Chapter 3

It was past ten o'clock when Jarrod came wandering in, looking beat and like all he wanted was a shot of scotch and his bed, but his brothers were in the living room waiting for him. They stood up and came toward him, looking pretty serious.

"What's going on?" Jarrod asked. "Has something happened?"

"No, no," Nick said. "We just need to talk, the three of us."

"Can't it wait until morning?" Jarrod asked.

"No, not with your deposition tomorrow," Nick said. "Come on."

Heath and Jarrod exchanged shrugs as Nick led the way into the library. They both knew Nick had something to say about the breakfast discussion concerning the Lees, but they had no idea what. As soon as they were in the library, Nick closed the doors and Jarrod headed for the scotch. He poured himself a hefty shot and downed it pretty fast, but did not pour another.

"Is this about the Lees?" Jarrod asked.

Heath sat down on the sofa, but his older brothers stayed standing. He felt like he was going to be more of a spectator here, just listening and taking things in while Nick and Jarrod talked and he asked maybe one or two questions.

"Yeah, it is," Nick said, and he started in on the story.

Heath found himself becoming more alarmed as Nick talked, and Jarrod began to look downright angry. Neither one of them interrupted Nick, and when he was finished, neither one of them spoke for a long moment.

Then, Jarrod said, almost growling, "Why didn't anyone tell me about this before now?"

Nick said, "When it happened, you were in Washington recovering from that wound you got at Antietam. We didn't know for sure how you were or even if you were gonna live, so we didn't bother you with it. By the time we found out you were out of the woods, everything here was starting to blow over, and then I joined the army and was gone, and when we got back from the war you went off to study law. It was years after it happened that you came back around here. Audra had forgotten about it. We just let it pass."

"That's a pretty damned important thing to let pass," Jarrod said.

"Maybe, but how do you just bring something like this up, with the Lees gone and everything?" Nick defended the decision. "There was no reason to tell you about it until now. So now, I'm telling you."

Jarrod turned away. Nick could tell he was still angry, and he had half a mind to bring up some of the secrets Jarrod had kept from the family over the years, but Heath interrupted.

"How's Audra now, after Jarrod bringing the Lees up at breakfast?" Heath asked.

"She was only five, Heath," Nick said. "She lost all memory of it by the time we came home from the war. She wasn't any different today than any other day. Her only memory of the Lees is playing with Martha. Her memories are happy ones. There's no reason to change that."

Jarrod finally let a breath out and relaxed his shoulders, putting down the empty shot glass. "Well, I'm glad you told me. I don't expect it to come up at the deposition, but I don't know."

"You're the one gonna be asking the questions," Nick said. "It won't come up unless you bring it up, will it?"

"Phil Archer can ask questions, too, if he thinks he needs to get something on the record," Jarrod said. "And I don't know where Lee's answers to my questions are going to take things. At least now I won't be blindsided if he does bring it up."

"Can we do anything to help you on this, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

Jarrod shook his head. "With any luck, Lee will be out of town by the day after tomorrow, we'll settle this property line dispute and the whole thing will be over before things get out of hand. I think the best thing you can do is keep Audra occupied, and help her if any of this starts to come back to her."

"Mother is more worried than anybody about this," Nick said.

"So she should be," Jarrod said. "I'll talk to her after the deposition, try to put her mind at ease no matter what comes up."

"Look, Jarrod, I'm sorry we didn't talk about this years ago," Nick said. "Audra had forgotten, and the rest of us were letting it go, too. We never dreamed this was gonna come back up again."

Jarrod just nodded. "I'm not sure our demons are ever really exorcised, Nick. What we have to deal with now is whatever comes up tomorrow, or whatever David Lee decides to do while he's in town."

"I think you better do anything you can do to keep him from dragging this up again, Jarrod," Heath said. "If Audra hears about it now and not from us, it could be really hard on her."

Jarrod nodded again. "I know, Heath, and I'll do everything I can do to keep Lee from causing problems, but if he does, it's gonna be up to you two and Mother to keep Audra occupied or help her deal with it. She's likely to start seeing me as one of the bad guys if it comes up as part of this case I'm working on. She won't want my help."

"We'll look after her, Jarrod," Heath said.

Nick and Jarrod both looked at Heath and knew right away that he would do whatever it took to protect Audra. Since joining the family, Heath had built a strong rapport with Audra, who was closer to him in age than she was to Nick and Jarrod. They truly loved each other, almost as if they had been raised together.

"Thanks, Heath," Jarrod said. "I'm gonna head for bed, though I don't know how much sleep I'm gonna get. I've got to mull this over before I get to the deposition."

Jarrod went out, looking more exhausted with every step. If he didn't get any sleep, he was going to be a wet rag by morning. Nick felt pretty guilty about bringing the past up now.

Heath knew it. "Don't go kicking yourself, Nick. You had to tell him and you had to tell him tonight. If Lee was to hit him out of the blue with this during the deposition tomorrow, we'd be picking your teeth up out of the dirt for the next three weeks."

Nick sighed. "If Audra starts to remember, she just might be putting my teeth into the dirt."

Heath put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We'll look out for her. She'll be all right."

Nick muttered, "Yeah," and hoped Heath was right.

XXXXXXX

"Jarrod, will you be able to have lunch with me today if I come into town?" Audra asked at the breakfast table.

This time, all eyes came up, looked at her, and at each other.

Jarrod raised up a bloodshot gaze. "I don't think so, Honey. Once these things get started they tend to ramble on, sometimes all day."

"Oh, that's too bad," Audra said. "I was hoping to find out something about Martha, maybe see if she came to town with Mr. Lee."

"No, she didn't come with him," Jarrod said. "I saw him yesterday, and he was alone."

"It's best you leave Jarrod to his deposition today, Audra," Victoria said. "I need your help around here anyway. We have rugs to clean, and Silas can't do it all by himself."

Audra heaved a sigh that brought a smile to everyone. "I hate rug cleaning."

Nick said, "Well, somebody's got to do it, and it ain't gonna be me."

"If you tried to clean rugs, they'd end up in worse shape than they started out," Heath teased.

"Heath's right," Victoria said. "I don't want my rugs smelling like cattle. Audra and I will help Silas with that chore."

"All right," Audra said, "but do ask Mr. Lee about Martha if you get the chance, Jarrod, please?"

Jarrod nodded. "I'll see what I can do, but sometimes these depositions get pretty intense. At the end of them, everybody seems to hate everybody else, so don't go getting your hopes up."

Now Victoria looked alarmed.

Jarrod tried a joke. "Don't worry, Mother. None of us will be armed."

"Try to stay at least a little civil anyway," Victoria said.

Jarrod smiled and nodded. He understood how concerned she was, even though the two of them had not talked. Jarrod finished his breakfast and put his napkin on his plate. "I will stay civil, but now I need to be going. I have a couple more things to do before this deposition."

As Jarrod came to her and kissed her cheek, Victoria asked, "Do you think you'll be home for dinner?"

"I don't know," Jarrod said. "It just depends on how long things go today."

"Let me know when you come in, all right?"

"I'll do that," Jarrod said and then headed out the door. When he fetched his hat from the pegs in the hall, he remembered specifically to leave his gun and holster behind. Then, taking a deep breath, he went out the front door and headed for a day in which he had absolutely no idea what was going to happen.