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 FOUR
Still holding Audra by the hand, Jarrod tapped lightly on Nick's door.
Silas answered at once. "Mister Jarrod, it's good to see you awake. Miss Audra, your mama said—"
"We're going to look in on Nick for just a minute, Silas, before she goes back downstairs."
Silas looked uneasy. "Mister Jarrod—"
"Jarrod!" Nick was sitting up in bed, the covers pulled up to his chin. "Tell Silas I have to have something more than broth and tea! I'm starving!"
"Doctor's orders, Mister Jarrod," Silas said firmly. "You ask your mama."
"Sorry, Brother Nick," Jarrod said, bringing Audra with him to the bedside. "Doctor's orders." He smiled broadly. "But for me, Silas, would you please cook me up the thickest steak you have with some sweet peas and potatoes."
Nick scowled at him.
"Oh," Jarrod added, "and if there's any kind of pie . . . ?"
"Apple pie, Mister Jarrod," Silas said with justifiable pride. "Made it just this morning, waiting for you to be ready to eat it."
"Jarrod," Nick whined.
Jarrod merely smiled at Silas. "Excellent. And if you'd draw me a hot bath, I'd be very grateful."
"Yes, sir," Silas said, "right away. And I'll put fresh sheets on your bed, so you won't get yourself dirty again getting back in them."
"Thank you. And don't worry, I'll stay here with Nick until Mother or Father comes back."
"I'll get your steak started and your bath water heating on the stove."
Chuckling to himself, Silas hurried out of the room.
Audra moved over to Nick's side. "You can have some of my pie, Nick. I won't mind."
He gave one of her long curls a tug. "At least somebody's on my side."
"I'm on your side, Nick. I was afraid you weren't ever going to wake up."
He gave her a fierce look. "Well, sure I did, squirt. You can see me, can't you?"
Her lower lip quivered and her eyes filled with tears.
"Now, don't start that," Nick said, his gruff voice suddenly tender. "I'm all right. Come on now." With one thumb, he wiped away the tear that rolled down her cheek. "Audra."
He slipped his arm around her and tried to lift her up beside him, but he couldn't quite do it. Jarrod gave her a boost and then sat on the edge of the bed so she was between the two of them.
"Now, you see there, honey? Brother Nick is his old growly self. That's got to mean he's all right, doesn't it?"
Audra giggled and then sniffled one last time. "I promised Father I wouldn't stay but just a minute, Nick, but if you want me to, I could bring you one my dolls to sit with you while you have to be in bed." Audra toyed with one of the buttons on his nightshirt. "They always make me feel better when I'm sick."
"One of your dolls!" Nick sputtered. "What would I do with—"
Jarrod gave him a look over their little sister's head, and Nick scowled at him. Then his expression softened as he looked at Audra again.
"I mean, uh, what would I do with myself if you didn't take such good care of me?"
Her eyes lit, and she hugged him around the neck. "I'll go get one for you."
"I think you'd better go on downstairs now, honey," Jarrod told her. "You can bring Nick a doll when you come see him next. When Mother says it's all right."
"Mother says it's time you let your brother rest."
They all turned to see Mother standing in the doorway, her usual immaculate self. She came at once to the bedside.
"Nick, darling, how are you feeling?"
"I'm all right, Mother."
He squirmed a little when she leaned down to kiss him.
"And Jarrod." She kissed him, too, only a little more cautiously. "If I had known you were going to sleep this long, I would have made you take a bath first." She touched his stubbled cheek. "And shave."
Jarrod winced. "Sorry, Mother. I was just getting to that."
She stroked the hair at the back of his neck. "I'll go ask Silas to bring you both something to eat."
"He's already getting it," Jarrod told her. "And heating me some bath water."
"Mother," Nick said, "can't you get Silas to make me a steak or something? I hurt my ankle, not my stomach."
Smiling serenely, she patted his cheek and led Audra out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Nick sighed. "I'm getting broth. I know."
"I'll see if I can talk her into letting you have steak in a little while."
Nick huffed.
Jarrod sat there on the side of the bed not quite knowing what to say first. He needed to figure out how to tell his brother about the gold not being gold without making him feel too bad. And they needed to talk about, well, about almost everything. Nick was lying there thinking hard and scowling again. Well, there was nothing to do but just start.
"Sorry," they both said at the same time.
Nick gave him a puzzled little grin. "What do you have to be sorry for, Jarrod? I'm the one who pulled down half a mine."
"I'm sorry because you wouldn't have done it if I'd taken time to go with you one of the times I've been home the past couple of years."
Nick shrugged. "You couldn't help it. You had that stupid— I mean, you had school to go to. It's not like I need a nursemaid or something. Father told us both we ought to keep clear of that mine, and I guess I should have listened." That light came into his eyes, the one that had been there when he'd told Jarrod about the gold he'd found. "But I guess it was worth it anyway, because I found the gold."
"Nick, that wasn't gold."
His face fell. "What?"
"It's just iron pyrite. Father looked at it, too. I'm sorry."
Nick laughed ruefully and turned his face to the side. "I, uh, guess that makes it even worse. I ruined your exams for nothing."
Jarrod clasped his shoulder, waiting until his brother looked at him again. "Not for nothing, Nick."
"But you're going to fail the whole term because of me."
"Maybe not. Father is going to write to he dean and see what we can do. Anyway, I couldn't do anything else but come home. Not when I knew you were in trouble."
"And I'm sorry . . . " Nick's voice broke and he scowled once more. "I'm sorry I've been trying to make you what I want instead of what you want. I just wanted us to be together and make this the greatest ranch ever."
"It is great, little brother, and we both can make it greater. Together. We just have different kinds of jobs to do, but there's nothing wrong with that, is there?" Jarrod looked into the sorrow and hurt in Nick's face, not wanting to say more but knowing he had to. "And sometimes our different jobs might take us different places, but that doesn't mean we won't always be brothers and better friends with each other than anybody else."
Tears welled into the hazel eyes.
Jarrod tightened his hold on Nick's shoulder. "You know there's a war going on. I haven't gone because Father didn't think it would last this long. He didn't want me to leave school. But I'll be twenty-one before long—"
"You just turned twenty!" Nick protested, twin tears sliding out of the corners of his eyes to be lost in his dark hair.
"I'm old enough to go. I ought to go."
Nick grasped his arm, holding it hard. "If you go, I'll go, too."
"Don't be ridiculous. You're too—"
"I'm not too young!"
"You couldn't do it, Nick. You couldn't do that to Mother and Father. If something happened to you—"
Nick managed another grin. "If something happened to me, you'd come get me."
His own eyes burning, Jarrod laughed softly and slid his hand from Nick's shoulder to the back of his neck. "They'd have to lock me up to keep me from it."
Nick looked up a the ceiling, trying to steady himself and not doing a very good job of it.
"Things change, Nick," Jarrod said gently. "They always do, and you can't stop them."
"Yeah," Nick choked out, "I know."
"But some things will never change. No matter what happens or where we are, we'll still be together." Jarrod tapped his little brother's chest. "Right there."
Nick clasped his hand over Jarrod's, pressing it against his heart. "Right there."
"And while you're running this ranch, I'll be happy knowing that it'll always be here for me to come home to and that, when I do come home, you'll be here, too." Jarrod grinned a little. "Gold mine or not."
Nick mopped his face with the sleeve of his nightshirt and looked at him archly. "Now, that's a valuable piece of property, and you know half that property is yours, right?"
"Right."
"Well, how'd you like to own the whole thing?"
"A valuable property like that, Brother Nick?" Jarrod asked, pretending astonishment. "But what would I have to do?"
"I'll give you all of my half, free and clear," Nick said, lowering his voice to a dramatic whisper, "for half of your steak when it comes."
"Free and clear, eh?"
Nick nodded. "One hundred percent yours. What do you say?"
"I think, Brother Nick," Jarrod said, shaking his hand, "we have a deal."
And Nick laughed.
THE END
Author's Note: Ummm, I think this really is the end at last. I hope you liked it. Let me know what you think. Thanks, all of you reviewers, for giving me such a nice welcome to the fandom.