I do not own 'The Big Valley' nor any of the original Barkley characters.
This is a 'whaf if' that started bugging me after watching 'The Fallen Hawk'. If they mentioned Ward having a brother I missed it...as far as I know, I just made mention of one for the sake of the story.
Time to Heal
Chapter One
Opening Scene
Heath stood next to the corral staring at nothing in particular. His mind ran over the events of the tragic event that had taken place just hours before. What had possessed him to ask a man who'd never broke a horse to try it? Oh, sure, he was tired of the way Ward was always borrowing money for dreams that were never achieved, due to his own unwillingness to make them happen, stll he could have found something else for his friend to do. Now he was dead and Nora was a widow.
'Stay away from here! It's your fault he's dead!' Nora had screamed and slammed the door to her house in his face. He didn't blame her. Slowly he turned and started for the house feeling worse than he had in a long time. As he drew near the slightly opened door he stopped dead in his tracks, shocked at the words he heard Nick was just finishing saying.
"...ashamed to admit he's a brother." Pain shot through every inch of Heath as he slipped away.
"What was that?" Audra turned towards the open door, "You don't think Ward's brother's here already do you?"
"Naw, like I just said. That man is ashamed to admit Ward was his brother, seems like Ward did nothing but borrow money from anyone he could." Nick answered as he went to the door and opened it all the way. Heath was just disappearing into the barn
"What's he doing out at this time of night?" Audra hurried over and watched Heath disappear out of sight.
"For whatever Ward was he was still Heath's friend," Nick shook his head, "He's just a tad restless. He'll be back in here after awhile. I don't know about you, but, I'm heading to bed."
SCENE ONE
"He said what!" Nick shouted as he stood outside the corral talking to McCall. He'd spent the better part of the morning trying to find his brother. He'd finally cornered their foreman to see if he'd seen Heath..
"I told him he was wrong. I told him no one blamed him for what happened and he was still very much a part of your family," McCall answered, "He said he heard you himself. He said you were ashamed to call him your brother."
Nick couldn't believe his ears, "He only heard the last half of one of my sentences then!" He was bellowing so loud McCall had to take a step backwards. The sight of their long time foreman doing that got Nick to lower his voice, slightly, "I wasn't talking about him and I wasn't talking 'bout me!" He turned around and hurried back into the house.
"He what!" Victoria's face filled with horror, as did Jarrod's and Audra's.
"I swear," Nick shook his head, "If I had known he had overheard that part of Audra's and mine conversation last night I'd have hightailed it out to the barn right then!"
"I'd have gone with him, mother!" Audra hated the idea of Heath thinking they blamed him for what had happened, or that they were ashamed of him. Okay, not knowing why he'd let Ward try to break the horse, they couldn't understand it; only, they didn't blame him for the accident either. After all, Ward was a full grown man, he could have said no.
"I have to go into town anyway," Jarrod stood up and headed for the door, "I'll send a few telegrams out to places he might go."
Nick grabbed his hat, "I'll tell McCall to run things for a few days. I'm heading to Strawberry. He might have headed there. He's been talking about it lately."
"Mother?" Audra looked at Victoria. While the woman was very well composed her daughter could still see the concern in her eyes.
"He'll be okay," Victoria stood up and started walking out of the living room, "They'll find him." 'They just have to, we're still family and this is still his home!'
00000
Heath had pushed Charger hard all through the night not caring what direction he was going, or where he might wind up. He was finally getting tired though and looked around for a place to rest. He could see a small white house off in the distance. Maybe, the people who lived there would at least let him rest in the barn he saw standing not that far from the house.
Twelve year old Andrea, saw the rider coming. She ran into the house to get her grandmother, soon both were standing on the porch. "Howdy, ma'am," Heath took off his hat and gave them both a slight smile, "I need a place to rest. I was hoping to bed down in your barn if I may."
The woman smiled, "Name's Mrs. Jacobs and you'll be doin' no such thing. That barn isn't fit for a man to rest in. You come on in, I was just about ready to put breakfast on. You can eat with us then rest in the house."
Heath might have argued only he was just too tired, "I'd just as soon sleep first, Mrs. Jacobs. I don't rightly know if I could stay awake long enough to eat."
The older woman looked him over and shook her head, "You do look a might tired. You'll have to just tie your horse to the fence over there," she nodded towards the barn, "Our small stable burnt down just a few days ago, gonna take time to rebuild it." she said as she disappeared into the house.
It wasn't long before Heath was asleep in the room Mrs. Jacob's had shown him.
SCENE TWO
Jarrod and Victoria were standing near the living room window when they saw Nick ride in, alone and looking quite upset. "He didn't find him." Victoria made the simple statement then turned and walked slowly to the hearth. It had been four days since Heath took off, four days with nothing coming from the telegrams Jarrod had sent and now Nick had come home alone.
"We'll do whatever we can to find him, mother." Jarrod walked up to her and laid his hand on her shoulder. They had to find him, even Nora had shocked them by practically begging them to do so. Her exact words were 'I shouldn't have said what I did and do what I did. I was just so angry, still am in a lot of ways only it ain't Heath's fault Ward was fool 'nough to try it. I never should have blamed Heath.'
Jarrod couldn't have agreed more when he'd heard those words, only he wasn't going to say so.
None of them were surprised when Nick slammed the door behind him as he entered the house. The frustration the dark haired rancher was feeling could be seen in his furrowed eyebrows and downright annoyed look that was upon his face.
"No luck, I assume." Jarrod waited until Nick had poured himself a drink.
"No one in Strawberry has seen hide nor hair of him!" Nick would have slammed the bottle in his hands down if he wasn't afraid of sending glass everywhere.
Silence hug in the air as they all thought on the brother who had ridden away thinking he couldn't stay. "I have to go into Sacramento tomorrow," Jarrod finally broke the eerie silence that had their nerves all on edge, "I'll get someone to start helping us to look." 'Oh, brother, sure would have been better if you'd stuck around to find out if you had really heard correctly or not.' Guess when one is in that much pain they don't always think straight.
0000
When Heath finally opened his eyes it took a moment for it all to come back to him. Hurt and pain shot through every inch of his body, his friend was dead because of him and the brother who he so greatly admired was ashamed to call him brother. If Nick felt that way surely the rest of the family did too. For a moment he couldn't seem to get himself to move, but then he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. He had to get up sometime, even if he didn't feel like it.
"Looks like the dead awakens," an elderly gentleman chuckled as Heath stepped out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, "Come sit down, my name is Kyle Jacobs and yours is?" the man asked after Heath had sat down at the table.
"Heath." he wanted to say Barkley too only he no longer felt worthy to use the name.
Surely the man had more of a name than that, Mr. Jacobs might have asked for more too only his wife was 'giving him the eye'. "Where you headin' if I may be so bold to ask." the gentleman looked at Heath.
"Don't rightly know," Heath moved back slightly making it so Mrs. Jacob could put the plate of food she had for him on the table, "know of anyone needin' temporary help?"
The Jacobs started grinning, "In matter of fact we do," Mr. Jacobs chuckled, "My cousin's son is moving to Nevada. He has bought a small ranch. He was just here yesterday asking us to keep our ears open for anyone willing to hire on for a spell. He'll be back tomorrow. You can stick around and talk to him if you'd like."
Nevada. Heath sighed inside, guess it wouldn't make any difference if he left California. "I'll stick around."
