Wanted: Innkeeper: Silverpines Series (Book 6) Read online

  Wanted: Innkeeper

  Silverpines Series Book Six

  By Marianne Spitzer

  © May 2018

  This book is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, events, locations, or organizations is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without the written consent of the author.

  Acknowledgments

  There are many people I would like to thank for their help and understanding while I wrote this book, but first and foremost, I want to thank God for all His blessings. I also wish to thank my family and friends for their patience and understanding when I disappear into my writing world especially my son, Lance, for his unwavering support. Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank my loyal readers who read my books and leave reviews. I couldn’t do this without you. You’re the best.

  My cover was created by the talented Josephine Blake. You can find her on Facebook at JBGraphics.

  Wanted: Innkeeper

  Chapter One

  Silverpines, Oregon

  April 1899

  Ella Grace Mulvaney grumbled to herself as she stormed down the street toward home. Anger rose in her, and she kicked a small stone in her path but managed to tangle her feet and nearly fall face first into the dirt. Her hat slipped forward, and her auburn tresses held back with tortoiseshell combs tumbled loose on the left side. She caught herself on the white picket fence surrounding the Howard House for Orphaned Girls…home. Remembering her lessons in deportment, she took a deep breath, straightened her spine and hat, and pushed her hair behind her shoulder. Ella Grace’s resolve to act with ladylike behavior lasted until she made it to the top step of the porch where she dropped unceremoniously onto the porch swing.

  The front door opened and her best friend, Katie, hurried out and sat next to her. “I saw you coming up the street from the upstairs window. You look upset.”

  “I am. That uncouth miner, Bugs, had the nerve to approach me right outside the Inn and ask me to marry him again. I walked away, and he shouted after me that at twenty-two an orphan girl in Oregon brought up to act like a Southern lady was lucky any man asked for her hand. Other men along the street laughed at him or me, maybe both of us. It was humiliating.”

  Ella Grace pushed her foot on the porch and began to swing back and forth letting her anger rise again.

  “It’s Friday, I suppose he was drinking again,” Katie answered. “He was right about one thing, I don’t think any men in this town will ask to marry us. The last time I went to the mercantile with the parasol Miss Ethel insisted I take, two of the men walking along the street looked at the sky and asked me why I was expecting rain on a sunny day. They laughed at me, too.”

  “That isn’t the worst of it. He called me Gracie darling.”

  Katie’s eyes opened wide. Everyone in town knew that Ella Grace refused to answer to anything except her full name. No one called her Ella or Grace and heaven help anyone who called her Gracie. The last time Bugs tried, she pushed him into a horse trough. Katie bit her lip before trying to change the subject.

  “Did you eat supper at work? We have stew and biscuits left if you’re still hungry.”

  “I did, thank you. Mr. Bastion always insists I eat when I need to work a few hours in the evening. The hotel cook made fried chicken tonight. Oh no, we should go inside. Here comes Bugs and he has a friend with him.”

  Before Ella Grace could stand, the front door flew open hard enough it hit the wall and bounced back nearly knocking Miss Ethel off her feet. She lifted the rifle in her hands to her shoulder and called out to the men, “Stop right there. If you so much as touch the fence or try to speak to any of my girls, I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

  Her identical twin sister, Edith known lovingly to the girls as Miss Edie, stood behind her holding a baseball bat. She was afraid of guns. “Get out of here, or you’ll be sorry.” She shook the bat in the air.

  Bugs raised his hands as if the marshal was there to arrest him and backed up, “Just taking a walk, ma’am. Nothing to be upset about, Miss Howard. We’re leaving.” He and his friend hurried down the street without glancing back.

  Miss Ethel patted her black bun and smiled at Ella Grace. “I think that man will leave you alone for a while.”

  Miss Edie laughed, “Yes, we certainly scared him off didn’t we, Sister?”

  Ella Grace and Katie smiled at each other knowing their beloved caretakers would each fight for them in their own ways. Miss Ethel turned and went back into the house, and Miss Edie winked at the young women. She set the bat by the door and sat in a chair near the swing.

  “What has you so upset, my dear?”

  “Bugs bothered me on the way home from work before he walked past the house just now. He called me Gracie again.” Ella Grace pushed her foot against the porch once more setting the swing moving faster.

  “First,” Miss Edie answered, “the men shouldn’t be speaking to you, and second, they certainly shouldn’t call you by your Christian name. I think it’s time for me to revisit the town council and let them know what’s going on in this town. Men running amok in a civilized town should not be tolerated.” She wrapped her arms around her chest and nodded curtly. “I will also send a note to the mine for Edward. That awful man Bugs works there, too and perhaps Edward can persuade him to leave you alone. It’s good to have a big brother watch over my girls.” She winked at Ella Grace.

  “I think they do it to annoy me. Everyone in town knows my name is Ella Grace. All I have left of my family is knowing they named me after my grandmothers. You told me my mother called me Ella Grace. It’s disrespectful if I don’t use both names and I love my names. Some of the men laugh at me.” Ella Grace’s smile withered, and she stared down the street.

  Miss Edie patted her hand. “Yes, she did call you Ella Grace, but we didn’t know you were named after your grandmothers until after the accident and we looked in the family Bible hoping to find some of your relatives.”

  Ella Grace’s smile returned when she looked at the kind older woman. “I am so grateful that you and Miss Ethel took me in and raised me instead of sending me to a large orphanage.”

  “We couldn’t do that. Sister and I volunteered to take care of you on the rest of the trip to Oregon. After your parents, well, after the accident, we fell in love with you. We were fortunate to have enough to build this house and keep you along with the other girls that came to stay with us over the years.”

  “You and Miss Ethel have been a blessing to all of us. Oh, Miss Edie, with all the men making fun of me, do you think I’ll ever get a husband?” Ella Grace asked frowning.

  “Of course, you will, my dear. You are bright, beautiful, and a gentle lady. Any man would be a fool not to see that.”

  Katie sighed. “They laugh at me, too and I worry they might laugh at the younger girls soon. Ella Grace and I can cook, clean, keep a garden, milk a cow, muck out a stall, shoot a rifle as good as any man even if it scares you Miss Edie, and do everything a wife should and yet men look at me the same way they do Ella Grace.”

  Miss Edie stood and headed toward the door but answered before she went inside. “Both of you were raised to be cultured young women. You will make excellent wives for the right man. Don’t give up hope, he is out there somewhere.”

  “That’s easy for her to say,” Ella Grace whispered to Katie. “I love her, but I don’t want to become a spinster like she and Miss Ethel are. I’m twenty-two. I want to marry and have babies.”

  At twenty, Katie had the same concerns as E
lla Grace. “I do, too. Let’s pray hard that Miss Edie is right and there is a good man out there for us somewhere.”

  “I do pray for him every night wherever he is. I don’t know who he is, but I still pray. The Lord knows, and I do my best to hang onto the hope that he will find me because I certainly am not looking at the men here who laugh at me. If Bugs is my best choice, maybe spinsterhood is not such a bad option.” She blinked back a few tears that formed in the corner of her dark brown eyes.

  Katie stood and reached for Ella Grace’s hand. “Come on, let’s have a cup of tea. There’s apple pie left, too. If we can’t have a husband, let’s have some pie. It might be a poor substitute, but it’s all we have right now.”

  Ella Grace nodded, her optimistic attitude returning, “You’re right, and we never know what tomorrow might bring. Let’s have some pie and dream about our future husbands wherever they are.”

  Both young women linked arms and walked into the house hoping and praying that their lives would improve soon. Besides, twenty and twenty-two really wasn’t that old, and there were a lot of men in town between the miners and lumberjacks. Maybe just maybe there was hope.

  Chapter Two

  Ella Grace shivered and moved the kitchen chair closer to the stove. The gray clouds outside the windows heavy with potential rain caused her to sigh. She preferred sunny days, but it was spring, and rain could be expected at any time.

  Miss Ethel reminded Ella Grace, “Now, don’t forget to take a parasol with you today. I think the yellow one would match the little flowers on your dress quite well. It looks like rain.” She kissed Ella Grace’s cheek and wished her a happy day.

  “But Miss Ethel, a parasol won’t keep the rain from soaking my hair. I’d like to wear the hat I made or buy one of the new umbrellas at the mercantile.”

  “Absolutely not, a lady would never be seen carrying one of those ugly black umbrellas. They are for men. We talked about this before. If you walk briskly but remember a lady does not run, you will get out of the rain quickly enough that your parasol will keep you dry. You slip into a shop for a few moments, look around, let the water slip off the parasol, your hair will dry a bit, and then you go back out and hurry to the next dry place you can find that’s suitable for young women to enter. You will be dry and presentable when you arrive at the Inn for work.” She drew in a long breath after her impassioned speech, smiled at Ella Grace, and hurried from the kitchen.

  Ella Grace sighed and finished her coffee. She rinsed the cup and set it on the sideboard and headed for the front door. She shook her head slowly before picking up the bright yellow parasol. As she closed the door behind her, she said a small prayer that none of the men in town would laugh at her before she could make it to work.

  Ella Grace slipped into the front door of the Inn grateful her walk to work had been uneventful. Mr. Bastion looked up from the front desk. Dressed in his impeccable three-piece suit, he looked every inch the businessman. “Good morning, Ella Grace. Has it started raining yet?”

  “Not yet, sir, but it appears as if it may soon,” she answered and hurried to put away her shawl and the dreaded parasol.

  Mr. Bastion worked on opening the mail while Ella Grace filled out the forms needed to order supplies for the Inn. Suddenly, she felt the earth move beneath her feet. Her stomach turned as she gripped the edge of the front desk trying to hold herself upright. “What is it?” she said aloud to whoever was close enough to hear.

  “Earthquake,” Mr. Bastion answered. “I’ve felt one before in California. We should try to move outside now.”

  Ella Grace heard his words, but her feet refused to obey her. With her heart racing in her chest, she watched the massive chandelier Mr. Bastion recently had installed when he renovated the Inn. It swung back and forth over the fashionable round tufted sofa in the center of the lobby, its glass beading tinkling against crystal prisms. Her head turned toward the window when she heard glass shatter. The window next to the massive stone fireplace broke, and she watched as the large painting of the mountains hanging over the fireplace vibrated and broke free of its hanger. The painting fell straight down, and the wood frame broke against the mantle, large pieces falling to the floor bringing with it the decorative glass decanters Mr. Bastion purchased as part of his plan to bring class to the Inn. Her head spun back when the large gold veined mirrors attached to either side of the dining room entry cracked and shattered spewing glass across the lobby’s sapphire blue carpet. The paintings hanging on the soft ivory walls swung back and forth, and a few fell to the floor. What seemed like an hour was only a few seconds, but enough to cause damage and strike fear into the hearts of the Inn’s customers and employees.

  When the earth stopped shaking, Ella Grace did her best to catch her breath. Mr. Bastion took her arm and asked, “Are you all right? You aren’t injured, are you?”

  Ella Grace shook her head, “I’m all right. That was terrible. I have never felt one before. Will it happen again?” She asked her eyes wide and fearful.

  “I doubt it,” Mr. Bastion explained. “We might feel another, and we might not. If you are up to it, watch the front desk. I need to check out the damage.”

  She nodded, and Mr. Bastion disappeared upstairs with the Inn’s handyman. Ella Grace turned to see a frightened Clara, the Inn’s head maid, standing just outside the hall that led to the rear of the building.

  Ella Grace forced a smile. “It’s over, Clara. Mr. Bastion said it probably won’t happen again. Could you get a broom and begin to clean up the glass from the shattered mirrors and windows before we have guests walking through it and carrying it to other areas?” Clara nodded and hurried off in search of a broom.

  Singing from the kitchen caught Ella Grace’s attention, and she hurried to check on Mrs. Donlinson. The older woman was an excellent cook and as steadfast as anyone Ella Grace ever knew, but she tended to sing when something did bother her. Ella Grace opened the door to the kitchen to find Mrs. Donlinson straightening up the cans and bottles that fell from the shelves while wiping tears from her eyes. Ella Grace hurried to her and wrapped her in a hug.

  “Mercy me,” Mrs. Donlinson said. “Never in all my years have I felt something as strange as that. Just look at my kitchen. Mr. Bastion said it was an earthquake. Mercy. Pray there isn’t another.”

  Ella Grace hugged her again and told her Mr. Bastion didn’t think it would happen again and returned to the lobby. Clara was busy cleaning up the shattered pieces of mirror, and Mr. Bastion came down from the main staircase just as the shrill whistle from the mine blew. It sent shivers down Ella Grace’s spine. It was much too early for a shift change.

  Mr. Bastion hurried down the stairs explaining, “We were fortunate. The building appears not to have suffered any major damage, but we do have a few rooms with shattered windows and some cracked plaster. Only one of them is occupied, and I told Mr. and Mrs. Corley they could move to the room across the hall. Also, their dinner is on the house tonight. Mrs. Corley wants to check out believing she will be safer somewhere else. Her husband assured her she was as safe here as anywhere and a free dinner seemed to ease her mind. I’m not sure why, but she did mumble something about Mrs. Donlinson’s pies.”

  “She does seem to love her desserts,” Ella Grace answered just as the front doors flew open and a disheveled man ran into the lobby shouting, “Mine’s collapsed.” He stared at all the stunned people in the lobby and shouted again, “The mine collapsed.” He turned and ran back out the door.

  Time seemed to stop for a moment until Ella Grace heard Mr. Bastion say, “They are going to need help, Ella Grace, you’re in charge of the Inn until I get back.”

  She nodded and watched him rush out her mind whirling. Her knees felt weak, and she fell to them in the middle of the lobby and began to pray.

  Lord, please help the men at the mine. Mr. Edward is there working today. Please, Lord, watch over him. He is the closest I have to a father, and I can’t imagine losing him. Keep the men safe and Mr. Bas
tion and the others that will do their best to help. Lord, please hear and answer my prayer. Help them.

  Fear engulfed her, and she couldn’t speak anymore. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and her body shook with sobs until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into the frightened eyes of Katie.

  Katie helped her to her feet, and the two young women clung to each other. Ella Grace whispered, “Do you know how bad it is? Mr. Edward is there.”

  “I know,” Katie answered. “I’m so frightened. Miss Ethel rode out as soon as she heard. I wanted to stay and help Miss Edie with the girls, but she insisted I check on you and work my shift in the dining room. Miss Edie said no matter how awful things are, people will still want to eat.”

  “That sounds like Miss Edie. Are the girls all right?”

  “Yes, but they’re all frightened. We’re all worried about Mr. Edward. What will we do if he…” Tears clogged her throat.

  “He won’t” Ella Grace insisted. “I should get back to work. Mr. Bastion went to help and left me in charge.”

  “I need to run home and let everyone know you’re safe and I’ll be back to work my shift and help you until you are ready to come home tonight,” Katie said.

  Ella Grace hugged her best friend and the woman she considered her sister and told her to be safe. She watched Katie walk out the Inn and said another prayer for Mr. Edward and the men at the mine.

  Ella Grace kept busy until eight when it was time to go home. Clara had cleaned all the glass from the carpets, and Ella Grace helped Mrs. Corley move to the room across the hall. Mrs. Corley even laughed when Ella Grace assured her that Mrs. Donlinson would bake something delicious for dessert. Mrs. Donlinson’s husband, the Inn’s handyman, removed the broken glass from the windows and boarded them up with the wood left over from the recent remodeling. Leaving the night clerk, Riley, in charge, Ella Grace and Katie walked home in silence both praying for the people of the town they loved and the men at the mine.