PURE GOLD

Disclaimer: Jarrod and Nick Barkley and all of the characters and situations in The Big Valley are the property of their copyright holders and are, sadly, not mine. I'm only borrowing them.

PART TWO

All that long ride home, Nick didn't stir. He was so still that Father made Jarrod stop twice along the way just so he could press his hand to his younger son's forehead or pat his bruised cheek. Still Nick didn't wake. He only sat slumped against Jarrod's shoulder, his lanky legs hanging limp on either side of the horse.

Jarrod struggled to keep him in the saddle, struggled to keep himself from falling off, struggled to keep Father from noticing he was struggling. Last night, he had ridden straight through from San Francisco, never stopping until he got home and, after that, riding straight out to the Barkley Suerte to find Nick. He hadn't stopped then either, not until he had pick axed and shoveled his way to where Nick was buried and pulled him out of the mine. Now whatever had kept him going, anxiousness or urgency or just plain fear, was gone. The force that had kept his nerves wired and surging was gone. There was nothing left. Nothing but the need to get home and make sure Nick was all right.

Jarrod caught a hard breath when the house finally came in sight and blinked back the sudden burning behind his eyes.

"All right, son?" Father asked, pulling his horse closer to Jarrod's.

"Yes, sir. I guess I still have a little dust in my eyes from digging out that mine."

Father didn't say anything to that. He just nodded toward the house. "There's your mother."

Mother was standing on the porch looking out toward the hills just as Jarrod had seen her at dawn that morning, still in her evening dress from last night, watching, waiting. Father urged his horse to go on and Jarrod followed suit, until they got to her.

"Nick!" She ran to Jarrod's side and grabbed her younger son's bruised hand. "Nick, darling."

Finally Nick stirred a little. "'lo, Mother." He managed a faint smile, seeing the tears in her gray eyes. "'m all right," he said, and then he went limp again.

Mother looked worriedly at Jarrod, but by then, Father had already leapt down from his horse and was lifting Nick out of the saddle.

"Bring him in," she said, hurrying inside ahead of them. "His bed's ready."

"I sent Staples for the doctor. He ought to be . . . "

Then they were gone, and Jarrod could no longer hear his father's voice.

He closed his eyes, his body shaking, suddenly to weary to move. Maybe he fell asleep right there, because the next thing he knew, someone was calling him.

"Mister Jarrod? Mister Jarrod."

His eyes flew open. One of the hands was standing there beside him, holding father's horse's reins and Coco's.

"I was wondering if you wanted me to see to your horse, Mister Jarrod."

"Uh, yeah."

The man looked expectantly at him when he didn't dismount.

"Oh."

Jarrod slid off his horse's back and stumbled when he hit the ground.

The cowboy grabbed his arm to steady him. "Can I help you, Mister Jarrod?"

"No. I'm all right. Thanks."

"Yes, sir."

Jarrod stood there blinking as the man led the horses away, and then he turned and trudged up the front steps. Food. Bath. Sleep. He didn't know which he needed more, but he told himself he'd worry about that once he managed to make it inside. He needed to make sure Nick was all right. He needed to—

"Jarrod?"

A small, soft hand slipped into his, and he smiled down at his little sister. She had changed from her nightgown into a sunny-colored cotton dress.

"Hello, honey."

She studied him with her big blue eyes. "You're very dirty."

He laughed wearily. "Sorry about that."

"You need to take a bath, but I don't mind." She looked him up and down again. "Not too much."

"That's mighty gracious of you, Miss Barkley."

She led him inside, led him to the bottom of the wide stairway. For a moment, he stood there looking up. There had never seemed to be so many steps before. Finally, he sank down onto the lowest one.

"Are you tired, Jarrod?"

"A little bit, honey."

"Wait a minute," she told him. "Don't get up."

"All right," he said, thinking he might not be able even if he had wanted to.

She disappeared toward the kitchen and then came back a minute later with one of her dainty handkerchiefs soaked in cold water. She patted his grimy face with it.

"Is that better?"

"Much better. Thank you. Now I think I can get upstairs and see how Nick is."

"Oh, they won't let you come in," Audra said with disdain. "They said we have to stay down here until the doctor comes and looks at him and says if we can visit him."

"Well, I'll tell you a little secret, honey. He's going to be all right. I was afraid for a while that he might not be, but he is. So we don't need to worry."

"But how come he wasn't awake when Father brought him in?"

"He's hurt. Just a little bit." Jarrod wanted to pull her comfortingly close, but he was afraid she might object to that while he was in his present unwashed state. He contented himself with just holding her hand. "Remember that old mine Nick's been talking about?"

She nodded.

"He shouldn't have gone in there by himself. He ended up getting trapped and had to be dug out."

She ducked her head against him, dirt and all. "Oh, Jarrod."

He hugged his arms around her. "Don't worry, honey. He probably broke his ankle, but I think the rest of him is all right. He'll just have to stay in bed for a while."

She sighed heavily. "He won't like that."

"No," Jarrod said, chuckling. "He won't like that at all."

Audra studied him for a long moment more. "How'd you know?" she asked at last.

He let out a slow breath, knowing he'd better get up while he still could. "How'd I know what?"

"How'd you know where he was?"

"It was you, honey." He tapped her turned-up nose, leaving a grimy smudge. "You told me he looked like he'd been digging in the dirt all the times he's been gone, and I figured it had to be from working the mine."

"But how'd you know to come home in the first place?"

He shook his head. "Now, that I don't know. I just knew Nick was in trouble."

"But Nick's always in trouble."

Jarrod grinned. Out of the mouths of babes. "This time was different. He needed me."

He looked up again at the mountain of steps above him, and then, with the aid of the banister, he hauled himself to his feet.

"I'll help you."

Audra led him up the stairs. It didn't actually help, but it did make him feel better.

"I'm fine now," he told her once they reached the top.

She glanced toward the murmur of voices coming from Nick's open door. "I'm supposed to stay in the parlor until Mother calls me," she whispered, and then she crooked her finger to get Jarrod to lean down to her. "I think you were very brave."

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and then scampered down the stairs.

He touched his fingers to where her lips had been and smiled to realize it was probably the cleanest place on his face.

Feeling more awake now, he went to stand in Nick's door. Mother was using a wet cloth to wash Nick's face and hands. Father was at the end of the bed cutting the boot off Nick's right foot. The left boot was already on the floor.

"Jarrod," Mother said when she saw him there. "We thought you'd come up right after us."

"Sorry, Mother. Uh, the horses had to be seen to." He didn't say who had seen to them.

She came to him, putting one hand to his cheek, her gray eyes warm. "You need to have something to eat, darling. You haven't since last night, have you."

He shook his head.

"I told Silas to bring something up for you. And you need a bath."

He smiled a little. "That's what Audra said." He looked over at Nick, the smile fading. "How is he?"

She went back to her younger son, wiping his still face again. "He hasn't moved. Not since he first got here."

"He'll be all right, Victoria," Father said, stopping what he was doing and shaking his head as he looked down at Nick. "I thought I told you boys to stay clear of that mine."

Jarrod looked down at his dirty boots. "Yes, sir."

"You should have made sure he stayed out of it."

"I'm sorry, sir."

Jarrod didn't look up. He didn't want to see in his father's eyes the ice and fire that was in his voice. It was his fault. He'd been too busy for anything but school. Too busy for Nick.

A strong hand squeezed his shoulder, and he lifted his head. The ice and fire weren't there.

"I'm sorry, son. I've just about worried myself into a frenzy since last night. I know it's not your fault. This brother of yours—" Father shook his head. "I just wish he'd think things out sometimes. I mean, before he does them."

"I'm afraid that's just Nick, Father." Jarrod looked at his little brother sprawled there in the bed, all long limbs like a new colt, his face looking impossibly young as he slept. "He's always been one to dig in with both hands and jump in with both feet, but he doesn't mean any harm. He just does what he feels." He moved over to his mother's side so he could push his little brother's damp hair off his forehead. "He's just Nick."

Father huffed, and Jarrod looked up at him again.

"Please don't be angry with him."

Father's expression softened. "I can hardly manage that on a good day, much less now."

"He's going to be mad about not finding real gold," Jarrod said wistfully. "He really wanted to."

"Oh," Mother breathed, pressing a sympathetic kiss to Nick's forehead.

"What I want to know," Father said, "is why you're home three days early. How did you do on your examinations? Didn't you just have them?"

Jarrod bit his lip. "I'm afraid they started this morning." Tired as he was, he straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. "I guess I'll flunk all of my classes."

"That's a whole semester's work for nothing, son."

"I didn't have much choice, sir. I couldn't stay." Jarrod looked at Nick. "Not when I needed to come home."

Father squeezed his shoulder again. "I'll write to the dean about it. It could be they'd let you take the tests after Christmas, in light of what's happened."

"Thanks, Father."

Silas came into the room and set a tray on the little table by the window, a light in his dark eyes and a smile creasing his lined brown cheeks. "Welcome home, Mister Jarrod. Mighty good to see you."

"Thank you, Silas. Good to see you, too."

"Scrambled eggs and hot biscuits, just like you like." Silas pulled a chair up to the table. "And a big glass of cold milk, fresh from the ice box."

Jarrod went over and sat down and then stared at the tray.

"Anything wrong, Mister Jarrod?"

Jarrod shook his head. "It looks fine, Silas. Just fine. Thank you."

Silas looked over at Mother, and she gave him an understanding smile. "Thank you, Silas. Will you please make sure Miss Audra has something to eat, too?"

"Oh, she already had two pieces of cake, ma'am. I told her maybe she ought to see if that was all right with you, but she said she wasn't to come up till you told her, so she couldn't rightly ask."

Mother pursed her lips, and Jarrod knew it was to keep herself from smiling.

"Thank you, Silas," she said. "That will be all."

"Ma'am."

She turned back to Nick when Silas was gone, holding her hand to his cheek, her eyes on his face as Father still struggled to get his boot loose. Even unconscious, Nick winced and gave a soft little cry when it finally came off. Jarrod stopped with a biscuit halfway to his mouth, watching him, but Nick quieted when Mother patted his face until, leaning into her hand, he was still again."

"I'm sorry, boy," Father said, his eyes full of pity and remorse as he cut Nick's pant leg up to the knee and then cut off his sock.

Nick's ankle was mottled with bruises and horribly swollen, and Mother immediately came to look at it.

"We need to pack it in ice."

"I'll get some," Jarrod said, putting the biscuit back on his plate.

"You need to eat," she told him firmly, and then she looked at Father.

Father nodded. "I'll be right back."

Jarrod ate a bite of scrambled egg, too tired to taste it, and then scooped up another. Nick was going to have to know about the mine. About the gold. He'd been so excited about it, too. Jarrod didn't want to have to tell him. Father would do it, he knew, but it wasn't Father's place. Father wasn't the one Nick had wanted to find the gold for. Father wasn't the one who needed Nick to understand. About a lot of things.

"Jarrod. Jarrod?"

He blinked, realizing Mother was standing in front of him. He was holding his fork to his mouth, but the egg had fallen back into his plate.

"You need to go to sleep, Jarrod," she said, taking the fork from him and pulling him to his feet. "Father and I will take care of your brother."

"But the doctor—"

"We'll let you know what the doctor says. Now, come on."

He looked over at Nick, still out cold, and then he turned back to his mother. "Will you wake me up if he needs me?"

She cupped his face in both hands and smiled tenderly into his eyes. "I promise. Now come on."

Taking his hand as Audra had done, she led him to his bed, took off his gun belt and made him lie down. He objected when she started to pull off his boots, but she shushed him and did it anyway. The last thing he remembered was her tucking a quilt over him and then touching her lips to his cheek.

Author's Note: I meant for Part One to be Part Only, but Jarrod and Nick had other ideas. They refused to shut up until I told more of the story. They also say there's more to come, and next time it's Nick's turn. I'd love to know what you think.