“Excellent piece of work, if I say so myself,” he had declared after putting up signs displaying the names of the various geysers. Then he’d looked to her.
“Very helpful,” Kate had said, taking her cue.
“Attractive too,” he’d pointed out. “Black lettering on white. The new superintendent should be pleased. Do you think the guests will like them?”
Before he was satisfied, she’d had to assure him that the superintendent at the time, his assistants, and the hotel guests would admire them as much as she did. He’d nodded along, but she’d heard him pointing out his handiwork to visitors for weeks afterward.
Will never sought approval. In fact, praise and appreciation seemed to make him uncomfortable. He appeared to be confident he’d accomplished what he set out to do, and that was enough. Rather commendable.
Not that he’d accept praise for those traits either.
A short time later, she was on the veranda, swathed in an apron and armed with a paintbrush, touching up spots along the front of the hotel. The southwest wall on her left bore most of the brunt of the wind, but her guests’ first impression of the hotel was the more important. She still remembered her first impression when Toby had brought her here after learning that their investment might be in jeopardy.
Toby had invested in many things, sometimes only a little and often with as little return. It was part of his visionary nature, the same nature that had become obsessed with taking over the lease from the original owner. Mr. Carter, an entrepreneur originally from the Boston area, had built the Geyser Gateway and convinced old acquaintances, like Toby and his father, to invest.
“Think of all the people who will flock to a national park,” Toby had said, eyes gleaming. “And we can visit there every year if we like.”
Then Mr. Carter had been injured. He’d written that unless one of his investors could arrange for a new innkeeper, they’d all lose their money. Toby had insisted that he and Kate come out to see the place. One night at the inn, two days in this glorious country, and she’d offered him the money her parents had left her to buy out the other investors. They had never returned to Boston. She never planned to leave. Toby would certainly never leave. His body was buried in the cemetery at Mammoth Hot Springs with a simple stone cross she’d commissioned in Bozeman.
But she and Danny might be forced to leave if she couldn’t prove to Captain Harris that the Geyser Gateway had as good a service or better than any other park hotel. And the hope of that ten-year lease beckoned. She could rest secure that she and Danny had a home. Captain Harris just had to see the glory of the Geyser Gateway.
So, she kept working. With a wire brush, she scraped off the loose paint, then covered the raw wood with yellow. Butter yellow, Toby had claimed when he’d brought home the gallons of paint the first time. She couldn’t deny it was cheerful.
Just down the way, Will pushed up on a shutter and held it in place while he tightened the hinges. Then he squeezed out a few drips from the oil can.
“That looks much better,” Kate told him.
He swung the shutter back and forth as if testing it. “It should do. When do you and Danny leave for the winter?”
Kate chuckled as she rasped the wire brush over the next piece of wood. “Hoping to get out of our deal sooner rather than later?”
He stepped back to eye the shutter as if confirming its alignment. “No. Just trying to determine the amount of time my men and I have to prepare. Captain Harris sent lumber for a permanent building.”
“You’d better get to work then,” Kate said, slathering on paint. “I figure four weeks, maybe six if we’re lucky, before the snow starts flying.”
He grabbed the shutter on the other side of the window and nudged it up and out. “Might be enough time for what we have. Franklin figures we can construct a ten-by-ten shanty.”
She paused. “For six men?”
He tightened the hinge. “Six men, six months. We’ll either be a band of brothers or mortal enemies by the end.”
Kate shuddered as she returned to her work. “You won’t make it. The supplies alone will take up most of the space. I know how much we have to put up for Alberta, Danny, and me.”
Now he paused. “You overwinter?”
“We’re one of the few,” she acknowledged. “We move our beds to the salon and only heat it and the kitchen. We stock the cellar under the kitchen to the rim. We do get an occasional guest—usually a visiting professor or an avid gamesman. And the presence of the geysers means this area keeps a little less snow on the ground than in the higher elevations of the park.”
He shook his head. “Two women and a boy alone for months. Is that safe?”
She grinned at him. “You wait, Lieutenant. There’s nothing like a Yellowstone winter. Few venture in. Many of the animals hibernate. It’s probably the safest time to be out here.”
“Done!” Danny shouted as he ran around the side of the hotel. “Where should I paint, General?”
Much as she approved of him copying Will, she couldn’t quite accustom herself to being called by a military rank.
“Where should I paint, Mother?” she suggested.
“Yes, where?” He scampered up the steps and to her side.
Will moved to the shutter closest to her. Kate handed Danny the wire brush. “Why don’t you buff off the old paint, and I’ll follow with the new?”
“Deal.” Danny set to work.
Kate painted on the yellow and stepped back to check for other bare patches. That’s when she noticed Will hadn’t moved. Indeed, her cheeks warmed in his regard.
“You missed a spot,”
