Chapter 9

Cecily was just outside the saloon door, standing in the light from the window, when Gwendolen left for the night. Gwendolen tried to stifle a sigh when she stepped toward Cecily, but she couldn't do it. "What do you want, Cecily?" she asked.

"Let's walk away a bit," Cecily said, and as they did, she said, "I went to see Mr. Barkley again. And I was ridiculous with him, absolutely ridiculous, and it made me take a good hard look at everything. Gwen, I want to marry Abel but I want a prenuptial agreement. I'll talk to my father about it as soon as I get home."

"That's good," Gwen said, "but what does it have to do with me? Jarrod isn't anything but my lawyer, and whatever you and he said to each other – "

"Oh, there's nothing between him and me, nothing at all, and there never will be," Cecily said. "I just flew out of control after our talk today. I didn't understand about Abel until you talked to me, and that sent me for a loop, and none of that matters now because I have myself back. And Gwen – " Cecily stopped with a large smile on her face. "I'm going to marry Abel, but I'm going to have a prenuptial agreement, and there's going to be another agreement as a condition of us marrying. He wants his hands on my money. Well, some of that's going to have to go to you."

Gwendolen nearly fell over. "Cess! No, no, that isn't right!"

"Oh, yes it is," Cecily said with a big grin. "And paying you what's owed you will be part of the prenuptial agreement, too, so he'll have to keep paying you even if he and I split up! Oh, I know he could just breach everything in the end, but if he does, he'll be making my father the judge very angry. Don't you see, Gwen? The worst he can do is dump me, and if he does, I can have him on breaching our agreement to marry!"

"But you could get stuck marrying him!"

"Oh, that's no problem. Who knows, we might actually work out well together once we get the financial matters all squared away. I did fall in love with the man, after all."

Gwendolen kept shaking her head. "Cess, you need to go home and talk this over with your father. You're not really making any sense."

"Oh, I will," Cecily said, "but Gwen, one way or another, I'm going to get what I want out of this, and I'm going to see you do, too."

Gwendolen almost had to laugh. "All right. All right. You talk to your father and we'll talk about this again." She really did not think the judge was going to see this as optimistically as Cecily was seeing it, but then the poor girl had had a lot thrown at her today. No wonder her head was spinning.

Cecily impulsively grabbed Gwendolen by the shoulders and kissed her. "And one way or another, we will be friends, I know it!"

"Sure, Cess, of course we will," Gwendolen assured her.

Cecily took off toward her home, not far from the courthouse. Gwendolen shook her head and finally did laugh as she went on home, but then she thought about everything Cecily had said. It was nearly nice to think about, and it was awfully tantalizing to think Cecily could actually pull it all off the way she thought she could. Wouldn't Abel Hill have a cow when Cecily put all this in his lap?

But Gwendolen wondered then what Jarrod would say if he knew about it. She took a deep, stabilizing breath. He might very well have a cow, too, although a cow of a different color.

XXXXXXX

In the morning, Jarrod woke up feeling a mixture of sad and ridiculous. Ridiculous to think all that confusion the day before had actually happened, and sad that he had left Gwendolen feeling as deserted as she had sounded. Ridiculous that two women here were probably vying over him, and sad that they were having so much trouble sorting their lives out that they had to look to him for rescue. Jarrod didn't dwell on any of that for long. He got up, cleaned up and made it down to breakfast in the hotel café before either Nick or Heath did.

"Have some coffee," Jarrod said when his brothers sat down with him.

"You sound like you already had three cups," Heath said.

"Only one," Jarrod said, "but I am eager to go home. The sooner we can leave, the better."

"No more long talks with anybody here?" Nick asked. "Got everything settled?"

"Not even remotely settled, but I've done all I can do," Jarrod said. "It's time to go home."

"I'm for that," Nick said.

They ate, then returned to their rooms to pack up. They met each other in the hall and headed downstairs together, ready to get their horses from the livery and get the heck out of this town, but as they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jarrod stopped, looking up. Nick and Heath stopped behind him. All three of them sighed at the same time.

There in the lobby, together, sat Gwendolen and Cecily. They stood up as they saw Jarrod. Oh, no, Jarrod thought. And then it got worse. Jarrod saw a man turn away from the desk. It was Judge Carter.

Judge Carter came over wearing a big smile, his hand outstretched, saying, "Good morning, Jarrod."

"Your Honor," Jarrod said politely and shook his hand. "May I present my brothers, Nick and Heath?"

"Gentlemen," the judge said as Nick and Heath nodded greetings.

"Boys, why don't you pay our bills and start up toward the livery," Jarrod said, giving Heath his key. "I'll catch up to you."

Nick and Heath quickly dropped their keys and Jarrod's off at the desk, put money down for the bills and got out of there without another word.

Jarrod glanced at Gwendolen and Cecily, and said, "My brothers and I are about to head home to Stockton."

"I thought you might, after I had a very long talk with my daughter last night," the judge said, "and another talk with both these ladies this morning."

The judge took Jarrod by the arm. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but Jarrod went with him to where the women both stood. Jarrod tipped his hat when the judge let go of his arm. "Ladies," he said.

"We didn't want to leave without apologizing for getting you mixed up in our – " Cecily said but took a moment to find the right final word. "Situation."

"We realize we both left you with your head spinning yesterday," Gwedolen said, "and that's the last thing I wanted to do when you've been such a good attorney and a good friend to me."

Jarrod breathed a little easier and smiled a little. "You know I want the best for you, Gwendolen."

"And I think my daughter and her new friend have worked out an approach to get that," Judge Carter said, "and it doesn't involve you at all. We just wanted you to know that the three of us were going to have a chat with Mr. Hill about a prenuptial agreement and about him paying what he owes to the former Mrs. Hill."

"We wanted you to leave Sacramento without taking any worries with you on our account," Gwendolen said. Then she stepped up and kissed him on the cheek.

"Well," Jarrod said, somewhat flummoxed. "I hope everything works out the way you want it to."

Cecily gave Jarrod a small peck on the cheek too, and Judge Carter offered his hand again. "We'll let you go now, Jarrod. We're off to visit with Mr. Hill, and I'm sure you want to be well out of town before we do."

Jarrod gave an awkward chuckle, tipped his hat to the ladies, and got the heck out of there.

Nick and Heath were scarcely a block away, so Jarrod hurried and caught up with them. "All done?" Heath asked.

"All done," Jarrod said with a sigh and fell into step with them.

"Was he carrying a shotgun?" Nick asked.

"No shotgun," Jarrod said happily, and he picked up speed.

Epilogue

They did not hurry home, taking a few days to unwind before diving back into real life in Stockton. When they arrived at the house, they were covered with trail dust and hadn't shaved since leaving Sacramento. Their mother and sister were not really surprised, but the first thing Victoria said, even before giving them any greeting at all, was, "Don't sit down on the furniture."

Jarrod gave her a tiny kiss, leaning over so as not to get dirt on her. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"I have a telegram for you," Victoria said and pointed to the table in the foyer.

Nick and Heath looked at each other. Jarrod looked at the telegram like it might explode in his face. Jarrod picked it up anyway and opened it. When he read it, he gave a very relaxing, "Well, I'll be."

"From the judge?" Nick asked.

"Uh-huh," Jarrod said. And then he read it. "'All is well. Prenup being drafted. Hill giving Gwen all back payments and resuming alimony.'" He grinned. "Well, maybe I'm happy with that trip to Sacramento after all."

"Didn't you get a good deal on the cattle?" Audra asked.

"We did, but Jarrod lost a few dollars on the deal," Heath said.

"How in the world did that happen?" Victoria asked.

Jarrod folded the telegram and put it into his pocket. "That is one very long and convoluted story that will have to wait for me to bathe and shave. As the oldest, I claim the wc for the next hour."

He headed up the stairs. Victoria and Audra looked toward Nick and Heath for an explanation as to how Jarrod lost money on their cattle deal, but both brothers shook their heads.

Nick said, "Let's just say their names were Gwendolen and Cecily, and leave it at that."

The End