Chapter 4

Nick rushed to his older brother. Jarrod put his bag down and raised his arms to embrace him but Nick grabbed him around the middle and lifted him into the air in a big bear hug. Jarrod laughed. Nick noticed he didn't weigh enough but knew that Silas and their Mother would take care of that.

"Where have you been?!" Nick asked and put Jarrod down. "What took you so long in getting home?"

"Oh, finishing up my work for the army, and a detour or two," Jarrod said. "Let me look at you, boy. Wow, have you grown!"

"Right past you, I see," Nick said, "even if you are an inch or so taller than you were. How'd you do that on army food?"

"How did YOU do it?"

Nick laughed. "Why didn't you tell us you were getting in today?"

"I didn't know. I was all set to wire I'd be in tomorrow or the next day when I caught a last-minute stage that would get me here today, so here I am. Are you headed home?"

"I am now," Nick said.

Jarrod looked up at the building. "Is this still a ladies' boarding house?" He gave Nick a wink.

"Yes, and I've been seeing the school teacher who lives here."

Jarrod laughed. "You didn't waste any time in getting back into action once you got home, did you?"

"The kids' school teacher," Nick said. "Mother invited her to dinner, and the rest just happened. Come on, boy, let's get you home! Mother and Father will flip!"

"And the kids won't know me," Jarrod said.

Jarrod was sober about that. Nick sobered. "Maybe not. But we'll work that out."

Jarrod threw his bag in the back of the buggy. He and Nick both climbed into the buggy and Nick started off.

Jarrod asked, "How are the little ragamuffins?"

"Bigger too," Nick said. "Still kids though – Audra's eight, Gene's seven. They may not recognize that you're Jarrod, but they know who Jarrod is. Mother's been reading all your letters to them – at least the parts that didn't talk about battles."

"I didn't write anything about battles," Jarrod said. "I didn't want Mother to have to know about that part." And other things, he thought to himself, but didn't say. Instead he sighed, "It's gonna be good to get home."

XXXXX

All the way home they talked about how things were there, how Silas was still there, how the house hadn't changed a bit, how Nick was learning more about the ranch and – ick, the books. Jarrod had to laugh at that part.

"You gonna go back to school?" Nick asked.

"I plan to," Jarrod said, "but we'll have to see if I'm needed at home, and it'll be a couple months before I do leave again, if I do. Not being in the army is gonna take some getting used to."

"Well, you were in it longer than I was," Nick said.

"Four years," Jarrod said quietly.

Images of things that had happened came into this mind unbidden. Images of people he wanted to remember, and one or two he didn't want to remember. He didn't mention them.

Instead, he said, "No wonder Audra and Eugene won't recognize me."

Nick gave him a glance. "I'm not sure Mother and Father will recognize you either. You not only grew up and grew skinnier – you grew older."

"Four years will do that to you," Jarrod said. "And you look a lot different to me, too. You were a kid when I left. Now you're a man."

"You were a kid when you left," Nick said. "Now you're a man too."

The arch in front of the house came into view. Jarrod felt like he was moving in a dream. It had been so long. Was he really here? Was it real?

Nick pulled up into the stable yard and a young fellow Jarrod didn't know took charge of the buggy and horse. The boy didn't speak, and Nick didn't speak to him. Jarrod grabbed his bag, and he and Nick went into the house.

As soon as they were in the foyer, Jarrod stopped and put the bag down just beside the door. Now that they were in some light, Nick could see Jarrod was not in uniform, but wore a casual jacket over a blue shirt and blue pants, and he wore a gray hat that he removed. Nick took his hat off, took Jarrod's hat, and hung them both up on the hat tree beside the front door.

Jarrod looked around, seemingly frozen in place. "It hasn't changed a bit," he said quietly.

Then they heard laughter coming from the library. Audra and Gene were still up. Their parents were probably in there with them. "Come on," Nick said and headed off that way.

In a way Jarrod felt like he had never been here before. But he followed Nick along to the library and they went in.

"Look what I found," Nick said as soon as they were through the door.

The kids were playing cards on the floor. Tom was in an armchair reading a newspaper, and Victoria was on the sofa, sewing. They all stopped what they were doing and looked up. There was a long awkward pause. Jarrod feared nobody recognized him.

"Oh!" Victoria suddenly realized who he was, dropped her sewing and came running to his arms.

Jarrod laughed and kissed her forehead. "Hello, Mother."

Tom came forward and shook his hand. "Oh, son, it's good to have you home!"

"Thank you, Father," Jarrod said.

Audra and Eugene just sat there, staring.

Victoria said, "Come on, you two, don't you recognize your big brother Jarrod?"

Still stares.

"No, they don't," Jarrod said softly. "It's all right. I probably don't look a lot like I did when they last saw me."

"We need to put some weight on you, boy," Tom said. "You were a skinny kid but I think you got even skinnier."

"There's time for that," Victoria said. "Come, sit here with me."

Jarrod sat down beside her on the sofa. Audra and Eugene continued to stare at him from the floor.

"It's not polite to stare," Victoria warned them.

They went back to their cards.

So much for the homecoming, Jarrod thought as everything settled down.

XXXXXXXX

Even his own room looked unfamiliar, even though it was exactly as Jarrod had left it four years earlier. He ran his finger over the top of the dresser and was pleased they had at least kept it dusted. They had expected him to come back.

A knock at the door got his attention. "Come in."

Victoria came in, closing the door behind her. Jarrod gave her a smile.

Victoria said, "Don't feel bad about Audra and Eugene not recognizing you."

"I don't," Jarrod said. "I didn't expect them to."

"How are you?" Victoria asked, but it was not a casual inquiry.

Jarrod didn't give her a casual answer. "Glad to be home, but it's a little strange."

"A lot of things happened to you during the war."

"Too many to talk about. Some I can't talk about."

"Can you talk about Matt Parker?"

"How did you know I was involved with him?"

"He wrote his family," Victoria said. "He told them he was the one you were defending in the court martial."

"Has he gotten home yet?"

"No. But he wasn't convicted of a crime?"

"No, he wasn't," Jarrod said. "Dishonorably discharged though. I expected he might lose himself for a while. He was crushed. Ross and Worth never joined the army, did they?"

"No, they stayed here. Worth is younger than Nick, you know. Since Matt was going, their father felt like that was all the Parker family needed to give the war effort."

"I'll have a talk with Matt when he gets here. I'll do what I can to help him ease back in."

"What happened with him, Jarrod? We heard he was charged with giving information to the enemy."

"I can't talk about that, Mother." There was one big fat reason Jarrod didn't want to talk about that – the girl Matt was in love with who turned out to be a confederate spy. Julia Saxon.

The girl Jarrod once loved too. He definitely wouldn't talk about that.

"I'll leave Matt to say what he wants to say to anybody he wants to say it to," Jarrod said. He took a deep breath. "But what's this I hear about Nick and the school teacher? How long has that been going on?"

Victoria smiled. "Not long. She's a very nice girl, a couple years older than Nick but she genuinely seems to like him."

"What do Audra and Eugene think?"

Victoria laughed a little. "At this point in their lives, what they think is ewwwww."

Now Jarrod had to laugh too.