Chapter 5

There were a lot of pitfalls in the notion of getting Abel Hill to sign a prenuptial agreement with Cecily Carter. While it would protect Cecily, it wouldn't do anything for Gwendolen, so there was still the question of what to do for Gwendolen. There was the risk that pushing too hard for a prenuptial agreement would break up the wedding plans, and there was plenty of precedent for a man to sue another man who broke up the marriage plans with his intended. And given that Hill's big interest in marriage to Cecily was her money, Hill would sue in a heartbeat if things went wrong and Cecily dumped him.

Jarrod wondered off and on if he should just walk away, like Gwendolen wanted, but then he thought about her living in a boarding house and working in a saloon when he had gotten her a divorce settlement that would have given her more. He thought about Hill getting away with shafting her, and his blood began to boil. He decided to take a long walk alone to try to figure this out.

As he did, he ambled by the courthouse. He didn't intend to go there, but his wanderings just took him in front of the place. He didn't even notice it until he heard someone call his name. He stopped and looked up – and there was Judge Carter coming down the stairs toward him.

Jarrod stopped and finally noticed where he was. He offered his hand to the judge as he came near. "Good afternoon, Your Honor," Jarrod said. "I'm afraid I've been wandering a thousand miles away. I had no idea I was in front of the courthouse."

"Karma, my good man, karma," Judge Carter said, shaking Jarrod's hand. "The gods have brought you here. I got wind of a deal you and your brothers just closed with Abel Hill."

"Yes, and I understand your daughter is engaged to marry him," Jarrod said.

"Let me walk with you a bit," Judge Carter said, and as he and Jarrod began to stroll together, he said, "I understand as well that you represented his wife Gwendolen when they divorced three years ago."

"Yes, I did," Jarrod said.

"Now, I'm not intending to pry into either of those transactions you've had with Mr. Hill, but bear in mind, I'm the father of a daughter who wants only the best for her."

Jarrod tried chuckling a little to ease the tension. "Any father would want that for his daughter."

"And I don't mean to imply that I don't trust the man, but I've heard that Gwendolen is working in a saloon and living in a boarding house. Couldn't you do any better than that for her?"

Now Jarrod didn't know what to say, not without giving anything confidential away. "You have me over a barrel, Judge," he ended up saying. "I have my client's confidences to protect."

"Well, let me run some rumor by you. You can correct me, or not."

Jarrod took a deep breath, but let him go on.

"You did get her a good deal, but he's welched on it and she's reluctant to take him back to court about it," the judge said.

Jarrod was surprised the judge knew that, but he didn't let on with word or body language that the judge was right.

"I also hear that the business arrangement you just concluded with him included a cash payment to him from your personal account."

Jarrod chuckled a little, unable to help himself. "You have a interesting pipeline of information, Your Honor." He could figure someone at the bank was on that pipeline.

"Then I'll ask point blank – did you have an affair with Gwendolen Hill?"

Jarrod stopped dead and glared at the judge. "Never. My relationship with her was strictly professional. I never saw her except in connection with her divorce. I saw her yesterday for the first time since her divorce, and that was by accident when my brothers and I went into the place where she works."

"Rumor says otherwise," the judge said.

"Rumor is wrong," Jarrod said, "and I trust my word is all the proof you need, Your Honor. You know me, and you know Abel Hill. Who do you trust most?"

"You," the judge said straight away. "The Barkley reputation is impeccable, and yours is as clean as any attorney I've ever known. But my concern is for my daughter. She'll inherit quite a bit of money when my time comes. I don't want to think Abel Hill wants to marry her because of that possible inheritance. I don't want her to end up like Gwendolen Hill."

Jarrod struggled with what to say. He did not want to be put in the position of breaking up Cecily Carter's engagement, but he didn't want to lie to a judge, even out of court. "You can protect her with a prenuptial agreement, if you're that concerned," Jarrod said. "I wouldn't want my daughter to end up like Gwendolen Hill either."

"Would you handle the prenuptial agreement for me?" the judge asked.

Now that he had to decide, Jarrod knew what his answer had to be. "You'd do better to find another attorney, Your Honor," he said. "That way you don't run the risk of complicating your daughter's relationship with Hill because of Gwendolen or me. You don't want to do that."

Judge Carter looked like he was thinking about that. Jarrod waited for him to respond. He finally looked at Jarrod and asked, "Why isn't Gwendolen going after him for welching on her settlement?"

Jarrod shook his head. "I can't say anything about that, Your Honor. Not without Gwendolen's permission, and I don't think she'd be willing to give it or talk to anybody about it."

"Even Cecily?"

Jarrod felt a jab go through him at that thought. Maybe Gwendolen would talk to Cecily, woman to woman. He didn't know, but, "The only way to test that out is for Cecily to go to see her and ask. But I don't think I ought to ask Gwendolen to do that. I think I'd better stay out of it."

Judge Carter nodded. "Perhaps you're right. Nice talking to you again, Jarrod," the judge said, and then he abruptly turned and walked back to the courthouse.

Jarrod felt a load of stress sink right out of him. What was that? he asked himself. Maybe karma had steered him toward the courthouse – although it was more likely force of habit since this was where he was often going in when he was in Sacramento - but it wasn't karma that pulled Judge Carter out to see him. The judge had seen him out there. And it sure wasn't karma that gave the Judge all the correct information he had, including the rumor that something had gone on between him and Gwendolen.

Jarrod thanked his good sense that he'd extricated himself from being some sort of go-between in the Cecily – Gwendolen relationship, whatever it turned out to be. As tempting as it had been when he talked to his brothers about it, he knew when the judge actually asked that he didn't want anything to do with representing Cecily on a prenuptial agreement. That would muck up the waters too much and put him into an awkward situation he wanted none of. If Judge Carter wanted his daughter protected, they needed another lawyer.

Jarrod took a deep breath, took stock of where he was, and headed back toward the hotel where he and his brothers were staying.

XXXXXX

"I'd like to be a fly on the wall at that meeting," Nick said once Jarrod had described his conversation with Judge Carter, including a potential meeting between Gwendolen and Cecily.

The brothers were having dinner at the hotel – Jarrod did not want to risk another meeting with Gwendolen at the saloon where she worked, not yet anyway. "So, are we heading home tomorrow?" Heath asked.

"I don't think so," Jarrod said. "You and Nick can head out if you like, but I think I want to hang around a little longer, in case my client wants to talk to me again."

"Does she know where you're staying?" Nick asked.

Jarrod nodded. "I told her. And I'll bet you boys would like to find out how much Hill made on his sale of our beef at Grand Junction. Word on that ought to come in tomorrow evening or so."

"If it works out for Hill, we might consider trying getting our cattle to market by rail sometime," Heath said.

"If the money looks good," Nick said. "But knowing you, Big Brother, you're not gonna leave getting word of what happens between Gwendolen and Cecily to chance."

"No," Jarrod said. "I thought I'd drop by the saloon sometime late tomorrow, have another chat with Gwendolen. If Cecily's gonna get in touch, she'll probably do it by then."

"We ought to wire Mother and Audra, let them know we're still hanging on here," Heath said.

"We can do that in the morning," Jarrod said. "Tonight, let's just put all that to rest, enjoy dinner and drinks and then sleep. Lots of sleep."

Nick and Heath raised their glasses as Jarrod did, and Nick said, "Amen."