Chapter Three

As Jim Barkley's ranch and home-which lay a mile away from where Nick and Heath and their horses were- came into sight. Nick couldn't help but smile at all the memories had of him and his family visiting his Uncle Jim. Everything from Christmas parties to summer dances that his uncle had been kind enough to host. He began telling Heath about some of the visits. However, Heath who saw the faraway look in Nick's eyes as the man talked, sighed. The home before his eyes might not be as magnificent as the home he now lived in; however, it was still a rather impressive two story home. He'd definitely never seen anything close to either home while he was growing up in Strawberry.

"A bastard like you don't deserve to live in such a fine place!"Heath could hear the words spoken by one of the ranch hands, who were still harassing him whenever they got the chance, repeating themselves in his head. The words themselves wouldn't have bothered him as he'd heard worse through the years. No, it was the fact that they happened to be the same exact words his Aunt Martha had spoke to him more than once…and she'd been talking about the small two bedroom home he and his mother shared with Hannah and his Aunt Rachel.

"Heath?" Nick again asked as he quit talking when he realized Heath wasn't really listening. It only cemented in the fact that something was bothering Heath.

"Huh?" Heath snapped out of his thoughts and, more than embarrassed at being caught not listening.

"What on earth is bothering you? You haven't been listening to a word I said!" Nick turned his head and asked.

"I heard part of what you said," Heath said defensively, and then sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "Just living with memories is all."

While he had thought about Heath's past before, Nick had never really dwelt on it. Only, now he found himself doing just that. It couldn't have been easy for Heath's mother to raise him even with the help of the woman named Hannah and the Aunt Rachel Heath had mentioned once. Nick knew, from a sparse comment here and there, how poor Heath's mother had been. He couldn't help but wonder if Heath should've said 'haunted by' instead of 'living with. Then, trying to lighten the somewhat depressed mood that had fallen upon them, Nick said, "Well, stop looking so forlorn. Uncle Jim is very friendly and wants to meet you before we go with him to look at the horse his thinking of buying. The men who work for him are the best, wish we had some of them at our place." Nick said as they crossed a short wooden bridge that connected one side of a small gulley to the other side…the side that was the south side of Jim Barkley's ranch.

A friendly uncle; how nice it would have been to have one of those while he was growing up. Heath inwardly sighed. His Uncle Matt had never hit him or yelled at him, but he'd never stood up for Heath either. When his Aunt Martha would start yelling at Heath, or slapping him, Matt would simply tell her she should be nicer to the boy and then leave the room. Heath knew it was so the man could start drinking without listening to Martha gripe. Of course, Heath's Aunt Martha didn't listen, and Matt stayed out of the room until Heath was no longer around. "I'll take your word on it." Heath said, though he couldn't help but wonder just how right, or wrong, Nick was when it came to his uncle's hired help. Heath knew from experience that what men did in front of their boss wasn't always what they did behind the man's back.

Jim, who was standing near the window in his living room, saw the two men round the bend in the road and come into view. It was all he could do to remain standing. Even from a mile away, he knew his nephew, Nick Barkley. The man had quite the persona about him and stuck out. Though, when his eyes moved to the blonde that rode alongside him, Jim felt shock waves go through him. Again, even with a mile separating them, he could tell Heath Thomson was almost the spitting image of the late Tom Barkley before he and Victoria married. A part of the first letter Jarrod had sent to Jim came back to him.

I am sure if I had not been in such denial when Nick first dragged Heath into the living room that first night he was here, I know I would have realized who his father was. He is a good man, though I dare say he's a hundred times more stubborn at times. I can only surmise it has to do a lot with having to stand his ground and prove himself more than once during his life.

Jim couldn't help but allow a small frown to appear in his eyes, even for a moment. He could very well imagine all that Heath had been through growing up. After all, society did not look upon illegitimate children with compassion, as if they were to blame for their parent's irresponsible choices and actions. His mind then turned another part of the same letter.

Heath stood with us at Sample's farm, but as a result his leg was badly injured. I won't go into all the details here, only the end result was more than tragic. In order to save our new brother's life, the doctor had no choice but to amputate the lower half of Heath's right leg. Still, do you believe; that man was back to work once he got a prosthetic leg and had worked most of one night to learn to re-walk? No, he can't wrestle a cow to the ground during branding season, or any other time for that matter. However, he roped them so others could wrestle them to the ground and brand them or he would handle the branding iron. When it comes to the rest of the work on the ranch, he can do everything but break a horse in. Actually, McColl and he thought it might be possible, but both admitted it wouldnotbe the wisest thing to attempt. That's been extremely hard on Heath. If it weren't for the horses he could tame simply by talking to them, he has an amazing talent for gentling a horse without climbing onto their back and breaking them in that way, I don't know that he would have handled watching the wrangler, or Nick break the rest of the horses in. As it is, he seems to disappear right after supper on those nights.

As Nick and Heath drew near the house, Jim once again glanced at the two new residents of his home. He then took a deep breath and headed for the front door.