I do NOT own The Big Valley or any of the original Barkley characters. Thanks to my Beta Reader, though all mistakes are my own.

Blindsided

Chapter Nineteen (Previously titled Accident...should have been 'Trouble')

The wind was starting to blow gently when Brigham went out to the barn and started saddling his horse; they were back at 'their' house. When he heard Audra walk in, he turned around and smiled, even in a simple blue gingham dress she looked good. One look at his face and he knew she was still very uncomfortable with the idea of him searching the area alone. He said nothing, though, as he led his horse out of the barn.

"I'll be fine." He dropped the reins to his horse and took a hold of Audra by the shoulders. "I have to find out where those guns are, and then figure out how to get them."

"The guns are hidden near Strawberry," Peter was babbling on as he began waving the bottle of whiskey around that Brigham had given him free of charge, "They're being guarded by men…" The man had rambled on, giving out coded sentences they, Alan, the other man and himself, would need to get the guns. "But they've been told there are three men coming, but Alan turned against us. He was supposed to die, not just get hurt bad enough to get a doctor!" The long confession had put two men behind bars, but the guns were still waiting.

"By yourself?" Audra's voice rose just a little. "This man you call Peter may have given you the coded sentences, but he didn't hand you two trustworthy partners!" She was scared to death for Brigham and, if she was to be honest, for herself. Oh, she wasn't worried about her physical safety, but she did fear the loss of the man who had turned out to be the best thing to happen to her.

Brigham ran his fingers down the side of her cheeks and smiled. "I'm only going to try to locate the guns, not retrieve them yet. I'll be fine, but when this is over," his tilted her head backwards and smile down upon her, "you think you can talk those brothers into only beating me up part way?"

Audra slid her arms up his back and chuckled. "I'll see what I can do." She held on tight as Brigham kissed her with more passion than he'd ever allowed himself to do before. She rewarded him by returning the favor.

Finally, Brigham forced himself to let go. He had to; he was getting too close to the edge. Besides, he had to start searching the area. Maybe, just maybe, by the time he located the guns he'd have figured out a way to get those two partners. "My life is not an easy one, Audra, as you know. For your sake, I could give up the bounty hunting easy enough, along with jobs that take me from one end of the country to the Mississippi River; however," he stressed the word however, "as dangerous as it may be, I can't give up private investigating for anyone. Could you really accept that?" He lifted his fingers to her slightly opened mouth. "I don't want an answer right now, but I do want you thinking long and hard about it. If you can't, I will never hold you again like this, unless we have someone near by. I wouldn't be able to, for both our sakes. After all, I'm only human; I'm only a man."

"All , right," Audra said as they both let go of each other, "I'll think on it, but you still need to be careful. You're not allowed to die on me."

Brigham let out a laugh that carried through the air and could be heard for miles. "Do me a favor," he replied, looking and pointing upwards, "Tell HIM that." That only earned him a 'yeah, right' look from Audra. He continued chuckling as he rode off.

Audra stood watching until Brigham disappeared out of sight. "…talk those brothers into only beating me up part way." The words rang again in her ears. What would her family say when they found out where she'd been this whole time? Would she be able to get them to see that, like Brigham just said, he was only a man, and men make mistakes? At least he had, and was, doing all he could to both protect her and to keep her reputation intact. Would they be able to see that and forgive and accept him?

With the wind blowing gently though the air, Audra headed back towards the house with her mind on her family. Different scenarios ran themselves through her mind, everything from the best to the worst. Finally, she told herself she was fretting over something that hadn't even happened yet. With that reminder, Audra went to work on binding the small baby quilt Mrs. Miller and she had started; another child would soon be joining Mrs. Miller's sister's family and the child would need something of its own. Though, Audra wondered how many times she'd be poking herself before she was through!

By the time Audra finished the blanket a couple of hours later, Heath and Nick were making their way to Strawberry. They had, for Heath's sake, taken a route through the wooded area he had always loved to roam in.

"It's almost noon, why don't we stop and eat some lunch?" He didn't know about Nick but he was hungry. As Nick started to answer, he saw two gentlemen lying on the ground. Both he and Heath flew off their horses and over to the man. Kneeling down, Nick turned the man that was still breathing over, the other one was dead.

"How is he?" Heath asked as he ran up behind Nick.

"Alive. He's been roughed up a bit. Has some pretty good bruises," Nick said as he could see through the man's ripped shirt, "From the looks of things I'd say these two were fighting, but why? I wonder…" Nick was stopped as the man's eyes opened and he tried to move.

"Hold on, partner," Nick said as he held the man down, "we got to get you fixed up. Who are you? Did your horse throw you?"

Heath looked the man over to see if he and Nick had missed any injuries; however, both he and Nick froze for a moment as the man again struggled to get up and shocked them by muttering, "Found hiding place. He...tried to kill me. Brigham. Name's Brigham McCallister. Got to get home, got to get back to Audra…" Brigham passed out before he could say another word.