Chapter Twenty-Five

Excerpt from Ch 24

Nick, who could tell where Jarrod was heading, silently groaned. Right or wrong, he also knew he needed to know how Elizabeth was first. "Not now, Jarrod. We need to put up these horses, and then I need to check on Elizabeth. After that, we can talk; we need to talk."

Nick sat beside Elizabeth's bed. He could hear Jarrod talking to the Phillip Jackson. He might have listened in only Elizabeth finally opened her eyes. "'bout time you woke up," he laid his hand on her arm.

"What happened…one of the bullets get me?" Elizabeth sighed and turned her head towards the closed door. Even with it being shut, she could still hear Phillip and Jarrod going at it in the living room. She chastised herself even as she thought the 'going at it' bit. The two weren't yelling, and there was no bad feeling rolling off the sound she was hearing. Still, voices were slightly raised and stern.

Nick looked towards the door then back at Elizabeth. "Yeah, ricocheted off something- probably one of the nearby rocks, no one really knows for sure." Then, due to a few people he'd heard about, Nick paused before asking slowly, "Nicked the side of your head, can you see all right?"

Elizabeth didn't answer for a minute which didn't help Nick's nerves any. Finally, Elizabeth turned her face away from the sounds coming through the closed door and towards Nick. 'Honesty is the best policy'; that's what she and Jason had always said. "If you hadn't said anything, I'd still be able to tell anyone it was you here in the room with me. However, you and everything else is definitely on the blurry side. Let's just hope it's a temporary side effect of being grazed by a bullet."

Again, an uncomfortable silence fell in the room. Only when the voices out in the living room softened did either one of them speak again. "If you still want to help get Tabitha enrolled in the deaf school, I'd appreciate it. However, your family…" Elizabeth's sentence was cut short when Nick placed his finger on her lips.

"I told Jarrod he and I needed to talk after I checked on you. I'll do that now." He removed his fingers, reached down and took a hold of her hand. "Only know this, if my family is the only reason you can come up with not to allow me to court you-I'll be pushing the courtship anyway. You're not Cass; you have done nothing wrong. If they refuse to see that, then it's their problem-not ours."

While Elizabeth could see where Nick was coming from, and even agreed to a degree, a good portion of her still wondered. Suddenly she felt more than tired and worn out. All she wanted was to be left alone. She closed her eyes. "I'm tired. Please, just leave me be for now. I promise, I'll think on it some more."

Nick wanted to tell her there was nothing to think about only he wanted her to be able to rest. Besides, he still needed to face Jarrod. While he would never admit it to Elizabeth, he was greatly concerned about that; maybe, he might not be able to get his older brother to back him up. That is, when it came to seeing any relative of Cass Hyatt's. "Rest easy, Lizzie." Nick used the nickname without half realizing what he was doing. Once he realized what he'd said, he might have corrected himself only Elizabeth was actually smiling.

"You're persistent; I'll give you that much." She whispered before actually finding herself falling asleep.

"Yes, I am." Nick chuckled as he opened the bedroom door and walked out. Taking a deep breath, he made his way into the living room. He wasn't surprised to see Jarrod sitting in front of the fireplace watching the flames dancing around, nor was he shocked when Phillip turned away from Jarrod and excused himself. 'Probably doesn't want to get caught in the middle,' Nick thought as he walked up to the mantle and stopped a few feet from his brother, keeping his eyes on the flames as well.

It felt like a good five minutes had passed before Nick decided to break the silence-though it was probably closer to two. "You know?" He asked, figuring he didn't have to elaborate on the question.

"I knew the moment I laid eyes on her." Jarrod answered without turning his head. "Mr. Jackson and I have also had quite the conversation." He turned his head and looked at Nick. "He says you're planning to travel with her and her stepdaughter to *Fremont."

Nick nodded slightly and turned to look at Jarrod as well. "Elizabeth has taught her well, but the child still needs friends-to be around other children who are deaf. She needs to know for herself she's not alone. Also, she needs to be able to provide for herself when she's an adult."

Jarrod wasn't going to argue about that one; he whole heartedly agreed. However, he didn't like the idea of Nick getting any more involved with a Hyatt than he already was. "I have friends in that area, ones who have helped out the deaf community a lot." Jarrod stood up and leaned against the right side of the fireplace mantle. "Once we're out of these mountains, we could help Mrs. Kegan and her stepdaughter make arrangements to get to Fremont. I have friends who could meet them and help them from there."

While Nick was glad to have his words to Elizabeth verified-that is, the fact that his family would back him up on helping her and her stepdaughter, he couldn't court Elizabeth if he simply turned her and Tabitha over to strangers. "I won't fight you contacting your friends, but I'll be escorting Elizabeth and Tabitha-along with Mother or Audra if one of them will come."

"There's no need for you to do that, Nick." Jarrod's voice grew even firmer. "Tabitha will be enrolled in school. With the help of my friends, Elizabeth will be able to find work and be close to her stepdaughter."

Nick shook his head. "I'm grateful you're willing to help, Jarrod. Elizabeth will be too. She's been convinced you'd want nothing to do with her because of what family she comes from. Only I can't convince her to let me court her if I just walk away."

Jarrod's eyes widened. While he wasn't surprised the beautiful woman had caught Nick's eye, the famous Stockton attorney couldn't believe Nick was backing up what Mr. Jackson had been trying to tell Jarrod earlier. 'I haven't been able to convince him otherwise, don't know what Elizabeth's decided.' Mr. Jackson's words rang in Jarrod's ears. "You can't seriously look at courting her, Nick! She might be a good enough woman, but you can't change who her brothers are. Sure, Cass may be in prison for life-but who says he doesn't have friends on the outside? And, Cliff, he's not going to want her courting a Barkley!" Jarrod 's voice rose. He might have been tempted to point out that Elizabeth hated him only-due to the fact that Nick had just backed up what Phillip had said-he figured Nick would only see it as personal attack on Elizabeth and make things worse. No, if he had any chance of getting Nick to see reason-he couldn't 'pull Elizabeth into this argument'—as it were.

"Don't you think I've thought about all that?" Nick put his hands on his hips and stood his ground. "Don't you think she's brought up the same concerns?" He wasn't surprised when Jarrod started arguing with him again.

"I'm sure you think you've taken everything into consideration." Jarrod glared at his brother-even though he was trying not to. "You need to look at things again. For goodness sake, Nick, she's a Hyatt…"

Nick, who didn't want to fight to get his brother to see his side of it while standing in the Jacksons' home, snapped, "She ceased to be a Hyatt the day she married her late husband! Now, my courting her isn't up for discussion, Jarrod." He then growled low-but not so much as to disturb Elizabeth—she was the only reason he wasn't flat out yelling. "In twenty-four hours, if Heath hasn't brought Tabitha up here, I'm taking Elizabeth and going to town. After that, I'm wiring mother. If you will contact your friends, I'd greatly appreciate it. If not, I'll still get Tabitha enrolled when we get to Fremont." He turned and walked abruptly out of the room, leaving Jarrod very frustrated and feeling very much out of sorts.