PURE GOLD

Disclaimer: Jarrod and Nick Barkley and all of the characters and situations in The Big Valley are the property of their copyright holders and are, sadly, not mine. I'm only borrowing them.

PART THREE

One side of Nick's mouth curved into a smile at the sound that crept into his consciousness, a sound he'd been familiar with since he was a baby, the soft, low hum of one of the sweet old spirituals Silas had brought with him from the South. Silas called them his working songs, but Nick knew the songs of freedom and redemption had a deeper meaning. For Nick, besides everything that was in the words, they meant home.

He was sorry when the humming stopped, but he didn't mind when he finally opened his eyes to see Silas smiling over at him from the chair next to his bed.

"Welcome home, Mister Nick. I thought we might have to send another searching party for you, you been gone so long."

"What happened?" Nick said, his voice coming out as little more than a croak.

Silas held up his head and held a glass of water to his parched lips. "Don't you remember?"

"I remember . . . uh, I remember going out to the Suerte and looking for gold and, uh . . ." Nick shook his head and instantly regretted it. He put one hand up to his temple to stop the throbbing and felt a heavy bandage.

"Here now, Mister Nick, don't you mess with that. You were so dirty when Mister Jarrod brung you home, nobody knew you had a pretty bad gash down the back of your head until your mama got you cleaned up some. The doctor sewed it all up just fine, so you'd best leave it alone now. And don't you try to move that leg of yours either. You want it to heal proper."

Nick frowned but put his hand back down. "Jarrod brought me home? No, Jarrod won't be back for four days. He won't be back till Friday."

"Today's Wednesday, Mister Nick. It's Wednesday afternoon. Mister Jarrod come home dawn yesterday and then went to fetch you back out of that mine."

"I'm going to get you out of here before I knock you into next week."

Nick chuckled softly, remembering at least part of it now. The gold. The cave in. Jarrod. Jarrod had found him, and now Jarrod knew about the gold, too.

"He didn't go back to school?"

"No, sir. He's been sleeping about as long as you now. I'm sure he'll come to see you when he wakes up."

"Mother and Father?"

"They both been sitting with you off and on through the night and all this morning. Now your mama's sleeping, too. Mr. Barkley, he's out talking to Mr. McColl about ranch business, but he said he'd be back directly."

Nick thought for a minute, trying to put his missing days back into place. "Jarrod came home yesterday? At dawn?"

"He did that. I heard he rode all night from San Francisco to get here."

"But school—"

"I guess he had to leave a bit early from that," Silas said gently, "but he didn't mind. He wanted to get home in plenty of time for Christmas anyway."

"He came home to get me," Nick said, realizing how hard it must have been for Jarrod to leave when he was supposed to be taking his examinations. "And I ruined everything for him."

"From what I hear, Mister Nick, he didn't mind at all."

"Stupid school." Nick crossed his arms over his chest and then winced as his whole body reminded him that moving suddenly wasn't a good idea at this point. "If Jarrod would just stay home and run the ranch with me and Father, then he wouldn't have to worry about classes and examinations."

"But that's not what Mister Jarrod wants."

"It's what I want," Nick grumbled.

"But that's not what matters." Silas shook his head. "From what I can tell, the good Lord puts a piece of something into all of us when we're born, something that makes us who we are, and there's no use trying to change it. You want to raise cattle and horses and keep the land, and that's a fine thing, no doubt, but if everybody did the same, who you gonna sell all that stock and produce to? And while you're doing it, who gonna make your clothes and boots and saddles? Who gonna build the railroad and run the telegraph? Who gonna keep the stores and teach school? And all those folks who make clothes and leather goods, who build the railroads and the telegraph wires and tend stores and teach school, they don't want to heard cattle and break horses and grow crops. They none of them built that way, no more than you're built to do what they do. But I guess the Lord puts a different piece in each of us so that, together, everything moves along just the way it ought."

Nick's frown deepened.

"Your daddy, Mister Nick, he got big plans for a big world. Mister Jarrod, he wants to make that world right for folks who got nobody to speak for them. You love this place, this ranch right here, caring for the land and the animals, leading the men, that's what God put inside of you. But you can't take what's in somebody else and make it the same as yours."

"But Jarrod's my brother."

"Sure he is."

"I just wanted my brother to be here, at our place, so we could work together."

"He's here, Mister Nick, and I know he has as much love for this ranch as you do, but his kind is different. He wants to tend to it by seeing to all those kinds of business matters and contracts that keep it running. As much as you want a brother who'll ride 'longside you and herd cattle every day, that's not Mister Jarrod, and you can't make him be that, no more than he could make you want to sit inside and read law all day long."

Nick didn't have an answer for that. He'd never quite thought of it that way.

"I guess I cost him a whole semester's work," he said miserably.

"Mister Nick, I tell you he didn't mind. He said coming home was more important right then."

Nick looked away from the concerned dark eyes and didn't reply.

Silas patted the back of his hand, smiling encouragingly. "What if I fetch you something to eat? How about that?"

Nick swallowed hard. He was about as empty as he'd ever been. "Uh, yeah. You got a steak about three inches thick?"

"I do indeed."

Nick sighed with satisfaction. "Good."

"And you can have it as soon as the doctor comes back and says so. For now you can have some nice chicken broth and, if that goes down good, some oatmeal."

"Oatmeal? Aww, Silas—"

"That's the menu, Mister Nick, till I get told different. But there's one other thing you can have as much of as you want."

"Really?"

"Yes, sir, some good hot tea."

Nick pulled the covers over his head.

OOOOO

Jarrod licked his dry lips and opened his eyes the merest crack. He could tell by the way the shadows slanted that it was late in the afternoon. He must have been asleep two or three hours. He needed to find out how Nick was.

With a groan, he turned to his side and was met by a pair of round blue eyes.

"Are you awake now?"

"Audra, honey, what are you doing here?" He propped himself up on one elbow. "Where's Mother?"

"She's asleep. Father's out talking to Mr. Duke. Nick's asleep. Silas is looking after him. I got tired of playing by myself, and I didn't want to sleep, too."

Jarrod chuckled. "Well, you give me a few minutes to clean myself up and have something to eat, and we'll go check on Nick together. How would that be?"

Audra looked at him solemnly. "Nick still hasn't waked up yet."

Jarrod sat up and pushed a lock of golden hair behind her ear. "Well, it's only been a couple of hours yet. He'll wake up soon."

Audra shook her head. "You've both been sleeping since yesterday."

Jarrod blinked at her. "Yesterday?"

"Mother said you needed to. She said it was best if nobody bothered you, but I was getting scared. Jenny Beldon told me her daddy was asleep when they brought him home last summer, and he never did wake up until they buried him."

Jarrod winced. He didn't know Audra knew about that. He sat up and pulled her close to him. "Jenny's daddy was hurt, honey. He was in a stampede. But Nick's not that bad. Nick's going to be fine, all right?"

She nodded, but he could tell she didn't quite believe him.

He touched his lips to her forehead. "Haven't you gotten to see him at all since he came home?"

Audra shook her head. He knew Mother and Father were trying to keep her from being upset seeing Nick hurt the way he was, but not letting her see him at all had obviously made her imagine things were much worse than they were.

He struggled to his feet and noticed a tray sitting on his dresser. Bless you, Silas.

"Did you eat, honey?" he asked, taking the cover off the largest dish. The food was cold now, but Jarrod was too hungry to care. He stuffed down three pieces of bacon and grabbed a piece of toast. "Would you like part of this?"

Audra wrinkled her little nose.

"All right," he said once he'd choked it down with a gulp of cold coffee, "this'll do me for a start. I'll take you to see Nick right now, but only for a minute, agreed?"

Her face lit and she flung her arms around his middle. "Only a minute."

He took her hand and walked her to the door, shaking his head at his own reflection as he passed his mirror. He was still in the same filthy clothes he'd come home in, his chin darkened with two days' worth of stubble, his hair lank and grimy. Well, if Audra wasn't too fussy to have him accompany her to the next room, he guessed he could stand it, too. But pretty soon he'd have to get Silas started cooking some real food and fixing him a very hot bath.

He dropped down to one knee so he could have his eyes level with his little sister's. "Now Nick might still be asleep, so we have to be quiet."

Audra nodded.

"And for now, don't say anything to—" Jarrod leapt to his feet again. "Father."

Father looked at the two of them for a long minute. "I thought you were supposed to stay downstairs until your mother woke up."

Audra's eyes dropped to her little button shoes. "I just wanted to see if Nick was all right."

Jarrod put his arm around her. "She's been worried, Father. I thought if she could see—"

"I guess we've all been worried." Father cupped Jarrod's cheek in one hand. "About both of you."

Jarrod shrugged a little. "I'm all right."

"I know. And so's Nick. I never did tell you thank you, son. We'd never have found him if you hadn't come home when you did."

Jarrod swallowed down the sudden tightness in his throat. "Well, I just—"

Father's arms were suddenly around him, holding him tight, and Jarrod clung to him, surprised by the sudden, deep sobs that shook him.

"I was so afraid."

"You're all right, son," Father murmured against his temple, still holding him there. "I've got you, boy. I've got you. Shh, I've got you."

When he was finally steady again, Jarrod stepped back and looked down at his dirty socks. "I'm sorry, Father." He sniffled and wiped his grimy sleeve across his wet face. "I guess I'm still more tired than I thought."

Father lifted Jarrod's chin, and Jarrod could see there were tears in his eyes, too.

"I'm very proud of you, son," Father said at last, his voice as thick as Jarrod's had been, and then he managed a lopsided smile. "You go on and take your sister to see Nick."

Jarrod was almost startled to remember Audra was still clinging to his hand, but he nodded.

"Just for a minute now, missy," Father told her with a wink, but she looked a little too awed to do more than nod.

"I'll make sure she doesn't stay long," Jarrod said.

Father clasped his shoulder. "I'll go let your mother know you're awake."

Author's Note: I was expecting this to be the last part, but the boys are evidently not through yet. Nick is complaining that he still hasn't gotten a chance to talk to Jarrod, so there will be more. Please let me know what you think.