Chapter 11

Will looked down the street and said, "I've been here all day. My horse is at the livery."

"Good," Nick said. "I can rent a mount and ride along with you."

Will made a face that was part glare, part scared.

Heath said, "No, I'll go with him. You and Will don't have the most peaceable history, and we're all beat up already tonight."

Nick started to glare at Heath, but Jarrod said, "Heath's right. Better he should go. Nick, we've got bags at the depot we need to round up. We can carry them over to the hotel and check us all in, and I want to wire Henry that we found Will and he's coming home."

Jarrod hoped saying he was wiring Henry would seal Will's agreement to come home. And Will did nod.

"All right," Nick said, if a little grudgingly.

But Heath had already put an arm around Will's shoulder and was walking him off toward the livery stable at the end of the street. Jarrod said to Nick, "You tend to take your fist to Will when you have a disagreement and in case you haven't looked, your knuckles are already bleeding."

Nick looked. It was beginning to get dark, but he could still see Jarrod was right. Nick took a clean kerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around his knuckles. "Do you really think that kid's gonna be in the hotel when we get up in the morning?"

Jarrod was still watching Heath and Will walking away. "I think it's far more likely he will be with Heath ushering him around than with you doing it. We'll put you and me in one room and Heath and Will in another. Heath can talk to him. You're not so good at that."

They watched Heath and Will go into the livery stable before they turned and headed back to the train depot. Heath spotted the stableman and quickly rented a mount while Will paid for his and fetched it. "I really don't need nursemaiding," Will said as Heath paid for his horse.

"I know you don't," Heath said, "but Nick thinks you do, and I think you'd rather have me along than him."

When they were mounted up and in the street, Will started out of town to the east. It was getting pretty dark by now. They could hear each other more than see each other. It wasn't long before Will said, "We don't have all that far to go. The ranch I work at is only four miles out of town."

"Good," Heath said. "Have you liked working there?"

"I made good money but I'm not gonna miss the place," Will said. "How is my Pa?"

"I don't know as well as Jarrod does," Heath said. "I haven't seen that much of him. But what I did see was a man in a world of hurt, and not just because of his money problems. You shouldn't have just up and left him, Will."

"He'd have stopped me if I tried to tell him what I was doing," Will said.

"Maybe, but if there's one thing I've learned by becoming part of a family it's that you don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Heath said. "You haven't figured out how important family is. You've never been on your own until now."

Will realized something. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"That I was adopted."

He didn't know. Heath felt a funny twinge, but not an uncomfortable one. A familiar one. "Well, so was I. I was 24 years old at the time, but Mrs. Barkley and the Barkley family adopted me, too. You don't take that for granted, Will. I know you don't see it that way, but being chosen by a family rather than being born into it – that's something."

Will sighed. "No, I didn't know that when I first found out I was adopted. I was just a baby and don't remember when they picked me. But I did come to learn it. That's why I wanted to get money for my father, Heath. I don't care if I ever inherit that ranch or not. What I care about is my father losing it."

"Next time you run into a problem like that, you come to your friends, you don't run off and try to solve it on your own," Heath said. "That's something else I learned when I became a Barkley. You got people to help you out when you need it, and we're gonna help your father and you. Jarrod's already bought more time, and we've been looking into buying your ranch before it gets sold out from under your father by the banks."

"Buying it?" Will said. "What would you do with another ranch?"

"We're still working on the whole idea," Heath said, "but I know one thing. Throwing your father off of it ain't in our thinking."

"I don't know how he'd take to living on a ranch he didn't own," Will said.

"We don't either, but we do know that you being gone has kept him from thinking straight much at all. That's why you're needed more at home than out here trying to make money that isn't gonna be made. We're not gonna tell your father what to do. We want to work things out together, but you being gone – he's been way too upset to really think."

Will pulled up, and Heath stopped. They could only see each other faintly in the dark. Will said, "I've been stupid, haven't I?"

"No, not stupid," Heath said. "You just care too much and you got too much pride. But we'll straighten that part when we get back to Stockton. Then we can really work on the rest."

XXXXXXX

It was late the next day when the Barkleys and Will Marvin arrived back in Stockton. Nick and Heath headed home while Jarrod rode with Will back to the Marvin ranch. They were scarcely up to the front of the house when Henry came running out. The moment Will dismounted, Henry was grabbing him in his arms. "Will! Thank God! Thank God!"

Jarrod smiled at the reunion, because Will had his arms around his father as tightly as Henry was holding him. "I'm sorry, Pa, I shouldn't have left but I was trying to raise some money – "

"I know, I know," Henry said. "The bank told me yesterday you had sent some, but Will – I'm in bigger trouble than you can earn money to get me out of. I need you, not your money."

"I know, Pa," Will said. "The Barkleys explained everything to me on the way home.

Jarrod hadn't dismounted. Now, he said, "Henry, I'm gonna let you and Will alone now and head home. We can talk again tomorrow. I'll come by in the morning, but not too early. You two need some time."

"Thanks for everything, Jarrod," Will said as he reached up to shake Jarrod's hand.

Jarrod nodded, and as Henry reached up to shake his hand, he said, "Be optimistic now. We're gonna figure something out."

"As long as Will's all right and home," Henry said, "I'm a lot more optimistic than I was."

Jarrod wished them good night and headed home. It was getting dark now but he didn't have all that far to go, and his heart was light now that this part of the problem had been solved. He was being honest when he told Henry to be optimistic, but he wasn't fooling himself or Henry. There was still a lot to plan, a lot to do, and a lot of luck was going to be required.

The family had not yet gone into dinner when he arrived home.

Victoria gave a big sigh when she saw the bruise beside Jarrod's eye and his slightly swollen lip. "You too?"

Nick and Heath shrugged. They too sported a split lip, scraped knuckles and two bruised cheeks between them.

"I can see getting Will home wasn't an easy chore," Victoria said.

"But he's home," Jarrod said.

"How are the Marvins? Are they all right?"

"Yes, they're fine," Jarrod said. "Much better now that Will's come to his senses."

"I'd like to see Will," Audra said, "but – well, I don't know what to do, what with you thinking I might come to own their ranch."

"You still don't like that idea, do you?" Jarrod asked.

"No, I don't," Audra said, "but I like it better than thinking the Marvins might be homeless. Do they know you have me in mind to take it over?"

"Henry does," Jarrod said. "Beyond that, it hasn't gone beyond this room, unless any of you have talked about it anywhere."

Heads shook no all around.

Victoria said, "We held dinner for you."

Jarrod said, "I'll go clean up and we can talk some more after we eat. I'm going to see the Marvins in the morning to discuss this whole thing more. We don't have to have our minds all made up, but I do want to see what the options really are, so that they can see what the options really are."

Jarrod headed up the stairs, and as he disappeared, Nick said to Audra, "Audra, what is it you don't like about the thought of putting their ranch in your name?"

"Just that," Audra said. "It would change our whole relationship. I'd go from being Will's friend to his father's boss."

"Not if it's just a name thing."

"No, Audra has a point," Victoria said. "It's not just a name thing, not when it's ownership of a property that used to belong to Henry. There's something real that would change, and Audra is right to consider it."

"Wouldn't we have the same problem if it's in the family's name and not just Audra's?" Heath asked.

"Yes, but it would be less personal," Victoria said.

"It would also be five bosses instead of just one," Nick said.

"Instead of just one woman," Victoria said very frankly.

"That's it," Audra agreed. "That's the problem. One thing I learned around the world - it's still a man's world. There are many men uncomfortable with having a woman be the boss. I don't want to put the possibility of that discomfort between the Marvins and us."

Victoria nodded. "That's why we have to give this entire thing a lot of thought and a lot of discussion. What can we do for the Marvins that will help the most and hurt the least?"

When they brought up the same concerns with Jarrod after dinner, he chewed over it, frowned over it, and finally said, "Well, here's another option. We form a separate corporation that owns the property."

"How does that help?" Nick asked. "It's still us owning the property with just another layer of ownership in there."

"But it is an insulating layer," Jarrod said, and started to smile as he started to think. "And it will hurt Henry and his pride less if while we own the stock, or Audra does, we name him president of the corporation."