Chapter 6
"He'll be fine," Dr. Merar said as he came down the stairs after seeing Nick. "Just a mild back sprain, no broken bones. Keep him in bed with heat on it for another 48 hours. I'll be back in a couple days to have a look and see if we can get him up and around a little. In the meantime he can be doing some of those gentle stretches I gave him the last time he wrenched his back, but he should do them in bed while he's got heat on his back."
Victoria, Heath and Audra breathed easier at the bottom of the stairs, until the doctor then asked –
"Where is Jarrod?"
"He went out with the herd," Heath said, expecting Dr. Merar to be unhappy with that.
But the good doctor just echoed what Jarrod was saying the most of these days. "Hmm."
"You don't mind?" Victoria asked.
"No, the fresh air and work will probably do him good," Dr. Merar said. "Nick told me about a little adventure you boys had out at the Bigelow ranch yesterday."
"Yeah, that was a bit startling," Heath said.
"I'd be pretty pleased about it if I were you," Dr. Merar said. "He's not as distracted as we thought he was. Quite the opposite."
"He still seems a bit off in his own world sometimes," Victoria said.
Dr. Merar nodded. "It probably won't vanish overnight, but it will probably ease off, or like I said, he'll figure out how to cope with it. But for now I wouldn't let it worry me. Especially not if he's paying attention to things the rest of you aren't. Heath – since Jarrod isn't here, I think it's a good idea if you stick around and help moving Nick around if he needs it."
"All right," Heath said.
Audra said, "I'll get a hot water bottle ready," and she went off to the kitchen.
Dr. Merar headed for the door. "Nick ought to be back up to snuff in a week or so. I left some mild painkillers up there for him. He says the pain isn't worth medicating yet."
Victoria walked him to the door, saying, "Thank you, doctor."
He gave her a smile as he left. "Don't worry – about either one of them."
Victoria returned the smile, and closed the door after the doctor went out.
"Did Nick know he'd lost his lucky penny when he was hurt?" Victoria asked Heath.
"No, but you know how Nick can get," Heath said. "He probably believes more in that thing now than he did before."
"I'm glad Jarrod found it," Victoria said.
Heath noticed that Victoria still looked a bit unhappy when she thought about what was happening with her oldest. "Mother," Heath said, "I think Jarrod's all right. He might not feel like he's all here, or like he belongs here, but he sure is paying more attention to things than we are."
"Yes, he is," Victoria said. "But I wish – " She stuttered a bit. "I wish he'd believe that he did belong here. I wish he'd come back to us, and he just isn't coming back."
Heath kissed her on the forehead. "He will. As soon as he sorts it all out, he will."
XXXXXXX
Out on the range, Jarrod rode herd as if he'd been doing it all along, nudging strays back with the rest of the cattle. He noticed one in particular that was always moving off alone, looking like it was heading to make a break for freedom. Jarrod nudged it back constantly, and at about the third or fourth time, he started likening this stray to himself. The steer seemed to think he belonged somewhere else, not here with the rest of the cattle. Jarrod wondered if he ought to just let him go.
McCall came over to him around the fifth time Jarrod had herded that stray back. "Determined piece of beef, isn't he?" McCall asked.
"Hmm," Jarrod said, and then didn't say anything, until he said, almost only to himself, "I guess all God's critters do that when they don't think they're where they belong."
McCall hadn't heard how Jarrod was seeing himself these days. Nobody talked much about it. He didn't know Jarrod was seeing a bit of himself in a mangy head of beef cattle, but when Jarrod looked up toward the east, toward the mountains in the distance, he started wondering a bit. "Getting that wanderlust, Jarrod?"
"No," Jarrod said, and then said nothing.
"How long are you fixing to stay out here with us?" McCall asked.
Jarrod took a look at the sun, to figure the time. "I guess I better think about getting back to the house. Mother worries."
"Mothers do that," McCall agreed, but as soon as he got the words out, something happened.
Something farther toward the front of the herd had sent it into full stampede, and the rest of the herd was starting to follow. Without a word, McCall headed fast toward the place where the trouble started. Jarrod pulled aside for a moment, watching without getting caught in the herd. He wasn't looking for anything in particular – he was only seeing the cattle and the men running fast, farther ahead, away from him. For some reason he still held back – and then he realized why.
Riders were coming from the rear, racing up toward the other side of the herd and beginning to cut cattle out and turning them off, away from the rest of the herd. Rustlers! Jarrod couldn't believe it, but these riders were stealing cattle! With most of the Barkley men up ahead, trying to control the herd, these strangers were stealing what they could pick off from the rear. And they had a good 20 head picked off already.
The closest Barkley men were pulling away. Without thinking, without planning, Jarrod cut across between the rear of the herd and the 20 head the rustlers had picked off and turned back. As fast as he could, he put himself between the rustlers and the steers they were trying to take away. Unarmed, there wasn't a thing he could do if the rustlers started firing at him, but he didn't even think about that. He just headed off the cattle the men were stealing and turned them back toward the main herd as best he could.
There were at least six riders, and while most of them turned and took off as soon as they realized they'd been spotted, two of them turned on Jarrod and fired at him. McCall heard the fire, whipped around, and saw the strangers Jarrod was after.
Without thinking anything at all, Jarrod charged the riders, not even paying attention to bullets coming at him. In an instant, McCall was right behind him, charging with him. And the strangers took off, riding hard back the way they came.
Jarrod turned his attention to the baffled cattle, moving in all kinds of directions. He got about half of them turned and headed toward the main herd before he saw another Barkley man join him and McCall to round up the other half. Jarrod moved his bunch back toward the main herd, now settling down nearly half a mile ahead of where they were to begin with.
McCall and the other man were not far behind with the rest of the nearly stolen cattle. McCall rode up to Jarrod, saying, "I don't believe it! Rustlers!"
"Yeah," Jarrod said.
"Thank heaven you saw them," McCall said. "They could have made off with a lot more than this little bunch."
"Mac," Jarrod said and pointed. "You're hit."
It took McCall a moment to understand and look. There was blood running down his right leg from a wound in his thigh. A lot of blood.
Jarrod dismounted, reached up and pulled McCall out of the saddle. He and the other man got McCall onto the ground and quickly made a tourniquet out of their bandanas. "You stay still," Jarrod said. "This isn't just a little graze."
"Damnation," McCall muttered, and then he got weak and dizzy.
Jarrod remembered – Heath had taken Nick back to the house in the buckboard. "Go to the house and get the buckboard back here," he said to the other man. "Fast."
The man took off. Other men began to quiet the herd down and come back their way.
"You knew they were coming," McCall whispered, getting weaker.
Jarrod nodded.
"How did you know?"
"I don't know," Jarrod said. "Heard them maybe." He looked at the first man arriving and dismounting. "Go to town and get the doctor to the house!"
"He's probably already there with Nick," the man said.
Jarrod shook his head. "Go get him."
The man shrugged, remounted and took off.
Jarrod looked at McCall and took hold of his hand. "You're gonna be all right."
McCall nodded, but then passed out.