Me and Lucian and the Gun

1877

Chapter 1

If Nick Barkley had one magnificent fault, it was his unshakable belief that he could charm any beautiful woman who turned his head into believing that he was as desirable as a man could be. To his credit, his attempts to impress a woman were never insincere, never based on a desire to "love her and leave her." When Nick took the plunge, it wasn't with conquest on his mind. It was with a true desire to know the woman, to understand her, to treat her like a lady and to find out if she was the one he could spend his life with. Because for all his "he'll chase any pretty face" reputation, he was not a Lothario, or a cad. He was a gentleman, looking to fall genuinely in love with a gentlewoman.

His romantic efforts usually did not work out, though. The most dreadful relationship was the one he had fallen into with Hester Converse, who was completely wrong for him, who came between him and Heath. A horrible time that took Nick a long time to recover from. But recover he did, and he became Nick again.

Even his brothers, who never passed up a chance to razz him about his constant interest in the latest beautiful woman to hit town, knew that he was not just playing around. Nick just hadn't found that right woman yet, and he was not about to give up no matter how many women turned him down flat or broke his heart after at first looking promising. Both Jarrod and Heath knew that Nick was a true believer in himself, convinced that he could charm this next one into seeing what a catch he really was. To Nick, the next one could be the one, no matter how many times she turned out not to be the one. Nick would not give up his search until he found her, the woman he was meant to be with. He'd search until he was old and gray if he had to.

His brothers were with him on the street in Stockton when he spotted "the next one," a beautiful woman, not a girl, coming out of the bank that he, Jarrod and Heath were about to go into. She was tall, blonde, trim in the waist and dressed in a lovely light blue gown that said she was a woman of taste, and means. She was alone. To Nick, that signaled it was time to say hello, and the fact that she had just dropped a piece of paper was all the incentive he needed.

"Excuse me just a moment, boys," he said to his brothers and followed the woman as she walked away from the bank.

Jarrod and Heath stood by the front of the bank, grinning. "What do you think?" Jarrod said. "A 'thank you' when he gives her what she dropped and then she walks away?"

Nick was scooping up the dropped paper as Heath said, "I'm not betting with you anymore, not about Nick and his women. You get it right too often."

They stayed to watch as Nick caught up to her, taking his hat off, saying, "Excuse me."

She stopped and turned.

Nick held out the piece of paper. "You just dropped this," he said and bowed slightly.

"Oh, thank you," she said, but she didn't turn to go. "Mr. - ?"

"Barkley," Nick said. "Nick Barkley."

"You're that rancher from just outside town here," she said.

"I am," Nick said. "And you're new in town. I know I haven't seen you before."

She offered her hand, and as Nick took it she said, "I'm Ellen Penn."

"I'm pleased to meet you," Nick said. Then he tried to figure out if she was married, without actually asking. "Have you come here to be with family?"

"No, actually, I came because I'm buying an interest in that bank." She pointed to the bank, where Jarrod and Heath still stood waiting.

Now Nick was impressed. "A bank? That's quite an investment."

Ellen Penn said, "I come from Chicago. My late husband left me a sizable interest in a bank there, and I sold it and decided to look into reinvesting here in the west. San Francisco is a bit too rich for my blood, but Stockton is worth looking into."

Her late husband. Nick said, "I'm sorry you lost your husband, but I'm glad you've found your way to Stockton. Consider me your guide when you need one."

She smiled, a lovely smile. "Thank you, Mr. Barkley. I just might do that."

"You should have taken me on," Jarrod said to Heath as Nick put his hat back on and returned to them, while Ellen Penn kept on going down the street. "It looks like you'd have won the bet this time."

Nick rejoined them with a very pleased look on his face. "Ellen Penn," he said. "A widow from Chicago, a widow who inherited an interest in a bank in Chicago and is looking to invest in this one."

"Wow, that's a lot of information for one little conversation," Heath said.

"She knew my name," Nick said. "She knew I own a ranch."

"So, you quickly found out you have money in common," Jarrod said.

"What I found out is that she is a gracious lady of independent means," Nick said.

"Just your type," Heath said.

Nick chuckled wickedly. "Just eat your hearts out, boys, and move faster next time."

As they went into the bank together, Jarrod brought up the rear, and gave a look down the street to where Ellen Penn was still walking away. But then she looked over her shoulder, back toward him, then away again as she kept on going.

What was that about? Jarrod wondered. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was just looking back Nick's way. Maybe he was just being overprotective of his younger brother again. But something about the woman and the way she just looked at him struck Jarrod in the curiosity bone and for a moment he wondered, Do I know her?

XXXXXXX

Nick's disastrous engagement to Hester Converse had affected Jarrod and Heath in different ways. It had happened when Heath was still new to the family, and getting too close to Hester – even though it was Hester's idea and not his - on that family camping trip had caused Nick's jealousy to explode. The resulting fight between the two new brothers ended up with Nick seriously injured and laid up for weeks with a damaged back, not to mention a broken engagement and a broken heart. Heath's approach these days was to stay as far away from Nick's potential love interests as he could.

Jarrod, on the other hand, had the opposite reaction. He had felt like he carried some kind of responsibility for Nick since the day Nick was born. It was a solemn duty Jarrod's four-year-old self took on as his first "big boy" job, and even if reality, as he had grown older, caused him to let go of some of that sense of duty, he still carried a residual "look out for Nick" philosophy, deep inside him. He hadn't gone on that family camping trip, being too busy with his legal work, but he had seen the seriousness of the effects of that outing when everyone got home. Jarrod's reaction was to pay more attention to the women Nick began to pay attention to. Not right away, only when it started to look like it was getting serious, or as in this case with Ellen Penn, Jarrod felt a particular pang of "look out for Nick."

Still, this time, Jarrod did nothing with the pang, not yet, even if he couldn't shake the nagging feeling her backward glance to him on the street had given him. Not even that Saturday evening when Nick came down from his day in the field not dressed for a casual dinner with the family, but dressed to the nines in his best deep blue suit, good dress shirt, and carefully shined dress boots.

"Well, well," Jarrod said, coming through the front door from town as Nick reached the bottom of the stairs. "This doesn't look like a relaxing evening at home."

"Nope," Nick said, checking his tie in the mirror. "I am taking Ellen Penn to dinner."

Jarrod raised an eyebrow. "I didn't even know you had seen her again since we ran into her near the bank."

"I've talked to her twice," Nick said, "and yes, she is buying that share of the bank and looking for a home here in Stockton. She's still at the hotel for the moment. I plan to suggest to her tonight that she let me help her find a suitable place to live."

"That's very gallant of you," Jarrod said. "What else have you found out about the young lady?"

"Not a lot. She's not the Saturday night dance type of girl – more the 'take me to the best restaurant in town' type of woman. She came here from Chicago after her husband died and she made some money on the part ownership of a bank there he left her. She wanted to try San Francisco, but the big city was too expensive for her, so she came here."

Nick eyed his older brother. While he didn't always know about the things Jarrod had going on behind the scenes that concerned his, Nick's, welfare, he could tell now that Jarrod had a suspicious eye.

"What's bothering you about her?" Nick asked flat out.

"Nothing, nothing," Jarrod said, not ready yet to say he thought he might know her because he didn't know for sure that he did and he had not done any checking up on her yet. "She's very beautiful. It's just that none of us has even met her yet."

"Well, I intend to make a suggestion about that tonight, too," Nick said. "I've asked Mother if I might invite her to dinner come Friday night, so you can all get the chance to talk to her. BUT – no cross examination, Big Brother."

Jarrod raised his right hand, palm outward. "No cross examination, I promise."

"You do tend to get awful bossy sometimes, you know."

"I know, and I'm trying to reform," Jarrod said. "Your lady friends are your business."

"Just keep remembering that," Nick said and headed for the front door.

Jarrod really did try to remember it. So far, he had resisted the temptation to contact Pinkerton about her. He decided right now that he would stay out of Nick's way, at least until he had the chance to meet Ellen at dinner come Friday night. After that, he'd have to see what, if anything, he was going to do, and what, if anything, he was going to say to Nick about it.

You are a sneaky lawyer rat, Barkley, and sometimes I think this family of yours ought to throw you out on your ear, Jarrod said to himself. Then he shook his head and put the thought of Nick and Ellen away until he at least met her.