Chapter 11
June 1872
"No," Jarrod said. How many times did he say that in the course of a day? Was there ever any fifteen-year-old girl as headstrong and wild as his little sister? Did she ever want to do anything that he could say yes to?
"It's just over to the Wheeler ranch – " she started to protest.
"The Wheeler ranch is too far for you to go alone, so don't you try it," Jarrod said, trying to finish some contracts for shipping the fruit to be picked soon and ride herd on Audra at the same time.
Eugene, not yet fourteen, came in on the conversation. "I can ride with her."
"No," Jarrod said. "Audra's too young to go that far, even with you, and Nick has everybody out moving that new cattle in with the herd so there's no one available to ride with you. You stay on the property. That's final."
"Father would have let me go," Audra said.
"He would not have, so don't pull that line on me!" Jarrod said more firmly, even pointing his pen at her for emphasis. "Why don't you both go out to the north ridge? Gene, you can see if you can be of any help to Nick. He might even have something you can help with at the chuck wagon, Audra. If you want to ride somewhere, ride there. Do something useful."
Jarrod went back to his contracts. Audra huffed, "Sometimes I wish you'd never come home from the war!" and she and Eugene left.
Jarrod gave them a wary eye as they left. Yes, she thought she meant that, but she pulled it out so often that she really didn't mean it. It had just become her go to comeback when Jarrod would not let her do what she wanted to do.
Victoria came in a couple minutes later, carrying coffee and saying, "I told her 'no' too."
Now twenty-nine, Jarrod was already past the age he should have been married and having his own family, but the war and his education and his work and his family obligations had kept him pretty much occupied and, lately, pretty much anchored to the ranch. Not that he hadn't given courting and marriage a lot of thought. Not that he hadn't been thinking about ways to meet that certain young woman to steal his heart. He'd been thinking about that for half his life now. It was just that so many other things had always come first.
Right now, coffee was coming first. He put his pen down and joined his mother on the sofa. She had already poured a cup for him and she handed it to him, saying, "I used to think that you and Nick had the hardest heads in the Barkley family, but Audra has you both beat."
"You don't think she'll go sneaking off to the Wheeler ranch against our wishes, do you?" Jarrod asked and sipped coffee.
"If she does, it's your knee she'll get turned over. You scare her more than I do."
Jarrod chuckled. "I doubt that's true, but I'll do the turning if it comes to that."
"I know you have your plate full with the regular work and the railroad, but I do appreciate how you've helped with the children. It's been tough since your father died."
"Of course it has," Jarrod said. "Even they understand that. They've been going a bit easy on you and taking it out on me instead, and that's all right, but they're probably going to ease off on the grace period and start giving you more problems as time goes on."
"Oh, I know. I can see it already. Besides, you need to be thinking more about your own life – your own family life, not just your career."
"Well," Jarrod said, "I don't disagree with you, but there's still a lot to keep me busy here. Nick is doing spectacularly in running the ranch and the family business, but he does still need a helping hand now and then."
"I wish Eugene were a bit older. A younger brother he can teach about the ranch is exactly what Nick needs, but Eugene is still too young. Maybe in another three or four years."
"Mother, I don't know if you've noticed, but Gene doesn't exactly have a rancher's temperament. He's more like me. It might be me taking him under my wing, not Nick."
"Well, if that happens, then it happens. Or if he wants something else entirely, that's fine too. Now, talk to me some more about your plans to open an office in town."
Jarrod raised an eyebrow. "How did you know about that?"
"When I was in town yesterday, Mr. Price asked me if you'd made up your mind on that office space yet. When were you going to tell me?"
"When I made up my mind. Having an office in town will help with the work I see coming at court."
"Railroad?"
"They'll be back again, Mother. My contacts in San Francisco have told me that they've been increasing their lobbying efforts in Sacramento. They want to run a new line in the valley."
"Are you considering going back to work for that firm in San Francisco?"
"No," Jarrod said, and Victoria was surprised. He added, "But once I get settled in Stockton, I am thinking about opening my own office in San Francisco."
Now she was really surprised, and not all that happy about it.
Jarrod said, "If things heat up with the railroad again, I'll need to be closer to the people making it heat up. But San Francisco is probably a year or more away. I will open the office in Stockton, within the next month. I intend to broaden my practice, take on clients from town. But I'll still be here to do the family business and help you with Audra and Eugene."
"Have you discussed any of this with Nick yet?"
"No. I'm hoping he'll still let me live here," Jarrod said with a chuckle.
Their father had bequeathed all of his real property to Nick, with a life estate to Victoria so that she would always live at the mansion. But while the income from the family businesses was shared among them all, Jarrod, Audra and Eugene lived here solely with Nick's permission. Victoria didn't worry much that he might withdraw that, at least not where Audra and Eugene were concerned, but there were times Nick and Jarrod nearly came to blows. Even though Jarrod was laughing about it, Victoria had wondered once or twice when arguments got extreme if Nick was about to throw Jarrod out.
Jarrod saw her concern. "Don't worry, Mother. Nick won't kick me out. He's not ready to be father to the kids and share your decision making about them. And if he does give me the heave-ho, I'll soon have some nice office space in Stockton to call home."
Victoria heaved a sigh. "I suppose, if you take on new clients, it might lead to me finally having a daughter-in-law and grandchildren."
Jarrod laughed harder. "It very well might, Mother."
"When will you tell Nick about opening a Stockton office?"
"When the deal is finalized."
"He might get angry."
"Nick gets angry about anything that changes. We'll be all right."
Nick was angry all right. When Jarrod told him he'd be opening an office in town and spending more time there, Nick all but blew up. "You told me you would be here to help out with the ranch and the kids!"
"And I will be," Jarrod said calmly, "assuming you still let me live here."
"Why in the world do you want to open an office in town? You have everything you need to take care of our legal affairs here."
"But I'm not earning any money here, Nick," Jarrod said. "I need to bring in some capital of my own, other than what the family businesses bring me. I need to expand the kind of law I practice. Someday I may want to move on. I'm nearly thirty, Nick. I need to get my own life in order."
Nick still glared. "So how do you picture this happening?"
"I'll spend several days a week in the office in town, taking on new clients. I'll spend the rest of the time out here, looking after the family and doing the work I've been doing. It'll work out, Nick."
"All right, but I want the same deal you gave Father. If what you're doing in town keeps you from doing what I need you to do, I want the right to call you back."
Jarrod wondered, but he said, "All right, but if we disagree on that, Mother gets to arbitrate and decide which of us is right."
That surprised Nick, but he gave it a thought. "All right. I'll go for it, if Mother does."
When they asked Victoria, she nodded right away. "I've already been arbitrating your arguments since your father died. I'll arbitrate on this, too."
"All right," Nick said. "All right. Open your office."
Nick left, heading for the kitchen. Victoria smiled at Jarrod a bit. "This will be good for him, too. He's leaned on you a bit too much. Now he'll have to handle more things without you."
"He'll be fine," Jarrod said. "He really doesn't need me."
"Well, you never know what's going to happen in life, but you're right, he'll be fine no matter what. He's a fine man. And so are you. I'm proud of you both."
Jarrod gave her a kiss. "Thank you, Lovely Lady."