Chapter 3

It was going on six o'clock when Nick came in from the range. Jarrod had arrived home on a few minutes earlier and was taking his saddlebags off his horse before the stable hand took Jingo in to be brushed and settled for the night. Nick dismounted nearby.

"So you made it home for dinner," Nick said to his older brother.

"Yeah, finished up all right," Jarrod said. "Didn't take a lunch break, so things went pretty fast."

"Did you remember your cases once you looked at them?"

Jarrod shook his head. "Not a one."

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it. You probably hadn't worked that much on them before you left. Never had the chance to get anything to remember."

"Possibly," Jarrod said. "Anyway, I'm not worried about it. I've just been working on them like they were new. I'll have another look tomorrow. It won't get embarrassing until the client comes in and I can't remember him."

"Just let it go for now. I take it the mysterious Melanie is here?"

"I don't know. I suspect she is, since the buggy is here."

"Let's go find out."

Nick gave his brother a slap on the back, and they went into the house together.

Victoria, Heath and Audra were in the living room with Melanie. Nick smiled a big smile – he liked what he saw. Her dark hair and eyes appealed to him, and as he came closer, he caught the scent she wore, the same as the scent on the letter. He reached for her hand. "Hello. I'm Nick Barkley, the brother Heath has told you nothing about."

Everyone chuckled as Nick kissed her hand. "Well, you did come up as the topic of conversation now and then," Melanie said. "I'm delighted to meet you."

Jarrod came over and took her hand next. He remembered her instantly, but as he took her hand, now absent the glove, something about it stirred some memory in him that he didn't like. He couldn't remember what and he didn't know why, and it would have been rude to start examining her hand like a doctor looking for a break. He was left wondering to himself what was bothering him. "It's good to see you again, Melanie. I hope you had an easy trip from Carson City."

"A little bumpy here and there, but otherwise just fine," Melanie said. "And it's good to see you again, too, Jarrod."

"Melanie was just telling us about her time in San Francisco," Audra said.

"I live there part time. How did you like it?" Jarrod asked.

"I remember that you lived there," Melanie said. "I enjoyed it very much – the art and the theatre were wonderful."

Jarrod tried a little prying. "Were you visiting friends there?"

"Acquaintances of my parents," Melanie said, "but that was just for propriety's sake. I'm afraid I tended to wander about on my own a lot."

"Not the safest thing for a young lady to do."

"No, but my parents' acquaintances are quite a bit older and don't get out as much as I would like, and they introduced me to a nice young man who escorted me two or three times."

That was the end of Jarrod's prying for the time being. The rest of the evening was spent in casual conversation, good food, and Nick trying to best Heath for Melanie's attentions. After dinner, when Heath invited Melanie to take a walk outside, it looked like Nick was coming out the loser.

"She's too young for you anyway," Jarrod said quietly to his brother as they watched Heath and Melanie stroll away from the library door into the yard.

"Maybe, but she is an eye-catcher, isn't she?" Nick replied without taking his eyes off her.

"Hmm," Jarrod replied. "I wish I remembered her better."

Nick looked at him. "You don't remember everything?"

"No," Jarrod said. "Something's eluding me, and it's bothering me. Something I don't like."

Nick smiled. "You're probably just jealous that you're not ten years younger."

Jarrod gave another, "Hmm," and watched Heath and Melanie disappear in the darkness.

Nick looked back at them, too. "It'll come back to you," Nick said. "Probably after she's left, when it's of no use to you anymore."

"That is the way things seem to work, isn't it?" Jarrod said, and he and Nick closed the library door and came back into the suspicious stares of their mother and sister.

"She'll only be here for a couple more days," Victoria said. "I think you two can hide your jealousy for that long, don't you?"

Nick and Jarrod looked at each other in surprise.

"Me?" Jarrod said.

"Jealous?" Nick said.

"Of course not," Victoria said sarcastically.

XXXXXXXX

As they walked together in the soft light coming from the house, Heath and Melanie carried on casual conversation about her trip.

"I suppose I liked San Francisco the best," she was saying, "but I am sorry I spent so much time in the cities and so little seeing the countryside. It's so different from back east."

"I haven't seen much of the land east of the Mississippi," Heath said. "I hear there's lots of woods and greenery."

"Oh, yes, and mountains, but they're different than the mountains out here. Here they're so high, so barren – nothing but rock, but so beautiful. And there's nothing like the desert I saw from the train in Nevada – so flat and so empty of anything at all."

"Well, why don't I take you riding around the ranch tomorrow and the next day, give you a good view of our valley here. It's rich and green, like it is back east, but maybe bigger than you've seen before."

"I'd like that," Melanie said. "You know, I'm sorry that you and I won't have more time to get to know one another. You're the reason I came back here before I go home."

Heath smiled a little. "That's nice to hear."

"Fleeting romances have their own appeal," Melanie said. "I know we won't be seeing each other again after I leave, but it's not that important. I just wanted to enjoy some more time with you before I went home."

"Is there a young man waiting for you in Baltimore?"

"No, but there are two parents who have definite ideas about potential husbands waiting for me in Baltimore." She chuckled. "I think I came out here just to sow some of my wild oats before I have to settle down like a proper young girl of my social class."

Melanie stopped and looked up at Heath in the soft light. She was inviting him to kiss her. He wasn't sure it was a good idea, but then he bent and did kiss her softly. "That wasn't your first kiss," Heath said.

She laughed. "No, but it was definitely one of the best."

XXXXXXX

It was over an hour before they came back into the house. Victoria and Audra were reading in the living room. Jarrod was nowhere to be seen, and Nick was also missing.

"Did you enjoy your walk?" Victoria asked.

"Very much," Melanie said and she and Heath came into the living room. "Where are Nick and Jarrod?"

"Jarrod's working in the library, and Nick is fixing himself something to eat before we retire."

"Nick's a big eater," Heath said. "Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm fine," Melanie said, "but it's been a long day. I think I would like to retire now myself."

Audra put her book aside and popped up. "I'll show you to your room."

And the girl talk took off again as Audra led Melanie up to the guest wing of the house. Heath laughed, and Victoria smiled.

"She's quite a girl," Victoria asked.

"Yes, she is," Heath said as he watched Audra and Melanie disappear.

"Are you sorry she'll be leaving?"

Heath turned his attention back to his mother, and sat down beside her on the settee. "In a way. I'm enjoying her company, but I don't think she's come out here to find a beau. I think she's come out here to avoid one."

"Oh?"

"Matchmaking parents in Baltimore."

"Oh. "

"She's a free spirit," Heath said. "I think she'd rather spend a few more years just wandering like a butterfly, lighting down here and there for a moment, then flying away again."

"And that does hold a certain appeal, doesn't it?"

Heath laughed. "More like a challenge. Not one I want to take on, though. I'll just enjoy remembering the butterfly."