Chapter 7

At sunrise, the sun did in fact begin to shine through the east facing window, and Heath stirred. The farmer was up and went out without a word – Nick and Heath hoped he was going to feed his chickens or collect eggs or both, but Nick took a look out the window to see where he'd gone. He did not go into the barn.

The wife came out soon afterward, and Jarrod began to stir, too. He tried to sit up, but as he did, both Nick and Heath came to help him.

"I'm all right," Jarrod said. "Leg hurts, but I'm fine otherwise. A good night's sleep helped."

"I wouldn't try to stand up just yet," Heath said. "That leg of yours is one big bruise along with that gash."

"Yeah, it hurts," Jarrod said.

He looked up and saw the wife revving up the stove and beginning to cut bacon up for breakfast. Nick saw where Jarrod was looking, and he went over to the woman. "Can I help you with breakfast?" Nick asked.

"No," she said quietly. "I'll have some bacon and eggs ready soon as the stove is going and my husband brings some eggs in. Coffee will be ready in twenty minutes or so."

"I'd sure like to thank you for putting us up last night," Nick said. "We were in pretty sad shape."

The woman glanced at Jarrod. "He's looking better today. I reckon you can be on your way. You're Barkleys, aren't you?"

"Yes," Nick said. "How did you know?"

"Seen the lawyer's picture in the paper once or twice," she said.

"We were out hunting," Nick said.

Heath headed for the front door, saying, "I think I'll go offer Mr. Carter some help."

"No," the woman said quickly. Then she backed off. "He likes to do the morning chores by himself. Gives him time to get his head together for the day, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Heath said and stayed inside.

He and Nick looked at each other. Now they were pretty sure they'd have to check their gear – at least the most important things – before they left.

Jarrod tried to stand up. "I could visit the house out back."

Heath grabbed hold of him. He saw the woman nod. He said to Jarrod, "Sit down and let me help you put your boots on."

Jarrod did as he was told. Heath lifted his pant leg carefully and checked the bandage. It was clean - the bleeding had stopped. In a couple minutes Heath had Jarrod's boots on him and was helping him out the door.

The woman had gone on to tending the coffee and heating up the frying pan. Nick asked if he could slice up some bread, and she let him do that. As they worked together, Nick asked, "How long have you folks been living here? We're not that far away, and I haven't heard your name before."

"A few months," the woman said.

"Where'd you live before now?" Nick asked.

"In the plains," she said.

"Do you have enough provisions to see you through the winter, you think?"

"Yes, we got enough. Been putting up since we got here."

Nick reckoned that that, at least, was very true. He finished slicing the partial loaf of bread she'd given him. "How's this?"

"Thank you," she said and began cooking the bacon.

The farmer came back in with a dozen or so eggs that he put on the kitchen table. Heath and Jarrod were right behind him.

"It's warming up out there, and there's no snow here," Heath said. "Gonna be a nice day, just muddy."

He helped Jarrod to sit back down on the sofa and began to get their blankets together and rolled up. Jarrod folded the Carters' blanket that he'd slept under and set it on the sofa beside him. The farmer came, picked it up, and took it back into the bedroom.

Nick visited the necessary and came back in. Silence reigned again, and soon they were all eating bacon and eggs. Jarrod passed on the bacon, worried it wouldn't sit well on his stomach.

And soon the Barkley men were up and leaving. They thanked the farmer and his wife again before they went into the barn and began to saddle up. Jarrod was on his feet again, limping badly but at least upright. Heath saddled up for him while Nick checked to make sure their rifles were still in their scabbards. He went through their saddle bags, too, and announced, "Well, we're missing one box of shells and one length of rope, and the rest of our whiskey."

Heath chuckled. "I say we forget about it. Let the man have them and let's get out of here."

Nick grunted, unhappy about it but just as eager to get moving. They moved the horses and their mule out of the barn and into the sunshine. Nick and Heath helped Jarrod mount, and then they took a look at the house just in time to see the curtains suddenly close. They smiled at each other and headed out.

It was a lovely day, muddy from the rain but warming up enough that soon they could shed the overcoats. Before very long they were back on Barkley property, and that's where Nick saw it and raised his hand to stop everyone.

A beautiful, six-point buck was grazing near the edge of a wood. He looked up at them, and they kept still until the buck began to graze again.

Nick slowly and carefully dismounted, slipping his rifle out of the scabbard, saying, "I'm gonna get us one good buck to take home."

Heath and Jarrod watched as Nick moved slowly to a tree and used it to steady his shot. He took very careful aim and fired.

Click –

Nick lowered his gun in confusion as Jarrod and Heath began to laugh. The buck heard them and took off.

Nick checked his rifle. It was empty. None of them had thought to see if Farmer Carter had robbed their rifles of their ammunition, which he obviously had.

Frustrated, Nick put his rifle back in the scabbard with a big frown.

"Come on, Nick," Jarrod said. "We're all alive, and for this trip that has to be the best we can say."

Nick remounted. "We're lucky we still have all our saddles."

"That farmer's probably not planning to live around here for long," Heath said.

"If he sticks to petty theft, he might be all right," Jarrod said.

"I think he's got a couple of stolen horses, too," Nick said. "You want to prosecute?"

Jarrod shook his head. "Things will catch up with him. For now, let's just get home."

XXXXXXX

Their mother and sister looked shocked at the appearances of the men who came in, and worried to see Jarrod limping and the lump on his forehead. Victoria insisted he sit right down in the living room and she pulled the torn pantleg up to have a look.

"It's not so bad," Jarrod said.

"I'll get the medical supplies," Audra said and headed for the kitchen.

Victoria removed Jarrod's boot and the bandage around his leg. "My heavens, this is a bad cut. We'll have to send for the doctor. And the bruises. What happened? Did you get squashed by a rock?"

"Actually, yes," Jarrod said.

"Had a rockslide up on the mountain," Nick said.

Heath said, "I'll tend to the horses and send Ciego for the doc," and went outside.

Victoria sighed a big sigh and looked at her two sons. "Look at you. You both have bloody cuts on your faces. I suppose you're lucky it wasn't worse."

Nick and Jarrod looked at each other and decided not to talk about the snow and how close they came to losing Jarrod up on that mountain. Nick said, "At least Jarrod's leg isn't broken."

"No, it doesn't seem to be," Victoria said, "but you're going to have to baby it for a while. But, down to the important things – how badly did you get caught in that snow?"

Jarrod and Nick looked at each other. She had them.

"We can see it from here, gentlemen," Victoria said. "You didn't think you were going to avoid talking about it, did you?"

"We can't get anything by her, Nick," Jarrod said.

"We got through it," Nick said and left it at that.

Victoria could tell he was leaving a lot out, but she let it go for now. "Well, I guess the most important thing really is, who won the bet?"

Jarrod raised his hand as both he and Nick began to laugh. "Had to leave it to the wolves, though," Jarrod said. "We were in too big a hurry to get out of the snow."

Victoria smiled. "I'm happy you made the right decision on that, at least. It's good to have you all home safe, if a little less than sound."

"It's good to be home safe and a little less than sound," Jarrod said, and gave a look to Nick that thanked him for not doing what he told him to do up on that mountain.

Nick gave a nod. "Sure is."

The End