Chapter 5

He was off the train before she was, since she had to go back to her car for her bag and he had someone to unload his for him. He went back to the car he had escorted her to in Chicago, and feeling something like a kid going to his first dance, he paced a little as he waited. But he didn't have to wait long. In a few moments, she climbed down from the train, holding her one bag, looking lost and forlorn. He thought to himself that he could never bear to think she might look like that ever again. He quietly stepped up beside her and said, "May I help you with your bag, Miss?"

Beth turned, mouth open. "Jarrod! What - ?!"

Jarrod took her bag. "I'm not ready for us to end yet," he said and kissed her lightly. "Do you mind if I stay in Denver for a while?"

She burst into that beautiful smile. "Oh, no! Not at all!"

Jarrod took her arm and they began to walk toward the station. "I stay at the Denver Palace when I'm here. Do you have a place lined up?"

"A boarding house," Beth said. "They're not expecting me until tomorrow, though, and I really didn't think about getting anyplace tonight. I thought I'd talk to Traveler's Aid."

"Well, let me be your traveler's aid," Jarrod said. "Let's go over to the Palace and see if they can accommodate us both, then we'll have a little nightcap and talk about tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Beth asked.

"Do you start teaching right away?"

"Not until next week," Beth said. "I wanted some time to settle in."

"Then we'll talk tomorrow about where you're going to settle in."

"Where? I told you, I have a boarding house lined up."

Jarrod made a disapproving face. "A boarding house. Not good enough for you. Let's go to the Palace and talk all about that."

Jarrod lined up a hack and had their bags delivered to it, and soon he and Beth were pulling up to the Palace Hotel. Beth was floored. The place was far more elegant than she could imagine. "Oh, Jarrod, I can't afford – "

"You don't need to worry," Jarrod said as he helped her out of the hack. "I'll take care of everything tonight and we'll talk about it tomorrow."

As they went inside, Beth found herself looking around like a child in a candy store. The lobby was all marble and mahogany, a bit quiet this late at night but that only showed off its grandeur more. Jarrod escorted her to the desk, where the clerk immediately broke into a smile. "Mr. Barkley! How wonderful to see you again, but we weren't expecting you!"

"I know," Jarrod said. "This was a last minute stop. I hope you can accommodate Miss Randall and me with a couple of rooms. I don't need my regular if it's not available."

"But it is available," the clerk said. "I'll put you right in there, and I do have a very nice room available for Miss Randall."

"Excellent," Jarrod said.

They checked in. Jarrod directed the bellman about which bags went where, and then he and Beth went to the lounge to get a nightcap. There were quite a few people in there, but the crowd began to thin as Jarrod and Beth sat and talked.

They had sipped champagne together on the train and now they added more. Beth began to feel her head go light, but was it the champagne or the fact that everything that had happened over the last few days was settling in? Jarrod noticed. "I suppose we'd better make this our last glass of champagne tonight, or we'll both need help getting to our rooms."

Beth shook her head. "I just can't believe we're here. I can't believe you're here. I thought that tonight we'd have to say good-bye, and here we are, saying hello again."

Jarrod smiled. "I just couldn't give you up yet, Beth. I've never felt such an instant intimacy with a woman in my life."

"I feel the same way," Beth said. "It's as if my star always was really connected to yours. But are we just putting off the inevitable? Soon you'll have to go on to California. Your life is there. My new life is here."

Jarrod took her hand. "I'm hoping we can talk about that some more in the morning, when our heads are clearer. Tonight, let's just finish our champagne and share a good night kiss. And then in the morning we'll breakfast and talk some more and spend the entire day together."

Beth smiled. "You're going to make me want to beg you to stay here in Denver and never go on to California at all."

Jarrod chuckled. "I plan to do a little begging of my own."

Jarrod took Beth to her room at about half past midnight. They shared a long, lovely kiss in the hall outside her door before Jarrod unlocked and opened it for her. He gave her another kiss before she went in. "Sleep very well, Jarrod," Beth said.

"I know I will," Jarrod said.

When he entered his own room, Jarrod locked the door and left the key on the dresser nearby. Before long he was undressed and under the blankets – and thinking, and planning, and hoping. He stared at the dark ceiling, illuminated just a little bit by the ambient light from the street, and he tried to compose a small speech that he intended to give to Beth in the morning. He only wondered for half a second if it was the right thing to do, but his heart immediately said to him that yes, it was right. Everything was right. That new life he thought was opening up to him while he recovered from that bullet wound really was opening up to him, right now. He fell asleep smiling.

In the morning, at about ten thirty, he met Beth at her room with a light kiss. "Did you sleep well?"

"I had very sweet dreams," she said.

"Good," he said. "Let's get some breakfast and go for a walk."

They ate with the late breakfast crowd, taking so much time that lunch seemed to be an afterthought. They finished at about noon, and Jarrod took Beth by the arm and said, "Let's go."

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Well, it's a surprise," Jarrod said.

Beth laughed. "We still need to check out."

"No, we don't need to," Jarrod said. "I think we'll be staying at the Palace again tonight."

"But I have a place at the boarding house."

"We'll go by there."

Beth was beginning to get tantalized. "What do you have up your sleeve, Counselor?"

That was the first time she had called him that. He smiled. "A good lawyer never reveals his strategy before he's ready to."

They didn't walk far to begin with, only around the corner to a shop that was in the same building as the hotel. Jarrod stopped there, and he turned Beth toward him with her back to the shop, before she could read the sign. "Is this it?" Beth asked.

Jarrod nodded, and then he got down on one knee. People in the street were watching and smiling.

And Beth was so shocked her mouth fell open.

"I know this is fast," Jarrod said, "but I knew last night when you left the dining car that I could never, ever let you leave me again. I love you, Beth Randall. I've never loved anyone the way I love you, and I hope you feel the same way about me. My star led me to yours. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

People passing smiled, and Beth nodded so fast she could hardly believe it. Jarrod got up and she fell into his arms. When they kissed on the busy street, no one passing by seemed to mind. Jarrod pointed out the shop sign to his intended. It was a jewelry store.

"We're going to have a busy day," he said. "We're going to have to go by that boarding house and the school board offices and tell them you won't be coming. You're going to California."

Beth began to laugh. "I can't wait."