Chapter 6

The next day found Dakota concentrating on his work rather than on his concerns with Harold James, and the branding was finished by early afternoon. After a quick lunch at the chuck wagon, the Barkley brothers headed home to see whether some of their hands had brought a sizable feed order in from town. The men were stacking sacks of grain in one of the barns when the Barkleys got there.

A hand named March was overseeing the operation, which was just about finished when the Barkleys arrived. "Any problems?" Nick asked.

"No, not with the feed," March said. "Had a bit of a run-in with a fellow named James, though."

Dakota sat up straight in the saddle at the sound of the name.

"What kind of run-in?" Nick asked.

March nodded toward Dakota. "Man wanted to know where Jarrod – Dakota – was. We told him Dakota was working elsewhere, if it was any of his business. When he started sounding threatening, we told him to keep his bad feelings to himself, or he'd regret it. And we got into a bit of a shuffle in front of the feed store. Sheriff had to break it up."

"I appreciate your looking out for me, but you didn't need to," Dakota said. "Don't get yourselves arrested on my account."

"No problem, Dakota," March said with a smile. "It wasn't really on your account we got into it. We just wanted to."

"Still, be careful about it," Nick said. "We don't know what to make of this James fellow yet. Don't want anybody getting shot, either."

"Okay, boss," March said. "We'll be done stacking this feed in a few minutes. You want us out with the herd?"

"Get yourself some food and rest and then head out for night herd," Nick said. "You can all have tomorrow night off in town, if you swear to steer clear of James."

"Happy to," March said.

The Barkley men went on to the stable and let Ciego have their horses before they went into the house. Victoria was arranging flowers on the piano when they came in. "Oh, good, you're early," she said and came toward them. "Who wants to volunteer to help me weed the flower garden?"

"I'll do that," Heath said, "as long as the two of you get a bath and clean clothes. You smell bad."

Dakota and Nick just looked at each other. "Must be you," Nick said. "I smell like a rose."

"You smell like a cow," Victoria said.

"Audra's not in the tub, is she?" Nick asked as he and Dakota headed up the stairs.

"She's gone to the orphanage but should be back in an hour or so," Victoria said.

The Barkley men looked startled. "You let her go alone?" Nick asked.

Victoria said, "Silas went with her, and they promised to check in with the sheriff as soon as they got there. Silas is fixing a special lunch for the children – it's Sister Thomas's birthday today."

Satisfied, Nick and Dakota headed upstairs while Victoria and Heath headed out the back for the garden. "Orphans?" Dakota asked as he climbed the stairs with Nick.

"Audra's helped out at the orphanage since we had a bad influenza epidemic a few years ago," Nick explained. "We lost a few local parents and their children needed help. Audra started and she's just kept at it. She says it was because she was too young to help out with the children orphaned during the war, when you and I were back east in the army, so she's doing it now."

The war. Dakota had heard others talk about it, but until now he hadn't realized he'd gone to serve himself. But now, some of the scars he carried – that he didn't know how he got - actually made sense.

Nick could tell Dakota didn't remember any of that. "I'll tell you about it later, if the ladies aren't around. They don't like hearing us tell war stories."

"Do we have that many?" Dakota asked.

"Plenty," Nick said, "but we just don't talk about it much around here. Mother didn't really want either of us to go, but we both got stubborn. You went in '61 and stayed for the duration. I went in '64 and '65. It wasn't a happy time for the family."

"For anybody's family, I'd guess," Dakota said.

"You'd guess right."

XXXXXX

Dakota hadn't been able to soak in a nice hot tub ever before, to his memory anyway. He discovered he liked it. The hot water made his muscles relax nicely, and the moisture softened up his beard so that a shave afterward really felt smooth. Nick gave him first crack at the tub, so that Nick was soaking when Dakota dressed and came downstairs.

Victoria and Audra were there at the piano when he came down. Heath was nowhere to be seen, but Dakota figured he might be cleaning up in his room. Dakota stopped at the bottom of the stairs, listening to Victoria and Audra playing and singing some song he'd never heard before – at least to his knowledge. He wandered over behind them and looked at the sheet music they were playing and singing to. Stephen Foster. Dakota knew the name – somebody in a bar somewhere was playing his music on the piano and Dakota asked.

"Care to sing with us, Dakota?" Audra asked.

"I can't sing," he said with a chuckle. "Unless I'm very drunk."

"How do you know until you try?" Victoria asked.

"Oh, I know," he said. "I learned that on a bet in a saloon near Reno. The more sober members of the crowd cost me twenty dollars when I sang sober, but I won it back when I sang after having a few drinks."

Victoria and Audra laughed.

Victoria got up, but Audra kept playing. Dakota felt his mother take his arm, and he even put his arm around her. That surprised her but pleased her no end. "How did your day go?" she asked.

"Not bad," he said. "Found out a few of the hands got into a fight in town with this James character. I told them I didn't want them to get arrested on my account, so that little problem should be cleared up."

They sat down together on the settee. "I hope you're not worried about James."

"No, I'm not," he said. "Just don't you be."

"This isn't the first defendant who's threatened you. I never like it, but after the third one, I quit worrying very much."

Dakota's eyebrows went up. "How many have there been?"

"When you were first beginning with the District Attorney, it seemed like every defendant who was convicted in one of your cases was threatening you. Trying to unnerve you, I suppose, but you've never been a man to be unnerved."

"I'll be cautious anyway," Dakota said. "I have no desire to meet my maker now that I've met my family."

"Have you given any more thought to accepting the money in the bank we set aside for you?" Victoria asked.

"I – still don't think I'm ready for that," Dakota said, to Victoria's disappointment. "Don't think I don't appreciate it. It's just I'm not ready. Maybe in a week or two."

"All right," Victoria said and patted his hand. "I'll leave you alone about it until then."

Dakota listened to the waltz Audra was playing, and then his face screwed up and he asked Victoria, "Do I dance?"

Victoria laughed. "You're a very good dancer."

Dakota stood up, taking her hand. "I might need a little refresher lesson."

"Well, let me be your teacher."

Together they waltzed around the living room. Dakota smiled and didn't step on Victoria's toes at all. When Audra heard them, she looked over her shoulder and saw them smiling at each other. She grinned from ear to ear and played on and on.