Keeper of the Secrets

Chapter 1

Spring, 1877

Nick's hand still hurt from slugging his brother. He forced himself to listen to Jarrod's explanation, and then he slugged him again and just walked away, back into the house, where his mother and sister now stood in the foyer, with Curtis still standing guard.

"Nick!" Victoria said, totally baffled at Nick coming back in, unbound. "I don't understand. What happened?"

Nick leveled a hard, angry glare at her. "Ask Jarrod," he said and stormed upstairs to his room.

Victoria and Audra just looked at each other, relieved but stunned and confused.

Outside, Heath left everyone and followed Nick into the house. Jarrod picked himself up off the ground again and found a steadying hand in Macklin.

"Jarrod, I'm very sorry about this," Macklin said.

Jarrod shook his head. "It's all right. You take care of getting Alderson out of here. I'll take care of my family."

"If there had been any other way – "

Jarrod nodded. "I know."

Heath made his way into the house first and was immediately surrounded by Victoria and Audra. His wounds needed to be tended to, but Curtis still had them covered.

Jarrod came in right behind him. He was now nursing a bleeding split lip and a red welt beside his left eye. Breathing heavily, he looked briefly at his mother and sister, who were looking more alarmed every minute. Jarrod spoke to Curtis directly. "It's over," he said. "Go on outside and help with Alderson."

Curtis went out, leaving the Barkleys alone.

"Jarrod, what's going on?" Audra asked, watching with astonishment as Curtis did exactly what Jarrod told him to do.

Victoria asked, "They didn't hang Alderson, did they?"

Jarrod shook his head. "No," he said, and went on by to the kitchen to get some ice for his lip and eye.

Heath stayed with Victoria and Audra. Victoria immediately steered him into the living room and sat him down on the settee, while Audra went for the first aid supplies.

They were kept in the kitchen. She found Jarrod taking some broken ice from the ice box, putting it into a towel and holding it to the entire left side of his face. "Jarrod, what happened?" Audra asked, so astonished her mouth would not close.

Jarrod shook his head and just said, "You'd better see to Heath."

He was not going to talk. Audra took the first aid supplies back into the living room.

"What is going on?" Victoria asked as Heath eased himself out of his shirt.

Heath did not know how to tell her, but he knew he had to. "Where's Nick?" he asked.

"Upstairs," Victoria said. "Heath, what is this all about?"

Heath sighed. "A trick. Those men were federal agents, not ex-Confederates. They were sent to get Alderson to confess that he ordered the slaughter at Mayville and that he was involved in planning Lincoln's murder."

"What?!"

Heath nodded. "They didn't hang him. They were never gonna hang anybody. They're taking him back to Washington."

Victoria's stomach turned over. "But Jarrod – what happened to Jarrod?"

"Nick hit him, twice," Heath said.

Audra arrived with the first aid supplies then. "Mother, Jarrod's bleeding in the kitchen – "

"Better let him bleed a while," Heath said.

"Why?" Victoria asked as she reached for some alcohol from Audra. "What does Jarrod have to do with this?"

"Everything," Heath said. His arm hurt and the small cuts from the broken glass were beginning to feel like chasms, especially when his mother dabbed them with alcohol. "Jarrod was in on it from the beginning."

Victoria stopped. "What?"

Heath looked up at her and then away. "He was part of the whole plan from the beginning, him and those federal agents. Nick is madder than a wet hen at him. That's why he slugged him, and when Jarrod got up and tried to explain, Nick hit him again."

"I can't believe – " Victoria almost whispered. "Jarrod – LET this happen to Nick? To us?"

"Yeah, he let it happen," Heath said. "He feels like dirt about it, but he let it all happen. Never even ducked or fought back or anything when Nick hit him. Just took it."

"Oh, dear God," Victoria said, so weak suddenly that she had to sit down.

Audra took over caring for Heath's injuries.

Victoria looked upstairs, then back toward the kitchen, totally confused. She did not know which son to go to first, but then she knew, she had to go to Nick first. He would be feeling betrayed and angry, and she'd have to calm him down somehow. She looked toward the kitchen again, and she was angry with Jarrod herself. How could he have been behind everything that happened to them tonight? How could he possibly have done it?

"I'm going to go talk to Nick," she said.

"I'll take care of Heath," Audra said.

Victoria went upstairs, but not very quickly. She looked like she was almost too stunned to move.

Heath sighed and closed his eyes. "I don't know how we're gonna sort this one out, Sis."

"Let's just see to you first," Audra said. "We'll sort it all out later."

Victoria knocked at Nick's door, and when she did not get an answer, she knocked again. He tore it open, looking as angry as she'd ever seen him, and looking like he was expecting her to be someone else. "Come in, Mother," he said quietly and let her in.

She came in, and he closed the door behind her. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Did Jarrod explain himself to you?" Nick asked. He had a cloth wrapped around the knuckles of his right hand.

"No, I haven't spoken to him," Victoria said, "but Heath explained. Nick, I don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything," Nick said. "You're as much the victim in this as I am, you and Audra and Heath, all of us. He did this to all of us."

"I think we need to hear Jarrod out before we crucify him."

"What's to hear? What could possibly excuse what he put this family through tonight?"

"Obviously, Jarrod feels that seeing justice done for the town of Mayville and for Abraham Lincoln justified whatever his part in all this was. I know you feel betrayed – "

"Betrayed doesn't cover it. He's my brother! I thought I knew him, but if he could do this to us – the man I thought I knew wouldn't do this to us, not for Mayville or Abraham Lincoln or anybody else."

"All right. And maybe General Alderson betrayed you, too."

"Alderson," Nick said and shook his head. He did not want to think about Alderson and what he'd done yet. Thinking about it sent a pang on guilt through Nick that he didn't understand and right now, he didn't want to. "Forget him and how I feel to find out he did what he did. What matters here is what Jarrod did, to us, to the family. I can't even look at him without wanting to – " Nick seethed and almost began to shake.

"Hit him," Victoria said. "Well, you did that. He's in the kitchen nursing himself."

"Don't ask me to go talk to him. I won't do it."

"I wasn't going to ask you to. I'm only asking you to calm down, get some rest, and sleep on everything. He's still your brother."

Nick stared hard at his mother. "You and Audra were nearly burned in a fire that could have taken this whole house down. YOU get some rest and sleep on it, Mother, and tell me you can forgive him for what he's done."

Victoria hung her head, and then nodded. "You're right. I don't know how I feel about all this, either. And I might just slap him across the face the moment I see him, but – I'm at least willing to hear what he has to say."

"You know what he'll say, don't you? What he said to me – he's sorry. He's 'sorry'."

Nick waved his hand in empty air and turned away, heading for the wardrobe and taking off his jacket. Victoria got the message and quietly left.

She went downstairs. Audra was still helping Heath in the living room. They both looked up at her, wondering if she was going to go into the kitchen to Jarrod. She hesitated at the bottom of the stairs and looked at her hurt children. She really didn't know if she wanted to go to Jarrod or not.