Catherine

Chapter 1

Nick got hungry late at night and carrying a lantern, he wandered down the back stairs to the kitchen. He looked in the icebox to see what might be had. There was some roast beef left over from dinner. Nick pulled it out, found some bread, and made himself a sandwich.

Funny thing about the kitchen. The window faced some trees in the garden, and Nick noticed there was some light reflecting from the house onto those trees, more light than the lights from the porch should have caused. Nick thought about it. It must have been light coming from the library.

He finished his sandwich and carried his lantern into the library, to see if someone had left a light on there. When he went in, he found the library was very well lit – and his older brother was asleep in the chair behind the desk, draped over open books atop the desk and paper that he had made some notes on.

Jarrod was staying up all night working on something again.

Nick put his lantern down, reached over and shook his brother by the shoulder. "Wake up, Pappy."

Jarrod stirred with a "Hmmm?" and woke up. "Oh, what time is it?" he groaned and sat up with paper sticking to the side of his face. He peeled the paper off and put it back on the desktop.

"I don't know, but it's too late for you to be up doing this. What are you working on?"

"Motion for an injunction in a land dispute I've been hired on. I hate land disputes."

Nick sat down on the edge of the desk. "Then why'd you take the case?"

"It's Catherine Carmichael's."

An older woman who lived on a small spread just outside of town. Nick frowned. "Somebody's after her land? That's damned cruel, going after an old woman."

"I agree, so I took her case," Jarrod said, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "Just fell asleep while I was working on it."

"Who's disputing her land?"

"Mitchell Cambridge."

"Oh, come on. That guy owns a good part of the land on the other side of Stockton. What does he need with Catherine Carmichael's?"

"It's not a question of needing it. Just a question of wanting it and feeling he is entitled to it. You know how Cambridge can be."

"Has he got a case?"

"Well, he's basing his claim on an old survey that seems to show his property encompasses all of Mrs. Carmichael's, and it's a valid survey. Her claim is pursuant to a deed, showing a different survey her husband had done about twenty years ago. They both have a case. Cambridge hasn't file suit yet, but I expect it at any time."

"Then Catherine should win if it goes to court."

Jarrod chuckled. "Nick, your sense of justice may be too simple for our legal system. But Cambridge is taking the simple route, too. He's trying to send his men onto her property to get a foothold on it. You know Catherine Carmichael. This is making her very uncomfortable but she's not about to cave in."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"You mean we as in the Barkley family?"

"Yeah."

Jarrod heaved a sigh. "If you're thinking about sending our men out there to run Cambridge off, that's a lousy idea, Nick. People could get hurt. I'm gonna file for an injunction, and after that Cambridge will probably get a lawyer and file suit."

"When you gonna file for this injunction?"

"Now that you've got me awake again, I can finish this thing by morning and get it to the courthouse as soon as it opens, so yeah, Nick, you have helped without any bloodshed, so I thank you."

"Anytime, Big Brother," Nick said and got up. "Since my work is done, I'm going back to bed. Don't wear yourself to a frazzle, Jarrod, or Mother will have your hide."

Jarrod chuckled as Nick went out. He got up, went to the refreshment table and got himself a glass of water. He stretched, went back to his place behind the desk, and went back to work.

Nick made his way back up to bed, where he put the lantern out and climbed back in to go to sleep. But he was awake now, and thinking about Catherine Carmichael.

He remembered when he was a kid, there were plenty of times he'd take off from school before it was quite finished for the day, and he'd high-tail it over to Catherine Carmichael's place. Her husband was alive then, and they had no children, so they fawned over Nick whenever he came by. They did that with any kid who came by. Catherine would feed him cake and her husband, Jack, would pitch ball with him in the back yard of their house. Nick wasn't sure why that seemed so special to him, but it did. It was a sweet memory of being a kid, and getting away with skipping school with his adult co-conspirators.

He found out much later that his mother, his father and even Jarrod knew where he was all the time, and nobody ever punished him for running off from school, even though they should have. His mother told him that his visits had become so important to the Carmichaels that everyone just let him keep getting away with it.

Then, about thirteen years ago right after the war, Jack Carmichael caught pneumonia and died very fast, so fast that Catherine had no time to prepare herself for it. Nick remembered that even though he was an adult by then, he went to be with Catherine, and he even stayed at her side during the funeral. He had come to feel as close to the Carmichaels as they felt to him, and he didn't even realize it until Jack died.

But then Tom Barkley died, and Nick was in charge of a big ranching enterprise. He had little time anymore to visit Catherine, and right now, after hearing what Cambridge was trying to do to her, he regretted it terribly.

At breakfast in the morning, Nick asked, "Did you finish that injunction?"

"I stayed up all night and pulled it out," Jarrod said. "I'll take it in right after breakfast."

"I want to go with you," Nick said.

Jarrod looked surprised.

"Well, somebody has to make sure you don't fall asleep on the way and fall out of the saddle," Nick said.

Jarrod chuckled. "You have a point."

"And I want to go see Catherine with you."

"All right."

"Just who is this lady?" Heath asked. "Somebody you've been trying to court unsuccessfully?"

"No," Nick said with a smile full of memories. "An older woman who used to spoil me with attention when I was a kid, her and her husband."

"They didn't have any children of their own, so they fawned over Nick and he ate it up," Victoria said.

"Who wouldn't?" Nick said. "I used to sneak out of school to go see them. Thought I was getting away with something."

"But we were letting him get away with it," Jarrod said. "It was my job just to make sure he really was going to the Carmichaels'. Nick didn't have a clue we all knew what he was up to."

"It was a great time," Nick said.

"Why are you filing an injunction?" Heath asked.

"Mitchell Cambridge is laying claim to her land," Jarrod said. "He already has men trying to get onto her property. I need the injunction to get him to leave her alone, but that will probably prompt Cambridge to sue."

"And I don't want her to have to fight it alone," Nick said. Then he shrugged when Heath looked at him. "She was my second mother, after all."

Victoria smiled. "She and her husband were wonderful people. We knew that Nick could learn a lot from both of them. Theirs was a less volatile household than ours. We hoped some of that easy-going nature of theirs would rub off on Nick."

"You see how well that worked out," Jarrod said sarcastically.

"They did temper Nick a bit," Victoria said. "His tantrums are a lot milder now."

"Hey – " Nick said.

Everyone laughed.