A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Ritachris01. Thank you for all your gentle prodding to get this one done and put up. It tried to be difficult but here it is finally.
The wagon pulled up to the Barkley ranch house to find everyone waiting on the front porch for Karen's arrival. Victoria was smiling as the wagon pulled up. Jarrod stepped down to the side where Karen was and helped her down while Nick took her bag out of the back of the wagon.
Some of the ranch hands moved in and took the wagon and team around to put them away. Audra stepped down and hugged Karen before she even got on the steps. "I know you've only been there a week, Karen, but I missed you. I couldn't wait for you to come back for the weekend."
"Thank you, Audra. I missed you too." The two women walked up the steps. "And I missed you, Ms. Victoria. I'm glad to be here."
"We're all glad to have you back, Karen. We've missed you." Victoria's words made Karen feel warm and safe inside. She loved the way she felt around the Barkley clan.
"Miss Karen, I hope it's okay that we put your room right between Miss Audra and Mr. Heath?" Silas asked.
"Silas, I would be happy with whatever room you set up for me. Thank you. I hope it wasn't much trouble?"
"No, ma'am. No trouble at all. I'm happy that you're here and that the family is happier with you here." Silas took her bag from Nick and turned to her. "I'll just go put this in your room. Lunch will be promptly at noon. I've taken the liberty of setting up the grill, at Mr. Jarrod's request. I need to go finish preparing everything for lunch after I drop this off for you."
Karen smiled at the man and laughed. "Thank you, Silas. I appreciate everything you've done to help settle me in."
"You're very welcome, Miss." With that, Silas headed into the house.
"Come sit down, Karen," Victoria said kindly.
Once Victoria, Audra and Karen were seated at the small table on the front porch, all of the boys vanished to do whatever it was they were each working on.
"Would you like some lemonade, Karen?" Audra asked, refilling her own glass and her mother's.
"I would. Thank you, Audra."
When Audra had placed the glass in front of her, Karen took a sip and closed her eyes. "Wonderful. This is excellent lemonade."
"I'm sure the kitchen staff will appreciate the compliment, Karen. I've always enjoyed the lemonade they make and had asked them to make this in honor of you being here tonight."
"Thank you, Audra. I'm so glad you did." Karen sighed. "I have looked forward to this all week."
"Are things going alright for you at school?"
"They are. I think I've already made at least three friends. They are all very kind to me."
"I'm glad to hear that. I'm sure that you'll make more friends as time goes by," Victoria said gently. Karen was a wonderful girl and she knew that she would make friends quickly.
"I hope so, Ms. Victoria. I would like to have friends here. It would make things much easier."
"I understand that," Audra said. And she really did. Karen would have a much easier time being away from her family if she had several friends that she could spend time with at school. It would make the time go faster so that she couldn't dwell on being away from family. Audra smiled at her young friend. "Why don't I show you where your room is? Then you can freshen up for lunch. Jarrod has things set up so that he can barbecue and show you how good he is." Audra laughed. "Jarrod always thinks he has to show off how well he can barbecue. As if any of us can forget."
"Audra, don't tease your brother. He can't help that he's learned well how to cook on a grill." Listening to the playful banter between Victoria and Audra made Karen very glad that they had opened their house to her. She felt like she had two families. And she couldn't feel more blessed.
"I just don't understand why he feels such a need to make so certain that we all know that he can cook anything on a grill. I don't know about anyone else but I don't think I would ever forget how good everything tastes when Jarrod cooks on the grill. He's almost too good at it."
"I can't wait. It all smells delicious already. What has the kitchen made up to go with it?"
"Silas says we have coleslaw, potato salad, and pasta salad as well as baked beans. For desert, we have a fresh fruit salad," Audra said. "Of course, supper will just be more of the same because we'll never eat it all for lunch. We'll be able to nibble on this stuff all day."
"I hope I can control myself around all of this magnificent food," Karen giggled.
"It's hard sometimes to have people around you who can cook so well. I have to remind myself constantly that it's okay to walk past the table and not grab something to eat. Otherwise, I would be the size of a house," Victoria said with a bit of a laugh.
A random thought ran through Karen's mind. 'I wonder if Heath would still like me if I put on some weight.'
"Karen, you seemed a bit distant there for a moment." She realized that Victoria was talking to her and brought her thoughts back to the conversation at hand. "Were you thinking about anything in particular or just letting your mind drift?"
"Just drifting, Ms. Victoria. Just drifting. Glad to be away from school for a little while. It's more relaxing to be here."
"Karen, maybe I should show you to your room so that you can freshen up before lunch is ready?" Audra offered. She thought she knew where Karen's thoughts had gone and she wanted to talk to Karen about it.
"Okay. I would like to wash up a bit before lunch is ready. It was a bit of a dusty ride here this morning." Karen nodded to Victoria. "If you will excuse us, Ms. Victoria."
"Of course, dear. I'll see you for lunch." Both Karen and Audra stood and walked away from the table.
The two young women walked quietly through the big house for a few moments before Audra spoke. "Karen, tell me what you're thinking about."
"I've often thought I was far too small. Too dainty. Too fragile. I don't know if that was a result of not having a mother around to tell me that it just wasn't true or what. I do know that I did my best to hide those feelings from Pa and the boys because they didn't treat me like I was fragile or dainty. They always treated me like a girl who could do anything that they could do if they just taught me how. I was just wondering what Heath would think if I gained a little bit of weight."
"That would be something that you would need to talk to him about. I couldn't answer that question. But I will say that I think you are built perfectly. You're beautiful, Karen."
"Thank you, Audra. I appreciate that. I know that I eat enough to keep me healthy. And outside of the knock to the head that I took while escaping from Annabelle, I've always been pretty healthy. Outside of the usual childhood illnesses anyway. I just think I need something more."
"Karen, you still have growing to do. Don't sell yourself short on this. Let your body tell you what you need. It won't steer you wrong." She put a solid hand on Karen's shoulder. "Let's go get freshened up before lunch is ready and the boys start without us." The two laughed and walked down to Karen's room.
Sitting down at the table for lunch, Karen found herself seated between Heath and Audra. There were more greetings from everyone as the family found its way to the table. News passed from one to another as readily as the food was passed.
"So, Karen, what are some of your classes like?"
"Well, I'm thoroughly enjoying English so far. We're studying Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet for now. The teacher says we may look at Macbeth next. She's not certain. We have to cover certain ones but she gets to choose the order we do them in."
"Very progressive." Jarrod's words told Karen that he approved of giving teachers some freedom in the curriculum of their classes. Not all schools did that.
Heath seemed to be all too aware of the young woman sitting next to him. He found himself wanting to reach out and take her hand in his own and hold on to her as long as possible. He didn't want to take her back to the school. He wanted to keep her with him. He wanted to marry her and have her by his side forever.
Karen had thoughts about Heath running through her mind as well. She could almost picture what it would be like when he asked her to marry him. She could nearly picture the two of them having children together and watching the children run in the sunlight. They were amazing sights to see in her mind. She just hoped no one caught her daydreaming. She'd hate to have to explain it to anyone else. That would be so embarrassing.
She wasn't even sure if she could ever explain it to Heath himself. She just hoped that he was having the same thoughts running through his mind that she was having through hers.
When everyone left the table after lunch, Karen decided to walk outside for a bit. Stretch her legs as it were. She started walking and let her mind wander even further than she had during lunch. She watched some of the hands working on a section of fence as she walked. And it didn't take her long to wander much further than she had planned.
Looking around, she realized that, while she hadn't gone outside the fence marking the edge of Barkley territory, she had gotten quite a distance from the main house and it was going to take her a while to get back. The sun was starting to sink low on the horizon and she knew that she should have been paying attention to where she'd been going and how long she'd been walking.
Starting back toward the main house, she realized that it was a good thing that she could still see the smoke from the kitchen rising up to the sky. It would be her guide to get her back.
"Audra, have you seen Karen since lunch?" Victoria had looked for and found her four children on the front porch, talking amongst themselves.
"No, Mother. I haven't. Haven't you?"
"No. And it's almost dinner time. Jarrod, Heath, Nick, I would appreciate it if the three of you would ride out and see if she's still within our property lines. Our property is rather large and she could easily get lost out there on her own. I'd rather not have to explain that to Ben."
"Of course, Mother. We'll find her." Jarrod kissed his mother's cheek as he grabbed his hat. His brothers followed suit.
"Mother, you don't think anything's happened to her, do you?" Audra asked, worried about Karen.
"I'm sure she just lost track of time and is heading back even now. I'm sure she's just fine, Audra. I just want her back here at the house before dark fall. It's much too easy to get turned around in the dark. And with as large as our property is, that could be a very bad thing."
Audra settled into the living room to wait with her mother for the boys to return with Karen.
"Karen! Karen!" called Nick from the back of his horse. He was hoping that he found her soon. It was getting dark and the temperature was dropping as the sun sank lower.
"Nick? Nick, is that you?" came the young voice from the dark.
"Karen?"
"Thank goodness. I walked much farther than I thought I had and so I started back and – and – and."
Nick stepped down from the horse, wanting to calm the girl before she started to panic. "It's okay, Karen. I can give you a ride back to the house if you want."
"That would be wonderful. I'm getting so tired."
"Well, Mother sent us out to find you when Audra told her that she hadn't seen you since lunch and it was almost dinner time. I'm glad to see that, other than being tired, you're just fine."
He stepped back up on the horse and held out his hand for Karen. She took it and he pulled her up to sit in front of him. "You don't want me behind you?" Karen asked as he settled her in front of him.
"I'd rather keep you in front of me. Just in case you doze off on the way back. That way, I can keep you from falling off and getting hurt." Karen just nodded and leaned on Nick.
Jarrod and Heath rode into the front yard of the main house just as Nick arrived with Karen sound asleep in front of him. "Nick! Where did you find her?" asked Heath running over to his brother's horse.
"She had been walking and had gone out past where the hands had been working on that section of fence that had come down the other day. She told me that she just started walking and next thing she knew the sun was going down and she realized that she'd walked a long ways out. At least, she was heading in the right direction to get back here. Heath, Jarrod, come take her so that we can get her in out of the chill of the night air."
Both men walked over and the two of them helped Nick slide Karen from in front of him to their arms. Jarrod had the better grip on her so he carried her into the house and straight to the room Silas had set up for her.
Once she was tucked into bed, Jarrod left the room and Heath sat down in a chair near her bed. Victoria looked at him. "What are you doing, Heath?"
"Keeping an eye on her, Mother. If she wakes chilled during the night, I will be able to bring her an extra blanket. This way, I can also make sure that she doesn't develop a fever through the night. And if she does, I will be able to wake you immediately so that we can send for the doctor."
"Very well, Heath. Just be certain that this is not for other reasons."
"Absolutely not. I just want to make sure that she doesn't come down sick. And if she does, this way we can call for the doctor sooner and maybe get her better quicker."
Victoria and her other children left the room quietly. Audra turned to her mother in the hallway. "Mother, why would you question Heath's motives like that? Do you doubt him in some way?"
"Not at all, Audra. I know that Heath is as much a gentleman as your other brothers. I just wanted him to know that I care enough about Karen to make sure that she is safe and protected. Just as I did with you for so long and still do from time to time. Karen is still quite young. She needs the protection that I offer her. She understands this and so does Heath. Karen has been, according to Ben, quite sheltered compared to her brothers. She has been taught quite a bit by her brothers but still, she has been sheltered."
"I don't understand why Heath needs to know that you care that way about Karen."
"Simple, dear. He needs to know that I see her as one of my children already and, if he makes the decision to pursue a relationship with her further, I accept her in this house as a member of our family. I also know that, even though she's asleep, Karen probably heard me and heard Heath's responses to my questions. It would reassure her that she was safe and protected here just as she would be at home. She will sleep easier and be less likely to get quite as sick."
"I think I understand now. Thank you for explaining it to me, Mother. I'll keep that in mind."
She patted Audra's cheek. "Also I wanted Heath to remember why he was sitting with Karen. She still has nightmares about the times she was kidnapped. I've heard her crying in her sleep when I walk the hall at night sometimes." Seeing Audra's look, she smiled at her daughter. "You know that sometimes I have a hard time sleeping. I walk the house, checking on each and every one of you. Once I'm certain that everyone is safe and sound in their own rooms, I can usually get back to sleep."
"I know, Mother. I just wish you didn't feel the need to do that."
"It's gotten worse since Karen's kidnapping. Ben told me about both kidnappings before we ever went to visit them the time that Heath and Karen started getting close. Ever since, I wake up in the middle of the night and feel a need to check on everybody. In fact, finding out about the kidnappings is what drove me to take all of you to see him. I felt the need to show him some support. And to make sure that she knew that if it happened again, she would have two places to run to if she needed them."
"I'm sure she knows that now. And that she's glad to have us as well as her father."
"Exactly what I was aiming for. Now, I don't know about you but I think a bite to eat is just what I need right now." Victoria placed an arm around Audra's shoulders and steered her toward the dining room so that the two of them could find something to eat before retiring to bed for the night.