Chapter Eighteen

Previously: "I think we best head to the church and catch Adam Pierce if we can." Heath spoke up.

"Yes," Jeremiah didn't ask why Heath brought Adam Pierce up. "With Sanders in town, it changes everything." He turned and hurried down the alley and then turned to his left. Nick and Heath wasted no time when it came to following Jeremiah.

"This mission is over if that man sees me. I'll have to stay out of sight, which means I won't be of much help." A person could have heard a pin drop on the floor as Jeremiah, who was standing next to the pulpit and keeping an eye out for any sign of someone walking by any of the windows or any sign the front door opening, finished speaking. He, Nick, Heath and Adam Pierce-who had still been talking with the good reverend when the three men entered the building, had been discussing the unexpected development.

Adam, who had actually had a hidden concern, looked at Jeremiah and had one fact hit him right between the eyes-a fact that would keep this gentleman out in the open without tipping off Mr. Sanders. He was elated as it would eliminate his secret worry. "Sanders name was mentioned in one of the meetings I was in before I came out here, and how the government expected him of turning bad. However," he hurried to add-due to fire which appeared in Jeremiah's eyes, "we had no idea he'd actually be out here. Anyway, one of our superiors mentioned something you once told him when it came to Sanders' ability to recognize people-that is after an undercover job you did a few years after the war. What did you say when it came to his ability to recognize a face he hadn't seen in years. That is, what did you say his exact words were the first time you saw him?" Adam kept his face towards Jeremiah.

Puzzlement filled Jeremiah's eyes for only a split second, and then a real struggle appeared in his eyes. It made Nick and Heath wonder what difference his first meeting with this Neils Sanders made. They didn't have to wait long-as Jeremiah turned away from Adam and, leaning against the side of the pulpit, said in a somewhat disgusted tone, " 'I don't ever forget a face…as long as it doesn't change.' He laughed afterwards and then grew serious with the group of men they were with. He told us in no uncertain terms that the ones who were clean shaven were stay that way-and the ones who had facial hair were forbidden to shave." Jeremiah turned around and looked straight at Mr. Pierce. "You want me to shave my beard and cut my hair….cut it as short as I had it during the war."

Adam nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "Look, if you get rid of that extra hair and play the part of a mute, Sanders won't recognize you. That is, if he should cross paths with the three of you. We have to have you out there! After all, you can still write. You can get these two," Adam said as he pointed towards Nick and Heath, "to ask any questions you have."

Jeremiah glanced at Nick and Heath. He couldn't help but think that the two gentlemen would put two and two together once they saw him clean shaven. He then found himself thinking about Matthew Shaw as well. The man had a full sized beard and mustache by the time Jeremiah reached eight years old-one of a few reasons he was sure that endeared him to facial hair. That thought made him realize that, as upset as he was over his adoptive father's choice to flee California rather than give him back and face the possibility of his wife having slip back into a depressed state, the man was still the only father he'd ever known…and Jeremiah still loved him as such.

He rubbed his beard as he weighed everything out in his mind. As he did so, he inwardly sighed. Adam was right…staying hidden wasn't going to help any of them. "Go back to walking around town." He spoke to Adam and then turned to Nick and Heath. "Either one of you ever cut hair before?"

Before either one could reply, the front door began opening-causing Jeremiah to dash into side room. However, it was simply the reverend returning from an errand he'd run after Nick, Heath and Jeremiah had arrived at the church. Due to a comment the good man had made to Adam when the two first started talking, Adam spoke up. "My friend here needs his hair cut and his facial hair removed. Do you have the time to play barber again?"

The short, heavy set and balding reverend smiled from ear to ear. "Sure, be happy too. However, we'll have to go into the classroom." He pointed to the room Jeremiah had just exited. "I won't do it in our chapel. And, we'll have to hurry and get it done. I need to catch the stagecoach in an hour."

Jeremiah followed the reverend into the classroom; Adam left the building after securing a promise from Jeremiah that he wouldn't speak a word once his hair was cut while Nick and Heath sat on front pew. Once the reverend shut the door, Heath spoke up and startled Nick when he said, "Wonder what relation he is to the family." He would have come right out and said he wondered if Jeremiah was their long lost brother, but he figured Nick would yell and hit the roof if he did that.

"I don't know." Nick replied as he stood up and started pacing the floor. "Been wondering that one myself for a while now," He went on to point out what he'd noticed when it came to the way Jeremiah sat in the saddle. "My father, uncles and some of our cousins look the same way when they ride. Walks like a Barkley too," The more Nick talked, the faster he walked. It took Heath pointing out that, if Nick didn't stop, the sound of his spurs might just bring the reverend and Jeremiah running.

"I don't know why the fact that he might very well be related to us is making me feel so uneasy and uptight." Nick forced himself to sit back down.

"You never deal with change very well." Heath rubbed his chin and winked at him.

Nick couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered his automatic reaction the day his mother and Heath walked through the front door and she'd informed him, Audra and Gene as to who she had brought home. "I think Mother was ready to skin me alive when I went after you, asking how you'd managed to con her."

Heath chuckled as well as the two couldn't help but swap a few stories of Heath's early days on the ranch. However, about the time Heath thought he would cautiously bring up the possibility of a brotherly relationship the classroom door opened, and Jeremiah stepped out of the room.

One look at Jeremiah's short hair and clean shaven face and Nick could see his mother's side of the family in him as clear as day. 'You walk like a Barkley, ride like a Barkley, but you look like my mother's side of the family' Nick thought. He glanced at Heath who was looking at him as if to say 'Are you now thinking what I'm thinking?' "No way!' Nick yelled silently to himself. "It can't be!"

For Jeremiah's part, he saw the reaction in Nick and Heath's eyes. He could hear his wife's comments about his characteristics and some private conversations they'd had about his looks-before he'd grown the extra hair. However, due to their current situation, he hoped the two men would put any questions they might want to ask him on the backburner. After all, he'd given his word to Adam and had no intention of breaking it. He was now mute.