Page 124 of Valley of Dreams

They were well within sight of the original location, the one she’d had to abandon weeks earlier, the one she still longed for and wished for. She looked to Patrick, not daring to believe what she was beginning to suspect.

He smiled broadly. “There was never a better place for it.”

“The original site? Truly?”

He nodded.

“How is that possible?”

He set the horse to a walk once more, the buggy aiming directly for her future inn. Her inn. Merciful heavens, it actually seemed within reach.

“Joseph and I tossed around every scenario we could come up with for making your inn an overnight stop for the stage company. Even Finbarr added his thoughts. We couldn’t find an answer that didn’t pull you too far from Hope Springs.”

“That’s been my conclusion as well.”

“But then, sweetie, I realized maybe we were asking ourselves the wrong question.”

She hadn’t the first idea what he meant. “Which question ought we to have been asking?”

He smiled at her, the look one of adorably self-satisfied excitement. “Instead of ‘How do we make a Hope Springs inn fit an overnight stop?’ we should’ve wondered ‘What kind of stop fits Hope Springs?’”

What kind of stop?An overnight stop didn’t work because the stage passed Hope Springs at approximately midday. Midday. “A lunch stop?”

He nodded. “A lunch stop.”

Her mind spun. A lunch stop. The stage would pass at the opportune time for that, but how could that possibly be a solution? An inn without overnight guests wouldn’t be an inn for long.

“I can see you’re trying to sort it all out. Let me fill in a few of the gaps.” He slowed the buggy as they approached the site. “Joseph suggested to the stage company that they take a midday stop in Hope Springs. The passengers can get themselves a bite to eat. The drivers can, as well, and their horses can rest for a spell. The stage makes the roundtrip twice a week.”

“So I would have customers four days a week.”

“A predictable four days a week,” he said. “You can plan your days and supplies accordingly.”

“Can I stay afloat on only four days of midday meals?”

“Dr. Jones would have his infirmary and would pay rent. That will help.”

She would far prefer he’d said, “make all the difference” rather than “help.”

Patrick stopped the buggy and climbed down. He gently patted the horse as he walked around to Eliza’s side of the buggy. He held his arms out to her. She accepted the assistance and was soon walking beside him.

“Joseph believes that the stage company will come to realize the benefit of an established inn, one with food at the ready and protection from the elements. He’s confident they’ll make it a priority to sort out a means of making your inn an overnight stop.”

“That would be perfect,” she said.

Patrick took her hand. “You would likely still need to do some work at Archers’ to make ends meet the first little while. Joseph means to talk with Katie about it, but he’s confident something can be arranged.”

“Katie’s certainly capable of doing the work and more than willing,” Eliza said, “but I see how much she loves having the freedom to be with her children and play her violin. I would always worry that she’d agreed to the arrangement out of compassion but wasn’t truly happy with it.”

Patrick kissed the back of her hand. “Even if you did nothing more than the laundry once a week, it would bring in a bit of extra money to stretch further.”

“When the stage passes,” Eliza said, “would the horses simply be resting while the driver had a bite to eat, or would horses be changed here?”

Patrick’s head tipped and his brow pulled in thought. “A change of horses would be invaluable to the stage. They could travel so much farther on fresh horses.”

“I don’t have horses to lend them, though. And I certainly couldn’t afford to purchase any.”

He released her hand and paced away. “The stage company can drop an extra team here to be stabled and cared for. When the northbound stage stops for a midday meal, they’d trade their team for the rested one, leaving the weary horses to be stabled and cared for until the southbound stage stopped the next day for lunch, trading their team for the one here. And so on and so on.”

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