Chapter 6

Jarrod came home fairly late in the day, but he came home satisfied that it had been a productive day. He talked with Linda for a long time, heard her story from start to finish, and was confident that she was telling him nothing but the truth.

Her story with Adam was quite a love story. Linda had lost her parents and sold the property she wasn't equipped to care for. On a whim, she moved to Los Angeles where she met Adam. Two people who had lost the last of their relatives to illness, having enough courage to attend a dance when they really wanted to crawl into a hole and cry. Somehow they found each other on the dance floor, and the attraction was almost instant. When they sat and talked and shared their backgrounds, the feelings were sealed. They courted for six months before they knew they belonged together.

They wanted children, but they never came. When the law in California passed that allowed women to become attorneys, Adam suggested to Linda that she might want to get her license and practice with him. It made their union even more solid.

Linda's story really touched Jarrod, in a part of his heart that he'd been protecting since Beth was killed. He hadn't wanted to hear anyone else's story, especially not a love story this deep, but now he found he was grateful to hear it. Linda was far too concerned about herself to ask him about his past, even though he had said his wife had been murdered. If they were ever going to talk about that, it would be because she asked, and Jarrod hoped that wouldn't be before the trial. They both needed to focus on the trial.

The family was heading into the dining room when Jarrod came in, all of them, even Heath. "We were thinking you weren't going to make it," Victoria said.

"It was a long day, but a fruitful one," Jarrod said.

"Making progress with your client?" Nick asked.

"Yes, a lot of progress," Jarrod said.

"There's been a lot of talk in town, you know," Nick said.

"I'm sure there has been," Jarrod said. "The Eagle has picked up the story, though not in its usual flamboyant way. At least not yet."

"Well, Linda Cain is no Korby Kyles," Audra said. "She doesn't have the long-standing bad reputation that Korby had."

"To George Allison, I guess she's still a mystery," Heath said.

"I hope she can stay that way until the trial," Jarrod said. "I don't want people getting their opinions set by the press before I get to make my arguments."

They went to the table together, ate and talked together, but let the subject of Linda Cain go. Audra asked Heath if he had seen Polly Pierce today, but Heath said he hadn't gone into town. There was too much to do out in the field.

"I could stand for you to run in there tomorrow," Nick said. "We need some shingles and roofing nails if we're gonna fix that line shack out on the north ridge."

"Why don't you see when Polly might be available to come out to dinner?" Victoria asked. "Audra and I know her, of course, but only by seeing her at the shop. I'd love to have her join us."

So you've told me, Heath thought, but he said, "I'll see her and we'll see if she's interested yet."

"Meeting this family is a big step," Jarrod said. "We can be a little overwhelming sometimes."

"That's why I'm gonna follow her lead on it," Heath said. "I'm still courting her, you know. She could still take off running anytime."

"Not if she's smart," Audra said with a smile.

XXXXXX

Heath came into town the next morning to get the supplies Nick wanted and gave himself a few minutes to visit with Polly Pierce at the ladies' shop. Polly wasn't busy at the time. She greeted Heath with her dazzling smile.

"I didn't know you'd be in town today," Polly said. "You didn't say anything about it the other night."

"Well, I wasn't planning to come in then, but Nick said we needed roofing nails and shingles to repair one of the line shacks and he wanted them today, so he sent me," Heath said. "I enjoyed our dinner the other night."

"So did I," Polly said.

"My mother is anxious to have you out to dinner at our place," Heath said. "Maybe I can take a date back home to her when you're available."

Polly looked a little uncomfortable.

"My mother doesn't bite," Heath said.

"Let me think about it for a day or two," Polly said. "It's kind of a big step, meeting the family."

Polly didn't have any family in Stockton. She had come here with her father, but he died a few months earlier and she was alone now. "I can understand you might think that way," Heath said, "but they're all pretty nice people."

"I'm not sure I'd know what to talk about. I don't know much about a ranch. I don't know how to talk about cattle or crops or horses."

"We talk about other things," Heath said. "Nick and I may be the cow hands of the family, but Mother and Audra and Jarrod aren't shackled to the chores. We always find other things to talk about."

"Yes," Polly said, then looked like she was swallowing something uncomfortable.

Heath said, "I won't push you on it, but do think about it. Everybody would like to meet you."

She still looked uncomfortable.

"Is something about coming out to the house really bothering you? I mean – you kind of look like you really don't want to."

"It's not exactly that," Polly said. "It's just – people have been talking. The word around town is that your brother Jarrod is going to represent that Cain woman."

She had a funny tone to her voice, especially when she said that Cain woman. "That's no secret," Heath said, "though what she's telling him is, or at least it will be until the trial. But I don't get into his business much if it doesn't involve me." He waited, but she didn't say anything or look any more comfortable. "We can put it all off until the trial is over."

Polly finally asked, "Why do you think he'd defend someone who murdered her husband?"

Heath remembered asking Jarrod about something like that when he defended Korby Kyles. He remembered he had been uncomfortable asking that question himself. "Jarrod would defend somebody if he thought he could save their life, even if they were guilty."

"Oh," Polly said. "Well, I just don't know about that."

Heath suddenly heard a side of Polly he hadn't heard before. She actually sounded offended that anybody was defending that Cain woman – like there would be no reason for anyone to do it, even to save her life. Did she really mean to sound that way? Heath said, "You don't understand he doesn't like to see anybody hanged?"

Now Polly looked like she felt she was getting backed into a corner she hadn't intended to go anywhere near, but she was stuck with it. "Not if they deserve hanging," she ended up saying, and was only a little sorry she said it. It was the way she really felt.

Heath didn't know what to do with that. He was totally surprised by her attitude. "Well," he said, "I guess if that's how you feel, that's how you feel. I gotta be moving along anyway. You think about the invitation to come to dinner. I'll see you again here in a couple days."

He gave her a wink and a smile, but it felt funny, and as he left, he felt more awkward than he'd ever felt about her. Her attitude about that Cain woman had taken him by surprise, and in a way he thought it had taken her by surprise too. Like maybe she was expressing her true feelings – that to her it was a foregone conclusion that Linda Cain had murdered her husband and deserved to be hanged. That maybe even Polly hadn't realized what her true feelings were until now.

And there was his brother Jarrod, who really didn't like to see anybody hanged, and Jarrod knew more than anyone what had really happened with Linda Cain. This really wasn't the time for Polly to be coming out to the house, but Heath thought about it. Polly's attitude had changed his feelings. Was there ever a time she should come out to the house? Now, he wasn't so sure.