The Grove
Chapter 1
July 1880
The three Barkley men wandered in after five o'clock in the afternoon, sweaty and grimy from the work they'd been doing all day. Nick headed straight for an armchair in the living room, his brothers lagging a little behind. He aimed to sit down but his mother popped up from the settee with her wine in one hand and the other hand raised.
"No, Nick, you're far too sweaty to sit down in that chair!"
Nick stopped. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"We all are," Jarrod said as his mother sat back down. "But we got everything moved." He smiled at his wife, who also sat on the settee. "The house is all ready for us to just slip in there tomorrow."
Their home – "The Grove" – had been finished about a week earlier, and Jarrod and his brothers had been moving furniture, clothes, and other of his and Maggie's things over there all week. Now, except for the last bit of clothing, it was done.
"Go clean up and change your clothes," Victoria said.
"Yes, ma'am," Heath said and he and Nick headed upstairs.
Jarrod took time to kiss his wife first. "Be back in a few minutes," he said, and then he too was off upstairs.
"They've worked really hard all week," Maggie said. "I hope Jarrod's told his brothers how much we appreciate it."
"I'm sure they know," Victoria said. "They're close. Sometimes they seem to know what's going on with each other without even asking. So, are you ready to move into your new home?"
"I'm excited," Maggie said. "It's in a beautiful spot. I know we'll be happy there."
Victoria and Maggie chatted for a while longer, and then Heath came down to join them. He was clean and dressed in clean clothes and headed straight for the refreshment table for a bit of whiskey. Then he claimed the armchair Nick had been heading for.
"Boy, howdy," he said as he sat. "It feels good to sit down."
"Moving in July probably wasn't the best thing we could have done to you," Maggie said.
Heath smiled. "It's less smelly than herding cattle."
"How did everything go?" Victoria asked.
"Just fine," Heath said.
Maggie knew she was going to have to ask directly or she wasn't going to get a straight answer. "Did Jarrod have any problems?"
Heath looked like he didn't want to say. He said quietly, "One angina attack, but it wasn't much. We sat him on the sofa and he took a pill and five minutes later he was up and at it again."
Maggie eyed him to make sure he was telling her the whole truth. For extra measure, Victoria eyed him, too.
Heath said, "Really. That's all it was. That and Nick dropped a box on Jarrod's foot, left him limping for a couple minutes. Don't worry, everything was fine."
Maggie smiled and sipped at her wine. Nick was bounding down the stairs and was at the refreshment table pouring some whiskey within moments. "Glad that's over," he said, and then turning to smile at Maggie said, "We did a real good job if I do say so myself."
"Except for dropping the box on Jarrod's foot," Victoria said.
Nick gave Heath a dirty look. "Had to tell them that, didn't you?"
Heath shrugged. "They asked."
Jarrod was down only a minute or two later, and he too hit the refreshment table first. "I think you're going to be pretty happy with how things shaped up out at The Grove," he said to Maggie as he walked up behind the settee with a scotch in his hand. He reached down with his free hand and rubbed his wife's shoulder.
Nick raised his glass. "Here's a toast – to Barkley Brothers Moving Company, our newest business venture!"
Heath and Jarrod lowered their glasses with a groan. "Not a chance, Nick," Heath said.
"All right, then, here's to The Grove," Nick said, and everyone raised glasses again. "May there be happiness and love and lots of kids in its future."
"Here, here," Jarrod said, and they all drank to it.
XXXXXXX
Everyone went over to The Grove in the morning – Jarrod and Maggie by buggy, and Nick, Heath and Victoria on horseback. Two saddle horses – Jingo and Candy – were tied behind the buggy. In the back of the buggy they had packed the last of Jarrod's and Maggie's clothing, so that now, everything that was supposed to be at The Grove would be there.
When they arrived, they hitched all the horses for the time being and went inside, leaving the luggage until later. Jarrod wanted Maggie and Victoria to see how everything looked, and he hoped he had gotten everything right – the sofa facing the fireplace, the armchair slightly to its side, and everything else where Maggie had wanted it.
Maggie looked around carefully, with Victoria right behind her. The men waited in the living room, to be ready to move whatever they had gotten in the wrong place. But after she looked around, Maggie nodded and smiled. "Yes," she said. "It looks great."
"You didn't look in the nursery," Heath said.
Maggie looked surprised. "We don't have any nursery furniture yet – " And then she looked at the smile on Jarrod's face. "Do we?"
Jarrod took her by the hand and led her into the room they'd designated the nursery. There was one piece of furniture there – there on the floor, under the window that faced back toward the grove of trees they loved, was a small cradle.
"Oh!" Maggie said and went to it. It was a little difficult – Jarrod had to help her – but she knelt down on the floor, looked at the tiny piece of furniture, and gave it a rock. "This is adorable."
"It was mine," Jarrod said, "and Nick's and Audra's and Eugene's, right after we were born."
Jarrod helped Maggie stand up again. She kissed him. "I love it. Thank you, Victoria. It's perfect."
Maggie gave Victoria a hug. "And everything else is where it belongs?" Victoria asked.
"Perfect," Maggie said, and looked at Nick and Heath. "Thank you, both of you, for everything."
They both touched their hats. Nick said, "Well, if we're finished with our work here, we got fences need mending. Wanna come, Jarrod?"
"No, I think I'll spend some time with my wife before I dig into those contracts you left me, and I need to get ready for that meeting with the army the day after tomorrow," Jarrod said.
As Nick and Heath turned to go, Victoria said, "Let me walk you out. I want a word before you take off today."
Jarrod and Maggie saw them to the door, waved good-bye, then came back in to get comfortable together on their sofa in their new home.
Victoria waited to make sure the door was closed before she turned to her sons, as they untethered their horses. "I need to have a serious word with you," she said.
They both drew close to her. Heath said, "Sure."
"There's something I want to talk to Maggie about and I don't want to do it without talking to the both of you first. It's about – later."
"Later?" Nick asked, thinking she meant later in the day. "I figure they'll come by for drinks and dinner whenever they want."
"Yes, but that's not what I mean," Victoria said and took a deep breath. "I mean – after Jarrod isn't with us anymore."
Both men straightened uncomfortably.
Victoria's voice wavered, but she got it back. "I want to ask Maggie to stay with us, for as long as she wants, even after Jarrod is gone."
"Well, sure," Nick said. He really hadn't given it any thought at all, but of course they would ask her to stay. That always seemed understood, maybe because it was too painful to actually talk about.
"And to either stay here or come back to the house to live, as she chooses," Victoria said. "I don't want to ask her to come back to the house without your permission."
"Of course, you have it," Nick said.
Heath nodded, but said, "Are you sure you want to talk about something like that today?"
"No, not at all," Victoria said, "but at some point it may seem natural to talk about it with her. I wanted to know how the two of you felt about it."
Nick kissed his mother's forehead. "We feel the same way you feel."
Victoria nodded her thanks and then said, "And something else. I want them to keep the buggy and old Clara, too. A housewarming gift."
Old Clara was the horse they always hitched to this particular buggy. There was more than one buggy at the ranch, but Clara seemed very uncomfortable with any one other than this one.
"Sounds great to me," Heath said.
Victoria nodded her thanks again. "I'll go tell them about the buggy, and after a while I'll head on home."
Nick and Heath mounted up, gave her a good-bye wave, and headed off to work.
Victoria heaved a sigh, getting rid of the catch in her throat, and went back inside.
