Chapter 10

"So," Nick said as he and Caroline returned to the dance floor. "Is it your brother who taught you how to dance so beautifully?"

Caroline laughed. "No. My brother has two left feet. I was taught at finishing school."

"Interesting word, 'finishing' school. I suppose it's because that's where you finish your lessons in becoming a lady?"

"I never thought about it," Caroline said, "but I suppose you could be right. How about you, Nick? Do you have much formal schooling?"

"No, no, Jarrod's the one with the brains so he got the formal education. I think with me my parents realized early they had a lost cause. I've always been the one who wanted to get out and work the ranch, herd the cattle, fix the fences. And my father taught me about the other businesses as I was growing up – the gold mining, the orchards, the vineyards and the wineries. My education was entirely practical."

"So you were ready to take over when the time came."

Nick grew a bit quiet, remembering. "I'm not sure I was ready, but my father was killed and running things fell to me whether I wanted them or not. I was only 22."

"Oh, my goodness, that is young." Caroline looked closely at her dancing partner. "Regrets on losing your childhood so abruptly?"

Nick smiled. "No, not that. Regrets at losing my father, yes. He was a big presence in all our lives, and he died fighting the railroad, fighting for his world and his neighbors. But he prepared me well, and I had big brother Jarrod to help me with the niceties I didn't know much about. He had already been practicing law by then and knew a lot more about the business end of things. I knew more about the ranching."

"It sounds like you made a good team."

"We have," Nick said with a smile.

"But I'm going to make a guess – this is the first time you and he have gotten away from work together, isn't it? The first time you're letting your hair down, so to speak."

Nick laughed even more. "It's our first real vacation, but like any vacation, it's had its unexpected complications."

"So I noticed from your brother's face. But so far you've avoided the harsher effects of the complications."

"My, my, you do have a way with words," Nick said. "And you do notice things."

It was Caroline's turn to laugh. "And I do get a bit nosy sometimes. Forgive me. It's just that one of the things I like most about my chosen career is that I get to meet different and fascinating people. I don't like to let the opportunity to learn things go by. But – shall we talk a bit more about business? Tell me more about the wine markets."

The way she put that – the delight that made her eyes twinkle when she said the word "markets" - made Nick laugh.

At about that time Jarrod and Louisa left the floor and sat down with some punch. Jarrod had no trouble letting the subject of Jack Darby go, and he wasn't about to tell Louisa how he had gotten the bruise on his face. Instead, he brought her a glass, sat down with her, and said, "Tell me more about Shakespeare. I don't recall there being a whole lot of opportunity to see it performed around here."

"No, certainly not like New York, but we have a bit of the finer culture here," Louisa said. "We're not all one party after another."

"Did you start reading Shakespeare as a girl, or did you see it performed first?" Jarrod asked.

"I read it, but of course it doesn't come alive until you see it performed," Louisa said. "How about you? When did you first see it performed?"

"Well, believe it or not," Jarrod said, "it was during the war. In Washington. Amazing how people will hang onto the finer arts even when the world is blowing up all around them."

They both grew a little solemn at the memory of what Louisa then called, "The recent unpleasantness. I take it you were a soldier, then."

"I was," Jarrod said. "Stationed for a while in Washington after I was wounded at Sharpsburg."

"I lost a cousin at Shiloh," Louisa said. "He was seventeen and a lieutenant, but he was out of place in a war. I'm told he stood up straight and waved his sword when he should have gotten down."

"I'm very sorry," Jarrod said. "I hope the experience hasn't made you too bitter."

She smiled a little. "Toward you Yankee boys? At first it did – with the war and the occupation – but that all starts to fade after a while. You get on with life, don't you?"

"And life brings its own challenges, and complications," Jarrod said, but he smiled. "And its own enjoyments."

Louisa smiled, too. "I find I actually prefer the company of you Yankee boys lately. You seem to be more interested in literature and the arts than a lot of Southern men, though I don't know why it seems that way. I was raised to think that Southern gentlemen were the height of sophistication and education, but if they were, they seem to lose it when they get into the business world."

"Funny, isn't it?" Jarrod said. "How meeting new people and learning about different ways of life can change all your preconceived notions."

"You've had preconceived notions about Southern ladies?" Louisa asked with a smile.

"Until I met my first Southern girls, in Washington during the war, believe it or not. Southern ladies are just as complicated as northern ones, and we northern men get just as baffled about it as southerners."

Louisa laughed. "Jarrod, I think it's time we danced a bit more, don't you?"

Jarrod took her glass and put it aside on a small table, then got up and took her hand. "You're right. Life is so much simpler on the dance floor," he said.

XXXXXXX

At the end of the evening, the Barkley men walked the ladies back to the gentlemen's club, slowly, comfortably. They did not talk as much, leaving off the discussions of Shakespeare and the markets and settling into a few words about the music and the moonlight. But it wasn't long before they reached the club, and it was time to part. Michael met them at the door. Each of the Barkley men allowed themselves to take a polite kiss on their lady's cheek, saying, "Thank you. I enjoyed that a lot."

And then Michael let the women inside, and they were gone.

Jarrod slipped Michael some money, asking, "When are they available again?" very quietly.

Michael said, "Sorry. You got lucky with a cancelation tonight. They're both busy for the next week."

"Sad," Jarrod sighed. "They were just the ladies to take the edge off a wild day."

Michael smiled knowingly. "So I've heard about your day."

Jarrod raised an eyebrow. "You hear everything, don't you?"

"My ear to the ground, Mr. Barkley," Michael said.

It was going on one in the morning when Jarrod and Nick returned to their hotel room and Nick flopped down on the sofa, saying, "How can we get those girls tomorrow night, too?"

"Tonight," Jarrod corrected him on the time. "And we can't. They're already taken. I checked with Michael when we took them back to the club."

"I don't know about you, but I never enjoyed talking about gold futures and stock markets more than I did tonight."

Jarrod took his jacket off and started to work on his cravat. "So that's what you two had your heads together about."

'Her brother's a stock broker and she learned about markets from him," Nick said. "And that perfume she was wearing – "

"I didn't get close enough to sample it," Jarrod said.

"How about Louisa? Did you enjoy her company?"

"Very much," Jarrod said. "She was pretty well-versed on literature and even legal matters herself – grew up learning from her lawyer father. But – she did bring up Jack Darby."

Nick sat up straight. "You're kidding. She knows him?"

"She knows him," Jarrod said, "and well enough to be sure that I wasn't him. I didn't get into it very deeply with her."

"You don't think she'll talk to him and tell him we're in town, do you?"

"I don't know. But I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. The Darby affair is over as far as I'm concerned – and by the way, I didn't spot any police officer who might have been shadowing us, did you?"

"No," Nick said, and smiled, "but I wasn't really looking."

"Admittedly, neither was I," Jarrod said, taking on his own smile. "We had better things to do tonight, didn't we?"

"Didn't we?" Nick agreed. "How much longer are we in town?"

"We should head home the day after tomorrow," Jarrod said. "We'll need to go up to the train station in the morning and arrange for the car to be attached."

Nick sighed. "While we were playing with the police, I couldn't wait to leave, but after tonight, I'm gonna be kind of sorry about it."

"Are you interested in trying to lose any more money tomorrow?" Jarrod asked.

"Tell you what," Nick said. "Let's sleep in and then do a little shopping for the folks we left at home tomorrow. Then I'd like to take in the horse races in the afternoon."

Jarrod nodded. "All right. We can finish up with dinner and little gambling at the Absinthe House. And I'm sorry, but we really haven't scratched the surface of what we can do in New Orleans."

Nick thought about the things he had done, the ones Jarrod was in on and the one in particular he wasn't. "I suspect it would take a while to do that, but you're right. We do have to be getting back home. I got a ranch to run. One question I have for you, though."

"What's that?"

"Do you think we're through with DuMont and you impersonating Darby?"

Jarrod thought about it. "I don't know. He said 24 hours. Maybe we'll find out something in the morning, or maybe we'll never learn anything else at all."

"Do you think we ought to stop by LaValle's place and see if he's all right?"

Jarrod thought some more. "Might be risky, but then again it would be good to know he's still alive. We'll swing by there for lunch before we go to the races."

Nick got up. "Sounds like a plan," he said and headed for the wc.

Jarrod wondered as Nick disappeared whether it was wise to be anywhere near LaValle tomorrow, but on the other hand, he too was curious. It was itchy to be part of something like this trick to trap a hit man and then never know how it all comes out. Jarrod pulled his get-out-of-jail card out of his pocket to see if it had a contact for DuMont on it, but it didn't, so he didn't know how to find the man to ask him how things were. If they were going to find out, it would have to be lunch at LaValle's restaurant. Jarrod just hoped they wouldn't find out anything bad.