Chapter 7

Jarrod turned to the library after everyone else – including all the children – had gone to sleep. The house was blessedly quiet while he worked on some matters he'd brought with him. When he finally went to bed, the house was so silent it was almost as if he lived here alone.

He slept well and was a bit startled to find it was still very quiet when he got up in the morning. He was able to shave and dress with no disturbance, and when he got downstairs, only Nick was there at the breakfast table. It was almost scary. "Where is everybody?" Jarrod asked and headed for the sideboard where Silas had set out food.

"Still asleep," Nick said. "Mrs. Brooks and the ladies had the kids turned in not long after you went off to the library but you could still hear them up pretty late."

"I couldn't hear them," Jarrod said, dishing up some food for himself.

Nick poured some coffee into a cup at the place to his left at the table, where Jarrod had sit ever since coming here nearly a week ago. "That's because you had your head in your work," Nick said. "Anyway, everybody was late getting to sleep but you were still at it in the library."

Jarrod sat down at the table. "I had some work I brought with me to finish up before I wire my secretary today. I'm gonna head into town as soon as I finish eating, and I'll hang around there until my secretary responds."

"Dodging the kids, aren't you?" Nick gave him a wink as he said it.

"Not exactly," Jarrod said between bites of food. "It's just that I'd like to get my work out of the way so I can enjoy more time with you all. Are you going to start the riding lessons today?"

"Yeah, Gene and I will ramrod his, mine and whoever else comes over," Nick said. "Gene's oldest wants to learn to ride, but he seems to have a few other things on his mind too. It was all we could do to keep him out of the library last night while you were working in there. The kid is just starting to read, and he's like his father – can't read enough."

"I hope you told him the books in the library can be pretty boring."

"Gene already told him they were mostly law books, but Gene Jr. is anxious to learn all the new words he can. He wants to ride, but somehow I get the feeling that those lessons will go fast and he'll turn his mind to all those temptations in the library. Are you gonna need it this evening again?"

"That depends on what my secretary has to say," Jarrod said, still eating.

Nick leaned back in his chair. "You know, it wouldn't hurt you to get some saddle time in. I'm thinking we can take the kids out for a short ride tomorrow, if any of them want to go. You want to come along?"

"That too depends on what my secretary has to say," Jarrod said.

"Gene and I could use another hand," Nick said.

"Maybe Heath will be coming with you."

"If he is, he'll be bringing his clan along, and they'll be anxious to ride too," Nick said.

"All right, all right, count me in," Jarrod said, "if my secretary will permit it."

Jarrod finished his food quickly and gulped down his coffee before getting up.

"You're gonna give yourself an ulcer if you keep eating on the run," Nick said.

"I had a nice leisurely dinner last night with everyone," Jarrod said, "and I'm planning on another one tonight."

"Will you be back for lunch?"

"I doubt it," Jarrod said and headed for the door. "Again – "

"I know," Nick interrupted. "That depends on what your secretary has to say."

"Women rule the world, Nick," Jarrod said with a smirk as he headed out the door. "They just like to make us think we do."

XXXXXXX

Jarrod sent a telegram off to his secretary in San Francisco, wishing like crazy that the new invention called the telephone was in use in enough places that he could talk to her directly. It would be so much quicker and easier than composing telegrams and waiting for them to be sent and delivered and for responses to come back. But that wasn't the norm yet.

"Do you expect a response, Mr. Barkley?" the telegrapher asked.

"Yes, but don't send it out to the house," Jarrod said. "I'll be in town for a while, so just hold onto it. I'll check back off and on."

With that, Jarrod headed outside and toward the courthouse. He hadn't had time yet to check in there, where he tried cases when he was young. He wanted to see who was around that he might know and what, if anything, had changed since he left, but he didn't even get that far right away. Passing his old office, he looked up at the window and saw Matt Cooper's name there. He smiled. Matt was brand new and absolutely green when he first started practicing here 20 years ago, but he progressed and was the city attorney when Jarrod left to live in San Francisco. Now it looked like he was in private practice again and had Jarrod's old office.

Jarrod took a chance and went into the building he knew so well. When he got to his old office, he found a young woman working there as Matt's secretary. He did not know who that woman might be, but when she looked up at him, she did look hauntingly familiar.

She got up from her desk and said, "Oh, Mr. Barkley."

"Hello," Jarrod said. "I don't think I've had the pleasure."

"Oh, I'm sure you wouldn't remember me," she said. "I'm Cecilia Akely."

Jarrod's eyes widened. "Little Cecilia? Your father worked at our ranch?"

"Yes," she said and started to laugh.

"My gosh, as I remember your mother moved your family to Lodi some time ago!"

"Yes, I pretty much grew up there, but I met Matt there when he came on business and we reminisced about Stockton together, and before we knew it – "

"She became Mrs. Matthew Cooper," the man's voice came out with the man from the inner office.

Matt Cooper wasn't the fresh-faced young lawyer he used to be. Now he was in his 40s and well established in his profession. With a smile, he held his hand out to a still astonished Jarrod.

"My gosh," Jarrod said again as he shook Matt's hand. "Well, I guess congratulations are in order. I'm afraid I've been out of touch for too long."

"You haven't gotten back here all that often since I went into private practice," Matt said. "Cecelia and I married three years ago."

"And you took over my office, I see," Jarrod said. "That's what drew me up here. It's good to see you both."

"We came to your mother's funeral," Matt said, "but couldn't stay. I had to get right back here for a hearing in the afternoon. I was so sorry when she passed, Jarrod."

"Thank you, Matt," Jarrod said. He looked around. "Well, I can't say the place looks any different now from when I occupied it, but I guess lawyer's offices do kind of look alike."

"Books and furniture and more books," Matt said. "I'd ask you to stay a while, but I have to get a brief in to Judge Lawson this afternoon."

"Judge Lawson?!" Jarrod gasped. "Is he still on the bench?" Jarrod remembered an older man with a disposition everyone described as fussy 20 years ago when he gave Jarrod such grief over the Barkley's dispute with Adam Howard.

"The elder Judge Lawson's son," Matt said. "He was elected to the bench last year. His father passed away about eight years ago."

"Well, since the apple rarely falls far from the tree, I'll let you get back to your brief before the younger Judge Lawson gets put out with you," Jarrod said. "It's good to see you're taking care of my old office – and it's good to see you both starting a family."

"Sooner than you'd think," Cecelia said. "I'm expecting."

"Oh, that's wonderful," Jarrod said.

"It won't be wonderful finding a new secretary," Matt said, then he put his arm around his wife, "but I'm glad I'll have to do it."

"I'm very happy for you both," Jarrod said.

Jarrod left then, his head spinning a little about the past coming back at him like that – his old office, the local judge being the son of the old judge Jarrod dealt with long ago, an attorney who was brand new when he lived here, and another young woman who was just a child when he knew her, just like Gayle Freeman. That was an awful lot of history to take in such a brief time.

And the attorney and his young wife were starting a family. Jarrod thought about it as he headed off toward the courthouse again. Matt had to be in his mid-forties, and Cecelia at least 15 years younger than he was. He thought of Gayle Freeman again, remembering that he himself was a good ten years older than Matt.

He shook it out of his head. He didn't want to think about Gayle Freeman right now. She was too young, he decided – and then thought about Matt and Cecelia and their baby again. And then shook it out of his head again as he neared the courthouse.