Chapter 9

Jarrod took Lucy out to the rose garden, where they sat down together and he explained how it had gone between him and Phil. Lucy listened and nodded once or twice. She looked unhappy, but she did not cry. When Jarrod was finished and explained he wasn't going to let Phil come here to the house, Lucy nodded again. Then they sat quietly for a while.

Jarrod finally said, "I need to go back into town, but I'm not planning to see Phil again, unless there's some message you want me to give him."

"I wouldn't know what to say," Lucy said. "Jarrod, everything is so jumbled up and it happened so fast."

"When exactly did it happen, Lucy?" Jarrod asked.

"I can't say when the exact moment was," she said. "He wasn't violent until he started to drink too much, and he didn't start to drink too much until – " She caught her breath. "Until that woman came to me and told me he'd been with her and she wanted him."

"What did you say to her?" Jarrod asked.

"I told her to leave me alone and leave my husband alone."

"You said you didn't tell him about that.""

Lucy nodded. "I didn't. I didn't think he knew, but lately - he started drinking more after that. I don't know. If he hadn't found out about the woman coming, maybe none of this would have happened."

"Don't go second guessing yourself," Jarrod said. "The other woman coming to you might not have had anything to do with it. I don't know what's going to happen with him today. He'll get out of jail, but he might go right back to drinking too much."

"He probably will," Lucy said with a sigh. "Did you ever dream we'd come to this when you were standing with Phil at the wedding?"

"No," Jarrod said. "I don't know this Phil either. He never was a heavy drinker."

"Until he figured out he couldn't have children," Lucy said. "In a way, I feel so sorry for him, but the way he's reacting – well, frankly, I'm glad we haven't had children. Who knows? This side of him may have come up later, while we were raising our kids. Oh, Jarrod, that's unimaginable."

Now she started to cry. Jarrod put his arm around her. "Lucy, if I do see him, do you want me to tell him to go home without you?"

"Yes," she said quickly. "Tell him I need time to decide what I want to do."

"I don't recommend you go back with him unless you can feel secure he won't hurt you."

"I don't know how I'll ever be secure about that again."

Jarrod knew they'd been leading up to this question. "Do you want a divorce, Lucy?"

She hesitated. Then she said, "I don't know."

Nick had watched part of their conversation from the kitchen window, not able to tell exactly what they were saying to each other. He could tell she was upset and Jarrod was consoling her. That was what he expected to see.

Nick didn't think his attraction to her was the same as it had been initially. At first, he wanted to know her more. Now that he did, he was feeling more protective than romantically attracted. Part of him wanted to go into town, find Phil Layton and punch him out, but he knew if he did, it was not going to improve anything at all. Doing nothing was what was called for, but Nick was never very good at doing nothing.

"Leave them alone," his mother's voice came from behind him.

"I am," Nick said. "I've got plenty to do around here today. The tack room needs attention. All I plan to do is keep an eye on things after Jarrod goes back to town – in case that husband of hers gets around him somehow and tries to come here."

"Maybe Jarrod will be able to find some way to get to him today, to get the two of them to try to work on their problems, whichever ones are causing this big problem. That's the way it happens, you know. It's the little problems mounting up that ruin a marriage."

Nick looked at her. "Your problems with Father didn't ruin your marriage."

"No, admittedly, we did have problems but they did not mount up on us," Victoria said.

Nick was well aware he'd walked into that big problem in his parents' marriage – the one that walked in the door with Heath. His father was dead by then. It was a problem they never got the chance to talk out, or not. "I'm sorry, Mother. I didn't mean to have that come out the way it sounded."

"The thing about marriage, Nick, is that it can become very complicated," Victoria said. "You may love someone with all your heart and soul, but heart and soul can go into your anger just as well. It didn't happen with your father and me, because our problems didn't add up that way. I have a lot of reasons to be glad they didn't. Heath is one of them."

Jarrod and Lucy were coming back inside now. Nick and Victoria moved out of the kitchen so it would not be so obvious they had been watching. Jarrod and Lucy caught up with them in the foyer.

Jarrod said, "I have to go back to town, and Lucy said she'd like to take a nap."

"Of course," Victoria said. "Will we see you for dinner?"

Jarrod said, "I'm planning on it but don't wait for me if I'm not here." He gave Lucy a peck on the cheek, then quietly left out the front door.

Lucy said, "If you'll excuse me," and went up the stairs.

Nick watched her, and when she had disappeared into the east wing of the house, he said to his mother, "I'll get to that tack room, and I'll keep an eye out."

Nick went out through the front door, and Victoria gave a sigh. She hoped this was not going to be an interesting afternoon.

XXXXXX

When Jarrod got back to town, he went straight to his office. He half wondered if Phil Layton was going to be there waiting for him, but he wasn't. Jarrod sat down to work on a will, but his mind kept wandering. He debated whether he should go try to find out where Phil might be. He probably wasn't in jail anymore, unless he'd already gone out and gotten drunk again. Was it possible he got on a train and went home to Lodi? Possible, but Jarrod didn't think so. He hadn't seen Phil on the road heading for the ranch, so he probably hadn't gone to the livery to get a horse.

All the ruminating was just giving Jarrod a headache. Despite telling Lucy he didn't think he'd be seeing Phil again, now he was thinking he ought to at least figure out where he was. Jarrod put the will away and headed for the sheriff's office.

"I let him go around noon," Sheriff Madden said. "He went down the street, looking like he was heading for the railroad station, but I didn't follow him."

"So it's possible he didn't go there," Jarrod said. "I'll go check."

"His wife is still at the ranch?"

Jarrod nodded. "She'll stay there for now. She's considering divorce but hasn't made up her mind. One more episode of Phil getting drunk and violent would make it up for her."

"You can't dog the man every minute or even every day, Jarrod."

"I know that. But for now, I think I'll just try to find out where he's gone today. Let me know if you find out, will you, Fred?"

"You're going to the train station now?"

"Yeah," Jarrod said.

Jarrod left and headed down the street toward the depot. His path took him past the Empire, so he looked in. Phil wasn't in there. There were two other saloons between the jail and the train station, right along the route someone walking would take. Jarrod looked into the Golden Eagle, and Phil wasn't in there. Jarrod was just beginning to feel easier, thinking Phil had gone to the railroad and left town, but then he stopped at the Blue Horse – and there was Phil, alone at a table in the back, near the cellar door.

Jarrod's heart sank, but he went in. He waved the bartender and a waitress off as he went back to the table and sat down with Phil.

"You want to go right back to jail?" Jarrod asked.

Phil looked up slowly. He had a nearly empty glass in front of him, and a nearly empty bottle of whiskey beside that. His eyes were looking at some other planet. "Go away," he said.

Jarrod wasn't even sure Phil recognized him. "Phil, you're headed straight back to jail and then a divorce court if you keep this up." He said it, but he was almost certain Phil did not understand it.

"I said, go away," Phil said, more forcefully.

"Not until we talk," Jarrod said.

And Phil exploded. He knocked the bottle toward Jarrod. Jarrod jumped up to get away from it, but Phil immediately toppled the table and then jumped on Jarrod.

The bartender and three other men in the saloon were taken by surprise and just stood there as Phil started pummeling Jarrod, but being sober and somewhat bigger, Jarrod pushed him off easily. Phil landed up against the door to the basement but came right off it and back at Jarrod. Jarrod pushed him off again. "Phil, stop it! Get hold of yourself!"

The other men started toward them, to pull Phil and Jarrod apart, but Phil came back at Jarrod once more, this time his fist connecting with Jarrod's face and sending him sprawling atop another table. Phil was immediately on top of him again, before the other men could get a position on this. But Jarrod scrambled up, grabbing Phil by the shirt front. He landed a hard fist into Phil's right eye, and Phil flew back against the basement door again.

This time, the basement door cut loose, bouncing open with a crash, and Phil stumbled. And now the door was open, and Phil fell back –

"Phil!" Jarrod yelled.

Now the other men and the bartender came running, but Phil had fallen down the stairs, falling over and over and landing hard at the bottom. Jarrod scrambled down after him first, the bartender right behind him.

The damage was obvious even in just the light coming from the window to the alley. Phil's head was lying awkwardly the wrong way from his body. The bartender said, "Oh, Jeez – "

Jarrod reached for a pulse and saw blood in addition to – "His neck is broken," he said and slumped.

And thought, dear God, I've killed him.