Chapter 6
Before Heath left Murdoch, he had Murdoch wire the family that he had arrived safely. He did not mention anything he had found out yet, just that he was here. He also got permission to stable his horse in the barn with the company work horses, and he took care of his mount. He walked back to the hotel/saloon to find everyone but Murphy gone, and he was closing up.
"Did ya get yer earful, Mr. Barkley?" Murphy asked, and not in a friendly manner.
Heath went up to the bar and tried to sound sympathetic to the man he was talking to. "I did. I'll be leaving in the morning to report back to my family."
"And just what are ya gonna be tellin' them?"
Heath looked up at the man. "I'll tell them what you and Murdoch told me. And I'll do whatever I need to do to get my family talking to the board of directors of this company about getting this operation back up to where it was before it was sold."
Murphy looked both surprised and skeptical, but he said, "Well, I'll be wishin' ya luck." Then he handed over a bottle of whiskey that was more than half empty. "Have some more of this and the bed bugs won't bother ya as much."
Heath gave him a smile, took the bottle, and headed up to his room. He unlocked the door and went in – and found he had company. He wasn't really surprised.
"Hello, Bridie," he said. He did not close the door. "Kind of late, isn't it? Won't himself be upset with you?"
Bridie was comfortable on the bed, but still had her clothes on. "Himself knows I put food on the table when he can't anymore," Bridie said, with a soft smile meant to be seductive.
Heath had to admit this girl was giving him the most pleasant feelings he was having since he got to Lonesome Camp, but he didn't give in to them. "Who is himself, anyway?"
"Me father," she said, looking unhappy now. "He lost a leg in the mine, can work no more." She looked up at him. "One of those bad timbers caved in on him. So, earnin' our way has fallen on me."
Heath reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a dollar. "Just seeing you has been enough for tonight, Bridie. You're a fine looking girl, but seeing you is gonna have to be enough."
Bridie took the dollar. "Fair enough a trade," she said. "I can be lettin' ya see me again tomorrow."
"Let tomorrow be tomorrow, Bridie," a man's voice behind Heath said.
Heath turned. He hadn't seen this guy downstairs, but he knew who he was right away by the familiar sound of his voice. The man was older than he was by at least five years, and he was a man who knew his way around a mine. Still, Heath was surprised to see him. "Hello, Dion," he said.
The man looked surprised, then looked closer at Heath.
"Ah, is it a reunion here?" Bridie asked.
Heath said, "Bridie, you best go home and take care of himself."
Bridie got up. She gave both men a smirk and a sly little, "So old boy friends can relive some old times."
"Get out, Bridie," Dion said.
She smiled and danced her way out of the room.
Dion closed the door after her and looked hard at Heath. Heath just said, "It's been a while since the mine at Strawberry, hasn't it, O'Doul?"
Dion squinted and suddenly saw. "Heath. By God, are you the fella they're callin' a Barkley downstairs?"
Heath nodded. "I come to find out Tom Barkley was my father."
"By heaven," Dion said.
"What are you doing here, Dion?" Heath asked.
"Organizin'," Dion said flat out.
"What? A strike?"
Dion looked at the bottle in Heath's hand. "How about a drink?"
Heath fetched a glass from the dresser. He brought it back, took the cork out of the bottle with his teeth, and poured Dion a drink.
"What are you doin' in Lonesome?" Dion asked.
"Looking for ways to stop what you want to bring about," Heath said. "And get this mine and these people back to where they ought to be before the board of directors – and you – start the war that won't do anybody any good."
"Ya need to be out on the line with me," Dion said. "The Heath I knew would be there, fightin' for decent food and decent prices at the company store and decent conditions in the mine." The more he talked, the angrier Dion got.
Heath said, "Starting a war that won't do anybody any good isn't the way to help, Dion. Start a strike and it'll get violent and hurt everybody here. Let me get the information back to my family. My brother Jarrod knows how to deal with the board of directors. All he needs is the proper information, and I'll be bringing it to him."
Dion drank his whiskey, and then said – in a frighteningly calm way – "Does that brother of yours know how to deal with that uncle of yours?"
Now Heath was surprised.
Dion looked at him. "The word I hear is that uncle of yours is now takin' up a lot of space in the pretty picture you want to paint, and he isn't pretty."
Heath hadn't intended to mention Uncle Jim at all. How did Dion know about him? "It seems you have your own contacts for information," Heath said.
"I do," Dion said. "And I know the game is changin' and not for a better way for these people here. You're gonna be with me on the line before ya know it, Heath."
XXXXXX
The words were echoing in Heath's mind all the way back to Stockton, so much so that they kept him awake most of the night he camped out on the way. When he rode into the Barkley ranch compound in the late afternoon the next day, for a moment he wondered what in the world he was doing here. This wasn't the place he'd known all his life. He'd known only working hard and fighting hard and the life Dion O'Doul told him he was going to be coming back to. For a moment, Heath hesitated at the gate. For a moment, after two days of thinking and riding and wondering if he was riding in the right direction – for a moment, he was as unsure as he'd ever been in his life.
"Senor Heath!" Ciego's voice came to him and the happy face of the stable man came toward him.
Heath rode on into the stable yard and dismounted. Pulling off his saddlebags, he asked Ciego to tend to his horse, and he headed into the house.
"Heath!" Victoria was there to greet him, with a kiss and a face beaming with welcome. "We didn't know you'd be home today."
Heath was stunned for a moment, but only a moment. Whatever his doubts were about belonging here, this woman – this mother who wasn't his but was – could erase them in a moment, and did. "Home" she called this place. Heath's head began to clear. He took a deep breath and dropped his saddlebags on the floor beside the stairs.
"What did you find out in Lonesome Camp?" Victoria asked.
Heath looked around. Victoria was the only one there. "Where's everybody else?"
"Audra's in the kitchen helping Silas with dinner," Victoria said. "Nick is upstairs cleaning up, Jarrod is in the library and Eugene is outside somewhere."
"I'd rather talk to you, Jarrod and Nick at the same time," Heath said. "For now, I can tell you it's all right, but it might not stay that way for long."
Victoria's smile faded. "Why don't you clean up? I'll make sure we gather in the library and Audra and Eugene are occupied elsewhere."
Heath nodded, grabbed his saddlebags again and headed upstairs. Just as he was disappearing up there, Jarrod came out of the library. "Did I just hear you say Heath was back?" he asked Victoria.
"Yes, he's back," Victoria said.
"I thought he'd wire us he was coming," Jarrod said.
"From the sounds of it, he may have thought he didn't have the time," Victoria said.
"Things are bad?"
"All he said was things are all right but they might not stay that way. He wants us all together so he can talk to you, me and Nick all at once."
Jarrod sighed. "I'll run upstairs and get Nick to shake a leg."
"No need," Nick's voice came as he came down the stairs. "Heath told me to get moving and get down to the library." Nick immediately headed for the library, saying, "I'll make sure all the bottles are full."