Epilogue

Jarrod and Heath returned from New York and retrieved the buggy they had driven to town from the livery where they left it. They had arranged for some minor repairs to be done by the carriage repairman in Stockton while they were gone. Heath checked to see they were done properly while Jarrod paid the livery man.

"So you had a good trip, I hope?" the livery man asked.

Jarrod looked at Heath with a grin. "I'd say so. Hear anything from the ranch?"

"Yeah, some."

"Did something happen?" Heath asked quickly.

"Some excitement," the livery man said. "Not a real big thing, but it's best you let your family explain it."

Jarrod and Heath looked at each other and, once Heath gave the okay on the repairs, they hurried home.

Even forewarned, they were still surprised when they got to the house and found Nick in the living room, sitting in one of the armchairs with fluffy pillows under his rear end and his leg. Audra jumped up from the settee and came running to them. "Jarrod! Heath! Mother, they're home!"

Both Jarrod and Heath were even more surprised at Audra's appearance. She had brier cuts all over her face – it looked like she had the chicken pox.

"What in world happened to you?" Jarrod asked as she gave him a welcome hug.

"Oh, just a little adventure," she said and gave Heath a hug too.

"With what? A wildcat?" Heath asked.

"Just some briers and bushes," Audra said.

Jarrod and Heath came into the living room and saw Nick with the same marks all over his face, in addition to whatever it was that had happened to his leg and his butt. "Did you fight with the same bushes and lose?" Jarrod asked.

"Something like that," Nick said with a grin. "So, you're back now. Ready to get back to work now. About time."

Victoria came down from upstairs, saying, "I see you've seen how our two weeks without you have gone," as she kissed Jarrod and Heath.

"Pretty bad, it looks," Heath said.

"At least you two look like you had some rest and relaxation," Nick said, half sneering the words "rest" and "relaxation."

Jarrod plopped down in the armchair beside Nick's, while Victoria sat on the settee next to Audra and Heath remained standing. "We did indeed," Jarrod said. "And survived the big city a lot better than you two have survived the good old homefront."

"I'm just glad we're all here together again and in reasonably good shape," Victoria said. "Nick and Audra have told me about their adventures. How did yours go?"

She looked at Jarrod and Heath. Jarrod and Heath looked at each other. Then Jarrod looked at Nick, who looked away. It was then all the Barkley children realized that they all had some things to tell their mother, and some things they would NEVER tell their mother.

Heath said, "Well, New York was all I expected it to be, and quite a bit more."

"Go on," Victoria said. "I want to hear ALL about it, just as Nick and Audra told me ALL about their cattle drive to Salida."

All of her children knew that tone. She knew darned well she was never going to hear all of the truth about the way any of them had spent the last two weeks, and she was going to relish needling them about it every chance she got.

"Well, it's official," Jarrod said to Heath. "We're home."

THE END