Chapter 5

Nick handed Dakota a glass of whiskey as his older brother sat down in his old "thinking chair." Victoria and Audra were already enjoying sherry. Heath had yet to come down from cleaning up after a long day of branding. Nick took his own glass of whiskey to the fireplace, saying, "Yeah, you should have seen this guy cutting those calves out. He was so fast at it, we could hardly keep up with the branding."

"I told you, I've been doing a lot of cutting work," Dakota said. "I guess practice made me pretty good."

"Where all did you work on your way from Rockville to Ely?"

"Oh, a few smaller spreads, and some bigger ones," Dakota said. "Mr. Carlisle had a pretty big spread, but nothing as big as this one. I have to admit, I enjoyed working with a herd this size. Made for a bit of a challenge, and I discovered a while back that I enjoy a challenge."

"You always did," Audra said. "I remember watching you in court a few times. You seem to like it best when a witness said something you didn't expect and you had to do some fast thinking."

Dakota smiled, but didn't say anything. He had no memory whatsoever of being in court. He really couldn't believe it had ever happened, and he couldn't believe he actually liked it. He tried looking at some of the legal books they still kept in the library - they were meaningless to him. And lawyering didn't seem to fit in with the person he was now. Yet, something inside him was disappointed, sorry that he couldn't remember it, sorry in some odd way that he couldn't remember how to do it. He didn't really understand why, but there it was.

"Nick, do you have plans for Dakota tomorrow?" Victoria asked.

"We need to finish the branding," Nick said. "Sure plan to have your help, Dakota."

Dakota nodded as he swallowed a sip of whiskey. "I'll be there – but you also have some fencing to fix I noticed while I was chasing one of those calves."

"Yeah, I know," Nick said. "I was planning to send a couple men out to do that tomorrow. Hopefully we won't have to be chasing down any more cattle that get out."

Heath came downstairs and into the living room, heading for the refreshment table. "Boy, howdy, it feels good to be really clean for a change." He had taken a bath and had a shave. He felt human again as he poured himself a whiskey and sat down in the chair beside Dakota's.

"Think I'll take a bath myself tomorrow," Dakota said. There was a strop in the wc. He decided he could hone his razor good tomorrow – it needed it.

There came a knock at the front door, and Silas appeared from the dining room to answer it.

"I'll bet that's Fred Madden," Victoria said, put her sherry down on the coffee table and got up. As she headed for the door to greet her guest, all of her children stood up.

Silas said, "Good evening, Sheriff," and let the sheriff in the door.

Sheriff Madden came in with his hat in his hands and a smile, but there was something reserved about him. Silas took his hat, and Victoria offered her hand. The sheriff took it, saying, "Good evening, Victoria. Thank you for inviting me over."

"You look like you've had a long day, Fred," Victoria said, and over her shoulder she said, "Nick, would you pour Fred a drink?"

"Whiskey, Fred?" Nick asked as he headed for the table.

"Yes, Nick, thank you," the sheriff said.

Heath offered the sheriff the chair he'd been in, and the sheriff sat down after the women did.

"It was a difficult day," the sheriff said, "one I need to talk to you all about. Jarrod – Dakota – I know you don't remember this, but about eight years ago, when you were just beginning your practice and you were an assistant district attorney, you prosecuted a man named Harold James."

Dakota not only didn't remember, he couldn't believe he had ever prosecuted anyone at all. "You're right, sheriff. I don't remember that." And again, he felt that odd disappointment.

"Well, trust me, you did, and you got him convicted on an assault charge. He attacked one of the saloon girls, young woman name Hattie. She's since moved out of the area. Anyway, James was convicted, but he's been pardoned by the governor, and he showed up back in town today."

"Why is that a problem?" Dakota asked.

"There's the regular worry you get when somebody like this shows up. You have to keep an eye on them at first to make sure they're not gonna cause trouble again."

"But James threatened Jarrod when he was convicted," Victoria said.

Sheriff Madden nodded.

Nick was frowning. He remembered that about James, too. "You don't think he's here to make good on that threat, do you, Fred?"

"I don't know," the sheriff said, looking at Dakota, "but you'd better watch your brother's back for a while."

"I never met this James fellow," Nick said. "None of us did. I wouldn't know who he is."

"I'm pretty good at watching my own back, Sheriff," Dakota said. "Don't worry too much about me."

"I wasn't here for any of that," Heath said. "Just how dangerous do you think this James fellow is?"

"No telling, Heath," the sheriff said. "It might have been just an idle threat back then. He might be over it by now. Or he might have nursed it. But I really didn't want to bring a cloud over this nice evening you invited me to. So far, James hasn't been a problem at all, and he's sure not gonna be this evening. I say, let's have a toast to something better – to Jarrod coming home safe after all this time. Dakota – glad to have you back."

"Here, here," Nick said as everyone raised their glasses.

Dakota smiled his thanks, but even though he didn't feel any particular danger from this James character, he knew his family felt it for him. In a way, he was touched. In another way, he wished he hadn't come here just in time to attract trouble.

That front door was still available, and if he left before James caused problems, it would be better for the Barkleys. James would either follow him and take the trouble away, or he would do nothing and the trouble would still be gone. But Dakota really didn't want to go, not like this. The Barkleys would take it as hard as they had when he disappeared after Rockville. That wasn't fair to them. If he was going to leave, he'd have to tell them – but of course, if he told them, they would try to talk him out of leaving. There was no good answer to this problem. Dakota wondered what the best bad answer was.

XXXXXX

After another fine dinner and coffee, it was time for the sheriff to leave. Everyone saw him to the door and wished him a good night, but Dakota went out toward the stable yard with him. His family let him go. They had a feeling he wanted a private word with the sheriff.

And he did. "I want to ask you about this James fellow," Dakota said. "I'm a little concerned – not so much for myself, but for the Barkleys. I really don't want them getting into the middle of anything."

"I'm with you on that, Dakota," Sheriff Madden said. "I'm gonna do everything I can to keep that from happening."

"If I left here, do you think he'd follow me?"

Sheriff Madden stopped and looked at Dakota in the faint light from the house. "Don't you go thinking you need to leave. That's a really bad idea."

"Why?" Dakota asked. "I mean, the last thing I want to bring to these people is trouble."

"Trouble was when Nick and Heath went looking for you and came up empty," the sheriff said. "This whole valley mourned for you, Jarrod, but your family was devastated. It was weeks before your mother could even bring herself to come back to town, and then it was almost too much for her, all the people crying over her because we all thought you were dead. If you leave now, you're gonna put this family through all that again. That's not what you want."

Dakota sighed. "Sheriff, I'm a stranger here. I'm not the Jarrod Barkley who was part of this family. I'm not the lawyer who disappeared on these people. I don't know them, and they don't know me, but they've been kind and welcoming, and if anything happened to any of them because of me – "

"If you leave, something will be happening to them. They'll be losing you all over again. Dakota, if you left here, you'd hurt them and you'd hurt you. If you left here now, you'd carry these people with you for the rest of your life, and you wouldn't have the luxury of not remembering they even existed this time. You keep yourself put, you watch out for yourself, you let your brothers and me watch out for you. There's no better way to handle this, short of me locking you up – which I have to admit I'd like to have done a few times, but not this time."

Dakota found himself smiling. "It's awfully hard to get used to having other people care about you when you've been the only one looking out for you for as long as you can remember. I've got an awful lot to learn about being in a family again."

"Then stick around and learn it," the sheriff said. "You always were a smart man, and that hasn't changed, I'm sure. And like I said yesterday – you need me, you come get me. We go back a long way. Friends can be as close as family."

Dakota nodded, and held his hand out. The sheriff took it. "I'll remember all of that, Sheriff."

"Fred," the sheriff said.

Dakota nodded again. "Fred."