Wanted: Innkeeper: Silverpines Series (Book 6)

by Marianne Spitzer

  When Riley returned two hours later, Ella Grace was anxious to hear what Dexter said.

  Riley walked to the front desk and tried to smile, but Ella Grace could tell he felt as badly as she did. “I told Dexter about his father,” Riley said and shrugged.

  “Is he all right?”

  “He will be. He took the news well, but I could see it in his eyes. He was shocked and a bit confused. He asked me to tell you to keep running the Inn, and he’d see you in a couple of weeks after the funeral and things settle down in town.”

  “I understand. Mr. Bastion told me to take care of things, too. I’ll do my best. Dexter needs to grieve, and I think he’s happy at the ranch. You should get some sleep, Riley. You have to be back on duty in less than nine hours.”

  Riley nodded and headed for his small room at the back of the Inn.

  Chapter Five

  The morning went along quietly at the Inn. Outside the sounds of the disaster could be heard clearly. The injured were taken to the Lucky Lady Saloon, and Hattie was doing her best to care for them. Horses were seen hurrying along Main Street with their passengers and the women in town were doing all they could to help both in town and at the mine collapse. Ella Grace wished she could do more to help, but her heart told her to stay and keep the Inn running the way Mr. Bastion asked. Besides, she worried she’d trip over her own feet if she had to run and help anyone. Why was she born so clumsy? She shrugged to herself and looked up as she heard boots on the stairs. She had yet to meet the newest arrivals and the two men descending must be Malcolm Wooster and Luther Busby.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen, welcome to the Silverpines Inn. If you need anything, please let me or one of the staff know.” She smiled her most gracious business smile.

  The older of the two men dressed in a fancy gray suit approached the desk and bowed slightly. “Thank you, gracious lady. I am Malcolm Wooster, and my associate is Luther Busby. I hope we are in time for lunch.”

  Ella Grace disliked them immediately but did her best not to show it. Mr. Wooster appeared to be a businessman, but his boots were dirty and scuffed. Not that men didn’t get their boots dirty, but Ella Grace had worked at the Inn long enough to know that any man who dressed the way Malcolm Wooster did would never come down for lunch without cleaning his boots first. His friend, Luther Busby, made her skin crawl as he stared at her the same way Bugs did when he’d had too much to drink.

  “Yes, sir,” she responded. “The dining room is open. You may sit at any table you wish.” She smiled again and did her best to hide her shudder. Luther Busby was grinning at her and not in a pleasant way. Ella Grace breathed a sigh of relief as the men turned to walk to the dining room. She made a point to remember to ask the Donlinsons, Riley, and Clara to be wary of the two men.

  Mr. and Mrs. Corley were returning from the dining room when the ground began to shake again. Mrs. Corley screamed, and Ella Grace prayed, “Please Lord, not again.”

  Ella Grace couldn’t tell if this quake was stronger or lasted longer than the one the previous day, but it also seemed to last for minutes and not seconds. Her grip on the front desk turned her knuckles white until she felt the danger pass. Riley and Clara hurried out from the back, and Mr. Donlinson rushed down the stairs to check on everyone.

  “I’ll check the guests and for any damage,” Mr. Donlinson told Ella Grace, and all she could do was nod. She did her best to control her trembling and breathing, but the screams from Mrs. Corley didn’t help.

  Mr. Corley helped his hysterical wife to a seat in the lobby, and Ella Grace hurried over to see if she could be of assistance. “Mrs. Corley, you’re safe. The Inn is built well. Can I get you anything?”

  The woman’s tears stopped as she stared at Ella Grace. “Yes, a cup of tea please and some of those lovely sugar cookies.”

  As soon as Ella Grace turned to fulfill her request, Mrs. Corley began to wail again and insisted her husband take her away from the dangers of Silverpines. Before Ella Grace reached the kitchen door, the oddest sound reached her ears, and she felt the floor shudder. Not another earthquake, but something unusual was happening. It sounded as if she were standing near a waterfall or fast flowing river. A strange whooshing sound surrounded her.

  Riley, who had gone outside to check for external damage to the hotel, ran through the front doors calling out, “There’s a huge landslide at Timber Town. It sounds as if the entire side of the mountain is coming down trees and all.”

  Ella Grace dropped to her knees again and began to pray. She didn’t know what else to do. What about the lumberjacks and the others living below the mountain? Mrs. Donlinson nearly tripped over her when she came out of the kitchen.

  “Ella Grace, what’s going on? Are you all right?”

  “Yes, we just heard there’s been a landslide at Timber Town. That second quake must have caused it.”

  “Mercy me, what next. I just started a large pot of stew like I did yesterday to feed whoever needs it.”

  “We can do that every day. The ladies at the Lucky Lady and their patients need nourishing food. I offered them the beds here at the Inn for those that need rest since the saloon is filled with severely injured men.”

  Mrs. Donlinson raised her eyebrows, “You went into the Lucky Lady? Miss Ethel and Miss Edie will lock you in the attic if they find out.”

  “I can imagine they’d have apoplexy if they thought I went in there. I saw one of the girls carrying an armload of bandages on my way to work this morning and made the offer. She was charming and thanked me. We all need to stick together now.” Ella Grace explained as she rose to her feet.

  Mrs. Corley’s cries reached their ears. Ella Grace whispered, “She needs tea and some of your sugar cookies. She seems to calm down just talking about them. Maybe eating will help calm her completely.”

  “We can hope.”

  Ella Grace turned when she heard Mrs. Corley cry out again. She hurried to her side, and her husband spoke, “My wife wants to leave immediately, but a gentleman just informed me the landslide took out the telegraph lines and the rail line is damaged and covered with debris from the landslide.”

  Ella Grace's hand flew to her mouth, “That is disturbing news, but you know you are welcome to stay here as long as you need.”

  Mrs. Corley’s tears began to spill down her face faster than she could wipe them away. “I’m so afraid here,” she whispered to her husband. “The next disaster may kill us.”

  He was patting her hand as Mrs. Donlinson brought a tray of tea and sugar cookies. Mrs. Corley tried to smile as she reached for a cookie. “I’ll do my best to be brave,” she promised her husband.

  Ella Grace returned to the front desk praying if there was another crisis that it was as easily solved as Mrs. Corley and the cookies.

  One of the local youngsters approached the desk and said, “I have a note for you from Miss Hattie.” He stood staring at Ella Grace.

  Ella Grace read the note and noticed the boy standing there. She reached into her pocket for a coin, and the boy said, “No, Miss Ella Grace, Ma would skin me alive if I accepted money for delivering messages. She said we all need to be helpful. Miss Hattie asked me to wait for an answer.”

  “Of course,” she smiled at the boy who kept shifting from one foot to another. As she reached for a piece of paper, Ella Grace noticed that Mrs. Donlinson had left a plate of cookies for her as well. She picked one up and said, “If you won’t accept money how about a cookie to enjoy while you wait for my answer?”

  The boy’s eyes lit up as he reached for the cookie. A minute later, Ella Grace handed the boy a note to return to Hattie. He waved as he rushed out of the Inn.

  Clara wandered in from the back of the Inn. “I cleaned up a few pieces of broken bric-a-brac and straightened the paintings. It seems that whatever was going to break or fall did so yesterday. Mr. Donlinson said we don’t have any additional broken windows.”

  “That’s good. Please go to the third floor and see if the rooms are ready.�
�

  “But we don’t have enough guests, and we’ve never used the rooms or the large suite. Wasn’t Mr. Bastion waiting for important guests before he used those rooms? They are the best in the hotel,” Clara asked.

  “Yes, he did, but we’re going to have the most important guests we’ll ever have. Hattie asked if we have room for some of her patients. No one is more important than the injured men of this town.”

  Clara’s eyes saddened thinking of the injured men and turned to begin her job when Ella Grace called out for her to wait and held out a cookie. “This will help you keep your smile.”

  Clara did return a smile, and Ella Grace prayed for the men that would soon arrive at the Inn.

  Bugs sat outside the old trapper’s cabin and watched as the landslide brought down the side of the mountain. He knew his darling Gracie would be safe at home or the Inn. He also knew the town would be too busy dealing with the disasters to pay attention to him and tonight he’d leave another note for Gracie.

  “Soon, Gracie, soon, and we’ll be together forever.” He grinned and finished off the last of his whiskey. He wondered if he could sneak into the Lucky Lady again and find another bottle. He wasn’t aware that the Lucky Lady was being used as a hospital or that Marshal Sewell issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

  Ella Grace woke with the sun the second day after the mine collapse. She knew the situation was dire and that most, if not all, of the miners, died in the second collapse. Her guardians did their best to keep a smile on their faces for the younger girls, but Ella Grace could see the pain in their eyes. She dressed quickly and hurried downstairs before anyone else rose. She wanted to be sure there weren’t any more strange messages left by Bugs. The younger girls were frightened enough by the earthquakes and landslide, and she didn’t want the idea of a strange man creeping around the house at night to add to their terror.

  Ella Grace slipped out the front door and breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t find another muddy message left on the porch. She slowly circled the large Victorian looking for any signs that Bugs had been there. She stopped when she saw the piece of brown paper sitting on the rear steps held in place with a rock from the garden. She scooped up the rock, returned it to the garden, and read the note. The same identifiable scrawl that she remembered from the note left at the Inn filled the piece of paper.

  I love you Gracie. I will always love you. You will be mine. Soon I’ll have a place for us to live. I will come back for you. Wait Gracie. The world will soon be ours.

  Ella Grace shuddered. She slipped the note into her pocket and would stop and show it to Marshal Sewell on her way to work. She didn’t want to upset Miss Ethel, Miss Edie, or the girls more than they were now. She could hear the girls in the kitchen and hurried back inside before they began to ask questions.

  Chapter Six

  Three weeks later

  Ella Grace stood behind the front desk of the Silverpines Inn contemplating everything that had happened since the disasters. Bugs left nightly notes at her home or the Inn for a week and then stopped. She was partly relieved that he stopped creeping around leaving notes, but she was also frightened that he might be off finding the place he expected to take her. Would he abduct her? Surely not in town. Everyone’s sense of caution had been heightened since the town was now mostly women. They were all watching over the others, aware that they could be prey to anyone and especially the few strangers that drifted into town.

  “A penny for your thoughts,” Katie said breaking into her thoughts.

  “You’re a bit early for your shift. Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah,” Katie answered. “Maude is teaching the girls, and I was a bit bored listening to them recite over and over. I decided to take a walk before lunch starts, and here I am.”

  “Good, then you can keep me company for a bit. Without any new guests since the quakes, it gets terribly quiet at times. “

  “I never thought I’d hear you complain that it was too quiet after the Corleys left.”

  Ella Grace rubbed her forehead at the memory. “That poor woman was beside herself. She did thank me for the wonderful service at the Inn but told me she would never stay at any hotel that was having a disaster.”

  Katie shook her head. “We didn’t plan it.”

  “I know, but I doubt if anyone will convince Mrs. Corley of that fact.”

  Ella Grace smiled but needed to force it to remain when Luther Busby walked up with his demeaning manner and leering. This time he leered at both Katie and her.

  “What can I do for you, Mr. Busby?”

  “Me and Malcolm are checking out right after we eat. Here’s the room keys.”

  “Thank you. I hope you enjoyed your stay,” Ella Grace said in her most business-like voice.

  “It coulda been better,” the man mumbled as he ambled toward the dining room.

  Ella Grace shrugged, and Katie hurried to find her apron and begin taking the lunch orders.

  The door opened, and Mr. Bastion’s son, Dexter, entered and strode to the desk. “Hey, Ella Grace. I need to talk with you.”

  “Of course, Dexter. How are you doing? I haven’t seen you since your father’s funeral.”

  Dexter shuffled his feet and answered, “I’m doing all right. I love working at the ranch. When I was trying to fall asleep last night, I got to thinking and since I’m my father’s only child, do I own the Inn now?”

  “I would believe so, but I’m sure he left a will. I haven’t looked at his personal papers. I only go into the office to take care of Inn business.” She pulled a key from her pocket and handed it to Dexter. “This opens your father’s office. You can check to see if he has a will or wrote anything down about the Inn.”

  He took the key, murmured thanks, and left headed for the office.

  Ten minutes later Dexter rushed back into the lobby. “Yeah, he had a will. I own the Inn, but I don’t know if I want it. I’m going to the bank. These papers say there’s a mortgage and a silent partner. Did you know that?”

  Ella Grace shook her head. Dexter dropped a letter on the desk and said, “This is for you.” He rushed out before Ella Grace could answer.

  She looked at the letter in her hand. Why would Mr. Bastion leave a letter for her? She decided to find out before she worried about it. It was dated four months previous just after the completion of the new construction.

  Ella Grace,

  If you are reading this letter, then something unexpected has happened to me. In that case, I’m asking you to stay at the Inn and help run it as you have with me for the past two years. Dexter, of course, has inherited the Inn but he will need help. He never expressed interest in the Inn and only spoke of working on a ranch and owning one someday. My biggest concern is that he will want to sell the Inn immediately in order to achieve his dream of owning a ranch.

  The Inn will bring in enough revenue, I hope, to pay the mortgage and the silent investor who helped me achieve my dream. It will not show a clear profit for several years until both obligations are paid. I left a letter for Dexter also explaining that it would make more sense to continue to operate the Inn than it would be to sell it. He may not see that, and I ask you to help him make the decision.

  At present, and for many years to come, he will not see the type of financial gain he might expect from a sale. You understand the financial aspects of the hotel and are the brightest young woman I know. Help him make the right decision and keep my dream alive.

  I will update this letter every six months to be sure you have the current information as to the Inn’s financial state.

  Sincerely,

  Carl Bastion

  Ella Grace dropped into a chair wondering how Dexter would take the news. She knew that Mr. Bastion spent quite a lot to add on to the hotel and add the renovations. A glint of light from the chandelier caught her eye. It was a major expense, and at the time she thought Mr. Bastion had a lot of savings. He never cut corners or asked for less than the best. When the chandelier arrived
, he was less than satisfied with the hardware included for hanging. He had the local blacksmith make the hanging supports much stronger. Mr. Bastion didn’t want the chandelier to fall, and Ella Grace believed his foresight kept it from dropping during the earthquake. Would Dexter understand his father’s passion or try and sell it to anyone just to make a bit of money? Ella Grace bit her lip as she contemplated what she could say to Dexter.

  She didn’t have long to wait. The look of frustration on Dexter’s face when he stormed back into the Inn told her what she needed to know.

  “The banker said I couldn’t sell the Inn for more than its debts. I wouldn’t make a penny. I might be left with some of the debt. I told him to sell it for the amount of the debt, and he told me not to be hasty and take a few days to consider my options. Options? What options?” Dexter asked.

  Ella Grace thought quickly, “I have a suggestion. I read your father’s letter, and I understand the financial situation. You could sell immediately, or I could continue to run the Inn the way your father asked, and you could collect what he took as his monthly salary. It wasn’t a lot since he lived and ate at the Inn, but it would be more than you might get selling the Inn quickly. Certainly, it would be more than you would receive if you were forced to take a loss. I have access to the bank drafts and can write them. I could give you one for the amount your father didn’t take last month. It is more than you’d receive if you lost the Inn. I can continue to run it and perhaps I could take the time to see if we can find a buyer who would pay the debts and run the Inn the way your father wished.”

  Ella Grace bit her lip again waiting for Dexter’s answer.

  “Maybe, how long do you think you’d need?”

  “Three months.”

  “Two.”

  “Two and a half.”

  “Done.” He held out his hand for Ella Grace to shake. “Can you write that draft for me now?”