Chapter 2

It took a good half hour to get to the spot Victoria wanted to reach, but as soon as they were there, she smiled happily at the memories that were there with them. They dismounted near a fallen tree near the creek. Audra steadied her mother and got her to the log before she tethered the horses on a nearby tree. Then she sat down on the log beside Victoria.

Victoria looked around, smiling. "This is the spot your father and I came to and decided this was the property we wanted. We thought about building our home here, but then we decided to build where the house is now and keep this place for picnicking and enjoying the fresh air. Oh, what fine dreams we had, and it was so wonderful to see them come true."

Audra smiled. "I remember you bringing us all here before Jarrod went away to the war, and again before Nick went away."

"We didn't know if either one of them would be coming back," Victoria said. "I'm surprised you remember those times. You were so young."

"I think I remember them because Jarrod and Nick went away afterward." Audra sighed and looked around. "I have a secret to tell you. I've brought more than one boyfriend here, even Carl."

Victoria laughed. "That's no secret, Audra." Then she sighed and said, "I need to talk to you about a few matters."

"All right," Audra said.

"I want to talk to you about my will."

Audra said, "Well, you changed it a few years ago, after the grandchildren came along. You knew that Nick and Heath and Eugene and Maggie and I were all financially fine, so you left everything in trusts for each of the grandchildren, for their education or for them when they turn 21. Did you want to change that?"

"Oh," Victoria said, looking confused. "No, I don't. I suppose I forgot I'd done that. I thought – oh, well, it doesn't matter what I thought. The will is the way I want it, if it's in trusts for the grandchildren, so they can have help making their own dreams come true."

Audra smiled. "That's what it is. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes," Victoria said and reached for Audra's hand. "Audra – my darling – I am still lucid enough to know that sometimes I am not lucid. I need to prepare for when the day arrives that I lose so much of myself that I don't know I'm not being lucid."

"Mother, that day may never come – "

"But it may. We never know how long we're going to live, do we? I may get sick next week, or I may live to be 90. We just don't know."

Audra squeezed her mother's hands, nodding. "All right. How do you want to prepare for that?"

"I'm not sure, but I know I don't want any of my children to be saddled with taking care of me, and that means someone will have to be hired to do that. I think I should take some of my money that might otherwise go into my estate and put it into a trust for myself, for when the day comes you need help paying for my care."

Audra smiled, but she hated this. She hated facing the truth that her mother was already planning for – the day the strong, sensible, energetic Victoria Barkley disappears forever. "All right, Mother. Why don't we see Mark Bromley about it? He should know how to deal with that."

Victoria looked vacant. "Mark Bromley?" she asked, shaking her head.

"Our lawyer," Audra said.

"Oh, yes, of course," Victoria said, remembering now.

This was getting almost too painful for Audra. For a moment she thought Victoria was going to ask why Jarrod wasn't doing the family legal work anymore, but at least it didn't come to that. "We'll go see him tomorrow if you like," Audra said.

"I would like that, yes," Victoria said. "And there's something else I would like to talk to him about."

"What's that?"

"Putting some of my money into trusts for the grandchildren right now, so the funds are there if they want to continue their education. I don't know if they all will, but I want to be able to help if they want to."

"That's a lovely idea, Mother," Audra said. "We'll talk to Mark about that, too."

Then Victoria took a deep breath of fresh air, looking around, smiling at her memories. "This really is a lovely spot. Maybe one of the grandchildren will want to build near here someday."

"Maybe," Audra said.

"They're growing up so fast. How old are your girls now?"

"Twelve and six. Vicki will be thirteen soon."

"My word, she could be getting married in – " Victoria's eyes grew wide. "As soon as three years!"

Audra laughed. "Not if her father has anything to say about it. Carl says he won't let a boy near either one of them until they're over twenty."

It was Victoria's turn to laugh. "That's how old I was when I had Jarrod. Carl may want to revise his timetable."

XXXXXXX

They rode on to where Nick and Heath were working the herd and J.J. was learning how to. They stopped on the ridge overlooking the herd and smiled as they watched Nick and Heath guide the boy through the job of herding a stray back to the main herd.

"J.J. is really quite good on a horse, isn't he?" Audra asked.

"He's been riding since he was five years old," Victoria said. "Just like his father, he'd be on any horse with a saddle on it, if someone left it unattended for a minute."

Audra laughed. "I'll bet you and father had your hands full with all of us, didn't you?"

"Oh, we sure did," Victoria laughed. "Every one of you was attracted to the horse early on. We could hardly keep you corralled, almost from the time you could walk."

Nick, Heath and J.J. came riding up to them then. They were all covered with dirt and smelled good and ripe. "Hello, Grandmother!" J.J. called.

"Hello, J.J.," Victoria said. "We watched you round up that stray."

"Yeah, we'll be putting him to work for honest before long," Heath said.

"The sooner, the better for me," J.J. said.

"It won't be long," Nick said, "but for now, you pace yourself. Your mother would have our hides if you got hurt out here."

"Whatever you say, Uncle Nick," J.J. said.

"Are you ready to see us home?" Audra asked.

J.J. nodded. "If it's okay with my uncles."

"Go on," Nick said. "Don't use up all the hot water for the bathtub."

J.J. grinned, and then he went about herding his grandmother and aunt together and let them lead the way home.

Audra couldn't help thinking what a fine boy J.J. was turning into. He was taking his job as the women's escort very seriously, riding toward the rear and keeping an eye out for whatever might create a problem.

But maybe "boy" wasn't quite the right word anymore. It wouldn't be long that he'd be more man than boy. He had already had a good growth spurt and was nearly as tall as Audra was. His voice was already beginning to drop. Audra wondered how long it would be before fuzz began to show up on his face.

He was loving and caring, and his battles with his cousins were easing off as he gained more interest in being with his uncles or reading some of his father's books, or even helping his mother and grandmother carrying heavy items around the house. Jarrod would be so proud of him, Audra thought. She knew Maggie was.

"J.J.," Victoria asked, "have you given any thought as to what you want to do when you're grown?"

"Do?" J.J. asked. "You mean, be a lawyer or a rancher?"

"Or anything else?" Victoria asked. "The world is changing, you know. There are other occupations coming along that you might be interested in. Your Uncle Eugene is a surgeon. You might want to be some other kind of doctor, some new kind."

"Oh, I don't think I want to be a doctor," J.J. said. "And I'm not sure about being a lawyer, either. I've been thinking about being an engineer."

"An engineer?" Victoria asked. "What kind?"

"I've been reading about the horseless carriages some men are making," J.J. said. "I've been kind of thinking about what it would be like to build them. They're going to be the way people get around soon. Or maybe I might even design the roads and the bridges they ride on. I don't know yet." Then J.J. was quiet for a moment before he said, "You don't think Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath will be mad at me if I don't want to be a rancher."

"No, not at all," Victoria said. "They'll want you to be whatever you want to be, but right now they're happy when you come out into the field with them."

"I like it, too," J.J. said.

And suddenly, without warning, before J.J. even finished his sentence, Victoria slipped from the saddle and landed hard on the ground.