Chapter Two
Nick and Heath walked out of the meeting room with smiles on their faces. Crown and Jordan just stared back at them.
"Come on, Nick. It's not worth it." Heath tugged on his elbow.
Nick put on his black dress hat, pulled his vest down slowly, and doffed his hat at the railroad men. He was set on making an exit to remember. "Have a nice day." as he made direct eye contact with both of them. Then he strode out in characteristic Nick style. He wished he was wearing his spurs.
The clerk announced that the parcel of land formerly belonging to Benson Oil was sold. "Next parcel…"
"How the hell? We didn't even get to make an offer. There is no way the Barkleys could outbid the Western Coastal. No way".
"I agree, Crown. Find out how they did it."
"We will stop it one way or another. I will be damned if the Barkleys win this one."
Nick literally whooped when he got upstairs to their suite. "Pour me a drink Kaaaataarinnna! We are going to celebrate." and he grabbed his beautiful wife and danced her around the room.
Heath went immediately to telegraph Jarrod that they owned the land grant and it was paid in full. He would send confidential details by rail message delivery.
Elizabeth Beaufort closed the door and exhaled in her makeshift office in the hotel chambers. She poured a glass of mineral water and nibbled on some cheese and crackers. She allowed herself a smile and literally plopped down on the chair.
Since she had taken over management duties of the shipping company after the untimely deaths of her father and brother, she had learned to put her feelings aside. The amount of loss in her life would overtake her if she let it. She couldn't let that happen. Staying busy and productive was the best way she knew to keep her feelings at bay. She had a daughter and a sister at home. They were all she had left of her family now.
She had started the process to sell the Bermuda lines to a British investor. She needed a clean start to be able to raise Cameilla and usher Isabella into her own life.
She didn't like who she was in Bermuda. The morose cloud would hang over her in the family home. Sometimes she would cry herself to sleep in the guest cottage. She would get so sad and cynical. She didn't want to be that person. She had a beautiful daughter and sister to care about. That was what was important. There were still people gossiping about her there too. When Papa or John was alive, that never happened to her knowledge but without a man to protect her...
She thought back to her meeting with the Barkleys. They seemed like very good men, the way John had always described Jarrod. Heath and Nick had made her laugh at their very first meeting. Jarrod Barkley was somewhat of a legend in her family.
Her oldest brother, John, had served in the war with Jarrod. First in the intelligence service then he followed him to the Buffalo Soldiers as his aide. John would regal his young sisters with stories of the heroic Jarrod. Papa had even met Jarrod several times when John got rare leave. The Californian had saved John's life at least twice in his opinion. Once in a surprise raid from the Rebs and one he never wanted to discuss. They parted ways at the end of the war and lost track of each other.
When John was dying last year, he often called out in his morphine haze for Jarrod, needing to apologize for something having to do with a woman. John was a lady's man like their father. No telling what happened. Elizabeth asked him when he was lucid. He seemed embarrassed and mortified that he mentioned Julia; he just reintegrated that Jarrod Barkley was the finest man he ever knew. And he had saved him a fate worse than death.
So today when she saw the name, Barkley on the register. She had to check and a local attorney working for her filled her in. Jarrod Barkley, a widower lived in New York; the family-ran ranch in Stockton wanted land for farmers and cattle and water and not for profit….He was a good, honest attorney who worked for the common man.
That made her smile...almost two years in management of her family's business had left her jaded and cynical...it would be welcome to do a nice turn today….a thank you to a man and his family that saved her brother's life … a good deed!
Scripture says, But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and behold, all things are clean unto you.
The Barkleys didn't need alms but she needed to be made clean.
So for one silver dollar, she sold the land grant to Jarrod Barkley's family. It was hers and she could do what she wanted with it. She wanted to laugh like a girl again. It had been so long since she was impulsive that she had almost forgotten how.
Crown and Jordan drew a blank… the auction house agreement allowed the property to be sold for any amount accepted by the seller. One always assumed the highest bidder… They had not been able to ascertain the purchase price. That would be filed with the deed in the next sixty days. The owner herself had signed off on the deal. That was all the information they could find out initially.
A week later, Jarrod received the information on the land grant from Heath. He had been baffled all week when no requests for bank drafts had been received by his office. He was in court most of the week challenging some of the new monopoly banking legislation for his wealthy client but he kept watch for a financial transfer request.
If he was honest with himself, he missed pro-Bono work or legislation to help the common man. But that was not the norm in power-hungry New York City nor did it increase the Barkley holdings. His firm would have frowned upon it anyway.
The letter from rail mail was astonishing to Jarrod. He had assumed the acre price would end up at 50.00 an acre with the bidding war. The railroad had only asked 25.00 an acre at Sample's farm four years ago. He had heard of some land hitting 100.00 an acre in railroad disputes in Los Angeles this past year. The railroad coffers always seemed unlimited.
The note explained: Heath had paid a silver dollar to Beaufort Shipping for full and clear title. Mrs. Elizabeth Beaufort, the owner of the company, initiated the sale after finding out Jarrod was our brother. Jarrod had served with her late brother John Jackson in the war.
Jarrod took a deep breath at that name from the past, John Jackson, another casualty of Julia Saxon. He had at least been able to save the boy from her, unlike Matt Parker. The letter continued...John had passed away a year ago. Victoria invited Mrs. Beaufort and her family to the ranch to visit and in appreciation of the land grant.
He put the note down and tried to digest it. She gave up tens of thousands of dollars in profit to help his family because of his association with John. A lump in his throat began...he had become jaded and cynical himself after two years in New York. There were still good people in the world.
What kind of woman does that?
Jarrod immediately penned a letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Beaufort thanking her sincerely for her magnanimous gesture in the sale of the property. He remembered John fondly as well as her father. He assured her the land would be used for the whole valley farmers and cattlemen. If she was ever in the New York area, please look him up. He would like to thank her in person as well as her family. Salutations and such….
"That's where I heard the name, Beaufort Shipping."