Chapter 6

Michael and Laura shared one blanket, while Jarrod and Kate shared the other, right next to it. Laura played the happy hostess, taking the plates from the hamper and filling them with baked chicken and potato salad of a kind Jarrod hadn't had before. "This is good," he said. "Did you make it or did Wong?"

"I made it myself this morning," Laura said. "It's a German potato salad, straight from the recipe we used at Butterfield."

Kate said, "Cooking lessons were on the list at Butterfield, even if almost all of the students there came from homes with servants. There are things a proper girl must know how to do, you know, even if she never does them."

Jarrod chuckled. "My sister Audra was a notoriously bad cook until she got interested in how Silas cooked."

"He is very good," Kate agreed.

"The best west of the Mississippi," Jarrod said.

Eating and chatting idly gave way to Laura taking Michael by the hand to walk around the pool and the waterfall that fed it. Jarrod stayed with Kate, seated beside her on the blanket, beginning to feel a little awkward and keeping Laura and Michael in sight because – well, he wasn't sure why.

"They make a lovely couple," Kate said.

"Yes, they do," Jarrod said.

"Do you like Michael?" Kate asked straight out.

"Well, I haven't known him for very long, but yes – he seems to care for Laura and treats her well." He looked at Kate and decided if she was going to be straight to the point, so was he. "Did you play matchmaker there?"

Kate laughed, a sweet laugh Jarrod like immediately. "Yes, I confess, I did. Michael is fairly quiet, somewhat formal, but Laura gives him an excuse to - play a little." She finally came up with the word. "He's a good man, but sometimes just a bit too serious. Laura makes him smile and laugh."

"It surprises me a little, to hear you say he's formal and serious," Jarrod said. "A little formal and serious maybe, but not really, not to my eye."

"That's because he's with Laura," Kate said. "I think they'll be very happy together. They certainly were in Paris."

"Well, as long as he can stand country life with only a small city nearby," Jarrod said.

"How do you like it?" Kate asked.

Jarrod was surprised at the question.

"Well, you have a home and office in San Francisco, I'm told," Kate said. "You spend a lot of time there."

"Yes, and I'll probably be spending more in the future," Jarrod said. "After my sister-in-law Sarah has her baby, my mother plans to move into Stockton and I plan to keep a suite there at the Stockton House but spend more time in San Francisco. To give my brother Nick and his expanding family some space of their own."

"Is that a big sacrifice for you?"

"No, no. I should have done it years ago."

"Why didn't you?"

Jarrod noted, for the first time, that she had a very pointed curiosity, and it was aimed at him. But that just increased the tingle he was feeling. "I'm not really sure. It's only been this year that all my siblings settled down into marriages and starting their own families. Being the oldest, I suppose I felt a responsibility to be there until they did, and to be there for my mother. Mother has her life planned out, and so does everyone else, so I guess I just feel more free now to move on." Then he decided to turn the pointed curiosity around. "How about you? You're beginning a new life. Why here? Why now?"

Kate laughed, a little lighter laugh than before. "To get out of my parents' hair. Paris was wonderful, but awfully close quarters, and when we got back to New York and my aunt moved in to help care for my parents, it got even closer. My mother said to me flat out, that I needed to get my own life together, and she thought clear across the continent from them was a good way to do it."

Now Jarrod laughed a little. "Your mother is a blunt lady, isn't she?"

"I suppose I am too," Kate admitted. "She was my example."

"And what are your plans here? To find a husband?"

Now Kate blushed, just a little, just enough to increase Jarrod's tingle. "It's on the list," she said, then smiled. "You're pretty blunt too."

"It comes from being a lawyer and learning how to get to the point in a cross-examination," Jarrod said. "Forgive me if I'm being rude."

Kate shook her head. "You're not being any ruder than I am. Let's make a pact, Jarrod. Let's be honest with each other, and blunt."

"All right," Jarrod agreed with a smile, although it made him a little uncomfortable. Was she going to ask about something he would rather not talk about?

But she didn't say anything. She just took a sip of wine, and looked out where Laura and Michael had sat down near the water.

Jarrod followed her gaze. "They do make a lovely couple. I hope the future holds a lot of happiness for them." He decided to continue with the bluntness but redirected it. "Laura can be a bit demanding at times."

"Probably not as much as you remember her being," Kate said. "When I first met her at Butterfield, yes, she was spoiled and demanding, but over the time she spent in Paris with us, she calmed down. Something inside her seemed to settle. Maybe you haven't had a chance to notice it yet."

"It's very astute of you to notice it," Jarrod said. "How did you get to be so wise at – what, 21?"

Kate smiled. "My mother said once that I was born old. That from the moment I opened my eyes, I was watching and evaluating. She's right to some extent, I think. I have always enjoyed figuring people out."

She looked at him, and he could tell he was being evaluated too. "Well, I can't say I was born old, but becoming a lawyer has required me to learn to evaluate people too."

Kate didn't say it, but in the twinkle in her eyes, Jarrod could see she was thinking she was going to have fun figuring him out. The tingle inside him was really feeling good. He raised his glass of wine, and she clinked hers with his.

Kate said, "To Laura and Michael."

Not what Jarrod was expecting, but he chuckled anyway. "Here's to them."

XXXXXX

It wasn't until the end of the day, after Jarrod took Michael and Kate back to the Yosemite and was on his way home, that Jarrod suddenly remembered Kate's toast – and his response. It echoed around in his head, but not happily. Here's to them was the same thing he'd said to Beth on the train from Washington when Beth offered a toast to the Coastal and Western Railroad – the same railroad he and his family had fought only a few years earlier, and the one responsible for his father's death. He had shared Beth's toast because he was so entranced with her and she knew nothing about the family history with the railroad. She never did. There had never been time to tell her about it.

The thought and the memory made Jarrod stop for a moment in the road. It had been a lovely day, with lovely talk with a lovely young woman he was intrigued with, and she had made a toast, just like Beth had. And he had responded just like he had with Beth. He was enthralled quickly with Kate, just like he had been with Beth.

Just like with Beth. Sitting in the middle of the road with that thought made Jarrod sweat. He didn't know why – except that he also suddenly felt Beth's ghost passing by. It was unnerving.

It shouldn't have been unnerving, except that he had made a pact with Kate to be honest and to be blunt and now he knew that it would have to include being blunt about Beth and the aftermath at some point. Jarrod removed his hat and wiped the sweat off his forehead before putting the hat back on.

But something was wrong. He was feeling worse than he should be feeling. He was feeling dizzy. He was actually feeling sick. He wasn't sure what to do.

He didn't even hear the horse come up toward him. "Jarrod?"

He looked up and saw the Barkley foreman McColl, alone on horseback, looking down at him in concern. "I'm sorry, Duke," Jarrod said. "I guess I'm needing to get some dinner, or something I ate at lunch didn't agree with me."

He started to feel terribly weak. McColl saw it, rapidly got down from his horse and tied it to the back of the surrey. Then he climbed in beside Jarrod and took the reins. "We're closer to town than to home. I'd feel better if we got you to the doctor."

Jarrod couldn't argue. He felt rotten. It had to be something he ate at lunch. Were Laura, Michael and Kate feeling just as bad? He grasped McColl's arm. "All right, but I need you to check on a couple people at the Yosemite as soon as you drop me off and get back to me as fast as you can. I may need you to check on Laura Hayden too."

"All right," McColl said, slapped the reins and turned the surrey around.

Just as Jarrod was slumping over toward him.