***Chapter One***
He carried his boots in his hand and went down the backstairs. He would snatch some of last night's corn muffins to eat on the way to the branding pens. No matter how much was eaten at dinner, Silas always had leftovers in the kitchen. A few corn muffins and some campfire coffee would hold him until lunch. There had been times in his life when he would have considered them a feast. As he reached the final steps, the smell of fresh brewed coffee reached his nose. He had thought he would beat even Silas in rising, but apparently Silas was stirring unusually early too. He stepped into the softly lit kitchen and looked around for the servant who had become one of his first friends on the ranch. Heath did not see the man he expected, but the room was not empty. There stood the very person he had arisen so early to avoid.
Heath had become uneasy at Victoria Barkley's first announcement that her cousin was coming for a visit. Heath had not met any of Victoria's family and could not help but worry about the reaction of her family member to the illegitimate son of her husband. Over the past year since his arrival, Victoria and her children had made Heath a part of the family. Victoria considered Heath her son, and Heath had begun calling her mother, but a relative of Victoria, not Thomas Barkley, would surely take issue with that.
Cousin Vanessa had arrived yesterday, and Heath had met the woman at dinner. The only family resemblance to Victoria that Heath had managed to find was the color of Vanessa's eyes and the elegance of her carriage. Heath had managed to seat himself as far from Cousin Vanessa as possible and say little. Of course, with Audra, Nick, and Jarrod chatting away, as well as Victoria, one less voice had hardly been noticeable. After dinner, Heath had managed to excuse himself to go to the barn and later quietly slipped up to his room.
"Have a seat, Heath," Cousin Vanessa directed. "The coffee's ready."
Heath looked toward the kitchen's large pine table and saw that two places had been laid. "Yes, ma'am," he replied automatically.
"How do you like your eggs?" Cousin Vanessa stood with her hand paused holding an egg over the frying pan.
"Don't trouble yourself, ma'am," Heath replied. "I'll just have some coffee and be on my way."
"I may not be the cook Silas is, young man, but I can fry eggs."
"I didn't mean… I apologize, ma'am," Heath stuttered.
Cousin Vanessa smiled, "Apology accepted only if you sit down and have breakfast. Now, how do you like your eggs?"
"Over easy," Heath replied settling uneasily into a chair and pouring himself a cup of coffee. Cousin Vanessa broke three eggs into the pan.
"Silas is up, but he's tending to some things outside." Heath watched the woman at the stove turn to face him before she continued, "I shall be direct, Heath. Silas understands I wish to speak to you privately."
Well, here it is. Heath sipped his coffee as he watched the woman finish frying the eggs. Then she walked over and placed a plate in front of him. Three eggs and a large slab of fried ham lay invitingly upon it, but Heath had lost his appetite. He watched Cousin Vanessa take the seat opposite him and pour herself a cup of coffee.
"Eat it before it gets cold," Vanessa instructed.
"You're not eating," Heath replied.
"I won't be putting in a full day of work branding cattle," Vanessa smiled, "and I'll have something with Victoria later. Now eat!"
Heath obediently took a forkful of eggs and placed them in his mouth.
Cousin Vanessa nodded approvingly and then began, "Shall we start with why you want to avoid me?"
Heath started to say that he was not trying to avoid her but swallowed the statement with a gulp of coffee. He decided he did not want to lie to this lady, even politely. "I thought you might prefer it that way," he said softly.
"Because you are Thomas's illegitimate son?"
"Yes." Heath's eyes dropped to his plate.
"Heath," Cousin Vanessa spoke with a distinctly warm voice, "you know that I am headmistress of a girls' boarding school, don't you?"
Heath's head came up with the unexpectedness of her question, "Yes, ma'am."
"Well, many wealthy men use boarding schools as a convenient place to discharge responsibility to illegitimate offspring. Sometimes the girls are aware of their circumstances, and sometimes they are not. The teachers generally are, and the headmistress always is." Cousin Vanessa reached out and placed her hand over Heath's as it lay on the table. "If ever I held the notion that a child was tainted by the parents' choice not to be married when that child was conceived, it was dispelled long ago." She smiled gently, "This year, one man paid tuition for two girls. His daughter and the child who thinks he is her benefactor only." A glint came into Vanessa's eyes," Would you care to guess which daughter I prefer?"
For the first time since her arrival, Vanessa saw Heath truly smile; she gasped. Then, drawing in a deep breath, she said, "Have they told you that you have his smile?"
"Thomas Barkley's smile?"
"Your father's smile." Vanessa watched the smile leave his face as the shadows entered his eyes. My God, no wonder Victoria had no doubt this was Tom's son; he couldn't be anyone else's. "I shall speak of your father, Heath," she stated firmly. Then in a gentler tone, "Perhaps you'll find that I am someone you can discuss Tom with."
Heath considered her statement. Any discussion of his father with the members of his new family was still awkward for him, but he had begun to hunger for more knowledge of the man who had sired him. "You knew him well?"
Vanessa sipped her coffee and settled back in her chair before launching into her discourse. "Victoria's mother and mine were sisters. Actually, they were not very close, but they were sisters and did love one another. We lived very near my aunt, and even though I was six years her younger, Victoria and I were always very close. She was eighteen when Thomas Barkley began courting her. Now, many young men would have viewed a twelve-year-old cousin as a nuisance, but Thomas Barkley was not most men. He realized the love Victoria and I held for each other and decided to make me his friend. We were friends, albeit often physically distant, until the day he died." Vanessa found Heath's face easier to read then most people did. There was so much of Tom Barkley there. "No, I was not a little girl with a crush on her cousin's beau."
Heath blushed. The woman had read his mind. "Am I really so like him? Nick didn't see it when I first came," he inquired softly.
"Nick didn't really remember his father before he was the Thomas Barkley of Stockton, California. I knew Tom best when he was around your age."
"Mother knew him when he was young."
"Victoria was with him each day. Her memory of him merges all the ages that she knew. I saw him each time I visited, but then I went away, and, as memory does, mine always went back to the Tom I first knew. Yes, you are very like him, Heath."
His eyes hardened. "I don't know if that is such a good thing," he muttered.
Vanessa gave him an appraising look. "He was a good man, Heath. Not perfect, but basically a good man."
"Sure. That's what everybody says."
"Even your mama?" Heath noticed her use of his name for his own mother, Leah Thomson. "Victoria told me she thought you were able to call her mother partly because you called Leah mama."
Heath knew that Victoria carried on an extensive correspondence with this cousin. Now he wondered how much of their recent correspondence had included him. "Yeah, even Mama said he was a good man." Heath's words tasted strongly of bitterness.
"Jarrod, Nick, Audra, and Eugene are Tom's children, Heath, not just Victoria's. Each of them is like Tom in some ways. You can't love them without loving part of him." Vanessa again sipped her coffee as Heath digested what she had said.
"Mother asked you to talk to me."
It was a statement, not a question, but she answered anyway. "Victoria has always said that I can make people say more than they want to say. She thinks there are a great many things you need to say that you haven't."
"Mother and Jarrod think talking helps everything."
"Victoria and Jarrod are talkers. Audra and Eugene chatter; Nick shouts. You, Heath, are a listener, but sometimes even listeners need to be heard. I'm a listener too, son."
Before Heath could answer, a noise caught their attention, Silas had returned to his kitchen.
Heath looked at Cousin Vanessa. She reached out and patted his hand. "I'm here for a good while. You won't be avoiding me anymore, will you?"
"No, ma'am, I won't be avoiding you anymore."