Chapter 7

A week later, the Barkleys took delivery of three wild stallions, sold to them by a pair of brothers who had done business with the Barkley family for many years. As Nick signed off on the deal and his men got the stallions corralled in separate enclosures, he mentioned that he was looking forward to seeing his older brother take a crack at one of them. The two brothers who sold him the horses started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Nick asked, perfectly innocently.

"Jarrod? Break a wild stallion?" one of the brothers said and they both started laughing again. "What did he do? Fall on his head? Or did you?"

Nick shared the laugh. "Things have changed a bit around here. You'd be surprised at a lot about my brother that's changed."

"Well, here's hoping the horse is the only thing he breaks," the other brother said, and the two of them were on their way.

Nick took a walk among the three corrals, watching the horses stomp and paw, hoping they had the corrals far enough apart. Walking among them, Nick felt like they were miles apart – and he began to worry about agreeing to let Jarrod have a crack at one or more of them. Sure, life had dealt him more changes than just his name, but breaking a wild stallion? Nick just wasn't sure.

About half an hour after the sellers left, Dakota and Heath came riding along and joined their brother. "What do you think?" Nick asked as the three of them looked over a wild paint who was being especially difficult to handle. The three ranch hands trying to calm him had already traded off twice, having been knocked into the dirt on their rear ends.

"Nice," Dakota said. "When do you want to start breaking them?"

"Gonna try to gentle them a bit today and tomorrow, then see about the day after," Nick said.

Heath looked far across the field to the other two corrals. "How much time did the sellers have with them?"

"One a week, the other two more like ten days."

"That oughtta be more than enough," Dakota said. "Day after tomorrow ought to give them the time to get used to being here."

"Which one do you want to try first, Dakota?" Nick asked with a smirk that masked a little worry.

Dakota gave a smile back. "Let me have a look," he said and galloped on to the second corral.

"You really gonna let him try to break one of these animals?" Heath asked.

"He says he can do it," Nick said. "And you've seen it – he's changed. He's a lot more of a ranch hand than he used to be. Yeah, I'm worried, but I say we give him a shot."

"You're betting against him, though, aren't you?"

"Yeah, probably, just to be ornery," Nick smiled. "But I think we ought to give him a chance, let him be that ranch hand he is now. We try to change who he is too fast – we might lose him."

Heath grunted an agreement. He knew their older brother was not the man they lost a year earlier, and that he might not want to be. He'd led a different life this past year, and he seemed to like it. Push him to go back to being Jarrod Barkley, Attorney – or push him too quickly – and he might bolt. Heath knew he himself would have, if he were in Dakota's shoes.

Nick mounted up, and he and Heath caught up with Dakota at the third corral. Dakota looked out across the fields at the other two corrals and pointed to the second one, which held a horse that looked like it had a little Appaloosa in it. "I'll take that one. I break him, I keep him, right?"

"All right," Nick agreed. "But when you're cutting, you still ride that cutter you picked out, right?"

Dakota nodded. "You say I never used to break horses, huh?"

"Well, not never, but not any time in – oh, the last few years," Nick said.

Dakota nodded again. "Guess I'll have to show you what I can do now."

XXXXXXX

The next evening found Dakota on the veranda after dinner, smoking a cigar and staring at the stars. It had been a good dinner, and he found he was content, maybe for the first time since he'd come here. He remembered that every time he moved on to a new place, it took him a while to settle in, but he did settle. He was settling in with the Barkleys now.

But this place was different. Here he was settling into a family, not just a workplace. Was he settling in in that way? Did he feel like a Barkley yet? He thought about how he could answer that question for himself, and it led him to think about the bank account they wanted to put into his name – his name Jarrod Barkley. Was he ready for that? He had told Victoria "maybe in a week or two." Well, now it was the next week. Was he ready? If he was, why did it make him feel so uneasy just to think about doing it?

In a moment he came away from his thoughts and realized he wasn't alone. Victoria was behind him, and when he turned and saw her, she touched his shoulder for a bit. "We were wondering where you got to."

"Found a good cigar in the library, in the desk," Dakota said. "Didn't want to smoke it in the house."

"You may do that. You always did before."

"Did I? Well, I guess I just developed a new habit, smoking outside. I've been rolling my own cigarettes with tobacco that doesn't smell that good, so I've always taken it outside of the bunkhouses. I can't remember smoking something this nice."

"How are you doing? You haven't talked about it much, but are you feeling any more comfortable here?"

"With some things. The work, but I guess that makes sense, I'd get comfortable with that first."

"And the family?"

He smiled a little, "That's taking a little longer. I'm still trying to understand who I was, where I fit in. I'm not sure I can really be that man anymore, so where I fit in – well, I'm still struggling. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It's only been a week. And no one expects you to be the man you were before. Dakota has had different experiences than Jarrod Barkley had."

"It's not just me getting used to you, or even me getting used to the man Jarrod Barkley was. You have to get used to me, too, as I am. It's not just me deciding on you. You all have to decide on me, too."

"No, no," Victoria said quickly. "You are still basically the same man you always were – kind, decent, determined, faithful to the people who love you. Many things have changed, but those haven't."

Dakota gave a long drag on the cigar and breathed out the smoke. "I intend to break one of the stallions tomorrow. Jarrod Barkley would not do that."

"Oh, he was known to try, but no, that wasn't his way when he left here a year ago. It is your way. The thing is – the determination and the courage to approach that horse – that is you, and it was Jarrod. That's the sort of thing that is still the same."

"There's something else I need to talk to you about."

"The bank account?"

"No, not that. Not yet. I want to talk to you about this James character who is supposed to be out to get me."

Victoria hesitated, but she said, "All right."

"Were you there when he threatened me?"

"No. None of us was. It was the sheriff we had then – Sheriff Lyman – who told us."

"How did I react to it?"

Victoria sighed. "Since he was going off to prison, none of us gave it much thought at all. He wasn't the first who'd threatened you. Like the rest of us, you were beginning to get used to it. Is it bothering you now?"

"No, but I'm concerned about it bothering you. I haven't had anyone to worry about me for the past year. That's a bit lonely, but it's also a bit liberating. I've been able to deal with threats without having to worry about anyone else having to pick up the pieces."

"And how have you done it?"

"Usually, I confront the threat head on. So far, a fist fight here and there is as far as anything's gone. But I haven't backed down. I never had to care if I lost the fight or not, because there was no one depending on me. Now it's a bit different. I have this family to worry about."

Victoria nodded and touched his shoulder again. "One thing about this family you may have guessed – we don't back down from a threat either. That's how your father died – fighting a threat from the railroad. You faced another threat from the railroad with your brothers, when Heath came here. It cost you a nasty arm wound, but it gained us a brother – Heath. We don't back down, at least not easily. You be who you believe you are now when it comes to this threat from James. I can tell you, the man you say you are now is the same as the son I raised, at least when it comes to dealing with men who threaten him."

Dakota smiled and put an arm around Victoria. With a squeeze, he kissed her forehead. "I'm still not ready to be called Jarrod Barkley, and for that reason I've found it awkward to call you Mother, but I think I want to do that from now on, if it's all right. May I call you Mother?"

Victoria felt tears come, and she did not fight them. "I would like that very much."

Dakota kissed her forehead again. "Wish me luck on that stallion tomorrow."

"Oh, I do. I'm betting you'll have no trouble breaking him."

"Betting?"

"Well, there's a little wager going on in the living room this evening. Nick isn't ready to bet on you yet, but the rest of us are backing you."

"Well, if Nick is the one doubting me, I'll just have to show him good."

Victoria nodded. "You will, and it will earn each of the rest of us a dollar."

Dakota had to laugh. "I think I'd like to go back inside and get in on some of that action."