I own none of the characters of places mentioned in "Big Valley." I love to play with them for free at least. So please read for free too. :)

Heath closed his own eyes in pain at the memory now. There it was. She could never hurt anyone, and everyone and his brother could hurt her just fine.

Jarrod interrupted his thoughts anger in his voice. "How long ago was this?"

Heath didn't have to count. He knew. He'd been counting it up to himself since he'd learned how long it took for babies to come and added to that his age. "Twenty-four years."

"Where?"

"The mining camp."

Nick interrupted the anger in his voice louder and raw. "You told us that."

Jarrod asked the pertinent question. "What mining camp?"

Now it took a moment, with all those memories from his past he'd slipped back into that little boy in whose small word there was only one. "Strawberry."

Heath watched the three men. The youngest looked back at the two oldest. He wouldn't be old enough to know. The other two though, maybe barely. Both looked thoughtful for a moment even Nick.

Jarrod's look continued longer though. "Nick" threw back, "Come on, you know there was a lot of men in those camps, know the kind of women."

Jarrod snapped back. "Nick!"

"There was only one of my mother!"

. . .

"And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren."

Heath lay on his bedroll watching his mother scan the pages of her Bible. The light of their lantern illuminated the the soft features of her face as she read about the woman she was named for. "And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi. And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing." The Leah who was Heath's mother closed her Bible and opened up the lantern to blow out its flame.

"Mama?"

She left off blowing out the flame and looked to him. "Yes, Heath."

"Hannah said the Leah in the Bible had even more kids later and thought her husband would love her for it then too. That true?"

His mother sighed, "Yes, Heath, that's true."

"Could you maybe get my pa to love you by telling him about me?"

His mother sighed and gave him a soft, sad smile, "No Heath, I'm not that Leah."

. . .

Heath sighed in the present. No, his mother had never been that Leah, nor any other, but herself.

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes