Chapter 9

Jarrod made sure he got the orchard sale finalized, money to the lenders both for the debt on the orchard and the payments Henry had coming due this month, the lien released, the papers filed – everything that needed to be done to get Henry some decent breathing room. By the time he was finished, he was out of breath himself, and it was very late before he got home. He expected everyone would have gone to bed, but there was Audra, alone in the living room, in her robe and slippers and staring at a dying fire in the fireplace.

She looked up when he came in. "Jarrod?" she called.

Jarrod put his hat down on the table in the foyer and came to her. "Well, what are you still doing up? You should be very tired."

"I am, but I can't sleep," Audra said.

Jarrod sat down beside her on the settee and took her hand. "Why not? What's got you worried?"

"Will Marvin," Audra said flatly.

"Aw, honey, Will's a man now, he can take care of himself," Jarrod said. "He's not the boy who had trouble dealing with Therese."

"I suppose he isn't," Audra said, "but he's still off somewhere alone."

"We'll go get him if we have to, as soon as we find out where he is, and the law and Pinkerton are looking. We'll find him."

"I'm afraid we'll find him just for him to learn we've bought his father's ranch out from under him," Audra said.

It was obvious from her tone that Audra did not like that idea. Jarrod was hoping no one said anything to her about putting the ranch in her name, but he wasn't sure. His mind rolled over with what to say to her now. "Better us than the banks or some strangers buying the place at bankruptcy, Audra," he ended up saying. "Don't you think?"

"I suppose," she said. "I just wish we could find some solution that would let Mr. Marvin keep the property."

Jarrod sighed. "He made some bad business choices, Audra. He got into too much debt. Now, maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I like to think where Will's gone is somewhere to make some money for him."

They were interrupted by a knock on the door – an urgent knock.

"I wonder who that could be?" Jarrod said, getting up and heading for the door.

He opened it to Henry Marvin, who held a telegram in his hand and came right in. "Jarrod – Jarrod – it's from Will. I've heard from Will, tonight, just an hour ago. I tried to find you in town but you were gone – "

Henry saw Audra as Jarrod took the telegram and read it. Henry started down into the living room, and Jarrod suddenly felt alarmed. Henry didn't know that they hadn't said anything to her about his ranch going into her name. Jarrod looked, wondering how Henry was going to approach his sister.

Audra stood up, looking both distressed and hopeful. "You've heard from Will? Where is he? Is he coming home?"

"He's up near Placerville," Henry said as Jarrod joined him and Audra. "Audra, it's good to see you, welcome home, but you can't believe how worried I've been about Will."

"Yes, I can believe it," Audra said. "What does he say? Is he coming home?"

"He doesn't say," Jarrod said. "He just says not to worry. He's found a job."

"He's found a job?"

"But now we know where he is!" Henry said. "We can go get him!"

Jarrod thought quickly. "No, Henry, not you. Not the law and not Pinkerton either. This needs to be personal, but you're not up to traveling up there. Nick and Heath and I will go get him. We'll leave first thing in the morning."

Henry said, "I know it won't save my ranch, but if I can get Will back home, it'll help so much I won't even mind if Audra here gets the ranch."

"What?" Audra said.

Jarrod looked awkwardly at both Henry and Audra. "Henry, we hadn't yet discussed it with Audra, whether the ranch would be hers alone or not."

"Mine?" Audra said, as if she were swallowing castor oil at the same time. "Mr. Marvin, I don't want your ranch! Nobody's said anything at all to me about taking your ranch!"

"It's just something we've been thinking about, Audra," Jarrod said. "Henry, I accomplished everything I needed to today. Your creditors will be off your back for at least another month, and the orchard land is now Barkley property. What happens to your ranch now, we have time to discuss, and we have time to get Will back to discuss it – IF he stays put where he is."

"Just please go get him!" Henry said.

Jarrod nodded. "First thing in the morning, Henry. We'll be out of here first thing."

"Please, Jarrod, please," Henry pleaded.

Jarrod nodded. "First thing in the morning. Now, you go home and get some sleep. We'll be in touch as soon as we get to Placerville."

Henry went home, leaving Jarrod and Audra alone, Audra standing there in the living room feeling both excited about finding Will – and disgusted about the idea that her family had been thinking about obtaining the Marvin ranch for her. "Why didn't you tell me you were thinking about that ranch for me?" she asked, angry. "The last thing I want to do is take the Marvins' ranch away from them!"

"It wouldn't be you taking it, Audra," Jarrod said, trying to calm her down. "We haven't talked to you about it yet because I've been trying to get Henry some time to think about his whole financial situation, and now I've got it for him."

"But – "

Jarrod interrupted, "But if Henry has to lose the property, we'd rather he lose it to us than to the banks or somebody else in bankruptcy where he wouldn't get enough money out of it to pay his debts."

"But why me? Why would you want me to have it instead of the family?"

"For some security for your future, in case you marry someone who someday has financial problems of his own," Jarrod said. "If you have property in your name before you marry, it's yours and not subject to his debts. That's all this is about – getting Henry out of his debts and possibly getting some future security for you, but nothing's been decided yet. Nothing except that we now own his orchard land that abuts ours. The rest we now have time to talk about, and if we can find Will and get him back here, we'll have time to include him in the discussion."

Audra calmed down a little. Her brother the lawyer made sense – as he almost always did – and he had a grip on the situation – as he almost always ended up having. But, "Jarrod, I don't want to be the owner of their property. I just don't want to be put into that position."

"And we thought you might not," Jarrod said. "It's your decision, but it doesn't have to be made tonight. There's a lot to talk about. Right now, tomorrow morning, the next step we take is Nick and Heath and I go get Will and bring him home. Agreed?"

He took her by the arms, looked into her eyes even though she was hanging her head. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

Audra nodded. "Agreed."

XXXXXX

Jarrod woke his brothers to tell them they'd head for Placerville on the first train out in the morning. "We can bring Will home by train and ship his horse," Jarrod said. "We need to get him back here as soon as we can find him."

Nick was the first one to say, "If he'll come."

Jarrod had to agree. There was an "if" to deal with.

The next day they were on the train to Placerville. It was a long day's travel but they were there before it turned dark. The first place they went was the telegraph office, to talk about the young man who had sent the telegram to Stockton the day before. Luckily, Will had used his own name and the telegraph operator told them, "He said he works at the Sizemore ranch north of town, but you might find him over at the Silver Spur. I've seen him there a lot, playing poker."

"Does he win much?" Nick asked.

"I don't know," the telegraph operator said. "I don't play and don't pay attention to the games."

Jarrod was already on his way out the door. The Silver Spur was a saloon only a few blocks down, and Jarrod had been there once or twice before when work brought him here. Heath and then Nick were right behind him and caught up to him.

"What are we gonna say to him if he's there?" Heath asked as they walked, fast.

"You're gonna let me talk to him," Jarrod said, "and you're not gonna eavesdrop." If Will's being adopted had anything to do with his actions now, Jarrod wanted to be free to talk about it. He couldn't do that with Nick and Heath listening in.

Nick and Heath looked at each other. "Then why did you have us come along?" Nick asked.

"Help," Jarrod said. "If Will doesn't want to come home, I want help convincing him to. And to discourage him taking a swing at me instead. Maybe I can hold my own in a fight with a man close to me in age, but he's a lot younger than I am."

"You think he's gonna balk at us?" Nick asked.

They walked into the Silver Spur – and they saw Will right away, at a table in the back, playing cards. Jarrod said, "Let's find out."