“Expect a full dining room. Oh, and she serves a different dessert at the evening meal because so many people will eat here for both meals today.
“Last Tuesday evening Helen served a mouth-watering Boston cream pie. Gosh, she had to make about five or six of those there were so many people in for supper. I only tasted the crumbs from one of the tins, but it was the best Boston cream pie I’ve ever tasted.”
“How in the world did she do all this plus take care of four children?”
Ethan couldn’t help smirking. His mother was starting to wear down, and warm up to Helen.
“She’s motivated because she has to provide for her children, plus she loved baking and entertaining for the hotel guests.”
“Do I dare ask what goes on here in the hotel on Wednesdays?”
“Hmm, you better ask Naomi since she won’t be here tomorrow. Remember you’re serving customers in the dining room in her place.
“Well, wish me luck that I find a good job and house to provide for my new family. We’ll try to move out of your hotel as soon as possible.”
Ethan loved the look on his mother’s face when he left the office. Sheer panic about summed it up. She’d be begging them to stay by the end of the week.
And did they want to stay and run the hotel? He and Helen stayed up late last night talking about it. Actually they would like to stay in Clear Creek, but not work for his mother. Helen gave him the confidence to think about other possibilities so he wasn’t worried about it anymore.
***
Tuesday evening
“Helen! I need to talk to you!”
Helen took a deep breath and counted to ten before opening the suite door to Esther.
“Hello, Esther. Did you have a good day working in your hotel?”
She could smell the grease and see the food stains on the woman’s dress. Esther’s hair was an untidy mess like she’d run her hands through it a time, or six, today. Baking and cooking for a full dining room of customers would do that to a person when they weren’t used to it.
“Naomi won’t tell me what goes on in the hotel on Wednesdays!”
“She wouldn’t? Well it’s the reason she likes to take Wednesdays off work.”
Esther’s eyes swept the room, then stopped when she saw Elvin sitting on one of the big chairs, with Luella on his lap.
“What are you doing in here, Elvin?”
“I’m visiting with my granddaughters,” Elvin grinned. “They’ve been showing me the dresses they’ll be wearing to the wedding.” He pointed to the girls sitting on the settee, each holding a dress. The girls had been talking nonstop about the details of their dresses, and Elvin asked just the right questions to show the girls he was interested in what they had to say.
“Grandpa thinks we should all wear red ribbons in our hair on Sunday, but I think we should wear green to match Momma’s dress,” Maridell piped up, pointing to her dress which was draped over a dining room chair she’d brought into the room.
“Grandpa? Why are the girls calling you that, Elvin?” Esther’s hands were on her hips in protest, but Helen could see she was starting to waver.
“Because as of Sunday, I will be their grandfather, and I plan to thoroughly enjoy the honor.”
“So now we got two grandpas, Grandpa Elvin and Grandpa Isaac,” Avalee said, not realizing the tension going on in the room between Elvin and Esther.
“I bet Grandma Cate could fix our hair fancy for Sunday like she did Maggie and Molly’s hair last week,” Iva Mae smartly added after taking a sideways glance at Esther. Had Iva Mae noticed there was tension between Cate Connely and Esther last Sunday in church, like Helen had, and decided to rub it in a bit?
Esther almost said something, but stopped to take a deep breath instead. “As I was asking, what is scheduled for Wednesday in the hotel?”
“The Ladies Tea at two o’clock.”
“All right. About how many should I expect, and I assume they’ll want something more than tea and coffee?”
“It’s become a popular event for the women in town, so plan for about forty to fifty, depending on the weather of course. Some of the older women aren’t able to get out in this cold weather.”
“And what does Irma normally serve for dessert?”
“I made the dessert for Wednesday’s tea so it wasn’t extra work for Irma, so you’ll have to make it instead. The theme tomorrow is an Irish tea, with Flora Donovan giving the program. I was planning on making something along the line of scones and shortbread cookies.”
“Can’t I just serve pie? I assume Millie will be delivering pies tomorrow. She didn’t today, which I assume was because it was ‘free dessert’ day,” Esther was looking very worried now.
“Did you let her know what you needed for the week? I’d give her a list on Monday mornings for the pies and cakes we’d need for the week, so she could plan her supplies and baking.”
“No! I didn’t know I was supposed to, and Irma and Naomi are barely talking to me since you and Ethan quit...”
Esther was close to tears but Helen didn’t say anything about it. Esther made it very clear this was her hotel, so Helen would respect that, but she could still reach out to her in a small way.
“I was just about to prepare hot chocolate for the girls before they go to bed. Would you like to join us, Esther?”
The girls had been quiet through the conversation, probably holding their breaths, hoping Esther would say no.
Several emotions crossed Esther’s face when she glanced at Elvin holding Luella. Sadness, jealously, wistfulness? Esther was starting to want what Elvin had in his lap, a little girl to love.
“Thank you, but I’ll decline. I need to go back to the kitchen to see what I can make for tomorrow’s tea.” Esther’s pride and spine was back in place as she let herself out of the suite.
“Don’t worry girls,” Elvin addressed them all after his wife left, “She’ll be a good grandma to you soon, but she has some things to work through her mind first. Now I’d like some hot chocolate with my granddaughters, if I may.” Elvin squeezed Luella and gave her a kiss on the top of the head, looking as happy as the little girl on his lap. All of them would gain so much if Esther would accept them as part of her family.
Chapter 15
Wednesday evening
“Not good timing,” Ethan muttered when there was a knock on the suite door. The girls were in bed and he was thoroughly enjoying kissing his fiancée.
They had been reclining on the settee and Ethan pulled Helen upright beside him. “You look ravished and loved.” He gave her a quick kiss, then touched her nose. “And your hair is a tangled mess and your lips swollen from my passionately kissing you.”
“In other words, I best go back to my room to freshen up a bit since that’s your mother at the door.”
Helen stood, but her hand trailed across his jawline to turn his head up to her. “Please be nice to her while I’m gone.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ethan stood, put his jacket back on and walked to the door as the person knocked again. They had expected his mother to show up sometime this evening, but the later it became, the more hopeful they were she’d give them a night off from her questioning.
Ethan opened the door, surprised to see both parents standing there.
“Did we interrupt anything?” Elvin said, smiling, until Esther lightly jabbed him with her elbow.
“Elvin!”
“Is it too late for us to come in to talk tonight? It’s rather important,” his father’s tone was now serious.
“Please come in. Helen, ah, just went to check in on the girls.”
The three of them sat down but didn’t say anything until Helen came back into the room. Ethan rose and took her hand before sitting back down on the settee.
“Good evening, Elvin and Esther. You did a fine job on the tea refreshments today, Esther. Several women commented on the scones.” Helen’s smile was polite, so did that mean she heard good or bad
things about his mother’s attempts at making scones?
“Well, I remembered you said Flora would be doing a program, but I didn’t realize how elaborate the tea was and how much the ladies looked forward to it.”
“Well, I started the first week making German kuchen and talking about my ancestors tea time. Then the next week Annalina Hamner and her daughters talked about Swedish traditions and we ate kringler. The group and ideas have grown from then on.
“We have so many nationalities in town, that I thought it would be fun to feature the different foods and customs for a women’s tea...plus give everyone time to gossip.”
“Well, it was a good idea. Thank you for starting it, Helen.”
There was a pause in the conversation now. So why did his parents come over at this late hour? He had news to share with them so he went ahead.
“I received a telegraph from a hotel owner in Topeka today. The owner had stayed here on his way back from Denver last week, and was impressed by how we were running the hotel.” Ethan stopped to see his parents reaction but they remained guarded.
“The owner asked if I’d move to Topeka and become the manager of his hotel.”
“No! You can’t leave!” Esther stood, but then sat back down.
“I need to provide for my family, Mother, and this would be a wonderful opportunity for me. And this would also mean Helen wouldn’t have to work except for taking care of our family.”
“We came to offer you a another possibility, Ethan and Helen, so please consider it,” Elvin said after looking at Esther nodding her head.
Ethan squeezed Helen’s hand, hoping his parent’s offer meant they could stay in Clear Creek.
“My bad knee can’t keep climbing up and down from the third floor umpteen times a day, so we’ve decided to move into a single story house instead of living in the hotel.”
His father’s comment caught him off guard. That’s not what Ethan expected them to say. “Will you rent the suites as is, or divide them into rooms to give you more income?” Ethan asked out of curiosity.
Elvin and Esther looked at each other in confusion.
“We were thinking you could use the upstairs for your family, Ethan. An arch way or door could be cut into the common wall between the suites to make it a larger living space for your family.”
“Thank you for the offer to rent it to us if I find work in Clear Creek, but the job in Topeka would be financially better for us,” Ethan politely told his parents.
“No, you could manage our hotel again, Ethan,” Esther hastily said.
“I think I’ll decline working for you, Mother. I’d be in charge of the hotel in Topeka, not following your orders like I would be doing here. I think it would be best for everyone if we just saw you a few times a year rather than you telling us what to do every day.”
“But Ethan, we built the hotel for your future, and…”
Ethan raised his hand to stop his mother. “Helen and the girls are my future now. If you can’t accept and welcome them into your family, then that’s another reason for us to leave. I don’t want my girls growing up being ignored by their grandmother.”
He hated seeing tears in his mother’s eyes, but she had to see his point. It was time he made his own decisions about his future.
“And if you were wondering, we hadn’t scheduled anything extra for the rest of the week in the hotel, because we would have been getting ready for the Christmas open house.”
Helen waved her hand to get his attention. “But the school children will be here at one o’clock on Friday so they can practice their program.”
“Oh, that’s right. And we promised them hot chocolate and cookies after they practiced, didn’t we. Well, I guess you do have something extra to do on Friday,” Ethan said as he rose from the settee, hinting it was time for his parents to leave.
Elvin rose from his chair, too, but then they noticed Esther still sat in her chair looking down at her hands in her lap.
Esther finally looked up, tears streaming down her face. “I want to see my grandchildren in the Christmas program. I want to be the one to fix their hair with pretty combs and ribbons.”
Ethan’s heart broke for his mother, the pain she’d felt in the past and for what she was feeling now.
“I want to hear Luella say ‘Grandma, twetch my foot’ as she crawls up on my lap!”
Elvin stiffly knelt down to console his sobbing wife, murmuring something to her that Ethan couldn’t hear. Ethan sat back down beside Helen, not knowing what else to do until his mother calmed down and felt ready to leave.
Helen tapped his hand with her finger then pointed it toward the hall. They couldn’t see down the hall because of where they sat, just the edge of the corner. Ethan turned to look, glimpsing a bit of nightgown showing at the wall’s edge. Was one, or all four girls standing in the hallway listening in on their conversation?
His father cleared his throat and Ethan turned back as he started to speak.
“Actually we came here tonight to say we’d like to turn the hotel over to you, if you’ll accept it with our conditions.”
“Father, I…” Ethan stopped talking when Elvin lifted his hand.
“Please let me finish without interrupting me, Son.
“You’ve done so well building up the hotel’s business, that it’s too much for us to run ourselves now, nor do we want to as we’re getting older.
“We’d like to give you, and Helen, the hotel as our wedding present, but we’ll still need income from it. We’d need to be paid to work part-time for you, but it will be whatever you need done, whatever hours you need us to fill in for you and the staff. Helen shouldn’t be working full-time in the hotel with four small children to take care of.
“The other half of our time we want to be grandparents; to take care of the little ones while Helen is helping in the hotel, to have them stay overnight in our home to give you time alone, to take them on trips.”
Elvin looked at Esther now. “Anything you want to add to the proposal, Esther?”
“No…but Ethan, I’ve always wanted what was best for you, and I’m sorry I didn’t see right away that Helen and her girls were going to be the best for you.
“And Helen, Elvin and I will finally have a daughter when you marry Ethan. You’ve always been so patient and loving towards us—no matter how I’ve acted. And you’re also giving us four sweet granddaughters I can’t wait to love and spoil rotten.”
“Thank you, Esther. You and Elvin raised a fine son and we’ll be honored to become part of the Paulson family.”
“So, any discussion on the hotel proposal?” Elvin asked, raising his eyebrows, but smiling like he knew everything was going to turn out fine.
“Helen, what do you think?”
“I’d love to live and work in the Paulson Hotel, with the children’s grandparents’ help.”
“I agree, and thank you so very much, Mother and Father. We’ll take very good care of the hotel you started, with your help, of course.”
Ethan looked toward the hall and raised is voice. “Girls, want to come in and add anything to our conversation?”
He’d have to warn his parents that they were never alone when their granddaughters were with them. The girls had eyes and ears like a hawk.
Elvin and Esther gasped in unison and turned to watch as four girls in nightgowns slowly trailed into the room and stood before them. Iva Mae looked at her mother, and Helen nodded some unspoken message to her daughter.
“We’d love to live here, Grandpa and Grandma. And thank you so much for giving us a wonderful new poppa.” Iva Mae tearfully said.
Iva Mae picked up Luella and sat her on her grandmother’s lap, then leaned against her grandmother’s shoulder. Maridell and Avalee crawled onto their grandfather’s lap. There wasn’t a dry eye in the group now.
Luella pulled her thumb out of her mouth long enough to say, “Twetch, Gamma!”
Everyone laughed at Luella’s timing and his mother squeezed
her tightly and gave a big kiss on the toddler’s check.
“I sure will, Sweetheart, but you’ll have to show me how to do it first.”
His mother looked up and smiled at Ethan through her tears, mouthing the words thank you to him. All he could do was nod back, tears clogging his throat so bad he couldn’t reply in words.
Ethan turned to pull Helen in a tight embrace, so thankful that she and her girls came into his life. They not only healed his heart, but also his mother’s.
Epilogue
“Well, the residents of Clear Creek will remember this December Sunday for a long time,” Ethan said as he pulled Helen through the hospitality room. The last guests had finally left the hotel after the long afternoon of their combined Christmas open house and wedding reception. Helen had predicted correctly that they’d have around two hundred guests for the open house, but now the hotel was blessedly empty, except for the hotel guests.
After the talk with his parents Wednesday night, the family and their friends spent the next three days baking cakes, cookies, candy and decorating the hotel to get ready for today.
Their girls, their hair in fancy swirls of ribbons and braids, stood perfectly in line and quiet beside them for their wedding ceremony in church this morning. But their ceremony was interrupted by Lyle Elison barging in looking for the doctor. At the open house it was announced that Lorna had given birth to Louisa Beth Elison, and both mother and daughter were doing fine.
“Yes, the townspeople will remember a baby born, a family wedding of six, and a grand reception and open house—all on the warmest day in December anyone can recall. We’ll be cleaning mud off the floor for several days since we had four inches of snow before the temperature warmed up. Thank goodness your mother remembered to roll up all the rugs on the first floor.”
“Ah ha! I spy it! The last one on our count. It’s hanging on the backside of the tree.” Ethan and Helen had gone room by room looking for the kissing balls someone had rearranged in their hotel. They decided to kiss under each ball before going upstairs this evening.
“You know, you look very festive in your emerald green gown, Mrs. Paulson,” Ethan murmured as he pulled Helen to the back side of the huge Christmas tree they’d set up and decorated in the corner of the hospitality room yesterday.
Helen Heals A Hotelier (Brides With Grit Book 10) Page 14