by Angel Moore
“Did you speak to the land agent? Davis Conrad?”
“I did. I saw nothing amiss in the papers Mr. Eaton signed showing the intent of Turner Hotels to buy the adjoining land.”
“So there’s nothing I can do?”
“No, ma’am. I do hate it more than I can say. I knew your pa. He would never have wanted you to lose this place.”
“Thank you for that. It helps a bit to know that people understood my father’s ways.”
“He and your mother were fine folks.” Mr. Renfroe looked out the window by the fireplace. The poor man was as uncomfortable bringing her this news as she was receiving it.
“What is my next course of action? If we have to go, I want to know when and how. I’ll have to prepare my brother and sister. And find somewhere to live. And means to support them.”
“You’ll have the money that’s over the amount of the banknote. Mr. Freeman tried to say that you would be walking away with nothing. I convinced him that it wouldn’t be in his best interest for me to take him before a judge who would read the case in another way entirely. A judge who might even give you the property. But in any regard, he’d ruin his reputation in town if he was seen to be stealing from a passel of young ones.”
Charlotte leaned forward on her chair. “Could a judge do that? I’d be willing to plead my case before the judge. Surely a fair-minded judge would see it’s only right for my family to keep what our father built for us.”
“By law, the only thing owed to you will be the balance of the purchase amount after the loan and any unpaid interest is given to the bank. Mr. Freeman knew there was no chance we’d win a case like that. I was only trying to force his hand and prove that he couldn’t take what you’re rightfully owed. He relented to keep from smearing his name. That’s the only reason.”
“How long will I have to move out?” The words came from her, but she didn’t recognize her voice anymore. The question made no sense. They couldn’t move out. It was their home, the only place they’d ever lived. All their memories were here.
“Mr. Freeman has agreed to give you one month after the papers are signed by the Turners. That should happen in another week or two. I’ll notify you as soon as I know for certain what day it will be.”
“I see.” She was numb. The pain had become so overwhelming that her mind and heart refused to feel it. She shook her head. There were things to be handled. “If Nathan taught me anything, it was to stay focused on the task at hand.”
“A valuable lesson in business.” Mr. Renfroe tugged at his collar. “I’m sorry to be speaking to you on a Sunday about all of this. It’s just that Mr. Eaton came to my home this morning before church. He’d received a telegram from his employers and wanted to begin the process of shifting the business over as soon as possible.”
“Am I obligated to do that before they sign the papers?”
“No, but I didn’t want him to barge in on you and upset you. I thought you deserved to know.”
“I think I’d like to keep him out of the hotel until it belongs to the Turners. I might even try to get myself somewhere to go at that time. I don’t think I could bear to be here while they work at my desk and manage my workers. The children don’t need that.”
Mr. Renfroe nodded. “I’ll let him know. I can handle all the communication with him. You won’t have to deal with them at all.” He took a breath and continued. “They want to keep all the reservations that are on the books for the foreseeable future. Word of Mr. Thornhill’s meeting for farmers has spread through town. It seems the Turners would like to have that income to help pay for the purchase of the hotel.”
“I see. The meeting that I booked will be used to buy my hotel. I’ve effectively lost my home, and the labor I did has made it possible. I’ve worked myself out of my job and home.”
“It didn’t start off that way, but that is the ultimate effect of things. I am sorry for you, Miss Green. Truly, I am.”
“As am I.” She needed to know the rest of the details. “Will you accept payment from the funds I’m to receive? Will that be paid to me when they sign?”
“I’ll be waiving my fee, Miss Green. The Good Lord wouldn’t want me to profit off the sorrow of orphans.”
Orphans? The whole town saw them as orphans. That’s what they were. Somehow, until this moment, Charlotte hadn’t thought of them like that. Without their hotel, they’d be orphans without a home.
“You’re most gracious to offer, but I insist on paying for your services. I’ll not raise Michael and Sarah to think of our family as an object of pity.”
* * *
Nathan walked into Sheriff Braden’s office on Monday morning. “Were you able to do anything to help Charlotte and her siblings?”
Scott stood behind his desk. He took off his hat and hung it on a peg on the wall. “Good morning, Nathan.”
“Today is the day the six weeks are up. I don’t have time for pleasantries.”
“No.” Scott sat on the corner of his desk. “Mr. Renfroe and I talked with the mayor and the land agent. Everyone’s hands are tied. I can’t say Mr. Conrad is sorry. He treats that job as the land agent like the county land belongs to him. He’s happy to see a big company come to town.”
“What will Charlotte do?”
“Mr. Renfroe has been over the details with her.” He scratched his chin. “I don’t think I oughta tell you her private business. Not since she asked you to leave.”
Nathan slumped into the chair in front of Scott’s desk. “All I wanted to do was help her.”
“I think all she remembers now is you coming to town to take over her place.”
“I didn’t know it was hers. You know Mr. Freeman wasn’t completely honest about the arrangements when he hired me.”
“I know from experience in the last election that he’s been known to bend the truth in his direction if he thought it could help him.”
Nathan sat up straight. “Do you think he might lie about something? Even if it broke the law?”
Scott shrugged. “I never caught him in anything so blatant. Can’t say as I know the limits of his determination on things. He’s been known to be a bit ruthless.”
“Have you seen the loan papers that Charlotte’s father signed?”
“No. I figured Charlotte had a copy in her father’s things. And there’d be a copy at the bank.”
Nathan shot to his feet. “Thank you, Sheriff! Thank you very much.” He opened the door.
“For what?”
Nathan stopped at the door. “I’m not sure, but you may have just given me a clue as to how I can help Charlotte.”
He went straight to Mr. Renfroe’s office, but the man wasn’t there yet. He scribbled a note on a page from his notebook and tucked it into the door frame. There was no time to waste on the day of the deadline.
His next stop was the bank. He marched up to the first desk inside the door. “I need to see Thomas Freeman. Right away.”
The man at the desk rose from his chair. “Do you have an appointment?”
“I do not, but I will be seen. Now.”
Mr. Freeman must have heard him, because the man came out of the office in the back of the bank where Nathan and Charlotte had signed papers on the accounts for the hotel.
“We don’t have any business that I’m aware of, Mr. Taylor.” The banker’s arrogance grated on Nathan.
“I want to see the loan papers on the hotel. The ones signed by Mr. Green.”
“You have no reason to see those papers.”
“They are the foundation of your insistence that you can make all the decisions about the hotel. I want to read them.”
“Those papers are private. I do not run a newspaper. The matters that are handled by my bank are not for the public to read.”
Nathan recognized when he was being stonewalled. He had precious little
time. He wouldn’t waste it on Mr. Freeman, not if he had any hope of saving Green’s Grand Hotel.
He left the bank without another word. Mr. Renfroe was on the sidewalk reading his note when Nathan arrived back at the lawyer’s office.
“Mr. Renfroe, do you think I may be on to something?”
The man lifted one shoulder. “It bears consideration.” He pushed the door open and waited for Nathan to enter. “Let’s see what we can find out before Mr. Eaton arrives with another telegram.”
An hour later, Nathan and Mr. Renfroe went into the hotel. Charlotte stood behind the desk.
It took every bit of his self-control to let Mr. Renfroe explain the purpose of their visit. “If you’ll show me the papers your father signed with Mr. Freeman, we can see if there is anything there to help you.” He looked to Nathan. “When I spoke to Mr. Freeman at the bank, my main concern was verifying that the loan existed, and he had the right to take possession of the hotel. I took him at his word. It would never have occurred to me to look for improprieties in the banknote itself. It’s highly unlikely.”
Charlotte held her hands out. “I don’t know where to start.” She pointed at Nathan. “You looked through all of the hotel journals when you first got here. And we both went through Pa’s journal. I don’t know where else something like that would be.”
“Think, Charlotte. This could save the hotel for you.” Nathan rapped the side of his fists against the edge of the registration desk.
“Why can’t we look at the bank paperwork? Won’t it be the same?” Charlotte spoke to Nathan. He was glad to see her trust in him flicker to life by this one action. If she thought him to be against her, she’d have addressed the lawyer.
“It’s should be. But what if it isn’t? Or what if there is something there to stop Mr. Freeman from selling the hotel? We can’t know if we don’t see the papers. And he refused to show them to me. He said the papers belong to the bank and your pa. Without your pa here, the bank is the only entity with the authority to view the papers.”
Mr. Renfroe shook his head. “That refusal is all I needed to cause me to suspicion that something is awry here.”
Charlotte rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers. “I’m trying to think. Where would he put such a thing?”
“What about in the valise where you found the journal? When you found the journal, you left the valise on the bed. Have you been back into that room?”
“No.” He knew she was thinking of her parents again. The soft word was referent for the memory, but lilted up in a note of hope as she opened the parlor door and went into her residence.
Nathan and Mr. Renfroe stepped into the parlor and waited while she turned the valise upside down again. She ran her hand inside along the edges of the bag. Nothing.
“Nathan, what am I going to do? If you’re right, and I don’t find the paper, I’ll lose all of this for no reason.” She stopped still. “If you’re wrong, you’ll be here with Mr. Eaton, running my hotel.” The edge came back into her tone.
Mr. Renfroe lifted his hand. “I have an idea. The two of you can keep looking here. I’m going to see if I can persuade Mr. Freeman another way. Mr. Taylor, do you think Turner Hotels would be involved in a business deal if there was something that was perhaps unethical—or even unlawful?”
“No. I can say without hesitation that, in the five years I worked for them, I never saw anything that would give me cause to think they would do such a thing.”
“Good. I’m going to see if that bit of information will motivate Mr. Freeman to let me see the loan. It wouldn’t go well for him if I insisted that the Turners review the details to make certain they were taking lawful possession of the property. As Miss Green’s lawyer, I’d have to insist on it.” He grinned and left them.
Charlotte sat on the settee. “They really wouldn’t take the hotel from me if they thought Mr. Freeman was trying to do some underhanded deal?”
“No. Mr. Turner is a stern businessman, but he didn’t build his reputation on injustice.”
She looked at him. For the first time since Mr. Eaton had announced the impending sale of the hotel, Charlotte looked at him. He’d watched her in the churchyard, but she had been closed off from him. “Why are you doing this, Nathan? Won’t you risk your new job?”
“Charlotte, I didn’t come here to take your family legacy from you.” He sat on the edge of the settee beside her. “No matter what anyone tells you, not the fact that Mr. Eaton came to town at the same time I did, not the offer to run this place that he gave me last week—none of that means anything. I came here to build a life for myself. In a place where I’d been happy before.”
She covered her face with her hands. Her muffled words tore at his heart. “What if we can’t find the bank papers?”
“If we don’t find them, we’ll never know. Unless Mr. Renfroe has more success with Mr. Freeman than I think is possible.”
She dropped her hands. “What about the journal? Did Pa mention where he put the banknote?”
“I don’t remember anything like that, but we can look. Where is the journal?”
“I haven’t seen it since you left. I don’t know where you put it.”
“Did you check the shelves in the registration desk?”
“Yes. I decided it was lost. I thought we’d accomplished everything Pa wanted to be done.”
Nathan went into the lobby and searched the shelves. “Do you think one of the kids may have found it? Michael was fascinated by your father’s handwriting. He’d sit and copy the pages when he was working with me.” Nathan missed the little guy and the time they spent together at this desk.
“I’ll check his room.”
Nathan followed her. “Look in his desk. He may have fancied himself being like your father by working at the desk they bought for him.”
She called out from his room. “I found it!” She rushed back into the parlor and began to flip through the pages. Her hands trembled, but when she’d skimmed the last page she shook her head. “Where else could it be?”
“Did your father have a lockbox of any kind? Somewhere he might keep extra money or important things.”
“No, but mother does. It’s under her shawls in her dresser.” She was on her feet in an instant. She brought the box into the parlor and put it on the small table where they’d worked so many nights on the plans for the hotel. “It’s got a lock, and I’ve never seen the key.”
Nathan thought for a minute. “Did you tell me her reticule was in the box from the train?”
“Yes.” She retrieved it and turned it inside out on the table. A pink ribbon was tied to the inside seam of the reticule. A tiny key was looped into the ribbon.
Charlotte fit the key into the lock and opened the box. The first thing on the top of the stack of papers inside was the loan from the bank. She darted a glance of pure joy in his direction before she held it up to read.
Nathan stepped beside her and read over her shoulder. They both murmured as they read the words. Halfway down the page, Charlotte pointed to a paragraph.
“That’s it! That’s what Mr. Renfroe needs to see.”
He read the paragraph and nodded. “You’re right! I can’t promise it will work, but I think you just saved Green’s Grand Hotel from Thomas Freeman and Turner Hotels.”
She turned toward him. They were so close that the scent of lavender on her hair dared him to breathe deeply.
“I didn’t do it, Nathan.” She tightened her fist around the paper and pushed her hand into his chest. “You did it.”
He shook his head. “No. It’s your hotel. You found the papers. This is your victory.”
Nathan took a step away from her. He couldn’t bear to be so close and not wrap her in his arms.
Mr. Renfroe came into the room. “I found Mr. Freeman at the bank. He is a stubborn man. I got nowhere with him.”<
br />
Charlotte waved the paper back and forth. “We found it.” Her face erupted in a smile. “There’s a paragraph that no one has told us about. We need your advice, but we think it will save the hotel.”
The lawyer read the paper and nodded. “This is it! I’ll get the sheriff and head over to the bank now. Would the two of you like to come along?”
Charlotte squared her shoulders. “I’d like to meet you there. I have something to discuss with Mr. Taylor first.”
“Fine. I’ll be there within a half hour.” Mr. Renfroe whistled a happy tune as he left them.
“Nathan, I need to tell you something.”
“I understand. You’re glad to have the hotel secure, but you’re ready to be on your own. It’s true. You’ve handled everything that’s come up since you’ve been in charge. You don’t need me anymore. Your training is far enough along for you to learn the rest as you go.”
“That’s not what I was going to say, but since you brought it up, I don’t want to be your boss anymore.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I see. Well, you told me from the beginning that you didn’t want me here.” Nathan was using his most businesslike voice. She hated the distance he so easily put between them with his tone.
Charlotte didn’t know how to tell Nathan what was in her heart. She just knew it had to be said before he left. “That’s how I felt the first day, but I thought we’d managed to put that behind us.” Her heart remembered their kiss and the feel of her hand in his.
“You treated me like a hired hand from the moment Mr. Eaton showed up and tried to buy this place. How long do you think a man can go along with being treated like that?”
“I was upset. Losing my home and livelihood when I’m responsible for two small children is enough to upset a lady.” She punched the air between them with her finger. “And you pocketed his offer like it was a lifeline.”
“You had every right to be upset.” He held his hands wide. “I was upset, too. I had you standing there accusing me of trying to steal your hotel, and Mr. Eaton offering me a way to make a living if you pushed me away.”
