Lying supine on his bed, his fingers laced behind his head, Nick was staring vacantly at the ceiling when a gentle knock on the door broke into his train of thoughts. “Who is it?”

“It’s Victoria. May I come in?”

“Yeah,” he exhaled, flinging his legs on the floor to stand in order to properly greet his lady visitor.

“I just came to let you know that dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks but that’s usually Heath’s job to tell me that.”

“Normally it is but I asked to take his place for I wished to talk to you.”

Nick rolled his eyes in marked annoyance and stomped up to the window. “Mrs. Barkley, I’m sorry, but I still can’t remember any of you.” His brow creased at the sight of Barrett and his trusted cohort; their collusive behaviour arousing a gnawing feeling in the pit of Nick’s stomach. “That man in the barnyard.” He beckoned Victoria to come stand beside him. “There,” he pointed. “What’s his name?”

“John Barrett. Why do you ask?”

“I get the feeling I’ve seen him before.”

“You have,” Victoria mocked good-naturedly. “He’s the assistant foreman. You often worked with him out in the range and mostly on cattle drives.”

“Yeah, maybe that’s it,” Nick dismissed, though his gut instincts told him otherwise.

“Maybe if you spoke with him, it might help nudge your memory?”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” His frown deepened and his skin crawled when Barrett flashed a malevolent grin at his partner.

“Nick? I mean Bob? What is it?” Victoria grew worried of his pained expression.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He let out a heavy exhale to regain his composure then turned to Victoria with an obliged smile. “You may call me Nick. It’s been a week. I guess I have to get used to it.” His body shivered all over at the single touch of her hand against his cheek. His mind was urging him to exercise caution while his heart was raring to drop its shield and embrace her with all of his might.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Heath,” Victoria carefully broached the subject, gauging Nick’s reaction before adding further.

“What about Heath?” Nick retorted, eyeing her warily.

“How much do you know about him?”

“Enough to know that he’s a decent, honest man. Is there something in particular you want to know?”

Victoria produced a photograph from her skirt pocket and handed over to Nick. “The man was my husband. This was taken in Heath’s hometown of Strawberry the year before he was born. Does he look familiar to you?”

“My Gosh, that’s… He…” Nick’s voice faltered at the blunder he was about to commit.

“Go ahead, say it. He looks like Heath.”

“Then you know?”

Victoria nodded. “I have had my suspicions from the beginning.”

“He told me he came to Stockton to see how his father’s family lived and that he never meant to disrupt any of your lives. He was just curious.”

“He belongs here with us, with you. You need him, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess I do,” Nick sighed.

“Does the fact that I’m not his natural mother bother you?”

“No. Perhaps because I don’t remember my father. What type of man he was. What was my relationship with him, that kind of thing.”

Victoria stepped up closer to Nick and with a gentle hand on his cheek and tears mirroring in her eyes, she sang Tom’s praises. “He was so proud of you Nick. Proud of all his children. There no doubt in my mind he wouldn’t have felt different about Heath. He would have welcomed him with open arms as like I did.”

“I’d like to hear more about him sometime, Maybe Heath could join us.”

“It would be my utmost pleasure,” she smiled affectionately, her heart soaring when he reciprocated with a small curl of the lip. “I’m ready any time you are.”

“Thanks. I’ll tell him.”

“See you downstairs?” She waited for his nod of acknowledgement before turning to the door with swish of her skirt. As she closed the door she cast one last look at Nick who had already resumed his original place by the window.

“Nick, Bob, whoever you are, you get that brain of yours to shake a leg,” he urged, a deep frown still etched on his face from the twinge the name John Barrett was eliciting within him.

Rising at dawn the next morning, Nick slipped on his clothes and headed towards the guest bedroom. “Heath, you awake?” he asked through the closed door.

“Yeah, come on in.” Nick entered to find Heath buckling his gunbelt around his waist. “Ready to go to work?”

“Yeah,” Nick replied unenthusiastically.

“Could have fooled me,” Heath jested. “What the matter?”

“Heath, what if I told you I was afraid to go out on the range. Would you think that was crazy?”

“That all depends. Do you know why you’re scared?”

“No, that’s just it. I’m not afraid of hard labour. I know my way around a ranch for having worked at the Atkinson place, but…it’s weird. I don’t feel…safe.”

Heath was troubled to observe sheer terror in Nick’s eyes as he spoke of the Barkley ranch. “Well don’t fret about it none. I’ll stick to you like a flea to a dog. I won’t let you out of my sight,” he assured with his trademark grin.

“Heath, you can’t be my babysitter. I have to learn to manage on my own.”

“When you’re good and ready. Right now you’re still walking on thin ice. Once your steady on your feet, I’ll let you go,” Heath teased, hoping to wring a trace of a smile out of the despondent man. When the mission was accomplished he wrapped his arm around Nick’s shoulders and left the room together.

Following breakfast, the two friends made their way to the corral where Duke was busy giving out a list of chores to the ranch hands, among them Barrett whose brief glance Nick’s way sent shivers down his spine.

“Nick? Something wrong?” Heath asked, puzzled by the faraway look in Nick’s eyes.

“No, nothing. Just that…”

“What?”

“Just when I’m on the verge or remembering I lose the thread. It’s frustrating.”

“Don’t try so hard. It’ll come to you.”

“Boys!” Duke hailed Nick and Heath over. “So Nick, do you feel up to mending some fences?” Duke asked with a light touch of humour.

“Guess I have to start somewhere.”

“You Heath, Barrett and Johnson will take the North range. You have plenty of breaks to last you well into the afternoon.”

“Looking forward to working with you again Nick,” Barrett sneered, offering a hand that Nick was reticent to shake.

“Yeah…thanks,” Nick’s replied apathetically.

“Heath, you keep an eye on the boss, here. Don’t let him over do it,” Duke teased the blond who replied with a light-hearted smile.

“Me and Jay’ll go fill up our canteens,” Barrett said. “We’ll meet you out there.”

“All right.” Heath answered as he and Nick stepped up to their respective mounts. He noticed a nervous twitch crossing Nick’s face as he watched Barrett and Johnson return to the bunkhouse. “Okay, suppose you tell me what’s bothering you?”

“That man, Barrett. Something about him I don’t like.”

“Join the club, brother. He smells funny and I don’t mean his aftershave.”

Nick chuckled at Heath’s comment. “You too, huh?”

With one fluid motion Heath swung into the saddle. “Word of advice: don’t turn your back on him.”

“I don’t intend to.”

They took off at a light trot under Barrett’s evil eye. “Get the gear ready,” he instructed his partner in crime. “I don’t like the look Barkley gave me just now. I think he might be remembering.”

“What about Blondie?” Johnson asked.

“I’ll manage to lure him away from him long enough for you to do the job. And remember, no mistake.” Johnson’s interpretation of Barrett’s warning was that of a threat he intended to heed for fear of his own life. He was in it too deep to back away.

“She knows about you,” Nick divulged as he handed Heath a heap of barbed wires to fix the broken fence.

“What are you talking about?”

“Victoria Barkley. She knows you’re her husband’s son.”

“You told her?” Heath hissed.

“No. She figured it out by herself. She showed me a picture of Tom Barkley in his younger days. God Heath! He looks just like you.” Nick stared at Heath hammering the wire to the post in an obvious attempt to elude the subject. “What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to stay? She really wants you to. And so do I.”

“As I said before I only came to Stockton to see what they looked like and how they lived. I have no intention of staying here permanently.”

“Too late for that, don’t you think?”

Heath heaved out frustrated sigh and let the hammer dangle alongside his body as he mustered up the courage to say what has bothered him for some time. “Nick, you like me now but wait till your memory returns. You won’t want me around. Think about it! Your father’s bastard son? There’s no doubt you admired the man and to think he could have been unfaithful to your mother? You need me now as a walking cane, but once you get steady on your feet, you won’t give me a second look.”

Nick stood rooted to the spot, appalled by Heath’s statement. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I won’t hide the fact that I am trying desperately to remember my old man but to think that I could actually toss you aside because…because.”

“It will happen.”

“Never!” Nick spat. “Heath, you’re my brother.”

“Half brother,” Heath emphasized much to Nick’s annoyance.

“Okay, Half brother.”

“Bastard brother,” Heath added. As he turned to resume his work a hand clawed at his shoulder and swirled him around. With lightning speed Nick’s powerful punch connected with his jaw, hurling him backwards to the ground. “That’s right, you are a bastard. The blithering idiot kind. If you think for one minute I’m going to let you go, you’ve got more cuffs coming.” Nick’s rage made way to a teasing grin as he held out his hand to Heath to give him a hoist up.

“Remind me never to cross you.” Heath said, rubbing his aching jaw. “That was some punch.”

“My bite can be worse than my bark for people who hurt the ones I care deeply about, including you.” Heath’s bottom lip trembled as a gush of overwhelming emotions rushed to his throat. Noticing the oncoming flood of tears threatening to his little brother’s eyes, Nick grabbed him in a neck hold and ruffled his hair. “Don’t get all mushy on me.”

“Ahhhhhhh my hair Nick!” Heath groused, raking his hair back in place.

“Come on, Let’s take a break.”

“Just one more barbed wire to fix and I’ll join you.”

Nick’s senses gradually went numb as he stood transfixed by Heath’s manual labour. A sudden wave of debilitating pain washed over him, rendering him weak in the knees. He staggered his way to a nearby tree and dropped to the ground.

“Nick, you okay?” Heath asked, concerned by the lividness of Nick’s face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It was him, Heath.”

“Him who?”

“That man, Barrett. He’s the one who tried to kill me.”

Heath dropped the barbed wire and went to squat beside Nick. “You sure about that?” Nick’s terrorized expression was the only answer he needed.

“I saw you working the barbed wire and it came flashing back to me. I was mending a fence when he appeared from behind and crashed the butt of his gun against my skull. I was momentarily dazed but lucid enough to get a good look at the guy. I saw him pick up a rock and...” he closed his eyes as the haunting images of that day came flooding back, “…everything went black.”

“Why would he try to kill you?”

“I don’t know,” he shook his head in despair as he tried to cling to the faint memory of that fateful moment.

“You want to know why?” a sardonic voice echoed from behind, prompting both Heath and Nick to go for their guns. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Barrett hissed, waving his gun at both men standing frozen on the spot. “Unbuckle those belts and drop them to the ground nice and slow. No sudden move.”

“You were telling us why you tried to kill Nick?” Heath continued on an insolent tone, determined to get the truth out.

“Guess I could tell you since you won’t be alive to tell,” Barrett sneered as he took three steps backward to sit on a boulder. Keeping his gun trained on Nick and Heath, he began relating the story of the greedy banker who was anxious to get rid of a thorn at his side. “He had it all figured it out. It was the perfect scheme to steal gold for the O mighty Barkleys, but ole Nick here started poking his nose where it didn’t belong.”

“It’s safe to guess my family doesn’t know anything about this?” Nick surmises, giving Heath a glimpse he saw glancing at his gun lying at his feet.

“Of course they don’t and they won’t either. This is the best get-rich scheme I’ve ever been a part of. It’s time the mighty Barkleys fork over some of their wealth to the less fortunate, the ones who help them make what they are today.”

“I doubt you’re one of them, Barrett,” Nick sneered.

Offended by this remark, Barrett grinded his teeth and stood from his seat. He discreetly signalled his cohort to get ready to shoot on his command. Heath’s eyes darted between the two men and Nick’s gun on the ground while his mind estimated the odds. In a spilt second he pounced on Nick to push him out of the line of fire. He felt a bullet enter his side but the searing pain was momentarily cast off to clear the way for his only objective; get to Nick’s weapon. As he swirled round a second bullet entered his chest, though he managed to gun both men down before any other projectiles were fired.

“Heath!” Nick gasped, scrambling to his brother’s side on all four. He pulled at his neck cloth to apply it to the chest wound to stem the haemorrhage.

“You okay?” Heath breathed out.

“Yeah I’m fine, thanks to you. You damn fool. What possessed you to do a stupid stunt like that?” Heath offered a weak grin in response as Nick gently lowered his head onto his balled-up vest. “Yeah, you’re a stubborn cuss, all right.”

“Dead?”

Nick gave a cursory glance at the two inert bodies sprawled on the ground. “I’d say so. You’re one heck of a sharpshooter. Fast too. I wouldn’t like to irk you either. I’m glad to have you on my side.” Nick’s smirk quickly turned into a worried frown. “Heath?” When no answer came he proceeded to prod him in the shoulder. “Come Heath, don’t scare me.” Nick removed his gloves to search for a pulse. “Don’t you dare leave me alone. You hear me?” Much to his dismay, his wailing failed to elicit any response from the deathly listless body that he gingerly cradled in his arms. “HEATH!” a final desperate plea before he dissolved into tears.

Nick stood by the paddock, his arms folded against the fence, completely lost in his thoughts. He stared blankly in front of him in a vain attempt to escape the reality of Heath’s death. So far away was he that he didn’t hear the sound of footsteps approaching.

“Nicolas,” Victoria’s soft voice broke into his thoughts. “Nick, where are you?”

“Far away,” he sighed heavily without unfastening his eyes from the crest of trees in the horizon acting as his beacon. “And I want to stay there.”

“Don’t give up on him just yet. Dr. Merar just told us that he’s alive.” Nick’s reaction was instantaneous. “That’s right, there was a faint pulse, too weak to notice without a stethoscope, but it’s there. Heath needs you Nick.”

Word failed to express the elation that coursed through him at this very moment. He whizzed past Victoria as he dashed inside the house to stride up the stairs to Heath’s room where Audra, Jarrod and Dr. Merar were finishing bandaging up the patient.

“Doctor?”

“He’s been moaning your name.” Howard beckoned the anguished man to take a seat by the bed. “He’s extremely weak from the lost of blood but the good news is that both bullets went clean through and didn’t do any extensive damage. We’ll wait to see if his body can replenish the lost blood or we’ll do a transfusion. Right now he’s hanging on.”

“Thank God,” Nick puffed out the breath he’d been holding.

“We’re counting on you to see that he doesn’t give up.” Jarrod teased his little brother who replied with a thoughtful smile before returning his attention to Heath.

Howard signalled Jarrod and Audra to vacate the room with him. They were barely out the door that Nick leaned forward and clasped Heath’s hand.

Downstairs, Sheriff Madden and Jarrod discussed Nick’s damaging allegations towards the local banker. While waiting for Nick’s memory to provide solid proof to incriminate the highly-regarded James Watson, Jarrod and Sheriff Madden agreed to start an investigation into the bank’s books to dig out any discrepancies.

Upstairs, the sleepy patient was rejoining the land of the living much to Nick’s delight. “I thought you were dead,” Nick choked out, biting his upper lip in a feeble attempt to conceal his emotions.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Heath mumbled weakly.

“Wanna know something, Heath? You’re not funny.”

“If it’s any consolation, I thought I was goner too. Damn that hurt!” He winced trying to hoist himself up.

“And just what are you trying to do now?”

“I just want to get my pillows a bit higher.”

“Couldn’t you just ask?” Nick took over fluffing up the pillows and assisted Heath into a sitting position. “How’s that?”

“Much better. Thanks. So?” he sighed, staring quizzically at Nick.

“So?”

“What’s happened since I was out?” Heath asked with a hint of tease.

“Not much. Barrett and Johnson are dead. Jarrod and the town sheriff are starting an inquest into the banker’s dealings and me…well I’m still trying to sort it all out. The good news is that I experience flashbacks from time to time.”

“Hey that’s good, Nick,” Heath could only smile his excitement.

“Yeah,” he sighed unenthusiastically.

“Don’t despair. It’ll come back to you.”

“I hope so. I feel like an outsider in my own home. It freaks me out.”

“I know what you mean,” Heath empathized.

“I’m thankful I have you to lean on. By the way I’ve been meaning to ask you about Mary.”

“What about?”

“You once told me that she and you…,” Nick hinted with a slant of the head. “Well you know?”

“That’s right. We’re just friends.” Heath wondered at Nick’s question until it hit him. He fashioned an elfish grin at Nick. “You like her, don’t you?”

“Well….yeah,” he confessed sheepishly.

“I tell you what. Once I’m back on my feet we’ll take a trip to Strawberry and visit with her. I’m sure she’d like that.”

“It’s a date.” An exuberant Nick went to shake Heath’s hand in gratitude when a small shake of the head brought him down to reality. “Sorry.”

In the ongoing week, Nick would ditch his chores to concentrate on Heath’s rehabilitation. Duke was only too pleased to indulge his boss seeing how helping Heath was good therapy for him as well.

Nick’s memory would dribble bits of images, sounds, and smells that proved helpful in putting the town banker James Watson behind bars. Thanks to Nick’s acute details Jarrod anticipated an open-and-shut-case at the trial.

As promised Heath brought Nick to Strawberry to visit with Mary. She happily learned of Heath’s intention to remain at the Barkley ranch to get better acquainted with his siblings.

Strawberry had been Mary’s home since birth and although the town was falling apart, convincing her to move to Stockton was like pulling teeth. Heath and Nick were no match for her stubbornness. Finally she yielded under the overwhelming pressure and agreed to stay at the ranch for a few weeks. Nick was pleased knowing he wouldn’t have to go far to woo his way into her heart. She appeared to be receptive of his attentions, though Heath warned him not to push her too far.

“That woman is a force to be reckoned with, Nick,” Heath cautioned. “Many have tried and all have failed. She’s a strong-minded independent woman. You’ll know when and if she’s willing to take the next step.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like her spunk. That’s what’s attractive in her; that and many other qualities.”

“Good luck!” Heath scoffed with an amused grin.

“You’re not going to put in the good word for me?”

“I already did. Now it’s up to you both to make the sparks fly. I don’t want to disappoint you but you’ve got one mighty task to perform to get there.”

“I love a challenge. Didn’t I convince you to stay at the ranch?”

“Yes you did. I stand corrected. If anyone can succeed, it’s you.”

EPILOGUE

In the following weeks, sparks did not fly as Nick had anticipated. It was mutually understood that the interaction was merely friendly, not romantic.

Mary soon returned to Strawberry to pack up her belongings. Heath had haggled a price with the owner of a nice little place in the heart of town that Mary had been hankering after for quite some time. She moved in with a pen pal who, coincidently, had chosen to leave her hometown of Minneapolis to live near Mary. Both women moved in together much to Nick’s delight. One look at Mary’s friend, Sandra, and he was smitten.

It wasn’t hard for Mary and Heath to play cupids for the two lovebirds for the attraction was instantaneous. Six months of courtship elapsed before Nick garnered the courage to ask his little spitfire to marry him.

Nick held no ill feelings toward Bill Atkinson for not making enquiries about the stranger who had been rescued by his foreman. He was just grateful to him for having nursed him back to health. To let bygones by bygones he invited him and his crew to his wedding and promised to name his first born after him.

With his life back on track with his memory fully restored, Nick was looking forward to a bright future with Sandra. Little did he know that fate would once again meet with his destiny.