Page 11 of The Magical Bed & Breakfast

Rory shrugged. “Well, it’s inside, so yeah, it’s yours. Better not to ask questions with my crazy old coot of a grandfather.” He frowned. “I guess I should go.”

“Wait, do you really have nowhere to stay?”

Rory gave a halfhearted shrug. “I’m not some charity case. I’ll work something out with Granddad. Agate Point is huge. If he really wants me somewhere else, I’d bet there’s probably a bunk in the back of his grocery store. I’ll be all right. I can always stay in Newport and come visit him.” Rory quickly took the steps and strode for the street.

“Wait.” Kate was overwhelmed by her sudden bonanza, but she refused to forgo her manners. Besides the sense that she already knew Rory from somewhere, shewasan innkeeper. “Stay here, please.” It was the least she could do to give back to the family who had saved her a small fortune. She’d be able to open weeks earlier now.

“Really, I mean it. Please stay. A couple of those beds came with mattresses, and they might not be authentic, but…”

“I’d say that’s a good thing.” Rory grinned at her. “I don’t think your guests would welcome a night on a 250-year-old-mattress.”

Kate laughed. “They do look new.”

“Yeah, well I’m pretty sure all this furniture wasn’t stored in an attic. I recognize most of it from spending summers at the mansion. Grandma got plenty of use from it before she died. My apparently klepto granny.”

Kate bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Good thing I have linens. Come on, you can pick a room.”

Rory followed her to the second floor. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, or to make you feel obligated.”

“I’m an innkeeper.”With a capitalI, she finished in her head. “Why would I be uncomfortable having a guest in my inn? I’m holed up on the third floor for now. Later, once renovations are complete, I’ll sleep in the back by the kitchen. Why don’t you choose a room here on the second floor? That’ll give us some distance. These two rooms in the front have finished bathrooms. We can pull in these mattresses standing up in the hall and set up the beds.

“I bet these frames were adjusted to a double and a queen. Looks like they had a bit of repair work done to make them standard modern sizes.”

“So not completely authentic, which is fine. I don’t want my inn to be museum quality. I need it to be comfortable.”

Together they set about making the two rooms habitable. It took another hour of rearranging dressers, chairs, and bedding. They worked companionably, saying little.

“Come on down to the kitchen. I have cold drinks.”

“You will let me pay you to stay here.”

Kate waved a hand.

“No, seriously, like I said before, I’m not a charity case. Honestly, I’m stunned Granddad would dump me off like this with no warning. I’m planning to stay in Hazard until mid-November. I can pay for the room.”

“You’re my first guest and renovations are an all day, everyday situation right now. I can’t charge regular rates. I’m not sure about charging yet at all, really.”

At the determined set to Rory’s face, she capitulated. “Fine, let me cut you a deal.”

They dickered back and forth until they agreed on a weekly rate, decidedly reduced from what Kate would charge going forward but hey—furniture. And, even if Seymour thought it was hers by right, it had not been included in her real estate sale.

They took their cold drinks and headed to the courtyard. Kate shivered as they passed the basement. She gave it a wary glance, and saw Rory raise his eyebrows. “That obvious?” she said.

Rory glanced back at the door. “Is that where the bodies are buried?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She gave a nonchalant shrug even as her shoulders tensed at another raised brow from her new guest.

They settled into a couple of dark blue Adirondack chairs on the courtyard lawn. “It’s the only part of the inn I haven’t explored,” admitted Kate. “Oh, sure, I walked through the basement before I bought the inn, but I don’t know, it feels portentous somehow. Like my whole future hinges on the space down there, if that makes any sense.”

Kate waited as Rory stared at the drink in his hand. After a moment of silence, he said, “Is that why you bought the inn, because it’s your destiny?”

She heard the hesitation in his voice and wondered about it. Kate took a long drink. “This inn is my calling. Better than where I was headed before.”

Another raised brow.

“I worked for my father and needed to set out on my own.”

“Is he in the hospitality industry?”

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