Ch. 3

"Audra!" Victoria gave her daughter a gigantic bear hug. "I thought to never see you again."

"So…." Jarrod sat down already haven taken all the proof his brothers had brought to him, along with the small bundle his sister had been carrying to the proper authorities. "Since Grover and any of the members of the Kyle family involved in you and McColl disappearing, not to mention our missing money, are now behind bars awaiting trial, mind telling us what happened?"

"Amen to that." Nick took shot of whiskey, looked at his sister's growing belly and over at Thomas who had attached himself to Heath without any prompting from anyone.

"In a nutshell?" Audra sighed and asked if they remembered calling to her to turn around after the mess with Daniel, Judge Powers and the others.

"How can we forget?" Nick didn't mean to snap only he did, a fact which earned him a glare by not only his wife, but mother as well. Jarrod and Heath only lifted an eyebrow as if to say 'really?" "Sorry, sis," Nick apologized, "Just…I still want to hang Grover and any Kyle involved."

"If it makes you feel any better, I have had to fight the impulse myself." Audra gave a weak smile and continued ...at her mother's prompting. "I rounded a corner and was shocked to see Duke with a group of men who had a 'no good feeling' reeling of them. For a second I thought he was doing business with them. However, that thought instantly evaporated as I realized they all had guns out except him. What they said I couldn't tell you as I wasn't close enough to hear. Still, I knew the look, and it made me sick."

"How did McColl stop them? You two weren't married at the time." Jarrod figured Duke had to have done so or his sister would not be back home with them.

"I didn't know at first what he'd did to save my life. All I knew was that three or four men were forcing me off my horse before I could stop them. I expected…." She shuddered and skipped her train of thought as Thomas was far too young to hear it. "Anyhow, next thing I know was by Duke's side and… " Audra looked at Nick. "That money you gave him? I quickly found out he'd not told them he had it on him only …." Nick's sister let out a slow breath of air and before she could go on Nick spoke up.

"He had to give it to them…I mean, he handed it over in exchange for your life?" It wasn't that hard to figure out. "But what stopped them from anything else?" Nick, like Audra worded things in a way as not to spell out his thoughts to a seven year old boy traumatized enough by his family's escape out of a forced labor camp.

"Duke. He told them we'd married secretly just that morning, that it wasn't something we'd confessed to any of you openly. The money didn't buy my freedom from those horrible men, but they consented to leave our 'marriage' in tact." Audra sat straight as if ready to defend her late husband if necessary.

"So, you had a common law marriage?" Victoria asked, though her eyes-and Audra's brothers' eyes-asked 'Did you ever exchange more binding ones?'

"It's all we could have at first." Audra shook her shoulders. "It wasn't like a preacher came by that camp every Sunday. However; one day a traveling preacher actually showed up. I don't know what Grover's men told that preacher when they saw him, or how they explained what that man of the Lord was seeing around him, but he was allowed to give us a sermon... to all who wanted to attend the meeting that is." Audra adjusted herself and continued speaking. "Duke and I asked if we could renew our vows. Didn't dare confess none had been made in the first place. A few others asked him the same thing, we suspected those men were in similar a similar boat as Duke and I, so kept our mouth shut." Audra smiled. "As to making it the real deal? A couple of years actually. Duke whispered to me the first night he'd not touch me unless I made the first move. He said that he'd live with a platonic marriage before forcing me into anything. He kept his word." Audra gave a soft smile as a short memory came to mind.

"Are you sure? I'm old enough to be your father." Duke fought to think straight when Audra was clearly making the first move. "We haven't been able to find a way out of here; whose to say we will ever?" Audra shook herself and focused on the present. "He never laid a harmful hand on me." She then chuckled and admitted a few their disagreements had been quite… vocal… "Fortunately, for us, no one made a serious attempt to tear us apart. I suspect Duke had found away to buy that privilege as well." Audra sighed when asked why she would think that. "His rations were always lower than mine and others." She gave a weak smile. "And when they weren't? He worked longer hours than anyone else."

The respect and admiration the Barkley family had always held for their former foreman grew a thousand times over. How they wished he'd survived his wounds, so they could have told, and showed, their gratitude to him.

"I think it's time for supper, don't you?" Victoria looked sympathetically at Thomas, whose stomach had started to growl. "And...you my dear," Victoria looked at Audra with a smile. "Have a child who can not feed themselves. We need to go eat and simply be grateful you are safely home." Before I was the one to pass on' was not a thought Victoria spoke aloud, nor was anyone else crazy enough to say it either.

Epilogue

The wind blew as Audra stood by Duke's new burial plot. She wore no long back veil, but her dress was still a somber gray. "I miss you so much." Wiping her tears she felt lost. "I wish you'd survived. The truth prevailed; those men are all behind bars or have been hung. People we knew in that horrible place are being reunited with their family members. Our daughter is almost six months now. You should see Thomas with Chelsea. He carries her everywhere he can, or makes an honest attempt to do so. Not sure what Nick really thinks about your part in the whole mess, he's never really said much on the subject."

"I buried him in our family plot without argument, sis. And I did most of the digging myself. Not to mention I keep offering the prison extra rope if they are running short." Nick walked up to her side. "I would think that would shout volumes." Her brother gave her a soft smile.

"I guess it does at that." Audra looked back at her husband's grave when Nick asked her what she honestly thought of the ten years she was kept from the family.

"It was the worst ten years of my life…and it was the best ten years." Audra smiled gently as she looked at Nick. "Thanks to Duke, I was with family who truly cared about my safety and welfare. And when we finally escaped, even though in the end he was killed? I was back on this ranch. That's the best thing…the truth prevailed, and I still had family."

"Amen to that. Now." He put back on his hat. "Let's get back to Mom's place. Pilon's cooking, and I'm hungry."

Audra did not argue though, as they walked away, she glanced back one more time. For a fleeting moment, she could see Duke tipping his hat… as if in agreement with everything that had been said before disappearing.