Well, I am back from Thanksgiving and over a week at Mayo with my husband. Great treatment plan and getting back in my routine. I will post two chapters, eight and nine to get back in the loop.

Chapter Eight Nick and Heath's Story

Heath and his grandson slept in a tent per his request. The young boy had begged for time with his Grandpa alone. The boys had roughhoused earlier in the evening in the tent and broken the center pole. They were afraid of getting in trouble, so they tried to right it back in place—so they tried to fix it themselves.

All was well until Heath rolled over during the night and sat up quickly from a leg cramp. He hit the pole, and the heavy canvas tent collapsed on them. He quickly reached out for his hysterical grandson. He thrashed around, and the rest of the tent fell.

The young boy began to cry loudly as Heath fumbled around to extract them from the dark. It took several frustrating minutes to get them outside. Nick and his son helped from the outside.

"It's ok, Little Buddy. I gotcha. It's all over, and do you see the moon? It's shining pretty big for lots of light. We can sleep outside." as Nick pulled the bedrolls from the tent.

The little boy was clinging to his grandpa Heath.

"I got him. Gots plenty of experience with the dark. Light always draws it out."

Nick and his son shook their heads in understanding. Heath and Melly had both awakened the house with night terrors. He from Carterson and Melly came to the marriage with them.

Nick, once in his cups on the range, told Heath, "I admire ya, little brother. You is the calmest soul I know—-until you aren't. You and Melly was meant for each other. You went through things most men don't walk away from—-and that Melly—- Kindest little lady I ever met."

Heath laughed with his brother that night as they settled down to sleep, but he knew the truth. He and Melly had seen the dark, and both of them fought like heck to keep the light in them.

His grandson soon fell back to sleep in the crook of his arm. Heath settled himself down in the bedroll after extinguishing the fire.

He looked up at the stars, "Night, Melly. Hope you are sound asleep."

His mind drifted back to their early days.

He spent a week after Jarrod left to go see Eleanor —- assessing and reviewing the Glover and Barkley mines. He poured over the plans and explored every tunnel. He made several suggestions and earned Sidney's respect.

He repaired her cabin and built a reinforced door with a lock and pull bar. He chinked, corked the drafts, and ensured her flue didn't smoke.

And he visited with Melly every chance he could in the next two months. Janice was to head to college the next month and Melly's position on the ranch was in jeopardy. Especially since Sidney was annoyed at the attention, the hands were lavishing on her. She dressed as inconspicuously as possible, but her natural beauty shone through.

She agreed to meet Heath late one night and take a ride.

"You ride like the wind," as he watched her ride. The warm night breeze was from the south and her curls fell out of their hastily coiffed bun. They pulled up to give the horses a drink from a stream. They were by an entrance to one of the oldest mines in the area. It had been closed for years.

"I love being outside, Heath. When I came from Australia, I was in a ship's hull for one hundred days. We boarded with the Lord and his manservant. My father had cut my hair and dressed me as a boy. He didn't want to leave me behind."

"Ye all that I have, Melly. We go together." Papa told me.

Heath placed his hand upon hers. She gave him a smile that made his heart constrict.

"Tell me more, Melly. It is a tale I would love to hear from you. i'ffn you don't mind."

They sat down close to each other, and he continued to hold her hand.

"I developed a rash after a few days at sea. The men thought it to be contagious, and the ship's doctor was a drunken sot. They separated me from papa and the Lord. Put me in the hull. Papa was torn; he fought like an animal to keep me. They put him in the brig and tossed me into the dark hull". she shivered.

Heath pulled her closer, and he said, "You don't have to, but i'ffn it will help to tell your story—-"

"No one has ever asked before except Janice. Heath, I have nightmares sometimes about the dark. I traveled with her, and I had one. I was so embarrassed."

He took a deep breath, "I been there with ya, Melly. I was in Carterson and, as a kid, stuck in a mine. Something bout it never goes away—ever."

"Oh, Heath, you do understand. Being outside is my remedy."

"Yep."

"It was over a hundred days. I got a fever and a flux. Papa would get me food and water when he could after he got out of the brig. He promised to be good, and he knew he had to be free to help me. They would toss gruel to me every day. Papa would sleep at the door to the hull every night and sing to me. The rats, the standing water—-I was but six. I used to pray to see the sun. When we finally got to San Francisco—"

He squeezed her hand again.

"I think it gave Papa a new dream of freedom. To be an American where no one can own you—-legal or by your station. Or throw you in a hull. He took our chance in Carson City. Stole a mule, and we ended up here. Mr. Glover recognized his worth in the mines, and he became his foreman. He made the charges go away with the law. By that time, the Lord had gone back to Australia, and no one cared anymore about the mule. I went to work in the stables when I was ten. Learned my lessons by listening to Miss Janice's tutor. And now you know the story of Melissa Jasmine Jones."

"Jasmine? They smell pretty."

"My mother was named for such. I carry her name. It's all I have of her. She died."

"Tell me about yourself, Heath Barkley."

His blue eyes darkened, and he took a breath—-and he told her about Strawberry and his mother and Hannah and Rachel and about coming to the Valley and ranch months before–even Carterson.

She listened and squeezed his hand in support.

They silently enjoyed each other's company holding hands in the moonlight.

"Guessing I better get you back." He sighed.

She nodded.

As they stood up, he pulled her close and gave her a soft kiss.

"Thank ya Melly. You have a peace about ya that draws me in. I know we are miles apart but I want to keep seeing ya. I guess I am asking to court ya, all proper."

"I would like that, Heath Barkley."

As they walked towards the horses, Heath turned quickly as a gun clicked. He pushed Melly just as he took a bullet. She screamed and someone hit her on the head. The shooter slapped the horses and sent them on their way. The spurned ranch hand laughed and got up on his mount.

"Teach the both of you a lesson you won't forget." before I leave town.

They awoke in the pitch-black mine shaft not even sure how much time passed. Melly's head throbbed and the wound on her head was matted with blood. She reached out for Heath. He was moaning and when she touched him, she drew back in terror. Her hand was wet with fresh blood.

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&—-

Nick settled himself back in with his grandson after checking in McColl. He struggled with this strong man who half-raised him, his father's best friend, the man who carved out the ranch—-now being watched after by the younger men. He had good days still but—-

"Will my family be following me around? Just to get me home? Dear Lord, please no. Let me go quickly. I used to say in my boots. I don't care about that now. Just let me fall asleep next to Miranda and not wake up."

He was wide awake from the tent incident. His mind went to sleeping under the stars with Miranda all those years ago. The line shack—that blue bedroom of Audra's.

"Oh my, the blending house. So many times. Half my hellions were seeded in there. When the children were so young, and our room was so close to theirs. We could be as carefree and brazen as we wanted, "checking on the crops."

-&-

His mind went back to their first months.

"Woman, you took my heart that first day in the parlor, and it hasn't ever beat again without you."

Riding back from that cabin after the arrest and the necklace, he planned how quickly he could marry her. His head was full of Miranda, and his body was aching for her. The kiss they shared in Audra's room ignited a feeling he had never known. He would catch a look of her bouncing on that horse and desire coursed through him.

"Heck, that ain't ever quit. Even after the lung fever. Just took me longer, but I have never gotten tired of my firebrand."

They rode back towards the ranch, and Miranda wanted to stop at the grape vineyards. "I am a bit nervous seeing your family after they know what I have done. Can we stop for a few minutes?"

"Honey, they won't care. You did what was right when it counted."

They went into the blending house, and Nick took a cask of wine off the shelf.

He found one tin cup, and they shared the vino.

"Nicholas, I want to know more about growing grapes and making wine."

"I will be glad to teach you, my lady. And anything else that I know," he said provocatively.

She answered in the same provocative cadence, "I would be glad to learn, Nicholas. And maybe I can teach you something, my vaquero."

Her sultry tone broke down all his self-control. They came together in a lip-crushing kiss that made the earlier one in Audra's room seem chaste. The tin cup clanked across the floor, spilling drops of wine across the stone floor. They tousled and feverishly dueled across the floor of the blending house. They coupled before their minds caught up with their passions and lay exhausted in each other's arms.

"My lady, you know I am marrying you as soon as possible. I don't plan on letting you get away from me." he said breathlessly as he held her tightly.

"Nick Barkley, our souls have joined. We couldn't forget each other if we tried."

And they tried hard to wait until the wedding, but as Miranda would say, "my blood will not cool with you around, Nicholas."

But she still left a month later—-before the wedding— when she got the letter from her brother.

"The worst fight we ever had—-and we have had some doozies. I said things I wish I hadn't; she cursed me in English and in Spanish. I told her if she went back to Sonora to not come back. She told me to go to hell. I told her right behind her.

And I woke up, and she was gone. I busted up Harry's and stayed two days at Big Annie's.

I would work myself to the bone and drink all night.

I was at the Golden Nugget the morning Heath came and found me. Sobered me up. Showed me the bounty sheet on Miranda. He took it off the hired killer who broke into the mansion. Heath killed him in a fair draw. She had been gone a month. And I couldn't tell you what day it was.

I didn't even wait for a posse. I changed clothes, grabbed my gear, and took two rifles, three guns, and the hunting knife. I was coming back with Miranda or not at all. Heath tried to stop me, but I knocked him out cold in the gun room.

It took another month to even get to Sonora. I would pick up her trail and then lose it. Back even towards Juarez. Grazed by a bullet in the hills. I zigzagged all through the high desert. Lies and lies to hide the revolutionaries. And no one would talk for gold or a threat or promise. Nothing.

"No Gringos allowed"

I ended up at the mission near the Monteja holdings. I had a fever and was dehydrated. I collapsed at the door with "Miranda" on my lips.