The smell of something good coming from the kitchen drew Nick in that direction. Both he and Heath had finished with the ranch chores early today. Heath he knew was in the stable giving Charger one last brush down.

His mood was still playful after the antics of the day before, for a time there it was like he was fourteen or fifteen again playing with his younger brother and sisters, problem was when he was that age he didn’t know that he had a younger brother and a second younger sister. If only.. Ah well yesterday made up for it; at least a little of it.

The closer he got to the kitchen, the stronger the smell. Mother was baking cookies, from the smell of them there were; butter cookies, cinnamon cookies and what could possibly be ginger bread. Yum. Time for Nick to‘help’, help himself that is.

He was just about to grab some of the goodies from the plate closest to the door when a hand appeared and gave his a sharp slap.

“Ouch” He jerked his hand back.

“Serves you right Nick Barkley, you know full well that these are to be saved until we’re all together and the decorating of the tree has began.” Audra scolded her older brother.

“There’ll still be plenty left” Nick protested “Who’ll miss one or two?”

“I will” Victoria said “I know exactly how many we made so if even one goes missing before Jarrod gets back look out” She pulled another tray load out of the oven and set them to cool. “Jarrod will be back tonight, until then how about you and Heath, yes I can see you lurking at the back door Heath” With that the back door opened and a rather sheepish looking Heath Barkley entered. “How about you and Heath make yourselves useful and go and scout out a possible Christmas tree.”

“Yes Mother” The brothers said in unison.

Having quickly located exactly the tree they felt would suit the family, Nick and Heath decided to drop into the saloon before head home for supper. The saloon was virtually empty there was just one other person at the bar; slouched over a whisky the Barkley’s didn’t pay him much attention. The brothers ordered and made their way to one of the many vacant tables.

“Well, well if it isn’t little Heathie” The man by the bar looked up. It was Matt Simmons and by his demeanour very drunk.

Standing next to his brother Nick felt Heath bristle at the ‘little Heathie’ remark and tried to guide his younger brother towards one the tables.

“You’re finally man enough to come into a place like this” Matt continued his taunting “Come on show me what you’re made of, or are you afraid I’ll whip your hide like I did when your tried to protect that worthless mother of yours, it was a shameful day the day she birthed you two, you both should’ve been drowned that day bringing shame on our family”

Before Nick could even make a grab for him Heath was out of his chair and had Matt Simmons pinned against the wall by the throat.

“MY MOTHER WAS NOT WORTHLESS, she was a good caring mother, a lady and a better human being they you’d ever be.” Heath snarled “ And the only reason you ever whipped my hide was because I was seven years old” He threw Matt down by the bar “Go and crawl back into that bottle” Heath stormed out of the saloon.

“Get this through that thick drunk skull of yours” Nick growled “Come anywhere, anywhere near my brother and sister again and I will personally see to it that you’ll live to regret it” Nick quickly followed Heath out.

“Heath, hey Heath stop a minute” Nick caught up to Heath just as his brother was about to mount Charger. He reached out and swung Heath around so that he faced his brother. Heaths face was as black as thunder. “He’s really riled up” Nick thought but out loud said “ Are you alright?” No answer “ Come on please talk to me, if not now then later, I just want to be there for you” He gentle squeezed Heaths shoulder in a gesture of support.

There was a long silence then Heath looked long and hard at Nick “I know Nick, I know and believe I do appreciate it.”

Both brothers swung into their respective mounts and headed them toward the Barkley ranch. They had just crossed Meadows Creek and passed the old log (which Nick had now decided could stay in place, seeing how it played a huge part in keeping Heather alive during the Barons incident.)

“Nick, I want you to know and believe my mother, no matter what Uncle Matt says, was not worthless”

“Heath I know, look what she did, she raised two very honourable, trustworthy, and decent human beings whom I am proud to now and always call my brother and sister”

“Thanks Nick”

“Heath” Nick prodded gently, if he handled this the wrong way he knew Heath would clam up and stay that way “What did your uncle mean about whipping your hide?”

“What Uncle Matt was referring to happened when I was about seven, this one night he came to our place, real drunk and I mean really drunk, I can’t remember much of it but he was yelling, screaming at Mama, and laying into her, well she went down Heather and I were there, Heather run to Mama’s side and I stand in between her and Uncle Matt he tries to go at Mama again, and well I tried to well.”

“Defend her?”

“Yeah well anyway instead of Mama he starts laying into me, fists, boots and finally his belt” Heath turned his face away trying to hide the pain of the memory. “ When it wasn’t fun for him anymore he left.”

Now it was Nicks turn to look like thunder, all he could see was a very brave seven year old boy attempting to protect his mother and sister and getting the living daylights belted out of him for trying. Nicks feelings for Matt Simmons went from loathing to out right hate. His admiration for the inner spirit of his little brother went sky high indeed Leah Thomson had raised a brave, honourable and decent son.

Heather immediately sensed that something was wrong with her twin. So once Victoria was out of earshot she cornered him.

“I run into Uncle Matt in the saloon” He admitted after a little prodding. “He was blind drunk”

“Are you alright?”

“Now yes, but at the time all I wanted to do was pick him up and beat the living daylights out of him for once”

“What did he say,” No answer was forth coming “Come on Heath this affects me too as well you know”

“Call Mama worthless, said the usual about how we brought shame to the family, what a sorry day it was the day she had us…”

“And then he said that they both should’ve been drowned at birth, can you believe that? Nick was in full voice “He had the nerve to say that in front of Heath, I should’ve killed him then and there for that remark”

Victoria had notice that something was not right with Heath the moment the two brothers had walked in the door. So when Heath disappeared upstairs she collared Nick and had asked him what had happened.

“The twins were spot on when they said the only type of courage Matt ever had came out of the bottle. Sound like he’s pretty mean as well when he’s drunk”

“Mean and dangerous” Both Nick and Victoria jumped when Heathers voice uttered those words. The last thing they expected was the twins to join them.

“Just how dangerous?” Victoria wanted to know fearing for the twin’s safety.

“Dangerous enough to hit women and children” Heath added and went on to tell Victoria what he had told Nick on the way home.

“Heath I’m so sorry” It hardly seemed adequate but it was all she could think of.

“Baby girl what about you did he ever..? Nick turned to his younger sister, fear in his eyes.

“Yes he hit me too, he hated me with just as much reason as he hated Heath” Heather was blunt “Though he never went as far with me as he did with Heath, but then Aunt Martha made up for any short fall”

Nick reached for his hat and gun.

“Where are you going? Victoria wanted to know fearing Nick might be heading straight for town and exacting revenge on the Simmons.

“I’m going to post an immediate order, if either of the Simmons come within five feet of Barkley land I want to be told” With that Nick slammed the door.

The train deposited Jarrod back at Stockton a little after eight that evening. After collecting his bags and Christmas gifts he headed for the livery. Jake would have his buggy and horse ready for him he hoped, he had sent a wire earlier confirming he would be on the train. As arranged the side door was open for him and his carriage was waiting.

Jarrod never saw the blow coming, one moment he was putting the last of his parcels into the back of his carriage, the next something heavy and wooden connected with the back of his head, the floor rushed up to meet him and everything went blank.

Martha Simmons quickly dropped the piece of wood that she’d used on Jarrod Barkley and began to rummage through his things, what she was looking for she was unsure of. There had to be something that Maria Carson had given the lawyer, something to tie a young Martha with the Carson family. The briefcase had nothing in it that she was looking for, just notes of cases the lawyer was planning to work with, a few notebooks and other legal looking papers. The search of his pockets also revealed nothing. All that was left was his wallet. And yes in there was what she was looking for, the picture.

Martha remembered the day that was taken. It was the only one of her that the family had. Well if there was no photo, then there would be no evidence against her. Quickly and quietly she crept out of the stable, the lawyer was beginning to wake-up.

The icy wind brought Jarrod back to consciousness. Slowly he sat up and got his bearings back. His vision was still a little blurry, he was in the livery stables, there to his right was he carriage, scattered around it the gifts for his family, his briefcase was open and the papers were scattered around on the ground. Looking to his left he saw his wallet, none of the money was missing, but the photo was gone. His legally trained mind told him not to jump to conclusions, but another part screamed to him that Martha Simmons either did this or was behind it. But how did she know?

His head still ached but his vision had cleared enough for him to collect his scattered belongings, stagger into the carriage and point the horse in the direction of home. It was more a case of the horse finding its way home rather then Jarrod actually driving it.

“Finally” Nick boomed as he heard Jarrods carriage pull up “Now we can begin to decorate this place”

“Nicholas” His mother admonished him “Jarrod hasn’t even come through the door yet and already you’re putting him to work. At least let him rest a moment before you start”

“JARROD” Nick yelled as the door opened and Jarrod just about fell through it.” What happened, Who did this?”

Together Nick and Heath managed to get their eldest brother into the parlour and onto one of the settees

“Was it robbery? A revenge attack? What?” Heath asked concern in his eyes.

“Not sure..no money stolen..only..” Jarrod answered, his head throbbing, “Only photo taken”

“Photo?” Nick was confused “Photo of who? What?”

“Photo of young..young Martha Simmons with Carson…Carson baby”

“What were you doing with a photo of a young Martha and the Carson baby? Audra too was as confused as her brother. “Where did you get it?”

“This can wait until later” Victoria took charge “Audra, go get Phillips and tell him to get the doctor, Nick, Heath help Jarrod to his room, Heather, cold water and cloths”

Two hours later the family were all-together in Jarrods room. The doctor had come and gone pronouncing Jarrod basically fit. Nothing more serious than a sharp headache and a small bump on the head.

“Most likely caused by a weapon in the hands of a smallish man,” The doctor concluded

“Or how about a woman?” Heath asked.

“Possibly, now you should be able to make it downstairs by tomorrow afternoon but under no circumstances are you to try and do any heavy work at least until the following morning understand?” Was the warning.

“Understood” Jarrod confirmed.

“Now what’s going on?” Nick asked, “ What has a photo of a baby and Martha Simmons got to do with all of this?”

“Martha Simmons and the disappearance of the Carson baby is what’s going on Nick” Jarrod explained “Following information I managed to get from the S.F. Police I tracked down Mrs Carson she told me about the kidnapping and gave me a picture of the assistant nanny that the police suspected of being in on it. That nanny was a very young Martha Simmons or Annie-Martha Smitherson as she was known to the family.”

“So Aunt Martha was in on it,” Heath said

“That means it was Aunt Martha that attacked you” Heather stated.

“I never saw the person” Jarrod counted with “So I can’t confirm whether it was Martha Simmons or not”

“But who else would take the picture?”

The only answer Jarrod had to that was a slight shake of the head.

With Jarrod confined to the house for the day it was left to Nick and Heath to get the tree. Having seen the very one they wanted the day before it was just a matter of going out, cutting it and dragging it home.

“You know if it weren’t for that bump on his head I‘d say Jarrod had pulled the whole thing just to get out of this” Nick complained as the two of the struggled to load the uncooperative tree on the wagon. And to make matters worse the wind had gotten up and it had started to rain again. “Getting to stay nice and warm in the house while we’re out here freezing”

“Quit whining Nick and lets get a move on,” Heath said as he finally got the tree into a safe position.

They were cold and shivering when they finally got back to the house. But once the tree was in place both Nick and Heath agreed that it had been worth it.

After a quick drink of something hot to warm them up Victoria despatched them up to the attic to retrieve the tree decorations.

Ten minutes and several boxes later everything was ready.

“Mother what about the cookies?” Audra piped up “We can’t start without them”

“Heather, Heath would you mind getting them? Heather knows which tin they’re in” Victoria asked with an innocent tone.

This was actually a diversion. The rest of the family had decided earlier that this would be the best way to distract the twins while everybody got their decoration gifts from their hiding places.

Mindful of what the doctor had said the day before Victoria had made it perfectly clear that Jarrod would be helping the girls with the lower branches this year.

“Thanks Mother, come on Heath looks like its you and me doing the top half”

“No problem Nick, where do we begin”

“Well first off we sort these out” Nick opened the first box.

Inside, both the twins could see, were boxes of what looked like tree decorations, each box had it’s owners name on it. Nick handed out the boxes marked ‘Jarrod’, ‘Nick’, ‘Audra’, ‘Victoria & Tom’.

“And what do we have here” Nick asked with a feigned look of puzzlement on his face. He picked up a pile of three boxes with the word ‘Heath’ on them and handed them over to their stunned new owner. The three boxes marked ‘Heather’ were also handed over to their equally stunned owner.

“For us?” The twins questioned, they had never received such a lovely surprise

“To mark the first of many Christmases that you will spend with your new family” Jarrod said as he joined Nick.

“One set from each of us” Audra too joined her brothers “A way for two brothers and a sister to say welcome to their new brother and sister at Christmas”

“Thank-you seems so inappropriate” Heather said with tears in here eyes “But I can’t find any other words” With that she put the boxes down and embraced her younger sister.

“You’ve all made us feel so welcome” Heath also was fighting back tears. “Baby-girls right thank-you isn’t nearly enough” He also put down his decorations, reached out and embraced both of his brothers.

“You’re our brother and sister” Was all Nick could say as he returned Heaths embrace.

“Audra” Heath said when the brothers broke apart “Thank-you little sis” With that he threw his arms around his little sister.

“Jarrod, Nick” Heather embrace both of her older brothers and gave each of them a kiss.

From where she was seated Victoria watched the special moment between the siblings with a tear running down her check. Yes this was going to be a very special Christmas.

Many hands make light work or so the saying goes, and in the case of the Barkley family Christmas tree that was true. In record time the tree was finished and all the Barkley’s stood together admiring their handiwork.

“Never seen anything quite so pretty,” Heath breathed.

“It sure is beautiful,” Heather agreed.

“I’d say it’s the best tree we’ve ever had” Victoria admitted and watched, with the rest of her family, in delight as the twins circled the tree admiring all the various decorations. “Now for the stockings”

That got the twins attention.

“ When a new family member celebrated their first Christmas, they and every other member of the family got a new Christmas Stocking” Victoria explained “Now it’s been a long time since we had an addition to this family, and now for this Christmas we have two. So in honour of our two newest family members” Victoria dug into her sewing bag and brought out the six new stockings. “Jarrod, Nick, Audra, Heath, Heather” She handed out the stockings.

“Thank-you Mother” The siblings said as one voice.

“Lets hang them” Nick led the way to the grand fireplace. There hanging on the mantle were a series of nameplates, each with two small hooks. The twins watched as each of their siblings attached their particular stocking to its nameplate. Victoria, Jarrod, Nick, then two spaces and finally Audra at the end. With a shared smile the twins added their’s to the mantle.

“Now there is one last thing that has to be done,” Victoria told them. “From birth each of my children have been given a silver bell with their names and the year of their first Christmas engraved on it” She paused, pulled two boxes from the floor beside the chair she had been sitting in and handed one to each of the twins. “Merry Christmas, may this be the first of many joyous ones you both have with us”

Again the twins stood in stunned silence; all they could do was take the boxes from their mother.

“Mother..” Heath began “I..”

“We…” Heather too was still stunned.

Together the twins opened their boxes. In each of them nestled in blue velvet was a shiny new silver bell. Each had the year 1874 on the bottom just beneath the names ‘Heath Morgan Thomson’ & ‘Heatherleah Margaret Thomson’.

As one the twins looked at Victoria, and in their eyes Victoria saw the thanks and the love that neither of them could express with words at that moment.

“You don’t have to say anything” Victoria hugged her new son and daughter “The looks on both your faces said it all”

With tears also in their eyes Audra, Nick and Jarrod watched the moment between their mother and the two children Victoria welcomed as her own. Yes indeed Christmas this year was going to be special.

Heather was back once again in the laundry. But it was different this time little Heather already had the bricks out of the wall and was reaching into the cavity for the second item. Both Heathers gasped, in little Heathers hands was the most beautiful hand made baby jacket, it was pink and white, crocheted in the most delicate wool so soft to the touch and pinned on the left front was a name broach with the name ‘Abigail Maria Victoria’ engrave on it. As before the door opened and Aunt Martha appeared with the next load of washing, as before she caught little Heather and gave her the slap that sent her into the side of the soaking pot.

‘Baby-girl” Heath called to his twin, trying to get her out of the dream/memory state and back with the family “Wake up come on your having another memory”

Heather bolted upright in bed and into the arms of her twin brother. Looking around she could see that the whole family was in her room again

“Not again” Heather apologized “I’m so sorry for scaring everybody”

“It’s alright” Victoria again sat on the edge of the bed. “Was it the same as last time?”

“No, this time I actually saw the second object clearly. It was..”

“Hold on a second” Jarrod interrupted “I made some notes while I was with Maria Carson, let me get them hopefully they’ll corroborate Heathers story” He quickly rushed back to his own room and gathered the small note book from his brief case, thanking the powers that be that in her haste Martha Simmons had overlooked it.

“Sorry” Jarrod rushed back in with his notes “Go ahead you were saying about the second object” He prompted.

“A baby jacket a beautiful handmade baby jacket, pink and white, made out of the most delicate soft wool I every felt. On the jackets left front was a name broach”

“The name, did you see the name?”

“Abigail Maria Victoria”

Jarrod had held the notebook in such a way that the rest of the family were able to read his notes. There was no doubt Heather had described in exact detail what Maria Carson hold told Jarrod.

Victoria rose from the bed and allowed Jarrod to take her place.

“Baby girl if you ever felt that I didn’t believe you then I’m sorry” Jarrod took Heathers hands in his own “It’s just..”

“Just that you need to see hard evidence and a memory isn’t exactly good solid evidence.” Heather finished.

“So what do we do now?” Nick wanted to know

...Continued