Читать книгу Inherited: Unexpected Family - Gabrielle Meyer - Страница 14

Chapter Four

He thinks the frontier is too rough for an unmarried lady. The thought still riled Elizabeth hours after she and Jude walked home from the attorney’s office. She pulled a clean apron from her trunk and snapped it with a flick of her wrists to get the wrinkles out. With quick movements, she tied it around her waist and smoothed down the material.

“Too weak, indeed,” she muttered to herself and then looked over her shoulder to make sure she hadn’t woken Rose, who was taking a nap.

Her ex-fiancé, James, had thought the same. He assumed he was rescuing her from a life of poverty and shame when her father had abandoned them—and she had been so overcome with fear at the time, she almost believed him. But he wanted her without the responsibilities of her two younger sisters. If she had married him, she would have had to leave them. She could never have done that. Not only because she had promised Mama she would take care of them—but because she could never sacrifice her sisters’ well-being for the love of a man.

No. She had broken her engagement to James and faced her fears. In the process, she had realized she was a lot stronger than she—or James—had given her credit for. It hadn’t been easy, but she had done it.

And she’d do it again at the Northern Hotel. January would come and go, and she’d still be there, waiting to see her name on that deed.

A quick look in the mirror confirmed that her hair needed to be repinned. She had helped serve lunch and cleaned the dishes afterward in the hot kitchen, while Grace kept an eye on Rose. When all was finished, Rose had been put down for a nap and Grace had gone to clean one of the guest rooms with Violet. Elizabeth had asked Jude for a tour of the property to assess what needed attention so she would have an understanding of how the business worked when she looked over the books. There were always ways to cut spending and generate revenue.

She pulled out all the pins and combed her hair with her fingers, then she twisted the thick mass at the back of her head. With practiced fingers, she replaced all the pins and looked at her work. She shouldn’t care so much about her appearance with Jude, but she wanted him to think of her as a smart, competent and organized woman. Maybe, if he recognized her worth, he would put her on the deed sooner than January.

Elizabeth left her bedchamber and walked into the sitting room to get a piece of paper and a pencil out of the secretary to take notes. Jude had removed his journal and pulled papers out of the drawers the night they had arrived, but perhaps there were still a few supplies left for her. She opened the first drawer, but found it empty. The second and third were also empty. If she didn’t find something, she could always ask if he had paper at the front desk.

Elizabeth opened the last drawer and paused when she glimpsed an envelope crushed into the back. She pulled it out, thinking it could be salvaged for her notes. There was no name or return address on the envelope. She smoothed it down, opened the flap and pulled out a letter. The slanted handwriting was not her father’s, but maybe it was Jude’s. She quickly scanned the simple contents.

Take the young woman tonight. Proceed with caution and all haste.

It took a moment before the weight of the message hit her. Who would write such a sinister note? And more importantly, who had received it? Was it a joke to frighten her? Jude had said she couldn’t survive the frontier—was this his way of making a point? But how could he have placed the letter in the secretary without coming into the room? He wouldn’t have done that without her permission.

Would he?

That left her to assume the correspondence was legitimate. But what did it mean? Was someone stolen? Was Jude involved?

The wall clock chimed the hour. She needed to meet Jude in the lobby, but questions continued to fill her mind with horrible assumptions.

Elizabeth put the letter back in the envelope and slipped it into the pocket of her apron. She didn’t want to leave it out for her sisters to find—yet what would happen if she showed it to Jude and demanded answers? He would probably deny all knowledge of the note, or make an excuse to pacify her.

On second thought, she went back to her room and placed the letter in the bottom of her trunk, under her personal items. She’d do some investigating of her own before she approached him. She could always talk to Martha and Violet and ask if they knew of any suspicious behavior. If something didn’t seem right, she’d take the letter to the authorities.

Elizabeth scurried out of her room, raced down the hall and descended the stairs. Jude stood in the lobby, speaking with a customer. The other man shook Jude’s hand and left the building.

When Elizabeth stopped at the bottom of the steps, out of breath, Jude turned, his eyebrow raised. “Do you always make such a dramatic entrance?”

She forced a smile and tried not to look wary. “Not always.”

“Shall we get started on the tour?”

“May I have a piece of paper and a pencil to take notes?”

He nodded and went behind the counter to grab her requested items. “Are you always so thorough?”

She took the paper and pencil. “Always.”

He smiled and walked her down the long hall to the right of the main stairway. “We have one of the finest ballrooms west of the Mississippi River,” he began without small talk and pushed open the wide double doors.

They entered the echoing hall and Elizabeth took in a surprised breath.

Beautiful parquet floors gleamed from the sunshine streaming in through the tall windows. Large mirrors reflected the creamy yellow paint on the walls and three chandeliers hung suspended from the high ceiling overhead. A raised platform stood at one end, where the orchestra probably sat during the balls.

“It’s amazing,” Elizabeth said.

“I like to hold a ball each month. It’s good for business and morale. We’ll also be hosting the Fourth of July Ball.”

“Do you charge an admission fee?”

“No.”

She scribbled a note on her paper.

“What?” he asked.

“We could bring in revenue if we charged a small fee.”

He frowned, clearly not convinced. “The balls always fill up the guest rooms.”

“Which is good,” she said. “But not good enough. Do you charge for refreshments?”

“Of course not.”

She scribbled another note. “We’ll have to change that, too.”

Jude put his hand on the paper and she looked up. “I won’t let you come in here and change everything, especially since the Fourth of July Ball is less than a week away.”

“You said I was in charge of the books and I could do anything that would bring in revenue.” She pulled the paper out of his grasp. “We shook on it.”

“Within reason.”

“This is within reason.”

He stared at her for a moment and then said, “We can talk about it after the Fourth of July Ball.” He led her out of the ballroom and down the hall toward the kitchen.

As she made notes about the peeling wallpaper and the cracked glass in the back door, she couldn’t stop thinking about the letter tucked inside her trunk. What did she really know about Mr. Allen? Her father must have trusted him...shouldn’t that be good enough for her?

“How did you and my father come to be partners?”

He showed her the back staircase that led to the upper rooms. “I met Clarence when he first came to town working for the Little Falls Company as a carpenter. The company was started by Abram Cooper and two other men to establish Little Falls. They construct buildings, build roads, operate the mills and sell property. I owned the American Hotel—what’s now the Batters House—and Clarence lived there. He told me he had always wanted to go into the hotel business, so when I sold the American to buy the Northern, I asked if he was interested in becoming partners.”

“How long were you partners?”

“Two years.” He climbed to the top of the back stairs and stood to the side to let her pass in front of him into the hallway near her bedroom. “Your father was a good man and I was sad to see him go.”

She bit her bottom lip as she listened to him speak. He seemed truly genuine. If her father had been in business with him for two years, and still felt it safe enough to send for her and her sisters, shouldn’t that be enough for her to trust Jude? It would have to be. She couldn’t walk around suspicious of his every move.

“We have twenty-four guest rooms in all,” Jude said as he opened the one across the hall from hers. It was currently unoccupied. “There is a bed, a bureau and a rocking chair in each room.” He closed the door and stepped across the hall to open another. A set of stairs led up to the third floor. “It’s a large, single room under the rafters. Martha and Violet sleep there. If you’d like to see it, you can ask Martha to show you.”

Elizabeth wrote more notes. The guest room drapes needed to be cleaned and the quilt on the bed needed to be patched. She looked up and found Jude trying to see what she wrote. She tilted the list up. “Where does Pascal sleep?”

“In the barn loft. He takes the overnight shift at the front desk, so he sleeps during the day.” Jude took the back stairs down to the main level. “I’ll show you the barn. We have one of the best in town. Some of the local men rent space from us to house their animals. For a small fee, Pascal feeds them and mucks out the stalls.” Jude pushed open the back door. “We also own twenty-five acres of cornfields, so I keep our tools and equipment in the barn, as well.”

She paused. “Cornfields?”

“On the outskirts of town.” He held the door open for her. “There are several business owners in town who have wheat and cornfields to earn a little extra income and provide for the community. It brings in much-needed money to pay for a couple months of mortgage over the winter when business is slow.”

She scribbled notes as fast as she could and then stepped into the shadowed alley between the hotel and barn. “You reap and sow the fields yourself?”

“With help from Pascal—yes.” Jude closed the back door and started toward the barn. It was covered in the same white clapboard siding as the hotel.

A tall man passed on Broadway and paused. He waved hello to Jude and entered the alley at a leisurely pace.

Jude turned to Elizabeth. “I’d like to introduce you to a friend.”

Elizabeth had met so many men at lunch, she was sure this one would be yet another she’d soon forget, but they were all potential customers, so she acquiesced. “All right.”

The man approached, and the first things Elizabeth noted were his kind eyes and his handsome smile. She found herself offering him a genuine smile in return.

“Miss Elizabeth Bell, this is my good friend Reverend Ben Lahaye.”

“Reverend?” Elizabeth looked at Jude. “You attend church?”

“Only on Sundays,” Reverend Lahaye said with a grin. “Jude wouldn’t miss a chance to hear me preach.”

Jude grinned. “If I missed your sermon on Sunday, I wouldn’t know what to banter with you about the rest of the week.”

Reverend Lahaye took Elizabeth’s hand and offered a slight bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Bell. I’ve already heard much about you and your sisters.”

“The pleasure is mine, Reverend Lahaye.”

He let her hand go. “Call me Ben. I wouldn’t know how to answer to Reverend Lahaye.” He was an attractive man, with high cheekbones and a wide mouth. If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked Métis. She’d read about the people who lived mostly in northern Minnesota and southern Canada. They were descended from French fur-trading fathers and Chippewa mothers. She wouldn’t know it by his clothing, which looked much like Jude’s, or even his hair, which he cut just below his ears, but in his features she saw Indian ancestry, and his last name indicated he was also French.

“Will you be joining us this evening?” Jude asked his friend.

“If Miss Bell will be here.”

Elizabeth looked between the two men. “I don’t know where else I’d be.”

“Splendid,” Ben said. “I hope you’ll save a dance for me.”

“A dance?” Hadn’t there been a ball the night before?

Jude shifted on his feet. “I’ve invited a few friends to the hotel this evening to welcome you and Grace to Little Falls. I thought you might enjoy a little dancing.”

He’d remembered her comments from the night before and planned a dance for her? His thoughtfulness surprised and delighted her—much more than it should—and she offered him a smile. She would enjoy the opportunity to dance again.

She looked at Ben. “I’ll save the first dance for you.”

It would be too forward to ask Jude for a dance, but maybe she’d get to find out if he was good on his feet, after all.

* * *

Jude stood in the lobby after supper, waiting for Elizabeth and Grace to come down the stairs. Rose had been put to sleep and Violet had agreed to stay in their sitting room for the evening to keep an ear on her. Pascal would watch the front desk and Martha would keep the coffee and refreshments going—though after Elizabeth’s comments earlier in the day, he wondered if she’d approve.

The doors opened and a group of Jude’s acquaintances entered. “Where are the mesdemoiselles you told us about?” Pierre LaForce’s French accent punctuated each word. “I have come to sweep them off their feet.”

“They’ll be down shortly,” Jude said. “Make your way to the ballroom.”

The men moved on and Jude paced across the lobby. He had invited about fifty men in hopes that several of them would catch the eye of each Bell sister. No doubt word had spread and others would come, but he couldn’t control the numbers. Single women were so scarce in the territory, they might attract dozens more.

Another group entered and Jude sent them on to the ballroom.

Jude looked at the wall clock and paced across the lobby. If the Bell sisters didn’t come soon, the men would get anxious and Jude would have trouble on his hands.

Finally, two sets of feminine boots appeared at the top of the stairs under two brightly colored hems. For some reason, Jude’s heart rate picked up speed as they made their way down the steps.

Elizabeth and Grace had gone up to change as soon as supper was over, but now they descended and Jude couldn’t take his eyes off Elizabeth. She was the prettiest woman he’d ever met. Yet, it was more than her looks that attracted him. Her eyes were filled with intelligence and she had a drive and a determination that he admired. She carried herself with a graceful mixture of confidence and humility. She wore a blue gown, tight at her slender waist and belled down to the floor. Her dark-brown hair was done up in ringlets with a blue ribbon woven through the curls. Delicate earrings dangled from her earlobes and matched her necklace.

Her sapphire eyes caught the light and sparkled when she looked his way. Color filled her cheeks—but was it from excitement or was she embarrassed to catch him admiring her?

The innocence of the thought warmed him and made him smile. He’d spent most of his life around women who no longer blushed at being noticed by a man. It was refreshing to be near one who wore innocence and purity like a garment.

The door opened again and another group of men entered.

Elizabeth and Grace looked their way.

Catcalls and whistles pierced the air, and while Elizabeth’s blush deepened, Grace seemed to thrive on the attention.

“Gentlemen,” Jude said above the noise. “I’ll kindly ask you to be respectful or you’ll have to leave the hotel.”

“I’m not leaving until I get a dance,” said Alec O’Conner.

“Then I’d advise you all to keep your remarks to yourself and head into the ballroom.” Jude leveled him with a serious gaze. “Or you’ll be on your way out.”

The men grumbled their agreement and walked toward the ballroom.

“How many friends did you invite?” Elizabeth asked Jude.

“A few dozen or so.” He offered his arm to her. “Shall we?”

She gingerly wrapped her hand around his arm and he tried not to notice how good she smelled.

“I don’t know about you,” Grace said as she smoothed the front of her green gown, “but I’m beyond excited to dance again.”

Elizabeth wiggled her fingers just enough for Jude to notice. “Me, too.”

He hadn’t kept track of how many men had entered the hotel—and he was surprised to find at least eighty standing before them when they entered the ballroom.

Already, the fiddle and mouth organ were being put to use, but no one was dancing. How could they? There were no other women in the room.

Another catcall filled the ballroom, followed by whistles and shouts of approval.

Elizabeth tensed at his side and her hand gripped his arm tighter. “This is what you call a few friends?”

He grinned. “I have more.”

She glanced up at him and smiled at his joke.

“Gentlemen,” Jude called, putting up his free hand.

The room quieted as eager eyes roamed the women from head to toe.

“I would like to present to you Clarence Bell’s daughters, Miss Elizabeth and Miss Grace.” Jude indicated each woman. “They have just arrived in Little Falls and will be living and working here at the hotel. They are here to enjoy an evening of visiting and dancing. As you can see, there are only two ladies and far too many men—”

“I’ll say,” said a man in the back and the group broke out in laughter.

“So you won’t all get a chance to dance,” Jude continued. “Be gentlemen and don’t forget your manners.”

Jude nodded toward the stage and met the fiddler’s gaze.

The music started up again and the men swarmed around the ladies. Jude extracted his arm from Elizabeth’s grip and took a step away.

Her gaze found his and he smiled, satisfied that his job was done for the moment. “Have fun.”

“Where is Reverend Lahaye?” she asked over the din.

It pleased Jude to know she had remembered Ben. Of all the men Jude knew, Ben was the most worthy of her attention. Jude looked around the room and spotted Ben near the mirror, not pushing or demanding attention.

Just like Ben.

For once, he’d like his friend to be a little more aggressive. Maybe he’d have a wife by now if he was.

“He’s over there,” Jude said to Elizabeth.

“What?” Elizabeth mouthed—it was too loud for him to hear the word.

Without thinking, Jude took her hand and began to tug her out of the crowd.

She maneuvered through the throng. Her hand was warm beneath her glove. When they were beyond the thick of it, she stood close and smiled up at him. “What did you say?”

Jude was so taken with her smile, he couldn’t think for a moment. “I don’t remember.”

Her smile slowly faded as she became serious. “I asked if Reverend Lahaye is here.”

“Oh.” Jude pulled his gaze from hers and pointed across the room. “He’s being inconspicuous by the mirrors.”

At that moment Ben noticed them and left his sanctuary.

“Where are the women?” Elizabeth asked as they waited for Ben.

He hadn’t even thought to invite other women. His only concern had been to get the single men in the door.

“There you are,” Jude said to Ben. “Elizabeth has been looking for you.”

She pulled away from Jude’s hand and shook Ben’s.

Jude’s skin was hot where she had touched him—but it cooled considerably as she gave her full attention to his friend.

“I’ve been looking forward to our dance,” she said warmly.

Ben grinned down at her. “I hope I’m not too rusty.”

They moved away without another word to Jude, their heads bent toward each other as they laughed and took their place on the dance floor.

Jude was soon joined by dozens of men who were forced to watch the ladies waltz with other partners. The dance floor cleared off and the music began in earnest, but Jude’s temporary victory over Elizabeth and Ben diminished when he spotted Grace and her dance partner.

Hugh Jones, one of the most notorious desperadoes in Little Falls, held Grace as if he already had claimed her—and perhaps he had. Several break-ins and fights had been attributed to his gang, but the citizens were helpless to stop them—just as the other men were helpless to stop him from dancing with Grace now.

Sheriff Pugh was rumored to be one of the desperadoes and he didn’t bother to enforce the law. Judge Barnum tried to hold them accountable, but without the support of the sheriff, it was pointless.

The gang members rarely showed their faces in the Northern, but they were frequent customers at Dew’s place, a brothel and saloon south of town, near the river.

Why had Hugh come? Was it simple curiosity to meet the Bell sisters? Or was he looking for trouble?

Hugh’s cronies peppered the edge of the dance floor, waiting for their turn to dance with Elizabeth and Grace. They would have to contend with over eighty prospective grooms who stood nearby—not to mention Jude, who suddenly felt a deep responsibility to make sure Clarence’s daughters married well.