The Unexpected Partner

Chapter 31

One week. It had been one week since Claire last saw Shane. One week since he had gone to catch the Flenning brothers. Not only was there no word from Shane but the sheriff had also gone MIA. To say that she was worried was an understatement because she had spent the last seven days consumed by fear. She took care of her home and her father, who seemed to be doing very well, but she couldn't take care of the awful anxiety inside her. She would wake up every day and the worry would start. So would the horrendous questions.

What was taking them so long to come back?

Have they caught the men?

What if the men did something bad to them?

Today was no different than the other days. She interrupted her thoughts by getting off the sofa, putting her book down and deciding that she wanted to head to town. She had been going to town at the same time for the past seven days, in hopes that she would see that man that had been occupying her thoughts as he rode on his black horse, bringing in four evil men to be put in prison. But each day that passed by, her hopes didn't come true. Nonetheless, she hoped that today was the day, the day Shane would come back successful.

As she rode her horse to town, she asked herself what she might do. Every day for the past week, she had done something different to get her mind off the predicament she was in. The first day, she visited Liliann and bought a new dress. Then the next day, she ate a free sample biscuit at the newly opened bakery. Then after that, she went to the candle shop to look around. And the list goes on and on. Today, she wondered whether she would like to go to the hotel, just to look around, waste time, and then leave. The hotel in town was one of the nicest and she had always wanted to look inside it.

She got into town and rode to the hotel. The people still looked at her disapprovingly, knowing that she was riding her horse astride. Why do they even care? She asked herself. It's not like they're the ones being affected, if there were even any effects.

Getting off her horse, she adjusted her hat and fixed her dress before walking into the hotel. The first thing that caught her eyes when she walked through the door was the light. The hotel was brighter than outside! There was a foyer to walk through that was filled with windows. Walking along the straight path, Claire reached a counter with a young girl standing behind it, writing on a paper. That was when Claire noticed the layout of the place. The counter was in the middle with stairs on each side, there must have been three floors, the greatest number of floors Claire had seen in any building. This really was a fancy hotel. Who knew that it looked like this? Claire asked herself. It looks normal on the outside.

Before Claire could walk past the counter, the young girl stopped her. "Who are you?" She looked about sixteen years old and had a full head of red curly hair. There was a pair of spectacles on her freckled face.

Claire paused for a minute. "I'm just here to look around."

"You can't look around without having a room."

"Well...how am I supposed to know if I want a room if I haven't seen the place? What if it doesn't end up to my liking."

The young girl paused, not having any other words to say. "Fine..." She replied. "My father won't like this, but you can look around. If you go straight, those are the single rooms. Up the left set of stairs are the double rooms with two separate beds and the right set of stairs are the king-sized beds for couples. By the way, we refuse service for the couple rooms if you are not married– my dad is the pastor, and he wouldn't allow any sin to go on in his hotel. Anyways, we have some small foods that can be brought up to your room if you would like. Unfortunately, we do not have a dining area, but you are more than welcome to head to the new bakery or the restaurant in town, I heard they have amazing food." The girl finally stopped talking.