AT THE HOUSE

From her bedroom window Audra kept a lookout. She was supposed to be selecting a dress to be worn to the Charity ball in three nights time, the selections were laid out on her bed, but every minute or so Audra was at the window to see if the wagon had arrived or was within sight.

Downstairs Victoria was waiting, Audra was supposed to bring down her dress so it could be checked for marks or to see if it needed a last minute hem adjustment, twice she’d called up to Audra and twice Audra had said that she’d be right down. Upstairs a door opened and closed and Victoria heard footsteps on the landing.

“Mother, Silas they’re here, they’re coming up the drive” Audra hurried down the stairs.

Silas opened the door for them and together Mother and Daughter walked out onto the porch and watched as the wagon and the two riders came to a halt.

From her seat on the wagon next to Jarrod Heather saw the door to the grand white mansion that the Barkley’s called home open and two women step out. The younger one was tall, with shoulder length blond hair, Heather was struck by the likeness between her and Heath, and this must be Audra. The other woman was slightly shorter with silver-grey hair and an almost regal like appearance; Heather sensed an air of authority about her.

Nick and Heath dismounted. Nick went and joined his mother and sister on the porch Jarrod got down and started to unpack the wagon. Heath was by Heathers side, helping her down and guiding his twin toward the front entrance.

“Don’t worry everything will be fine” He encouraged her, noting the worried look in Heather’s eyes.

“What if she doesn’t like me?” All the confidence was gone from Heathers voice.

“Hey now none of that, she’ll love you, anyhow it’s Mother’s wish that you be here with the rest of the family, don’t ask how she found out, but she did and then insisted that you be here.”

With Heaths arms around her, Heather and Heath joined the rest of the family on the porch.

“Welcome home everybody” Victoria began “Jarrod” And kissed her first-born.

“Hello Mother” Jarrod bent down and kissed his mothers cheek then kissed Audra’s “Hello honey”

Audra grabbed Jarrod into a hug “ Welcome home Jarrod”

“Nick” Victoria continued reaching to give her second born a kiss and hug.

“Mother, Audra, boy its good to be home” Nick also in turn kissed his mother and sister.

“Heath” Victoria continued on to the man who had become her third son “We missed you all, the ranch was quite without you”

“Hello Mother” Heath too bent down and kissed Victoria’s cheek. “Hi Audra” Heath almost fell as Audra flew into his arms. “Hey I missed you too little sis”

From where she stood slightly to the left of the main group Heather observed this family reunion. She could feel the love and warmth the group expressed for each other. They all truly cared for each other.

It shocked her at first when Heath had called Victoria Barkley ‘Mother ’and yet at the same time it felt right, as if their own mama was watching and approved. Heather knew that it would take time for her to finally address Victoria as ‘Mother’ but when the time came she also knew that Victoria would be pleased and happy, and it would feel right.

Heath was again by her side, this time leading towards Victoria and Audra.

“Mother Audra, allow me to present my twin sister Heatherleah Thomson, Heather this our stepmother Victoria Barkley and our younger sister Audra”

Victoria looked at the girl standing next to Heath and was amazed. She was definitely a Barkley, Heather as far as Victoria could tell looked exactly like her husband Tom’s sister Maureen except for the blue/green eyes. Maureen Barkley had been dead for a number of years now, but Heather looked like Maureen when Victoria had first met her.

“Welcome Heather” Victoria embraced her new daughter,” “Welcome home”

Startled by the embrace Heather’s first thought was to pull out of it and run. Then slowly as she allowed herself to relax, Heather began to get a warm feeling, she could sense that the was no ill will or malice. Victoria Barkley was genuinely welcoming her, wanting her to be there with them. It was the kind of feeling that Heather hadn’t had since her birth mother died. When Leah had held her in her arms for the last time, and told her daughter how much she loved her.

“Thank-you Mrs Barkley.” Heather finally managed to say, “ I’m please to finally meet you, Heath has told me much about you”

“Has he indeed?” Victoria glanced at Heath. Heath in turn showed them all why his twin called him ‘Blusher” by turning bright red and looking at the ground “And just what has he being saying? On second thought don’t answer that just yet we’ll talk about it later in private”

Now it was Heather who turned red, she hadn’t wanted to embarrass her brother; she just wanted to be polite to her stepmother.

Audra who had been patiently waiting for her turn to greet Heather broke into the silence with “Welcome home big sister”

That too caught Heather off guard; it had never entered her mind before that she would ever be another girl’s big sister. Funny she’d always wondered what it would be like to have a little sister of her own; now that she did it would take a little adjusting to.

“Thank-you too little sister” Heather smiled at Audra.

“Come on everybody lets go inside Silas has I’m sure something hot to drink ready for us” Victoria waved her arms toward the door indicating everybody to go inside.

“Mother” Jarrod began “It’s been a long journey and I’m sure Heather would like to freshen up and maybe change” He nodded his head toward the parlour.

“Right” Victoria caught on at once, her sons wanted to speak privately to her, something had happened on this trip and they wanted to update her on it.

“Audra, would you mind showing Heather to her room?”

“Not at all Mother, Heather, this way”

“I’ll catch up with in a minute” Heath followed the girls to the stairs. Just in time too has Heathers back and legs gave out on her. “Its ok Baby-girl I’ve got you” With one hand on Heathers arm and the other around her waist he led her up the stairs and into the room Audra indicated.

Victoria, Jarrod and Nick watched as the three youngest members of the family disappeared up the stairs. From the looks on both of her boys faces Victoria knew that they were both enchanted with their new sister.

“Alright Jarrod, Nick what happened on your trip that caused the delay in all of you getting home?”

Between the two of them Nick and Jarrod described their arrival in Gault, what the sheriff told them about the raiders and the massacre at the McAdams place.

“And Heather?” Victoria asked, looking up the stairs to the Heather’s room.

“Safe and in a secret basement, I think the plan was Mrs McAdams was to have joined her there, but neither she nor McAdams made it, we found them both in the yard along with two of their hired hands all had been shot once in the chest.” Jarrod explained, “Heather didn’t see anything but heard all of it”

“Any idea who did this?”

“Heather identified the supposed leader of the raiders as a man named ‘Barons’ he posed as a horse buyer snooped around the place and then we think came back and well..” Nick’s eyes darkened as he mentioned ‘Barons’

“After we got her out of the basement she had a small cry, but I don’t think she’s really let herself grieve yet and of course we left Gault straight after the funeral” Jarrod wrapped up the situation.

Heath rejoined his mother and brothers.

“How is she Heath?” Victoria asked.

“A little tired, Audra’s still up there with her, as I left Audra was muttering something about going into Stockton tomorrow and..”

“Going shopping” The others finished, they all knew Audra too well.

Upstairs Heather was staggered. The room Audra had shown her to was massive, even the room she had at the McAdams ranch wasn’t as big as this one was.

“Here we are” Audra opened the door and ushered Heather in.

“This is mine?” It was the biggest bedroom Heather had ever seen, there was the sleeping area, a second area with a writing table, a book case and still plenty of room for her to set up her easel and painting stuff.

“Yes, I know it’s a little bare at the moment, but once you unpack and get your things sorted out it’ll begin to feel like home”

Heather just nodded, she didn’t have that much really, just her clothes, her drawing books and paints, one photo of herself with Mark and Laura the day Mark gave her Silverfire Lady and the only treasured photo she had of her mama.

I’m so glad you decided to come and live with us” Audra said pulling Heather into a hug “I’ve always wanted a sister, of course I always thought a little sister, but an older sister is just as good”

“Thanks Audra” Heather returned the hug with just as much vigour “ I’ve also longed for a younger sister and now I have one its like a dream come true”

“Tell you what how about tomorrow I take you into Stockton and we go shopping? I could also show you around and then maybe we can persuade Jarrod to buy us lunch”

It sounded like fun and Heather agreed.

Any further plans Audra may have had were put on hold, as there was a knock at the door. Heather opened it to reveal Victoria Barkley standing there.

“Mrs Barkley, please come in”

“Thank-you Heather, I just wanted to make sure everything was alright”

“Yes, thank-you ma'am everything is fine” Heather replied “Audra and I were just planning a little trip into Stockton tomorrow”

“I was just going to take Heather shopping Mother” Audra explained “Maybe see if we could get something for the Ball”

“That’s fine Audra, mind if I join you?” Victoria asked.

“No Mother not at all”

“Ball?” Heather asked, nobody had mentioned anything about a ball to her.

“Yes the Orphan’s Ball were we raise money for our local orphanage” Audra explained, “Mother and I are on the organizing committee”

“Oh well” Heathers mind reasoned “If it’s for the orphans” Out loud she said “Okay but I won’t be much in the way of a good dancing partner for anybody”

“That’s settled then” Victoria took charge “Now Audra if you’ll excuse us I’d like to talk to Heather alone for a while, I think your brothers are still downstairs somewhere maybe you could have a few hands of cards with them”

Audra nodded and left.

“Please sit down Mrs Barkley” Heather indicated to the only chair in the room, while she sat on the bed.

Ignoring the chair, Victoria sat beside Heather on the bed.

“The boys told me about Gault and what happened I’m very sorry”

“Thank-you”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Victoria gently prodded “I’m a good listener”

With the tears again welling in her eyes, Heather began. “They were good people Mrs Barkley, Mark and Laura were good to me and to Heath. After the accident they looked after me, paid for the doctors I was only his assistant and Laura’s part time maid, they could’ve easily got somebody to replace me but no they kept me on, found a way for me to move around after I was able to get out of bed. They kept Heath on well after all the work was completed, so we could be together. Mark loved horses, he was good with them, they were his passion, And Laura she loved her garden, she won trophy’s at the local fairs for her roses. Why? Why did he have to kill them?”

Victoria opened her arms and pulled Heather to her, holding onto her as Heather cried her eyes out.

It was a good ten minutes later when Heather finally cried herself out. By then Victoria’s right shoulder was wet with tears.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cry all over you” She apologized wiping the last of the tears from her eyes.

“Don’t be sorry .Do you honestly imaging that this is first time either of my shoulder have been used to cry against by either of my daughters?”

“Daughters? But you have just the one daughter Audra”

“Well now I have two, one named Audra and one named Heather. And I challenge anybody to say anything different.”

Heather looked deep into Victoria’s eyes and saw the love there. On impulse she reached out and hugged Victoria “Thank-you” was all she could think of to say at that moment.

“Now” Victoria began when she and Heather parted from the shared embrace “About this Mrs Barkley and Ma’am nonsense. It took your twin about two months before he began to call me Mother and I am not going to go through all that over again. I know it’s hard and you feel it’s a betrayal of Leah, but I would be proud and pleased if you would call me Mother as well”

Heather nodded “ I want to and will, it maybe tomorrow or next week, or even the week after that, please understand it has to be when the time is right”

“I do understand and look forward to the right moment”

Heather reached into the suitcase she’d bought with her and pulled out a large rusty tin box.

“Before she died, mama asked that I give you these” Heather opened the box, pulled out a faded envelope and handed it to Victoria.

Victoria’s heart went to her thoart; the handwriting on the envelope was her husband Tom’s. This must be the letter Leah had told her about that night. Yes there it was in Tom’s handwriting, just as Leah described it. The words of regret that he had hurt Leah by not telling her he was married. The words of love as he described Victoria and the love they shared. The words of pride as he spoke of Jarrod and Nick. And finally the words of hope as he expressed the wish that Leah should get married and have children of her own.

“I was going to ask Jarrod if he would put these in a safe place” Heather handed over two faded documents. “They’re our birth certificates”

“I would be honoured if you and Heath would allow me to put these with the birth certificates of your brothers and sister” Victoria resisted the urge to open the certificates and see if Leah had named Tom as the farther of the twins even though it was perfectly clear just by looking at them both that he was.

“Mama said Tom Barkley gave this to her as he left to come home. It’s almost brand new, I’ve never seen Mama wear it and I think the box has only be opened maybe twice since then. It’s much to grand for a mining town like Strawberry” Heather handed over a small box inside which as a small hair clasp. It was diamond in shape made of solid silver and with a sapphire in the middle to the diamond.

“Sweet-heart I can’t take this it belonged to your mother, so rightly it’s now yours” Victoria handed the clasp back. “Wear it with pride to the ball in two nights time”

Finally Heather pulled out two well kept books.

“Even before we were born, Mama couldn’t really afford the sort of things other parents had for their babies. Rachel and Hannah, Heath has mentioned Rachel and Hannah to you hasn’t he?” Heather waited as Victoria nodded yes. “Well Rachel and Hannah bought these so Mama would have sort of a baby record book for each of us. Between the three of them they recorded everything that happened to both of us up until we turned seven. The time of our births, our first steps, first words, locks of our baby hair and a picture of each of us again until we were seven. Mama always put aside money so that once a year we could have a photo taken on our birthday.”

Heather closed the tin for the last time and replaced it in the empty suitcase.

Victoria held the record books with great care and reverence. They would be her bedtime reading tonight.

“Heather what happened when you both turned seven?”

Let me ask you a question if I may?” Victoria nodded.

“How much of our life before in Strawberry has Heath told you about?”

“ Just that he worked in the mines, joined the army towards the end of the war, and mentioned briefly something about an Uncle and Aunt”

Heathers eyes flashed green again, it surprised Victoria a little, “Matt and Martha Simmons, the less said about those two the better.” The tone behind the works was bitter and angry.

At the mention of her Aunt and Uncle, Heather’s left shoulder and upper arm began to ache and twitch, instinctively she rubbed the spot and tried to bury the memory.

“Is everything alright?”

Heather turned to Victoria and smiled “Yes thank-you just laying a ghost to rest” Heather quickly changed the subject. “When we were seven. Mama was sick around the time we turned seven so we both found a job to try and help out as much as possible. That’s when Heath started in the mines as a charge boy.”

And what about you?” Victoria almost didn’t want to hear the answer. It sickened her to think of either one of the twins working in the mines at that age. They both should’ve been out playing doing the things that children of that age should, not planting charges.

“No not me, they drew the line at allowing girl-children in the mines. I got a job in the laundry of Aunt Martha’s hotel.” Heather closed her eyes, wishing the memories of those days to the furthest corner of her mind. How she hated Aunt Martha and the way Martha Simmons treated her. But that story could be told later. “ I worked for Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt for about a year then I couldn’t take it anymore so I left and found another job in another laundry in one of the bigger houses in Strawberry. That job led to a job as kitchen hand, then housemaid, then finally personal-maid to the lady of the house. When they moved to Gault I went with them, they moved back to the east, I didn’t want to go with them so they recommended me to Laura McAdams and that’s were I stayed until..”

“ Yesterday” Victoria finished. By the fading of her voice Victoria could tell that the subject was coming to a close, as Heather was spent. “ I k now how hard that was for you and I thank-you for sharing it with me, when you’re ready please join us downstairs.”

As she rose to leave Victoria’s heart soared with joy as she heard the words.

“Thank-you for listening Mother”

Nick whistled as he entered the stable, it was mid morning the second day after they had gotten back from Gault.

It was also the day of the Orphans Ball. Victoria and Audra were in Stockton going over final preparations for the evening. Before she’d left Victoria had ordered that none of her sons venture more then half a mile from the house. An order meant to be obeyed. All this because, due to ranch problems last year he was a little late getting home, therefore causing the family to be about half an hour late.

“But Mother” Nick had protested at breakfast. “There’s a lot of work to be done”

“Nicholas, delegate the work, hold it over until tomorrow, but under no circumstances will this family be late tonight of all nights” Victoria decreed. She caught a small smirk on Heaths face. “And that goes for you to young man”

It was now Nick’s turn to smirk, as Heath blushed and said “Yes Mother”

“Don’t even think that this also doesn’t mean you either Jarrod” Victoria spoke before even a hint of a smirk could finds it’s way across Jarrod’s face.

Victoria had spoken.

With his mothers instructions still ringing in his ears all he planned to do was take Coco out for a little exercise, maybe a little snooze under one of the trees at the little lake not far away, then returning to fight with the rest of his siblings about first use of the bathroom.

The last person he expected to see in the stable was Heather. But there she was sitting on a hay bale concentrating on her sketchbook.

Heather heard the footsteps and looked up from the sketch of Audra’s horse Golden Girl that she was working on.

“Hey Little Sister, that’s pretty good, it almost looks like a horse” No sooner were the words out then Nick found himself ducking as the sketch book was swung in his direction.

“Anymore remarks like that and you’ll never see a sketch of any kind featuring your horse” Was the cheeky reply. “Speaking of which, Nicholas Barkley you never did introduce me to that handsome gentleman” Heather indicated to Coco.

“Well then I’d better fix that hadn’t I” With a gleam in his eye, Nick held out his hand to Heather, helped her up and walked with her to Coco’s stall. “Heatherleah Barkley meet Coco, Coco this is my new sister Heather, be very good and you may never end up in her sketchbook” Nick reached over the stall gate and patted Coco’s neck.

Heather just glared at Nick “May I?”

“Sure”

Heather reached up and stroked Coco’s muzzle and neck “He’s lovely and I love the colour variation between the coat and the mane, very unusual. Are you sure I can’t draw him?”

“Any time you wish Baby-girl”

Nick took her to each of the other stalls introducing the rest of the family horses. Charger and Jingo she had seen before, Audra’ Golden Girl as well. The next horse in line was Victoria’s Autumn Mist.

“And this stall” Nick indicated to the empty one at the end of the line “Is reserved for a special horse that hasn’t yet arrived.”

Heather looked puzzled.

“This one is for a little horse named Silverfire Lady we’ve never seen her but from all reports she’s one special little horse.”

Heather smiled at Nick, the same half smile half grin that he’d become used to seeing on Heath.

Nicks mood became serious again as he remember that morning at the breakfast table when the brothers made their plans to head to Gault, what he wanted to say to Heather.

“Heather we need to talk about something” Nick began; this was not really his strong suit. “I need to apologize to you”

...Continued