by Angel Moore
She had been silent on their walk from the bank. “If you mean the business of signing the papers went smoothly, it’s no surprise since Mr. Freeman had them prepared and waiting for your signature.”
He tried to ignore the tension in her tone. “It has to be difficult for you. Every day you’ve had to do something you never imagined before.”
“Thank you for saying that. It means a lot that you understand how strange all of this is to me.” She gave him a forced smile. “I’m going to talk to Mrs. Atkins about the grocery order. It has to be placed today.”
“May I join you?”
“Of course. Just let me check in with Libbie first. Michael and Sarah were not in good humor when I left earlier.”
When Charlotte came back into the lobby Michael was on her heels. “I don’t want to stay home today. I want to go outside and play with my friends.”
“Michael, you will do as you’re told.” Charlotte didn’t give him a hint that she’d relent.
“It’s not fair. You used to take us on walks by the river and to see Mrs. Braden’s animals.” His anger escalated with every sentence.
Nathan didn’t think Charlotte deserved any more back talk from the boy. “Michael, Charlotte has answered you. Arguing with her is not helpful, nor should you continue to do so in the hotel lobby.”
Charlotte spun around and pinned Nathan with her stare. “I will handle this, Mr. Taylor.” Her tone was low and even—and full of grit. No one listening would have criticized her manner, but Nathan knew just how serious she was. The suddenness of her reaction warned that he may have overstepped a boundary with Michael. One she would guard with all the maternal instincts he’d witnessed in her as each day passed.
She turned back to Michael, and Nathan returned to the desk as the front door of the hotel opened. Dennis, the errand boy from the train station, lugged in several valises and a box.
Michael yelled out. “Those are Pa’s things! And Momma’s!” He bolted around Charlotte and almost tackled Dennis.
“Whoa, there, Michael.” Dennis set the bags down. “I’ve got to give these things to your sister.”
Charlotte walked at a steady pace across the lobby. A stoic dread surrounded her posture. “Michael, return to the parlor.” She brooked no argument from the child at this point, and he knew when he’d been conquered. The slouch of his shoulders deepened as he walked closer to the parlor door. He pulled it closed behind him without looking back.
Dennis handed the small box to Charlotte. “The stationmaster wanted me to make sure I put this in your hands. The valises are the ones your parents carried on their trip.” He pointed at the box. “These things were with your parents at the time of the accident. It took a while for the railroad company to go through all the personal things and sort them to return to their rightful owners.” He removed his hat. “Please know how sorry everyone at the station is for your loss.”
“Thank you, Dennis. I appreciate you bringing their things home.”
Nathan had walked over to stand beside Charlotte. “I’ll take care of everything from here.” He tipped the young man discreetly and picked up the valises. “Where would you like me to put these, Charlotte?”
“I don’t know.” She stared at the top of the box. “I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that their things would eventually be returned. I’d asked about them the first day but had forgotten them in the stress and busyness of the days that followed.”
“If you’d like, I can put everything in your parents’ room. You could choose the best time for you to go through them later.” He waited, but she didn’t answer. “Charlotte.”
She jerked her head up. “I’m sorry. I was just so taken off guard.” She lifted her face to look at him. “Just when I think I’m dealing with it all, something comes out of the blue and sends me reeling back into the abyss of grief.” A tear slid down her cheek. He wanted to drop his burden and pull her close. To hold her head against his shoulder and comfort her. That would never do.
“I’m so sorry. Please let me put these things somewhere for you. You don’t have to deal with them until you’re ready.”
“You’re right. I can wait.” She led him through the parlor and down a short hallway. The door she approached stood closed. She froze to the spot. “We should put everything in there—only I haven’t been in their room since I chose the clothes for their funerals.”
“Let me do it. You put the box on the floor, and I’ll put everything inside. You can wait until you’re ready.”
Charlotte set the box down and retraced her steps to the parlor. She dropped onto the settee with her back to him. He moved everything into the room as quietly as possible. One look around the space showed why it was difficult for Charlotte to enter the room. A picture of her father stood on the corner of her mother’s dressing table. Her father’s Bible was on the table by the bed. Cheerful yellow curtains hung at the window. The room had been a sanctuary for her parents. The feminine touches that were evident in the lobby were on full show in this room. A framed picture of a yellow rose was on the wall above a chair near the opposite side of the bed. Small figures of children lined a shelf on another wall. Everything spoke of Nancy Green’s love for her family and her home. Even the rag rug at the foot of the bed made the room feel cozy.
Charlotte would need courage to face the emptiness of a room so full of memories of her parents. He closed the door and joined her in the parlor.
“Do you want me to check on Michael? I heard noises coming from the next room.”
“No. He does best if he’s left alone to calm himself when he’s upset.” Her tone was distant. The arrival of her parents’ belongings must have brought fresh grief.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“We’ll be fine. Libbie took Sarah for a walk. They’ll be back soon. If you don’t mind, I’m going to wait a few minutes and speak with Michael. I’ll be back to work soon. We can finish the inventory and perhaps go to the mercantile after lunch.”
“Okay, but if you think of anything, all you have to do is ask.” She nodded, but he didn’t think she really heard him. He decided it was best to leave her alone to deal with this unexpected wave of sorrow. He headed toward the lobby.
“And, Nathan,” Charlotte called after him. “I will be having meals with the children. You may join us for lunch on their good days. I feel it’s best for me to spend that time with them. I know we have a lot of work to discuss, and I think it’s best if we try to meet together as much as possible. At the same time, I have to do what’s best for the children.”
“What about the hotel? We are just beginning to make progress.”
“We can finish the inventory and go to the mercantile today. Then I’ll take a few days to ponder things and decide how we’ll proceed.”
“So you’re only going to hear my ideas and then put me in my place? I’m sorry if it sounds harsh to you, but this kind of business requires drive and planning. You need to do both.”
“I’m sorry, Nathan, but I don’t have the luxury of letting anyone, including you, think they can get the upper hand over my business. Or my family.” She perused the lobby. “This is my life. I’m responsible for myself and those two little ones. I won’t abdicate that to anyone.”
* * *
He was so handsome standing in the parlor doorway. And he’d been helpful. She’d almost broken down when Dennis had returned with her parents’ belongings. If Nathan hadn’t been there, she’d no doubt be up to her elbows in the box and valises at this very moment, letting the memories carry her on an emotional journey. It would never have occurred to her to wait and open them when she felt stronger.
But as much as he’d done—as much as she wanted to rely on someone—she wouldn’t let her attraction to him pull her into a deeper relationship. She was his boss. Plain and simple. As hard as it was to face the fact, she knew she
was drawn to Nathan. Her mother had been right. She wasn’t ready for marriage. She had too much to learn about life.
Momma had even warned her about Nathan when Charlotte was still in school. She hadn’t liked to see Charlotte upset after Nathan’s teasing.
Charlotte had to protect Michael and Sarah. If that meant she had to protect herself from any emotional entanglements, too, then so be it.
“You’ve been very good about showing me things that will help the hotel, but in the end, the hotel is mine. Mine and my siblings. You’re here to do a job. That job is to teach me how to run the place.”
“I see. And am I to have a place here after you’ve learned to buy the groceries and handle the accounts? Or am I to be out on my ear as soon as you think you can manage without me?”
“That’s not fair, Nathan. You know I would never have taken you on if Thomas Freeman hadn’t insisted.”
He grunted. “And you should know that I’d never have left my job in Dallas if I’d thought I’d have no future here.”
She hung her head and twisted her fingers together in her lap. “No, I guess not.”
Michael came to the end of the hall. “I can hear you fighting.”
Charlotte held out a hand to Michael, and he went to stand by her. “We’re not fighting.”
“Yes, you are. You don’t want him here, and I don’t want him here. Why don’t you just make him leave?” The child never looked at Nathan.
“I’ll be at the desk. I know you want to handle this alone.” Nathan pulled on the door.
“Wait.” She called him back. “I won’t be unfair to you. I promise.”
“I hope you’re able to decide what’s fair. It’s not an emotional decision. It’s a business one.” Nathan walked into the lobby and closed the door behind him.
“I told you we don’t need him here. I don’t think he likes me and Sarah.” Michael’s constant anger had prevailed since their parents had died. As much as she hoped he wasn’t right about Nathan, she longed to see another emotion surface in her young brother.
“I wouldn’t say Nathan doesn’t like you.”
“You don’t have to say it. He doesn’t like anything we do. He wants us out of our own hotel. He won’t let me sit behind the desk like Pa used to, and he wants us to be quiet. This is our hotel.” Michael stomped his foot. “He’s not the boss.”
Charlotte dredged up her mother’s methods of dealing with Michael’s strong will. “Michael, you are not an adult. You do not get to make adult decisions. You may tell me anything, and I will listen to you. I never want you to think you can’t talk to me. But I will not allow you to be disrespectful.” She put a finger under his chin and angled his face toward hers. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” He scuffed his shoe against the carpet.
“As for the hotel, it belongs to me and you and Sarah. We are the Greens of Green’s Grand Hotel. You’re right about that.”
“And he’s not the boss.” He poked the air between him and the door to the lobby.
“No, he isn’t. But neither are you.” Charlotte put an arm around his shoulder. “I am.”
“But I’m the man of the house. Pa always said I’d be the man of the house if he wasn’t here.”
“You are. But just because I’m not a man doesn’t mean I’m not the boss. I’m the oldest. So I’m the boss.” She touched her finger to the middle of his chest. “And when you’re an adult, you can be the boss with me. You and Sarah, too.”
“I wanna help now.”
“You can.”
“How? You don’t think I’m big enough to do the stuff Pa did.”
“No. You’ll have to be older to do those things. You can help me by being a good boy. If you’re good in school, you’ll learn things you need to know for when you are one of the bosses at the hotel. If you’re good at home, you’ll help me learn all the things Nathan is here to teach me about being the boss. Then the hotel will be big and successful when you’re all grown up.”
“Can I have a glass of milk?”
“You just had milk with your breakfast. Why do you want another glass so soon?”
He puffed out his little chest and stretched to his highest height. “Milk makes you grow. I need to grow fast, so I need some more milk.”
Charlotte laughed and hugged him. “Yes, you can have some milk. I’ll even let you go to the hotel kitchen to get it if you promise to behave.”
“I’ll be good.” He took off for the door and tugged it open. “I promise.”
Lord, please help me. People in every direction are pulling at me for answers and their very way of life. I can’t do this without Your help.
What would she do? Learn all she could from Nathan and send him away? At the moment, it was the only thing she knew to do.
* * *
Nathan jotted down the last items on his list. “That takes care of the inventory.”
Charlotte brushed dust from her sleeves. “Good. I’m not sure when I was last in the attic, but I don’t remember it being so dusty.”
Nathan watched as she ran a hand over her hair. “You were probably a child. Attics are an adventure to children. Dust is never a deterrent—it’s part of the mystique.”
“I do remember coming up here in search of one of Ma’s old dresses. Not Michael and Sarah’s mother, but my mother.” Her eyes glazed over. He got the sense that her mind took her on a trip to a place in her memory where no one left on earth had been. “I wanted to wear it to Pa’s wedding to Nancy, my second mother.” She looked at him then. “She was so good to me. I never felt like she didn’t truly love me. Her wisdom and guidance protected me in ways that make me forever grateful.”
“Did you find the dress?”
“I did, and she altered it for me to wear to the wedding. She had a new dress. Pa got Mrs. Opal Pennington to make it up from fabric he bought for her. She was beautiful. It was like a lovely dream. An autumn day in the cool of the morning. The harvest was over, so the townsfolk gathered and celebrated with them in the hotel restaurant after the ceremony in the church.”
Nathan remembered a picture his mother had had of her and his father on their wedding day. It was one of her prized possessions. Now his father kept it on the table by his bed. “It’s wonderful that you have such fond memories.”
“It is. I know I should be grateful for that. I am.” She shrugged. “But I am so very sad at the same time.”
“Let’s get you out of the attic. You can take your happy memories from here with you.” He held the door open for her and caught her light floral scent as she passed him to stand on the landing. The fragrance mingled with a hint of dust must be like her memories. Sweetness covered with the age of life.
“What’s next on the schedule?” She descended the stairway onto the landing on the second floor.
“We still need to go to the mercantile and see if they have the catalog your father ordered from.”
Charlotte opened the watch she wore pinned to her dress. “Although it won’t be time for supper for a couple of hours, I’m not sure we can be away from the hotel any more today. The trip to the bank was early, but we have guests scheduled to arrive this afternoon. And I’m hoping for more to come from the train.”
“Let’s leave that for next week then. We’ve accomplished a lot in one week. There is plenty for us to plan from the notes we’ve made. All that will need to be done at the mercantile is to choose fabric for the draperies. Everything else is coming with the order your parents placed in Dallas.”
“Okay. I’ll just go make sure everything I ordered for the restaurant this morning has been delivered.”
She headed across the lobby while he made his way to the desk. Without discussing it, they’d fallen into a natural habit of him manning the desk and working on the notes they’d made and her checking on the staff and supplies.
“Mr. Taylor, I’d like a moment of your time.” Mr. Eaton had walked up without his notice. He was too taken with the Charlotte. She was getting to him, and that would never do.
“Certainly, Mr. Eaton.”
“I’d like to extend my stay again. By another week, at least.”
Nathan checked to see that they had availability. “That will be fine. I’ll adjust your information here.” He made the note for Charlotte to see. “I assume you’re having a productive time in Gran Colina. Miss Green told me you’re in town for your employer.”
“Yes. Things are going well. Thank you.” He lifted a hand and left the lobby. His quick gait made Nathan wonder what had prompted his hurry. Was it the work he was here to do, or had he wanted to avoid any conversation about his job?
Charlotte joined him. “Is that Mr. Eaton leaving?”
“No. He said he’ll be staying for a minimum of another week.”
She leaned against the desk. “I wonder what kind of work he does. I haven’t had an opportunity to ask.”
“I was about to ask, but he left in a hurry.”
A frown creased her brow. “Do you think he doesn’t want us to know?”
“It’s possible. Though I can’t think what difference it would make to you or me.”
“You’re probably right. He asked for directions to the land office the other day, but he said he’s not moving to Gran Colina.”
Nathan squared his shoulders as the front door opened, and the guests from the train entered. “We’ll most likely know soon enough. Gran Colina may be growing, but there’s still enough small-town charm here for someone to notice Mr. Eaton and share his purpose with others.”
They helped their arriving visitors before Charlotte had to relieve Libbie. She carried their family supper on a tray as he made his way toward the restaurant for his evening meal.
“Why don’t you join me and the children for supper? I’ve enough here, I’m sure.”
He stopped to look over his shoulder at the empty lobby. “If we can leave the door ajar so I can hear the bell.”
