Chapter Nineteen, Part Two

Sophie got down off her horse. “It’s so big.” She stared up at the building. “How many people lived here?”

“Only a few. This was a hotel, remember? People came to the town to ski, and needed a place to stay for a few nights. They would sleep here, spend the day skiing and shopping, then come back here to sleep again. After a few days they would leave and other people came to take their place.”

“So this place was for travelers, like when horse buyers would come to Northwind and Eli and Sabine would sometimes let them stay in the upstairs rooms at the house.”

“Sort of. But the lodge hasn’t been used as a hotel since I was about your age. My parents kept a couple rooms fixed up for relatives or for old customers who still dropped in when they could, but travel was difficult in those times.”

“I know. The Resource Wars.”

Robert dismounted and approached the entrance, but of course the doors were locked. “Stay here,” he said. “I’m going to check the other doors.” He walked around the building and was pleased to see that everything was securely padlocked, including the entry to the residential part of the building where his family had lived. None of this was a guarantee that the interior hadn’t fallen into disrepair, but it gave him a small sense of optimism. When he returned to where his daughter was waiting, he mounted his mare and turned her back toward the street. “Come on,” he said. “The keys will be at the store.”

Sophie climbed back on Bandera and fell in behind him without a word. As they rode further into town, the buildings became more numerous and she looked around in fascination. Most of the buildings were one and two-story with display windows out front and little walkways up to the door. Many had wooden boxes under the window sills and some of the boxes were full of red or yellow flowers.

“These used to all be stores and restaurants,” Robert said needlessly. Of course Sophie knew what they were. She had been to Lexington a few times and had seen shops and cafes in the towns along their long journey to Castaño. “During the Resource Wars, a lot of them were boarded up or used as homes by their owners. Many shop owners used to live on the mountain slopes, but once there were no more snow plows to clear the roads in winter and there started to be raiders in the warmer months, everyone who had been living outside of town wanted to be closer in. There wasn’t enough land to build new houses in town, so they lived in their shops. It was supposed to be temporary, but…” He shrugged. “Time passed and conditions kept getting worse.”

“Maybe now that there’s peace they can move back to their old houses,” Sophie said.

“It’s been so long, those houses have probably fallen apart. But yes, they certainly could try if they wanted to.” He squinted at a building that still had the ghost of a painted sign above the door, advertising skis and snowboards. A fresh banner contradicted that with ‘Candles, Kerosene, and More.’ The Lopez family had lived in that shop when Robert was a teenager. Were they in business now, or had some other family moved in? “Perhaps you’re right. It looks like some of these places are becoming shops again.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Time will tell.” Robert clucked at his mare and touched his heels to her flanks to urge her into a trot. Two blocks down the street, after waving politely to a woman driving a buggy and a sullen old man driving a donkey cart full of scrap lumber, he turned east onto a smaller street and pulled up in front of a yellow brick building. The windows were clean and showed off modest displays of fruit, vegetables, and sacks of corn. The wooden sign over the door said ‘Castaño Market, A. Dubeck, prop.’

Sophie frowned at the sign.

“It just means that this was your Uncle Arthur’s store. Once we’re settled, I’ll have a new sign made.”

“One with your name on it,” Sophie suggested.

“Perhaps. Maybe I’ll leave my name off. Or maybe I’ll put both our names on it. How would you like that?”

Sophie sat her horse uneasily, not sure how to answer. In the meantime, Robert dismounted and tossed his reins over a hitching post.

“Come on, dear. Let’s go inside and let the Ms. Watson know we’re here.” He waited while Sophie dismounted and secured her horse, not feeling particularly patient, but not impatient either. Secretly he had been dreading this moment ever since he learned of his brother’s untimely death. Coming back to Castaño meant making decisions and taking charge of things that he had never wanted anything to do with. He took a deep breath and reminded himself of the alternatives: Northwind and its memories, or Santa Fe and the likelihood of being hunted down by Will Channing. He looked up at the storefront. At least here he was safe. And who knew? Maybe Sophie would love being a shopkeeper and he could turn the operation over to her in a decade’s time. His gaze drifted to her upturned face. He owed it to her to at least try. He reached out his hand and she took it trustingly. “Let’s take a look, okay?”