave up the law, and he came home. He struggled with Nick and he struggled with his lack of an arm and he struggled with who he was supposed to be now, but ultimately things began to settle down. Tom and Jarrod – and Nick – decided Jarrod should be the second in command. He was more suited to handle the business as a whole. Nick would be third, of more use in the field – and happier in the field as it turned out.

Squabbles and rocky moments became fewer and fewer over time. The last real disagreement had come two years earlier and was more between Nick and Tom, when Nick decided he wanted more authority over the men in the field. "I think I've earned it," he said to his father. "I'm with them all the time. You and Jarrod are spending a lot of time on the other businesses these days. I think I ought to have more say out on the range."

Tom hemmed and hawed over that request, but Jarrod said, "What do you mean?"

"Hiring and firing," Nick said flatly.

"No," Tom said. "That's my say."

"Wait a minute," Jarrod said. "Father, Nick has a point."

It was tough to see who was more surprised, Tom or Nick, when Jarrod said that.

Jarrod went on. "He's with them all the time. He knows who works out, and he's getting a good idea of who will work out if somebody asks for a job."

"Jarrod, who we hire and fire is always going to be my decision," Tom said.

"But maybe we ought to be deferring more to Nick's experience," Jarrod said. "I'm not saying give the final decision up to Nick, but I am saying we ought to hear him out before we hire or fire anybody, and we ought to be giving his opinion a whole lot of weight."

Tom literally chewed on that, while Nick smiled. It felt so good to hear his big brother backing him up. Tom looked from one of them to the other and finally gave in. "All right. We'll try it."

It worked, so well that now, Tom's yea or nay was almost a rubber stamp on what Nick wanted to do. Now, with Jarrod twenty-six and Nick twenty-two, they had pretty much grown into their adult roles. And now, when a new threat to the empire and to the entire valley began to rear its ugly head, the squabbles disappeared entirely. Now the Barkleys were circling the wagons, together and with their neighbors, against a massive land grab by the ever increasingly powerful Coastal and Western Railroad.

But the ranch still had to be worked too, and right now Victoria was enjoying watching it happen. Tom came riding up to where his wife sat on her horse, up on the ridge where she could see everything. "Hello, darling."

"Hello, Tom," Victoria said. "The herd looks good."

"It is good," Tom said. "We'll be ready to go to market when the time comes."

"That's still some time off," Victoria mused. "Are you still planning to go along?"

"Yes, I'd like to."

"Have you talked to Jarrod yet about staying behind?"

Tom said, "Not yet, though I'm sure he's expecting me to. He usually stays here if I go, and he knows I want to go."

"There will come a day you'll have to give up the drives entirely."

"I know. That's why I want to do it while I still can. And Nick and I could stand some time together. He likes to show me he can run a cattle drive, and he doesn't really get a chance to run it when Jarrod is there. That older son of yours can get a little bossy." Tom winked. "Takes after his mother."

Victoria knew he was teasing and laughed. "They both belong to both of us, Tom. Part you, part me. You're still happy with how they're working out together, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Tom said. "They don't even complain about each other much anymore. Well, my love, I want to get back to work. We'll be in by five."

"All right," Victoria said. "I have to get back and get ready to fetch the kids home from school. Whose idea was it to have two more when the first two were practically raised?"

Tom laughed. "You've always blamed it on me. Wanna make some more?"

"No!" Victoria said, half laughing, half serious. "We have ways of making sure that doesn't happen now when we get – amorous. Remember?"

"Mmmm," Tom said. "No. Maybe you can show me later tonight."

Victoria gave him a wicked smile and turned toward home.

XXXXXXX

Victoria didn't like at all what she was seeing when she arrived in Stockton to fetch Audra and Eugene home from school. There were quite a few strangers in town, harsh-looking and hard-acting men she didn't know. Her first instinct was to gather her children into the buggy with her and get out of there, but as she waited for them to come out of the school, the sheriff, Harry Lyman came by on horseback. He tipped his hat.

"Mrs. Barkley," he said. "How are you today?"

"Fine," Victoria said. "Just came for my children. Say, Harry – who are all these men?" She nodded toward a group of four who were heading into the saloon. "I don't know them."

"I don't either," the sheriff said. "There are three or four more just like them, new in town. So far they've been behaving."

"Has the railroad sent them?" Victoria asked, a growl in her voice.

Most women around town wouldn't have even thought to ask the question, but Victoria Barkley was not only an intelligent woman. She had an intelligent husband who knew what was what and didn't hesitate to discuss it with her. And Victoria did not hesitate to talk about her own concerns. "It could be," Sheriff Lyman said. "Nobody from the railroad checks with me unless they want something from me, and so far no one has. It could be they're just drifters passing through, I don't know. But I'll keep an eye on them."

The children were beginning to pour out of the schoolhouse, so it was time to end that particular conversation. Victoria just said, "I'll mention them to Tom. I'm sure he'll talk to you if he's concerned."

"I'm sure he will," Sheriff Lyman said and moved on.

Audra and Eugene scampered to be the first one in the buggy beside their mother. Eugene won on this day when he gave Audra a last minute shove. Victoria immediately raised a hand up and stopped him before he could climb in. "That's not the way you treat a lady, Eugene. You stay right there. Audra will sit next to me, and you will learn to mind your manners."

Audra gave a smug grin as she climbed in and Eugene climbed in behind her. "Wish I had a brother," Eugene grumbled.

"So do I," Audra said, full of sarcasm.

Eugene started to punch her. Victoria said, "I'm not having any of this behavior on the way home. You both keep your hands and your opinions to yourself, or I'll put you out and make you walk."

"Yes, ma'am," they both said and meant it. They didn't like to walk, and they didn't like it when they had to ride slowly because the other one had to walk.

They behaved all the way home, where they scampered upstairs and tried to beat each other to the wc to clean up. "Ladies first!" Victoria warned her youngest son.

Eugene hated it, that it was always "ladies first," but he slowed down and let Audra go on ahead of him.

As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Victoria started thinking about what she was going to say to Tom about the men she'd seen in town. They bothered her, a lot, even if they didn't seem to bother the sheriff yet. Trying to set it aside, Victoria went into the kitchen, where she found Silas cutting up vegetables for dinner. "A good beef stew, I hope, tonight, Silas," she said with a sigh.

"Yes, ma'am, as you asked for this morning," Silas said. He noticed the sigh, but he was not one to ask about things like that. If one of the Barkleys wanted to talk, they'd start the conversation.

"Would you like some help?" Victoria asked.

Silas pointed to a piece of beef on the cutting board by the sink. "You might cut that up into little pieces, Mrs. Barkley."

Victoria didn't always insist that meals be prepared so that Jarrod didn't have to use a knife and fork – because with only one arm, it was impossible for Jarrod to do that. But more often than not, if she could come up with something that wasn't awkward for him, that he didn't have to ask for help with, she would do it. It worked better for the children, too. They didn't mind not having to cut their food up.

As she began to cut the meat up, Victoria said, "Can we have a bread pudding for dessert, Silas? Mr. Barkley loves your bread pudding."

Silas smiled. He had a delicious recipe that didn't take all that long to make. "I will put some together, Mrs. Barkley."

Victoria wasn't really sure why that dessert came to mind, but it felt like more than the regular desire to please her husband. It seemed extra special that she do that tonight.

They worked together in silence then, until Victoria could hear her men coming in the front door. She excused herself and went out to greet them. She had a kiss for her husband as her sons took off their gloves and hats and put them in the hallway. Nick shed his gunbelt, and even Jarrod had figured out how to handle the job one-handed by leaning back against the wall to hold the back of the holster against his body so the gunbelt didn't just drop onto the floor. Both of them were a bit dirtier than Tom since they had been actually working with the herd, not just overseeing like Tom had been, so they headed upstairs straight away.

Victoria took her husband by the arm and led him into the parlor. "Tom, I wanted to talk to you about something I saw in town today when I went to get the children from school."

"What's that?" Tom asked as they headed for the refreshment table.

"Strangers, very rough men," Victoria said. "Harry Lyman said there were about seven of them in town. He didn't know if they were just drifters, but I got a very bad feeling about them."

Tom stopped pouring his drink when Victoria described them. He looked at her, suspicious, and even angry. "Railroad goons."

Victoria nodded. "I got the feeling they might be hired guns."

Tom finished pouring his drink with a sigh. "It's not like we haven't been expecting it."

"Some of the other ranchers and farmers have probably noticed them, too," Victoria said. "I think you'd better get together soon."

"Jarrod has a head for organizing men like this. I'll get him to ride out tomorrow, get people to come over here the morning after, talk about what we need to do." He sighed again. "God, I wish it wasn't coming to this."

"Maybe it isn't," Victoria said. "Maybe when the railroad sees we aren't just going to give into them – "

Tom shook his head and sipped his drink. "Ah, Torie. You know how powerful men can be when they want something. They don't let a little opposition stop them. No, my darling, I'm afraid we might be in for it."