“Excuse me?” What was Helen implying?
“Obviously your mother has been managing your life for you. Did she leave to travel to let you finally live your own life, or to come back to prove you would fail without her help?”
Ethan stood up, walked over to the fireplace then turned around to stare at Helen. He just met this woman, but she, very frankly, summed up his thirty years of life.
“So, would you like my help to prove to your mother you can stand on your own two feet and run this hotel to make a profit, and keep her in traveling money?” Ethan liked how Helen’s eyebrows rose and a slight smile brightened her delightful face.
He’d just met his mother’s match.
Chapter 7
It was going to be a challenge to get the Paulson Hotel on track to becoming a successful business, but right now, she needed the job and the roof it provided her family. She’d run a hotel before so she knew how to do it, but...that hotel wasn’t situated in a frontier town with a limited amount of possible guests.
She had met with the staff, of three, to go over what they did and how they thought they could improve the hotel. She specifically asked Ethan not to join their meeting so she could talk to the ladies by herself. That put them off at first, thinking the boss was in charge and should be there with them, but it quickly turned into a session of complaints, gossip and help. Especially when Helen told them they would get a day off per week, at the same pay, when she would cover their work instead. She needed teamwork among the women and enthusiastically received it when they realized this could possibly keep Mrs. Paulson traveling and out of the hotel.
Helen wasn’t sure if she was looking forward to meeting this woman or dreading it for what people were saying about her. But Ethan was such a nice man...maybe he took after his father instead.
It had been interesting to meet people in church yesterday. When Ethan introduced Helen as his new assistant at the hotel, nearly everyone’s first reaction was “Your mother won’t like that...plus Mrs. Higby has children.” Helen rolled her eyes more than once over Ethan’s worried looks at people’s comments. Ethan was so handsome and kind, but he didn’t seem to have a backbone.
Ethan stared at his former fiancée’s children as much as he did Sarah, both during and after the service when they were outside talking to the parishioners. Helen finally picked up her sleepy Luella and put her in Ethan’s arms to give him someone else to think about while they walked around the church grounds. It didn’t take him long to settle her sleeping daughter against his shoulder and relax talking to people. He was a natural with her girls.
The pastor’s announcement that Lyle and Lorna would marry next Sunday at the end of the church service pinged her heart, but she was happy for them. The love the couple felt for each other was as apparent as the bride’s protruding belly.
Lorna was going to be a good friend, sympathetic to what Helen was going through thanks to their “husband”. Helen hadn’t bothered returning to the jailhouse since leaving Maurice there. She’d have to testify when the circuit judge came to town, but until then she had more important things to do than think about the man who lured her to this little village.
“Ethan, do you have any posters left from advertising your opening?” Ethan just walked past the open office door so she wanted to catch him before he disappeared again. Although he’d been avoiding the office while she sorted through his piles of papers, he came in and sat down in a chair in front of the desk she’d been working on.
“Never had any made up,” he confessed, watching Avalee and Luella sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, playing with their cloth dolls, instead of looking at her. She was getting used to his answers and lack of interest but she had a plan to change that soon.
“I’ve finished filing the hotel papers and ready to turn the desk back to you. I found a box of fine stationery with your hotel name and address on it, so your next job is to write to other hotels in either direction along the railroad line.”
“Why?”
“To introduce yourself as the manager of the Paulson Hotel and ask them to recommend the hotel to their customers traveling through here.”
“Why?” Ethan sounded just like one of her children, always asking “why” about everything. Helen was learning to use her same patient tone with him as she did the girls.
“Because it is a nice hotel and better for people to stay here, than in the rowdy and smelly town of Ellsworth.”
At least he nodded his head in agreement.
“You can also advertise we offer food for travelers, either in our dining room or as box lunches if they don’t have time to get off the train.”
“We only serve food to our hotel guests.”
“As soon as I get a sign made for the front window, we will be open to the public for meals.”
“What about Clancy’s Café?”
“What about them?”
“We don’t want to hurt their business.”
“We are offering people a choice of where they want to eat.”
“Dan Clancy won’t like that...”
“So go talk to him. We can have a different menu and slightly different times we are open.”
Ethan didn’t look convinced.
“Competition is a good thing, Ethan. Do you want me to talk to him?”
“Can it wait a few days before I talk to him? He’s still upset Lorna quit working there now that she doesn’t have to work,” Ethan asked wishfully.
Now that Lorna has a husband and didn’t have to work. Helen stopped herself from feeling petty. Lorna deserved happiness and time off her swollen feet before her baby was born.
“All right, but the sooner we make changes the faster money will be coming into the hotel bank account.”
“True. I didn’t realize what all was involved in running the hotel...the right way. I think I’d rather be unloading a stack of railroad ties...”
Luella had crawled over to Ethan and pulled herself up to lean on his knee.
“Up.” She reached her arms up in the air to indicate she wanted him to pick her up. Ethan did so, sitting her on his lap. Luella leaned against his chest, her right thumb in her mouth and her eyes drooping, ready for a nap.
Helen liked how Ethan automatically reacted to the girls, never pushing them away, always respecting them and their questions.
“Looks like its nap time for the girls,” Ethan smiled, the tension from their conversation now gone. “How about I carry Luella upstairs for the girls’ nap and then I’ll take over the front desk and compose a letter to other hotels while you rest upstairs, too?”
Ethan was such a considerate man. How she wished Lawrence would have had half of his kind and thoughtful demeanor. Ethan’s action also made Helen miss Arvid. The kindly older gentleman treated her and the girls well.
“Thank you, Ethan. Naps now, help attitudes later.”
“Come on, Brown Eyes,” Ethan motioned to Avalee, “I have another arm to carry you upstairs, too.” Ethan had starting calling them by their eye color, giving them distinct names, but giving them equal attention.
For the tenth time today, Helen thought, “Why hadn’t she been lucky enough to have been a mail-order bride for a man like Ethan, instead of Maurice?”
Looking at the neat stack of papers on the desk, Helen felt comfortable taking a break for an hour or two. She felt like she was contributing to the hotel’s well-being, as well as to her family. This job was working out well for her. She just hoped it continued when Mrs. Paulson returned home.
***
Ethan carried the girls upstairs to his apartment, trying not to drop either one while Luella had become dead weight being deep in sleep and Avalee squirmed while asking questions nonstop.
Why did he wear his hair short? Why didn’t he have a cat like Mr. Elison?
“Mrs. Higby?” June called to Helen who had been following him up the stairs. He turned to watch Helen walk back down the stairs to talk to the housekeeper, but Ethan
continued upstairs with his arms full of girls.
“Avalee, I’m going to set you down so you can open the door for us,” Ethan twisted sideways to slide the girl down to the floor without dropping the other girl.
“You said I’m Miss Brown Eyes,” Avalee retorted as she opened the door and skipped toward the hallway to their bedroom.
“Yes, but I can use your real name now and then, can’t I?” It was so much easier to hold on to Luella now with both arms.
“Suppose, although I bet you don’t know my last name.”
“Isn’t it Higby?”
“Nope. Lindsmier.” Avalee drew out her last name into three full syllables.
“Well, that’s a nice name.”
“But I wish it was like my momma’s,” she sighed dramatically before bouncing up on their bed, then off again.
“Oops. Supposed to take off our shoes before we get into your beds.” Your beds? Ethan supposed she meant the hotel’s beds.
“Here’s the shoe hook.” Avalee held it up to Ethan, expecting him to take off their shoes? Well, these two girls weren’t coordinated enough to unhook the tiny buttons on the side of their shoes. He didn’t know if he was either, but he’d start and hope Helen would show up soon to help.
He sat down on the rocker, adjusting Luella on his lap before taking the hook.
“Can I do Luella’s shoes first, so I can lay her down in the crib?”
“Yep, I’m not sleepy. But as soon as you get Luella’s shoes off, she’ll wake up.”
Ethan didn’t want to argue with Avalee, but he didn’t think anything could wake her little sister right now. She was fast asleep.
Luella’s right shoe slipped off easy, but the left shoe, not fitting the shape of her club foot, was hard to twist off. Reuben Shepard had recently moved into town from the Bar E Ranch and had opened a leather shop. Ethan should see if he could make a custom shoe for Luella’s deformed foot.
As soon as the shoe was off, the little foot shot in the air, knocking Ethan in the chin.
“Twetch,” Luella ordered. So now she was awake, just as Avalee predicted.
“What’s she want?” Ethan turned to Avalee to decipher Luella’s command.
“Momma always rubs and stretches her foot when she takes her shoes off.” Avalee looked like he should know that, and yet she was the one always asking “why”.
Ethan studied the odd angle of the inward curved foot, also noticing the carefully mended holes in the stocking covering it. Poor Luella was probably the fourth girl wearing these stockings, the same as everything else she wore.
“Twetch!”
Okay, stretching the foot must feel good to the toddler, so Ethan tenderly run his thumb on the inside of her leg pushing across her ankle and the base of her foot.
“Use both hands and pull on her foot,” Avalee advised while leaning on his thigh as she supervised.
“I don’t want to hurt Luella’s foot. My hands are stronger than your mother’s.”
“No, they aren’t, just bigger.” Avalee pronounced, now leaning her pointed little elbows in his thigh as her hands were clasped under her chin. Avalee was too close to her sister and Luella planted her free foot onto Avalee’s chest and kicked to shove her away.
Ethan was caught off guard by the girls fighting and he twisted Luella one way to get her away from her sister, receiving another kick to the chin.
“Girls!” Ethan and the two girls all stilled at Helen’s voice.
“That’s not the way young ladies act when a nice man is trying to help you,” she quietly scolded.
“Ah, sorry, Helen. Luella insisted I stretch her foot, but I was probably not doing it right, hence the sisterly spat.” Ethan sheepishly replied for the three of them caught in the act of misbehaving.
“Yes, she does like it stretched. Can I show you how to do it? It’s a routine I’ve done since she was born.”
Ethan gladly stood up, let Helen sit down in the rocker, and then placed Luella in her lap. Luella squirmed so her back was against her mother’s front, legs stretched out in front of her as best as she could.
“I rub down her leg with my right hand while turning her left foot outward with my left hand. I gradually increase the force over the course of a few minutes to stretch the muscle. I’ve done this since she was born and the angle of her foot has improved over time.”
“Is there surgery or something, which can help her walk better in the future?”
“There might be, but there’s the issue with my finances…” Helen continued rubbing Luella’s foot as she spoke.
“Remember meeting Reuben Shepard at church on Sunday? His wife, Darcie, is Millie Wilerson’s sister? Her son, Tate, is Luella’s age?” The toddlers had plowed into each other and had the grandest time chattering in their own little language and gestures.
“Hmm, yes I believe so. Reuben had older children, Gabe and Mary?”
“Yes, that’s the right family. Anyway, he works with leather and I bet he could fashion a comfortable shoe and leg brace for Luella,” Ethan suggested, hoping Helen didn’t think he was stepping over her authority.
“She’d outgrow them so fast…” Helen bit her lip in thought.
“But if a custom shoe would help her walk better now and as an adult…” Ethan added quickly, “it would be worth trying, wouldn’t it?” He knew she couldn’t argue with that point. Helen would want what was better for her children, if all possible.
“Please let me and Reuben work together on this project, as a gift to Luella. I’ve gotten partial to Miss Gray Eyes.” Ethan tapped Luella’s nose and loved the dimpled smile she returned to him.
“What about me?” Avalee was tugging on his coat sleeve, apparently feeling left out of the conversation.
“And I like Miss Brown Eyes, too.” Ethan hefted her up to sit on his hip.
“What about Momma?” Avalee loudly whispered in his ear.
Ethan looked down at Helen, knowing she had heard her daughter’s question. The woman blushed such a pretty shade of pink, while staring at him with her bright emerald green eyes. Ethan leaned forward to caress Helen’s cheek with his forefinger before tapping her nose like he had done to Luella.
“I like your momma just fine, too.” And Ethan realized he really did. She was mature, had been through the ups and down of life, but still had a positive attitude to keep her girls’ innocent spirits up.
Sarah had caught his eye for her dark beauty, but his mother had picked her for her innocence, probably planning to mold twenty-one-year-old Sarah into the hostess she wanted to display in the hotel. He’d gone along with his mother’s wishes, assuming her plans would flow into a content marriage for him and Sarah. But Sarah always postponed their wedding, rather than voicing her wants and opinions to Ethan.
Helen would make a good wife and partner for someone again someday, and it wouldn’t take long for suiters to start calling on her. For a fleeting instant, Ethan wondered what it would be like if Helen was his wife, but dismissed the thought, thinking his mother wouldn’t approve of a woman who had been married multiple times plus had four children.
But still, he was attracted to her…and why should his mother pick out his wife?
Ethan thought of Cate Connely introducing herself to Helen and her girls in church yesterday. Cate was Sarah’s mother, and would have become Ethan’s mother-in-law. Ethan had spent a lot of time with the whole clan mix of Wilersons and Hamners before Sarah left him, but he’d avoided the family members after that. Well, except for Marshal Adam Wilerson, who was Sarah’s brother and his wife, Millie, who baked the hotel’s pies. Sarah’s other brothers, Jacob and Noah, had married the Hamner twins, Rania and Hilda, and both couples ranched north of town, so Ethan didn’t see them as often.
“Please call me ‘Grandma Cate’ and call my husband, ‘Grandpa Isaac’,” Cate had said when meeting Helen’s girls. The older couple had married recently and made a strong pair of grandparents for anyone who needed them.
Cate t
hen proceeded to introduce every pint-size member of her extended family to the girls so they could make new friends. Immediately the girls knew over a dozen children they’d see again at church or school, giving them a feeling of belonging in their new community.
When Helen pushed Luella in his arms to hold, he realized it filled the ache he’d had since the last picnic he and Sarah had attended together. Sarah was always holding someone’s young child or baby at gatherings. Sarah was a natural at nurturing and loving, where he’d felt stiff, his mother’s words of “you can only have one son” always floating in his mind when holding Tate or Amelia, Darcie Shepard’s toddler and baby.
Before the couple walked away, Cate leaned close to him and softly said, “Luella looks safe and happy in your arms. Maybe here’s your chance of having a family of your own?”
Yes, he’d been thinking about having his own family, one he picked and wanted, not one chosen by his mother.
Ethan sat down on the girl’s bed and asked Avalee, “Miss Brown Eyes, I’ll help you with your shoes if you’ll bring the button hook over here.”
Maybe this was the right family for him—or maybe not—but he was ready to think about looking for a wife and planning a family with her. And this family of girls would give him good practice for his future.
Ethan lifted Avalee to sit by him on the bed. “Okay, Avalee, tell me how to do this and we’ll get your shoes off.”
He couldn’t help glancing over to Helen to see her reaction to his helping Avalee. Her hands and eyes were concentrating on Luella’s foot, but her smile told him she liked his help.
Now the real question was, did Helen like him?
Chapter 8
“Iva Mae and Maridell!” Lyle called to get the girls’ attention as they ran out of the schoolhouse. Lyle and Lorna had picked Helen, Avalee and Luella up at the hotel a short time ago in their rented wagon, saying they were taking them on a surprise drive after school today. The girls had been in school for a week now and were settling in better than Helen could have hoped for. Each girl had several classmates who they had met at church their first Sunday and were making friends.
Helen Heals A Hotelier (Brides With Grit Book 10) Page 7