Helen Heals A Hotelier (Brides With Grit Book 10) Read online

  “Good morning, Miss Naomi,” her oldest three girls said together as they settled themselves at their dining room table. Helen had instructed them to use their “hotel manners” this morning. Iva Mae and Maridell knew what she meant because they remembered living in the York Hotel, and Avalee mimicked what her sisters said. Helen didn’t expect Luella to understand at her age but she’d catch on in time.

  “Good morning, girls. I think you all look chipper this morning. Are you ready for oatmeal and toast?” Naomi treated the girls like little adults, which they needed to act like since they would be living in the hotel for at least two weeks.

  “Yes, please,” the girls chorused together.

  Helen noticed Ethan pause from his position by the wide dining room door to watch them before walking to their table. He must have been in his office and followed behind them without her noticing.

  Hopefully they could have a meeting after breakfast and Helen could convince Ethan he needed her on his staff.

  “Mr. Paulson, will you be joining the family for breakfast?” Naomi asked, and Helen noticed Naomi had the table already set for six.

  “Yes, I believe I will, Naomi. Could we have a plate of ham or bacon, too? I don’t think oatmeal will be enough to fill my stomach this morning, and I bet the girls would like some meat also.”

  Helen bit her tongue to keep from protesting because the girls could use the extra food to fill out their too tiny figures.

  “Good morning, Helen. How did you sleep last night?”

  “As well as possible,” she answered, being truthful but not giving anything away to her girls. “We enjoyed the hotel room, but we will take you up on your offer for the third floor suite.”

  “Good, I’ll move my things this morning so you can get settled. What changed your mind?”

  “As you said, you’re the only one using the top floor at the moment. And this way the room we’re using can be rented instead.”

  Ethan looked puzzled for a moment. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  Helen nodded in acknowledgment, guessing correctly that he was new at running a hotel. “I’d like to talk to you about other things I could help you with in the hotel as we settle into town. Is there a time we may meet for my proposal?”

  “Proposal?” Ethan’s hand, which was bringing his coffee cup up to his mouth stopped in midair with her question.

  “Because I’ve worked in a hotel, I’d like to do so here.”

  “The community fund has already paid for two weeks,” Ethan countered.

  “But I’m thinking of long term, a way to support my family. Hopefully I can find a place to rent before your parents return from their trip.”

  The girls ate quietly while she and Ethan conversed. Helen had already told her daughters her plans, convinced they could make a home in Clear Creek.

  Ethan glanced around the table before answering. Helen assumed he didn’t want to talk in front of her girls.

  “Our hotel in York had sixty-four rooms,” Iva Mae boasted to Ethan, “and Momma was in charge of everything, except I dusted our fifth floor apartment.”

  “Sixty-four rooms?” Ethan’s eyes widened. “You actually managed the hotel?”

  “Yes, Avalee’s father had health problems so the daily overseeing of the staff and management of the hotel was my responsibility, and I must say I enjoyed it.”

  “Was it successful while you were the manager?” Ethan narrowed his eyes, wondering how a woman could manage a hotel?

  “We had an eight-five percent occupancy during the week and usually full on the weekends. I can’t say how it’s doing since we left three years ago, but I hope it is still doing well.” Helen wouldn’t say anything bad about the current managers since they were related to her daughter.

  “I’d like to talk to you after breakfast then, about how you managed your hotel,” Ethan said while Naomi arrived at the table with a tray of steaming bowls of oatmeal.

  Was he being polite or was he really interested in what she’d done in the past? Helen tried to recall details of her time at the York Hotel. It had been three years since they had to leave the hotel, but the more she thought through the layout of the hotel, the more she remembered the details of taking care of the rooms, dining room and staff. For the first time in years, she looked forward to starting over, even if it was in a tiny frontier town.

  ***

  It didn’t take Helen and her girls long to move into his apartment, considering they had only two carpet bags for the five of them.

  He was still standing in the living room talking to Helen when the girls unpacked one bag, revealing small framed photographs wrapped in their extra underclothing.

  Maridell patted his hand to get his attention. “Where can we set our poppas’ photographs?”

  Ethan looked from Maridell to Helen at the girl’s question.

  “They each have a photograph to remember their father by. The frames need to be on a table at eye level for them to see them. Where do you suggest they sit their poppas’ portraits?”

  He was taken back at the seriousness which Helen asked, but the girls each reverently held a photo in both their hands, even Luella.

  Ethan scanned the room, trying to think of the best place to set them. “How about this side table by the door. Will this work for you, girls?”

  One by one the girls reverently set their father’s portrait on the table, Iva Mae lifting Luella up so she could set hers on the table, too.

  Both Iva Mae’s and Luella’s were tin-types of young men, with boyish faces sitting in their Union uniforms, holding a rifle and seriously looking straight ahead.

  Avalee’s father, only his face featured on the tintype, looked to be in his sixties, with thinning hair, a thick mustache, and thick jowls.

  The hodgepodge of portraits may have been showing the fathers at different stages than when the girls were conceived, but Ethan was heartened by the thoughtfulness of Helen providing some type of connection for each girl, even though it must be hard for the woman to see her past husbands.

  Even Maridell, whose father didn’t marry Helen, was featured on a cardboard photograph. He looked to have light-colored hair, sporting a mustache, in his twenties, and dressed in a nice suit in a formal photographer’s studio. It dawned on Ethan it could just be a portrait of a stranger, not actually related to Maridell. But it put Maridell on the same level as her sisters, having a portrait of a man she could call her father.

  “Those are nice-looking fathers, girls. It’s nice you can remember them this way,” Ethan touched Iva Mae’s shoulder as he leaned over to look at the lineup of men.

  “Well, we don’t miss Luella’s poppa though, as he wasn’t any prize.”

  Ethan chortled, then coughed in his hand at Iva Mae’s observation.

  “Yes, well, we can’t always tell a book by it’s cover,” Ethan joked to cover Iva Mae’s remark.

  “He didn’t give us any books,” Avalee stated with a puzzled look on her face.

  “It was just an expression...meaning a person may look nice on the outside, but not nice in his heart,” Helen explained, more used to explaining things to young children than Ethan was prepared to do.

  “Yep, that sum’s him up,” Iva Mae muttered.

  “Iva Mae, we don’t speak ill of people, no matter the circumstances.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” the girl sighed, but didn’t look like she’d forgive the man who kicked them out to fend for themselves.

  “Where can we lay our family Bible, Mr. Paulson?” Ethan watched Iva Mae struggle to pull a large cloth wrapped bundle from the carpet bag. No wonder the bag was so heavy.

  “That’s up to you. Do you read out of it?”

  “No, it’s written in German, not English. Momma can read it, but I can’t.”

  Ethan had noticed Helen’s German accent, but never commented on it, knowing she tried hard to speak correct English.

  “The Bible had been in our family for generations, and we brought it with us wh
en we left our homeland. With my parents and brothers gone, I was the one to keep it, and it’s traveled with us wherever we’ve lived,” Helen explained.

  “I commend you for keeping the family history for your girls, then. How about setting your Bible on this other side table?” Ethan watched Iva Mae dust the surface with her dress sleeve, before hefting the Bible in place. He just as well give the girl a dusting rag because he was sure the whole apartment could use a good dusting.

  This way to your bedrooms.” Ethan spoke as he walked down the hall in front of them.

  “Helen, I suggest you take the room with the double bed, as I’m sure there are times you will have the girls tucked into bed with you.

  “And across the hall will be the girl’s bedroom, complete with a trundle bed and a crib, which I think will work for Luella.” Ethan smiled, glad he could move furniture around from other rooms to have enough beds for the girls to be comfortable in, and give Helen some privacy.

  “There’s a chest of drawers for your undergarments, and a wardrobe for your dresses in each bedroom ,” Ethan continued to move on the conversation.

  “If we put our dresses in the wardrobe, what are we going to wear?” Maridell looked puzzled when asking Ethan.

  “We only got one dress,” Avalee added.

  Ethan looked at Helen for clarification, but she was biting her lip and looking in any direction but at him. Ah, so they only had one dress each. Well, that wasn’t unusual for the poorer townsfolk around here either.

  “And they sure are pretty dresses, too. You could hang your winter outer garments in the wardrobe if you want, but you don’t have to use that piece of furniture just because it’s in the room.”

  That seemed to satisfy their curiosity as they roamed their room, Maridell pulling the maroon drapes away from the window to look outside and Avalee opening the wardrobe. This room was planned by Ethan’s mother—for his and Sarah’s future son—so it had a rocker, a crib and a changing table in the room, too. What would his mother think coming home to see four little girls occupying the space instead?

  “Girls, please sort your extra clothing and put it away in the chest of drawers, then quietly play with your dolls. Mr. Paulson and I will be in the parlor talking about my job.”

  Helen directed the girls on their tasks while giving Ethan one, too.

  Okay, let’s see what she has in mind. Ethan waved his arm to indicate for Helen to walk in front of him to move to the other room. He couldn’t help leaning forward to catch her scent. Ethan had personally bought a bar of rose-scented soap at Taylor’s Mercantile yesterday and left it in their room for their use. Helen reminded him of a blossoming rose, with four little rose buds encircling her stem.

  Her black dress was serviceable but its elbows and cuffs had seen better days since the dress was worn daily. He would recommend she wear a certain dress for work, at the hotel’s expense of course, to expand her wardrobe. A dark green ensemble would go well with her hair color and complexion. Ethan cringed inwardly. That was the color his mother had insisted Sarah wear for their wedding. Maybe he’d suggest a deep russet or burgundy dress for Helen instead. Or maybe a green dress would help his mother accept Helen?

  The girls were in dire need of new dresses, too. He was sure the younger sister always wore the older sibling’s dress until Luella wore it last. When Iva Mae outgrew her dress, did Helen buy new material for one, or cut down one of her own dresses?

  “Mr. Paulson, …Ethan…” Helen sat on the settee, waiting for him to sit across from her in the big upholstered chair. His mother only ordered the best of everything for the hotel, including their apartments’ furnishings, and he’d thanked her every time he sat in this comfortable chair.

  “Sorry, I was daydreaming. Did you say something?” Ethan apologized as he sat down, leaned back and crossed his right ankle over his left knee. He didn’t want to appear stiff for this meeting.

  “Yes, I said I have experience in hotel management so I’d like to offer my services for your hotel,” Helen repeated what he apparently hadn’t heard since he’d been daydreaming.

  So she wanted him to hire her, besides give them room and board?

  “What would you do?” He was curious if she wanted to dust, or what?

  “Manage the hotel, or at least be your assistant, to increase revenue and profit.”

  Not words he expected out of this mother of four, just left penniless in their frontier town.

  “How?”

  “First, I’d need to learn what you’re doing now, and what you’re planning for the future.”

  “How?” Ethan was still confused.

  “First, I’d like to talk to the staff about their duties, and how they perceive their work. That will tell me if they are qualified, doing their jobs as they should be for your customers.”

  This wasn’t what Ethan was expecting her to say.

  “Second, I’d study your recordkeeping books to see how many people you have been hosting since you opened, if the numbers have gone up or down, if you’ve had repeat customers, where they are from, etc. This will give me some insight also on where we should be advertising the hotel.”

  Oh, dear. Did he want this woman to look at his hotel register and business records? Ethan was afraid it would reveal his lack of customers on many days. And advertising? He hadn’t done any except announce the grand opening...to the locals.

  “So how would that make a full-time or part-time position for you at my hotel?”

  “After seeing how the hotel is run now, I can come up with ways to increase nightly hotel stays, thus increasing profits and justifying you hiring me on as a permanent employee.”

  “So, you’d manage the...” Ethan still wasn’t convinced this woman, who was talking like a business man, could help him out.

  “I could do anything from registering customers, keeping the books, advertising the hotel beyond Clear Creek, to helping the staff fulfill their duties.”

  Ethan looked back down the hall where the girls were, at the moment, quietly staying out of sight. How would they act if the hotel became their home? It would be hard for Helen to live elsewhere without bringing her two youngest to work with her, at least when Iva Mae and Maridell were in school, so two would always be underfoot. He involuntarily shivered, thinking of instances where his mother complained about children.

  “Looking at the building and the furnishings, you invested heavily in this new business. How are you going to make it a profitable venture?”

  “My mother inherited money from an aunt so the business is free and clear at this point.”

  “And in the future, a year, five and ten years from now? Will sales provide upkeep of the place, besides provide incomes for you and your parents?”

  Ethan rubbed his forehead as he was developing a headache with Helen’s questions. How honest should he be with this woman? It seems she knew what she was talking about, where he hated to admit he didn’t, as far as running a hotel.

  “I honestly don’t know if the hotel can provide for us in the future. It was my mother’s idea to build the hotel. Once it was up and running, she and my father took off to travel, using the rest of her aunt’s money. She’s expecting me to run the hotel, turning a handsome profit to keep them in their new lifestyle of being rich and carefree.”

  “What did you and your father do for your living before the hotel?”

  “Before the war we lived in Ohio. Father worked as a clerk in a saw mill and I...trimmed logs, cut them into lumber...manual labor.”

  “I assume you were in the war?”

  “No, my mother was petrified of my enlisting or being drafted, so as soon as war broke out we traveled down to the Oregon Trail intent on moving to the west coast.”

  “So did you live out there until the war ended?”

  “No, mother didn’t like the traveling, so we settled at Fort Kearny in the Nebraska Territory. Father and I worked in some of the trading posts which catered to the emigrants traveling west. Traffic
started going through the Fort when thousands of wagons traveled through there from ‘49 when men were heading to California to hunt for gold, and later Mormons heading to Utah, others to Oregon.”

  “How did you end up in Kansas?”

  “We were at Fort Kearny for ten years until the railroad was built through the area and the fort was closed. I spent a year laying ties and driving spikes on that railroad, so knew how important it was to new towns. Father and I helped build some of the buildings in the new town by the fort until my mother received a letter from my aunt’s attorney.”

  “So life changed for you when she received her inheritance.”

  “Drastically. Her social status was important to her, but she didn’t want to go back to Ohio. Weather in Nebraska is harsh, so we moved down to Clear Creek to open a hotel on the railroad here, because it’s on the way to Denver.”

  “So you opened...”

  “Officially this summer. Our grand opening was delayed because mother wanted it to also be the reception for my wedding.”

  Helen’s eyes widened, obviously wondering about his marital state.

  “Ah, I was engaged to Sarah Wilerson but she left me at the altar. A month later she married Marcus Brenner and they adopted eight orphaned children. You’ll meet them in church so you...you just as well know about them.” And it was still awkward to see the new family filling up a pew in church each Sunday.

  “Ah. I wondered why you weren’t married. You’d make someone a wonderful husband...”

  Ethan spoke to cover the embarrassment they both felt now.

  “Although I came to love Sarah, I see now that my mother pushed us together because she thought Sarah would be a good hostess for the hotel.”

  “So now your mother left you after the aborted wedding, expecting you to finally stand on your own two feet?”