Nick and Heath mounted up. As they rode away, Nick looked over at Heath. As usual, he was silent, and Nick couldn't tell much from his body language.
"I was glad to get out of there," Nick said. "They were really rude to you. Except for Jenny. The young girls always like you."
"It's all right, Nick. I didn't enjoy it, but it's not a big deal. I reckon I don't have to see them again anytime soon."
"It's not all right," Nick said indignantly. "They have no right to treat a member of the Barkley family that way. And you were perfectly nice to them."
"You have to remember, Nick, that as far as they're concerned, I'm not a real member of the Barkley family," Heath replied. "They've known you for years, and they don't know me at all."
"They don't get to make that decision. If we say you are, you are."
Heath sighed. "You can't change people's minds for them," he said. "That's just how some people are. They're not going to change. And there isn't always a need to be rude back to rude people. It usually just makes things worse." He gave a short chuckle. "Though every now and then it's fun to punch them in the face."
Nick laughed, then said, "Well, wait until Mother hears about this. I'll bet she'll have something to say about it."
"There's no need to bother her about it, Nick," Heath replied. "Why upset her for no reason?"
"What do you mean, no reason?" Nick demanded.
"I mean, it's not important. I'm not interested in causing problems between the Barkley family and old friends. There's just no need for that. It's not worth it."
They rode on, silent for a few minutes while Nick thought about what Heath said. It was sensible, but it still didn't sit right with him. He tried putting his finger on exactly what was bothering him. Heath didn't seem unduly upset. He had been tense at dinner; Nick had seen that. But now that they were out of that house, he seemed to have shrugged it off.
But it still stuck in Nick's craw. It just wasn't right. When he had said, my brother, Heath, he had expected Heath to be treated with the same level of courtesy he was. And dammit, if the Barkleys said Heath was a member of their family, then he was. And how dare they question him about Mother's decisions?
The more Nick thought about it, the more it ate at him. He remembered Jarrod asking him, how do you think it would feel? For the first time, Nick started to seriously consider this. How would he feel in Heath's position? How did Heath feel?
How people felt had never been much of a topic of conversation for Nick. He thought Heath would look at him like he had lost his mind if he started asking 'so Heath, how do you feel?' He wondered how Jarrod approached this. Sometimes Jarrod was right after all. How had he gotten Heath talking? When he had, how would he have known what to say? Nick felt at a loss.
He decided to just ask something obvious. "Why are you always so quiet?"
"I don't know, Nick. No particular reason."
"Have you always been this quiet?"
Heath gave him a lopsided smile. "Well, for a long time I only had my horse to talk to, and she never said much back. The only female I can say that about," he replied, chuckling.
"Was that when you were doing all those jobs you mentioned?"
"For the most part," Heath said. "And traveling between places."
"Why did you move around so much?"
"I don't know," Heath said. "I just couldn't feel settled." He shifted in his saddle, then went on, "I spent a long time in Mexico. I worked for a lady on her ranch, basically doing everything."
"A lady?"
"Her husband was dead, and she didn't have any sons to do things for her," Heath replied. "So she hired me."
"What was she like? Old?"
"Nope, not old," Heath said, smiling. "Definitely not old." He laughed. "She would have been so mad to be called old."
"Sounds like you knew her pretty well."
"I did," Heath said.
"Did anyone else work for her?"
"She had house help, of course, and there was a crew there when I came on," Heath said. "None of them were smart enough to run the place. They were mostly lazy and drank too much."
"How did you deal with them?"
"I cracked their heads when I needed to. They hated having a gringo boss, plus I was only eighteen, so I had my hands full. I got Elena to get rid of half of them and let me hire better ones."
"Elena, eh?" Nick said. He was wondering if Heath had just been an employee to this woman.
"Yep, Señora María Elena Graciela López de Bonilla."
"But you called her Elena."
"Well, in front of the hands I called her la señora."
"But she was Elena to you not in front of them," Nick said, raising his eyebrows.
"I already told you that."
"I'm figuring out the significance of that," Nick said, looking slyly at his brother. It was too dark for him to see Heath's facial expression, not that it would have revealed more than Heath wanted to anyway.
Heath laughed. "Trying to figure it out?"
"Since you won't just spill it. Were you involved with her?"
"Yeah," Heath said. "I was."
"In love with her?"
"Not exactly," Heath said. "Our relationship wasn't really about love." He grinned at Nick. "Still need me to explain it to you?"
Nick laughed. "Nah, I get it." He asked, "So what made you move on from that? Sounds like that wasn't half bad."
"Not bad at all," Heath said, and the way he said it made Nick laugh. Heath was quiet for a moment, and then he said, "I had to go back and see about my mother. I'd been sending her money, but I hadn't seen her in a long time, and her friend wrote to me that she was sick. That's when her health really started failing. I worked closer to home after that for a while."
"Heath," Nick began. He knew to tread lightly here. "What was she like, your mother? I know you said she was a good woman, and I believe that. But what was she like?"