Chapter Forty Three
Jarrod and Macklin strode into the Paramount Casino in Modesto. They sat down at the bar; every eye in the area looked them over. Two men by the door disappeared behind the curtained wall just as they thought.
"We are being announced it seems."
"Scotch"
"Whiskey"
The bartender filled their order.
"New liquor?"
Bartender answered , "Yep. New ownership coming in. Sent some cases in already so we don't lose any regulars."
"Good thinking on their part?"
Macklin asked, "Who are new owners?"
"They told us about a group from Frisco. That dame didn't take the offer from the Mayor and Buck and them others we heard."
"Interesting." Jarrod sipped.
"Seen those four men around here lately? Ones wanted for attacking my lady friend?"
The bartender shook his tip jar in conspicuously.
Jarrod slipped in a gold piece.
"Nah. Working a job out of town. Said they was working for this group outta Frisco to put your lady friend under the bank."
Macklin and Jarrod shook their heads. The bartender went down the counter to fill another order.
"Convenient lies."
"Yep since the Frisco group hasn't even offered again since I was there. Buck is covering his tracks."
"They will send word when Heath gets home safe with the ladies and the boy. That damn rope was reprehensible. That snap sickened my cast iron stomach."
"Mine too. Doc says it will be a slow heal but since he is young—" and he nursed his scotch.
"Jarrod, are you set on selling the hotel?"
"I will if I have to—-Lisette and her boy need each other. I am not worried about the loss of money. But it's festering in my craw to let Buck win."
"Why does he hate your family?"
"Started with Nick—most of all unless I have tied with him over this hotel. The man can't stand losing. Nick and him went head to head over a cattle sale. Nick won the bid by discrediting Buck's herd. He was selling some mixed with Texas cattle fever fattened up on clover. They would have died within a month or two of the sale. He never forgave Nick for figuring it out. He blamed his Mexican herders."
"That is shameless as fast as that sickness spreads."
"Yep. Nick figured it out because Buck kept the herd he was trying to sell away from his main herd. Army won't buy from Buck anymore. Has to ship east."
"Heath?"
"Jealousy. Heath discovered wolfram in our silver mines. He smelled it out. Tungsten you know, wolfram is needed for steel skyscrapers back east. He patented a way to get it out. My little brother has a government patent. Buck seeded a few of his old useless mines with it and tried to sell to speculators. Heath's testing method was used by the assayer and proved there was only trace wolfram in the mine. Deal fell through."
"But Heath didn't do anything to Buck, just invented something that showed he was a fraud."
"Yep, that sums it up."
"And now you represent the lady who owns this casino that he wants?"
"Yep. Sees it as another Barkley in his way. He was in kahoots with Paul Franklin and Miller to buy this place for a song. It's a money maker in a cowtown like Modesto if they hadn't mortgaged for collateral on loans and credit lines. They absconded with all the cash. I have Pinkerton looking for them but I can't find one legal maneuver to charge them. Lisette's father signed it all away. Senility? Coercion? Blackmail? I have no proof nor does Lisette."
"Jarrod, I got a weird question. Why does Lisette go by her maiden name, Taylor? Or none of my business?"
Jarrod snorted and sipped, "They have been separated since the birth of Henry. Ugly story. But she wants me to change her name legally when this is done. Wants nothing more to do with Franklin."
"Can she?"
"Yes but not her son's. He has an inheritance locked up tight in stocks back east until he is twenty five. I don't see Franklin signing the boy away to her without a fight."
"Where will she go after all of this?"
"She says France. She has family there. But I have another plan I am formulating when this is over."
Macklin looked at Jarrod. His barrister's face revealed nothing.
Macklin thought to himself, "Personal or business or both? I already can see he has feelings for the lady. I wonder if he knows it yet or if they are already lovers. Jarrod is in deep on this one."
Jarrod and Macklin stayed at the bar for several hours but no one made contact. They got a room for the night and headed upstairs. They would take turns sleeping and on guard.
But no one appeared or approached them.
Bidden or by surprise. No one.
—&—
Lisette was exhausted and disoriented from being blindfolded. She went through every novel and poem she loved—recited them from memory in her head. She pretended to paint and practiced strokes in her mind. She willed herself not to yell or scream. She had to survive for Henry. She had to—Her boy.
Any sound she made brought the guard to her side and the riding crop. He delighted in tormenting her. He was the only voice she ever heard clearly in her room. Someone had spooned water into her mouth every few hours and broth in the morning.
"I have to stay alive for Henry." ran through her mind when the despair sat in again or she wanted to cry out.
When sleep came from the rag on her nose or from exhaustion, she traveled to France with her mother or cuddled the infant Henry or laughed with Bax and Prudy—painted in the meadow with Sarah and Samantha, "We love you Aunt Lissy."
"Uncle Jarrod…,"—-—she pruned her roses by her cottage at the seashore—"My Lisette, our darling girl, my blessing" and crooned a French lullaby over and over.
"My baby, My Lissssssssy—-I am so sorry." came John Taylor's voice. All she could see was the shiny diamond stickpin he always wore—-His face wouldn't come to her.
She held onto the blue-veined hand of Victoria Barkley for strength. In fact, Victoria talked to her in her dreams for strength and courage and how Henry would grow out of his asthma. And then in her deepest sleep, Jarrod Barkley danced with her in a purple dress to a string quartet—and bedded her in a way she never thought possible—-just like the risque novel she once read—with tenderness and kindness and—fire. It gave her will to live just to be touched like that once. Just once.
—&—-
"Father? Are you sure that we must return to San Francisco?"
"Absolutely. I have told your aunt we are closing up her house too. I will abide by absolutely no opposition. Jarrod Barkley has brought you into danger with his unsavory clients. Look at those women kidnapped because of his recklessness. You will not be drawn into such."
Her aunt came into the room as they were talking.
"Why don't we wait and give Mr. Barkley a chance to explain? I have known Victoria for years and I don't like judging her son without cause."
"Stay out of it. I will not abide by scandal."
"Bah, every family has the proverbial skeletons in the closet. Things we would rather not see the light of day. We have our own."
"Be quiet, sister." He roared at her.
"Father please—."
"Absolutely no more shame on our family name. There has been enough. I mean Jarrod Barkley has done enough."
"What do you mean, Father?"
"Not another word."
"Pshaw," his sister spat and she hobbled out of the room on her cane.
Davina sat on the couch and cried.
The servants hurried upstairs and began to pack their trunks.
"Do I get to say goodbye?"
"No."
—-&—-