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Jude clenched his jaw. “I could make you leave right now, if I wanted.”
Her face grew still as she studied him.
“I won’t do that,” he said a bit more quietly. “I wouldn’t turn any woman out on the street, especially Clarence’s daughters.”
She swallowed and some of her bluster faded. “Thank you for that.”
“But I have no interest in having a business partner.” Especially a woman. “So my proposition still stands. You and your sisters may stay at the Northern, provided you work for your room and board, and if you make it until January I will put your name on the deed—and no more talk of buying my share.” He started walking again. “It’s not for sale and it won’t be for sale.”
She walked beside him, but she didn’t say anything until they reached the river and stopped to watch the logs float past. The waterfall was to their left, with the dam, sawmill, gristmill and cabinet shop on the eastern bank. Abram and Charlotte Cooper’s home was at the bottom of the hill where their boys were running around in the yard.
Jude turned to face Elizabeth. The sun played with the highlights in her hair and bathed her face. Her blue eyes reflected the water, and the wind toyed with the tendrils of hair playing about her cheeks. He had to steel himself against letting his thoughts wander. She was a beautiful woman, and he couldn’t deny he was attracted to her, but he had no unrealistic hopes about winning her affection. She was destined for another man and the sooner the better.
“Are you amenable to my proposition?” he asked.
She finally looked up at him. “It’s not what I had hoped when I came to Little Falls, but it’s far better than the alternative.” She nodded. “I agree.”
“Good. Martha can use you and Grace in the kitchen and dining room. You’ll also need to help clean.”
She stood a bit straighter. “I will gladly help with the cooking and cleaning, but I would also like to look over the books, if I may.”
“Are you good with sums?”
“I worked at a general store for the past three and a half years and I was in charge of all the bookwork.”
“I will happily hand over the accounting to you.” After Clarence died it had fallen on Jude’s shoulders, and he’d be the first to admit he did a poor job.
“Then it’s settled. My sisters and I will live and work at the Northern until January when you will add us to the deed. At that time, we will address the terms of our partnership.” She held out her hand to shake his.
He took her hand and was surprised at the strength in her grip. She was a confident woman, he’d give her that, and if she had experience in business then she would be an asset. He might be a little more concerned if he wasn’t convinced that she and her sister would be married well before January.
The only thing that worried him was keeping his rescue work hidden. He wasn’t ashamed of it, but most people didn’t understand why he did what he did. If she learned the truth, he’d have to explain to her about his past and that was something that he was ashamed of.
He let go of her hand and indicated the road that would take them back to the Northern.
“May I look at the books immediately?” she asked as they walked.
“I give you full permission to do whatever you’d like with them.” Toss them in the river, for all he cared. They had been a bane to him this past month.
“And may I make a few suggestions regarding your budget?”
“If you can find a way for us to spend less and make more, then by all means.”
They continued on to the Northern, and when they walked inside, Rose jumped off the staircase’s bottom step and flew across the lobby into Elizabeth’s arms.
“Where have you been, Lizzie? I’ve been waiting for you all morning.”
“Does Grace know you’re down here?” Elizabeth asked.
The girl nodded, her eyes solemn, and then the nod turned to a shake of her head. “No.”
Elizabeth dropped her forehead to her sister’s. “You know you’re not supposed to leave Grace’s side. She’s probably worried.”
Rose noticed Jude watching her and she burrowed her head into Elizabeth’s chest as she peeked out at him. “Who is he?”
Elizabeth looked up. “This is Mr. Jude. He lives here, too.”
“Is he nice?”
Elizabeth studied him. “I don’t know—I didn’t think so, at first, but then he did something very nice today.”
Rose pulled back from Elizabeth’s chest and she smiled. “What did you do, Mr. Jude?”
Jude swallowed. He had never spent time in the presence of children before and didn’t quite know what to think of this one.
“He gave us a home,” Elizabeth said.
“He did?” Rose studied Jude closely, her wide eyes blinking slowly. “Thank you, Mr. Jude.”
He had no frame of reference for how to address the child, so he simply nodded. It didn’t feel right to accept her appreciation when he would be finding them another home as soon as possible.
Chapter Four (#u267fd098-7385-55ff-b608-619773937217)
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.”
