by Pearl
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program
"Big Valley" are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and
have been used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended by the author. The ideas expressed in this story are copyrighted to the author.
This is a short add-on to the end of ‘The Midas
Man’. I also thought people would have
been talking about Audra after her offer to go with Scott Breckenridge got out
.
As Nick and Heath tied their horses up outside
the saloon, Nick said, “I’ll tell you Heath, I don’t know what this valley
would have done had it not finally rained.
That rain made everything better.
The people feel better, the land looks better, why I bet even the beer’s
gonna taste better.” He turned to Heath
with a big grin on his face.
“Well, big brother, why don’t you quit yakking
and let’s get in there and see.”
The saloon was smoky and crowded. It was a typical Saturday night. Heath
noticed the room grew a little quieter when they walked in, but he didn’t think
much of it. Most of the time, a Barkley
entering a room got some kind of reaction, and he was finally getting used to
it.
“Sam, give us two cold ones,” Nick said as he
put money on the bar. He then turned
around and checked the crowd out.
“NICK! HEATH! OVER HERE.” Dave Miller waved
them over to his table.
Nick tapped Heath on the arm, “Come on.”
Heath handed Nick his beer then followed him
to where Dave and a couple of more men were playing cards.
“Why don’t you boys join us? We need a couple of more players,” Dave
invited. Dave Miller was the president
of the First Bank of Stockton. For a
little while on Saturday night was the only time you’d see him in the
saloon. He usually took his drink at The
Cattlemen’s club in the hotel. He made
the excuse that he needed to socialize with all the bank’s customers, but Nick
knew the truth. Once in a while, old
Dave liked to get in the middle of loud music, decorated women and
wildness. Same as he did.
“Well, now Dave, I hope you boys are ready to
kiss your money goodbye, because tonight the Barkley brothers feel lucky. We are going to clean you fellows out,” Nick
said with a smile, and as he sat down, he pulled the chair out for Heath to sit
next to him.
The men at the table looked at each other and
shook their heads. Same old Nick, more
likely it would be Heath that would clean them all out. Once in awhile, someone else would manage to
come away a winner when sitting at the same poker table as Heath, but not very
often, and if it wasn’t so much fun playing with the man, no one would. Whenever Heath was winning, he always pulled
out of the game before anyone lost big.
One time old Jack Thornton lost the money he was in town to buy feed
with to Heath in a poker game. The next
day the feed was on the front porch of the Thornton house. Nothing was ever said, but everyone at the
poker game knew how it got there.
Tonight Nick was having a good night, and was
winning even more than Heath was. Tom
Wilson, a known town drunk, weaved his way over to the poker table. “Well, it looks like there are all kinds of
people in the Barkley family,” Tom slurred.
He looked at the money in front of Nick. “Cheaters.” He looked at Heath, “A daddy’s whelp.”
Heath put his hand on Nick’s arm to keep him
in his seat.
“And now a whore. That little sister of yours...”
Tom didn’t get a chance to finish what he was
going to say. Nick and Heath were both
on him. Dave and the rest of the men
tried to get between the three men.
They managed to get a good hold on the two brothers. Sam, the bartender, shot his rifle straight
up. “Take it outside boys.”
“Nick, Heath, he’s drunk. He doesn’t know what he’s saying,” Dave
reasoned.
“Sure he does.” A man spoke up that Nick recognized as the same man he turned
down for a job the week before because they weren’t hiring. “The whole town does. Everyone has heard how Audra offered herself
to that swindler. Any decent girl would
have never done anything such as that.
I’d say indecency runs in that family.”
“Why you,” Nick snarled.
Heath jaws were clenching again and
again.
“Kind of makes you wonder what kind of blood
the old man really had in him.”
Nick and Heath both broke loose from the hands
holding them and all hell broke loose. When
the fight was over, Fred Madden’s jail was full, and Sam’s saloon was in
shambles.
Jarrod saw his brothers and Dave Miller in one
cell. Tom Wilson and another man, he
didn’t recognize, in the other one.
Each man’s face was sporting colorful bruises, some worse than
others.
“Well, well, well, Nick, you don’t surprise
me. You either Heath, but Dave, this
has to be a first for you,” Jarrod stated.
Fred unlocked the cell holding the three
men.
“It is, but it was necessary, Jarrod,” Dave
confessed.
“Save it, Jarrod,” Nick snarled as he walked
past his older brother.
Jarrod smiled as he followed the men out. He stopped in front of the other cell, “I
didn’t pay your way out.”
* * * * * * * *
“Mother, I’m sorry. I
didn’t think of all the things that could happen from what I did. I just wanted to help.”
“Don’t worry Audra. This family has survived more scandals that this, and it will
again. This will blow over just like it
did when Heath came to us, and we’ll all be stronger for it.”
“Mother, I don’t know how Heath did it. It’s only a few people talking about me for
a little while. He’s had a lifetime of
it. Will it ever end for him?”
“I sometimes wonder myself how he has endured
all he has and remained a wonderful person.
And no, I don’t think it will ever end completely. There will always be someone that will say
something. Audra, when people put
another person down it’s because they want to feel better about themselves, and
the only way they know how is to put someone else down. But dear, no one can put you down unless you
let them. Heath is starting to learn
that, and I want you to learn it also.
So, in the coming weeks, until this talk of you dies down, keep your
head up. Be proud of who you are. You know what really happened between you
and Scott Breckenridge, so don’t let anyone make you feel you are less because
of it.”
“Thank you, Mother. I will think of Heath when someone talks about me. He is my inspiration.”
Victoria smiled as she watched her daughter
climb the staircase. She walked into
the library to Tom’s portrait and spoke to him as she often did. “Tom, we have some fine children. All of them.”