Chapter Ten
WHEN TILLY AWOKE THE next morning, Liam was still asleep on his side next to her. She sat up carefully, not wanting to wake him.
He’d made excuses about wanting to catch up on his reading after the incredible supper they’d had in the dining room at the hotel the night before. He picked up that dull, thick book about military maneuvers, sat himself in an armchair, and adjusted the lamplight as low as it could go while still allowing enough light to see by.
Utterly confused, Tilly changed into her nightclothes behind the screen in the corner of the room, and slipped under the bedcovers alone. Then she ran their dinner conversation over and over in her head. It had gone well, she’d thought. They were at no loss for conversation. He told her more about his plans for a new hotel, she talked about her favorite horse back at the farm, he admitted he was terrible on horseback, and then regaled her with a few stories that had sent her into peals of laughter. It had been a wonderful evening.
But at no point did he reach for her hand or, to her complete disappointment, did he attempt to kiss her again.
And then he sat alone, reading, while she wondered what she could have possibly done wrong.
She’d finally fallen asleep, and at some point, he must have joined her, because now he snoozed peacefully beside her.
Tilly watched him a moment. He was so very handsome, and if things had gone differently last night, perhaps she now would have reached out and traced his jaw with her finger, or snuggled back down under the covers closer to him.
She let out a silent breath of frustration.
Well, even if he seemed uninterested in her as a wife, he had done her an unimaginable kindness by marrying her. And she would be grateful for that always.
She crept silently from the bed and changed into the dress she’d worn on the train to town. It needed washing badly, especially considering it was all she’d brought aside from the dress she’d been married in yesterday. She pinned up her hair quickly and tossed some water on her face. She blinked in the mirror and smiled at herself.
She was a married woman now. Someone’s wife.
She couldn’t wait to share the news with Emily and her parents. Later that day, she would make time to write to them, although it was likely that Jamie had already sent a telegram. Mama and Papa couldn’t be too angry with her if she were married—or so she hoped.
Tilly slipped from the room. Pausing at the top of the stairs, she smiled down at the lobby area below. This hotel was so very grand, and she decided she would enjoy every moment of being here since it wouldn’t last long.
Downstairs, she found both the lovely dining room and a small lunch counter serving breakfast. Not knowing what Liam might like to eat, she opted to ask the kind waitress at the lunch counter for some coffee to bring upstairs.
“Cream or sugar?” the waitress asked.
“I don’t know,” Tilly said honestly.
The woman gave her a puzzled look but asked no questions. Instead, she placed a little bowl of sugar cubes and a tiny pitcher of cream on the tray she handed Tilly.
“Do I need to pay you?” Tilly asked. She had a few bills left over from her savings.
“No, miss. It’s only coffee.” The waitress smiled at her, and Tilly nodded.
“Thank you.” She left, carefully balancing the tray and trying to imagine a life in which coffee was hardly a luxury at all.
When she opened the door to the room, she found Liam awake and dressed.
“There you are,” he said, his eyebrows raising as he took in the tray she carried. “Did you bring coffee?”
“I did. I’m sorry if I woke you.”
“It’s all right. It’s past time for me to be awake.” He took the tray from her and laid it on the desk. “Thank you. I don’t think anyone has ever brought me coffee before.”
Tilly basked in his gratitude. “I thought it would be a nice thing to wake to. There’s cream and sugar, if you like.” She watched as he poured a little cream into his cup but avoided the sugar. That would be good to know, for next time.
“Don’t you want yours?” he asked as she stood off to the side.
“Oh, yes.” Her cheeks went warm as she realized she’d been staring at him.
Tilly quickly mixed in a little cream and sugar and wrapped her hands around the cup. “They’re serving breakfast downstairs.”
Liam pulled out a pocketwatch. “I need to get to the office, but please feel free to enjoy breakfast yourself.”
Tilly nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. She’d imagined the two of them enjoying a leisurely meal together, conversing happily as they’d done last night. Eating breakfast alone surrounded by all of those people sounded awfully lonely.
And not only that, she had to determine how to fill her day without him.
After he left, Tilly made up the room. She stood and admired her work just as a knock came at the door. She answered it, hoping for a visitor. A girl about her age stood on the other side of the door, dressed in a plain dress with a snowy white pinafore.
“Pardon me, miss,” she said. “I’m here to clean the room.”
“Oh,” Tilly said as the maid took in the neat state of the room. “I’m sorry. I suppose I didn’t realize . . . I’ve never stayed in a hotel before.”
The girl smiled at her. “It’s quite all right. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Tilly nodded. She’d have to remember not to make the bed and straighten the room tomorrow.
With nothing else to do, Tilly put on her coat, gloves, and a hat, and went downstairs. Her stomach grumbled, but she couldn’t bring herself to sit alone for breakfast.
She would need to overcome that fear, she realized as she passed through the lobby, or else she’d starve until supper. Eating at the Darbys’ was easy. The small room was always filled, and most residents sat at the tables with long benches. There was no worry about eating by one’s lonesome.
She ignored her stomach as she made her way down the hill. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground from the previous day, and it lent a fairytale quality to the little town down the hill. Tilly paused to admire the scene for a moment. Crest Stone was a quaint little town, even if there was something under construction every way she turned. The tall, silent mountains towered over the hotel behind her, and the sun peeked out of clouds overhead.
Her breath frosted in the air, and she smiled. It would be Christmas in under two weeks, and her new life was just beginning. Even if her time here had started out bumpy, it was impossible to be anything but cheerful.
At the bottom of the hill, Tilly paused. She could pay a visit to Edie, her brother’s wife, but it was still awfully early for a social call. Perhaps she’d simply walk the town. She hadn’t yet had the time to become familiar with it, and it was something she ought to do if she was going to call it home.
She turned left to make her way north at first. The railroad tracks ran straight down the middle of the main road through town, and here and there, stubby side roads branched off, stretching east and west. There were few buildings on these side roads, but Tilly imagined it wouldn’t be long before there were more.
At the end of town stood a butcher shop, so Tilly crossed the road and the tracks and began moving back into town. She paused outside a finished building with a hand-painted sign out front advertising Fashions for Ladies and Men . Peering into the window, she couldn’t see very much. It was just as well. She wasn’t about to ask Liam for money to purchase an already made dress when she was perfectly capable of buying material and sewing her own.
And that was something she’d need to do soon, given the state of the dress she was currently wearing. Maybe that was something she could do—find a shop selling fabric and choose some to tell Liam about later.
She meandered back down the sidewalk, her face growing chilled from the air. But her curiosity outweighed her discomfort as she took in a livery stable and blacksmith’s shop, a schoolhouse, a hardware store, the land office where Liam was hard at work inside, a somewhat unsavory-looking boardinghouse, and then—a general store!
Tilly hurried inside the Crest Stone General Store and Mercantile. The shop smelled of something cinnamon, which made her empty stomach growl. She wandered up and down the aisles, admiring everything from buckets to delicate little figurines to cosmetic powders.
“Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?” a female voice asked as Tilly paused near the end of an aisle at the rear of the store.
She looked up and discovered a slim, blonde woman standing behind the counter. She was folding a stack of linen napkins and was smiling at Tilly.
“Fabric?” Tilly said hopefully.
“I have it in the storeroom in back,” the woman said. “We’re dreadfully short on space up here. If you can tell me what it is you’re looking to make, I can bring some up for you to choose from.”
“Perhaps a calico?” Tilly said. “I need to make a skirt and shirtwaist.”
“Any particular color?”
Tilly shook her head. She’d never chosen her own fabric before. Mama had always ordered the least expensive sorts from the shops in Great Bend. All Tilly knew was that calico was affordable.
“I’ll be right back.” The woman returned a few minutes later, a stack of fabric bolts in her arms. She laid them out on the counter one by one.
“I know you said calico, but I thought this green would look nice with your eyes.” The woman gestured to the bolt at the far right.
It was a lovely shade, the color of leaves dappled with sunlight. Tilly ran a hand over it. It was far too soft to be anything less than extravagant.
“It costs the same as the calico,” the woman said as she adjusted the other bolts.
“It’s the loveliest thing I’ve ever seen.” Tilly withdrew her hand. “I’ll need to tell my husband about it, and if he agrees, I’ll return to buy it.”
“Of course.” The woman smiled at her. She stacked the bolts one on top of the other. “I’m Mrs. Caroline Drexel, but please call me Caroline. I don’t believe I’ve seen you in town before.”
“Tilly Hannan.” The new name sounded strange as she spoke it, but it also stirred butterflies inside.
“Oh! Are you related to Deirdre and her brother?”
“Liam is my husband,” Tilly replied.
Caroline’s eyebrows lifted. “I hadn’t realized Mr. Hannan had married. Congratulations.”
“Just yesterday.” Tilly couldn’t keep the smile from her face, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances under which the wedding had happened. And despite being unable to figure out if her husband particularly enjoyed being married to her. “My brother is Marshal Wright,” she added, only because it felt disingenuous to leave that bit of information out.
“Edie is a good friend of mine,” Caroline said with a smile. “We both worked in the restaurant at the Crest Stone Hotel together before we were married.”
Tilly tried to imagine working in such a place when she could hardly wrap her mind around living there temporarily. “That’s where Liam and I are living, just for now. It must be difficult to obtain work at such a fine hotel.”
“It was,” Caroline agreed. “But I enjoyed my time there.”
The door opened just then, and a man strode up to the counter, dressed in a wrinkled shirt under an equally wrinkled coat. He looked as if he’d forgotten to shave for the past few days, and his face was handsome but weary.
“Mr. Carlisle,” Caroline greeted him with a friendly look. “How is Clara? I hope she’s doing well.”
“She’ll be better once the baby arrives. We both will,” he said.
Feeling as if she were intruding on a private conversation, Tilly lifted her hand to say farewell to Caroline and found her way out the door.
She wrapped her coat closer around her and grinned at nothing. Caroline was kind, and it was nice to have another person she knew in Crest Stone.
She’d taken a few steps down the sidewalk when she spotted a familiar figure step onto the sidewalk across the street. It was Liam.
Happy to stumble across him, she began to move in his direction—until he opened the door of the saloon and stepped inside.
Tilly halted. Whatever was Liam doing going into a saloon before noon?