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 remembernotto 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 advertisingFashions 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 downthe 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.
