Chapter Seven

"I just want to get them out of there." Nick said as he finished telling Heath and Teresa what had delayed him in getting home. "We'd just have them stay at the main house only mother says she's going to Denver for awhile, to visit Aunt Clara." He looked at both his brother and sister in law. "I don't dare ask Jarrod and Rebecca, not with that new baby they're taking care of. Would it be a problem for you to take them in for a spell?"

"Of course, it's not a problem." Teresa, Heath's wife of two years stood on the porch with her brown hair done up in a bun that sat towards the back of her head, stood on the porch of the home Heath and Nick had built when Heath first asked her to marry him. Their seven month old daughter, Isabella, was sitting on a blanket her mother had sat on the porch playing with her rattle. "We'd be glad to take them in." She then picked Isabella up and took her inside for her nap, leaving Nick to talk to Heath, who was sitting quietly on the steps leading up to his home.

Nick knew his blonde haired brother well enough to know when the man had something on his mind, something that was troubling him. He had a look in his eye when he got that way, and Nick could see that look in Heath's eyes now. "What is it?" he asked as he sat down next to his brother, wondering what on earth he had said that had his brother out of sorts.

"But it's your food, Paul." One very weak, fourteen year old Heath sat against the fence that surrounded Carterson and looked at his comrade who was handing him a couple of pieces of dried bread. "What will you eat?"

Sixteen year old Paul McArthur shook his head. "I'm fine. Don't worry 'bout me; it's you that needs food right now. Besides, like I told you, I'm escaping tonight and getting us help." Escape the boy had, but since the camp was liberated the next day, Heath never saw the young man again.

"Heath?" Nick asked again; his brother's silence was starting to concern him, and Nick wanted an explanation.

Heath shocked his hot tempered brother as he told him all about Paul McArthur, or most of what he knew of him. "He always said his one fault was his inability to handle a dollar; still," Heath sighed, "I had hoped he'd overcome that." He then leaned back against the post that stood behind him and asked, "You talked about this Elizabeth once, said she had wanted to be a schoolteacher. Maybe she could apply to teach here in Stockton. There's going to be an opening."

Nick shook his head and gave out a slight grunt. "I suggested that and she, rightly so, pointed out the fact that if she did, and her in-laws showed up, she'd be disgraced and be fired. After all, they would make sure everyone knew she had to get married."

Heath couldn't argue with his brother on that one, though he thought it stupidity on the McArthurs' part not to accept Elizabeth. "Well, like Teresa said, Elizabeth and Mary are very welcome here." "Thanks," Nick slapped Heath on the side of the arm and then walked down the steps, heading towards Coco after he reached the ground.

Heath stood watching Nick mount and then ride away, but his mind was back in Carterson.

"I would appreciate it if you did not talk that way about your girl, or any woman, when you're around me." Paul, who was standing only a few feet from him, was talking to a man who looked to be in his early twenties. The man had been talking quite badly about women and the 'only reason to have one around', and Paul had had his fill of it.

"And I suppose you're gonna make me stop?" The older man pushed Paul, thinking Paul would then fall to the ground…only he didn't. Instead of falling Paul simply took a step backwards and then lunged forward. Before anyone in the prison knew it the man who had attacked Paul lay on the ground begging Paul to stop…which he did only after the man swore up and down he'd never speak bad about any woman around Paul again. Heath's eyebrows furrowed. Paul was such an exceptional, honorable man he had a hard time picturing him bedding any woman before marriage. However, he could easily see him stepping in to save a woman's reputation if the need arose. The idea that then took place had him looking toward his disappearing brother. Nick was a very good a man only he did have a tendency to allow his emotions to rule him at times. That had Heath wondering about the facts his hot tempered brother had been given. Inwardly he sighed, as he told himself that no matter what he thought, Paul publicly signed a legal document and had stood firm by it. So, whatever the case was, it was in the past. He then thought it was too bad a man who had done so much good and stood up for so many people was now gone. The world needed more men like Paul McArthur.

Three Months later

Elizabeth and Mary looked around the loft that they had called home since Paul was passed away from the result of injuries sustained in a freak accident while visiting some friends. It was now as bare as could be. True to her word, Elizabeth had begun talking about all the people who had tried to get her to leave, and all the places they'd invited her too, a week after Nick had left. She couldn't help but chuckle as they told her it was about time she thought about moving on and even suggested a few place she might try. Of course, they made sure she knew they had someone who they could send word to that she was coming.

"Momma," Mary tugged at her mother's arm as she looked up at with concern in her eyes. "Why can't we leave in the morning?"

Elizabeth glanced out the window off to her right; it was getting dark. She had originally planned to wait another week, only she had received word shortly after Nick's telegram had arrived that her in-laws were coming to town. She had no desire to see them. That being the case, when the bartender, who had also heard the same thing about her in-laws approached her and urged her to leave if she was going to, due to her constant talk about leaving, she changed her mind. "I'll even take you to the train station if you don't mind traveling at night. You can be in Reno before you know it" had been his exact words.

Mr. Mitchell had made the assumption that she'd be going to live in Reno due to the fact that he'd been in the telegraph office when the wire that Nick set had come in…and he'd sent it from Reno, Nevada.

Elizabeth looked down at her little girl. "Because Mr. Mitchell can't take us to the train station tomorrow," Elizabeth told Mary as she picked up their only bag in one hand and took the child's hand in her other one. She then turned and headed down the stairs that led to the loft. What did it matter if she would ride the train to Reno, and then get off only to re-board another train that would carry her to Stockton? At least the man would be able to honestly throw her in laws off track.