The Perfect Hope Part 63

"It's beautiful. Just beautiful." She rushed in, ran her hands over it. "It feels beautiful." Then she spun around, grabbed Owen, danced, spun to Beckett, then to Ryder. "Thank you, thank you! I have to see the back."

She scurried around, made happy noises. "As beautiful from this side as the front. Oh, I wish Clare and Hope could see, right now! I can text Hope, tell her to come over."

"She's got people," Ryder told her.

"It'll only take a minute. I need a girl here. I can't believe you got this done in here without me knowing," she continued as she pulled out her phone.

"It wasn't easy," Owen admitted.

"But it was really sweet. She says she'll be right here. It's really happening. I have so much to do. Let me take a picture of the three of you in front of the bar."

"I'll take one of you and Owen in front of it," Ryder said.

"The three of you first, you built it. Then one of me and Owen."

They obliged her, with Owen going behind the bar as if tending.

"One more," she murmured, and snapped.

"Now you, Red Hots." Ryder picked her up, sat her on the front lip. "Don't lean back or you'll fall in."

"I won't." In fact she leaned forward, resting an elbow on Owen's shoulder as he came out to stand beside her.

"I'm going to put these up on Facebook right away. I want everybody to see-Owen."

She held out her arms, wrapping around him as he helped her down.

"Jesus, if you need a room there's a few of them right across the street."

Ryder glanced over just as Hope lifted a hand to knock.

"I was about to come over before Avery texted me," she began when he let her in. "I've got-Oh. You've finished the bar."

"Isn't it beautiful?" Avery stroked its side as she might a beloved pet. "My boyfriend and his brothers built it for me."

"It's a piece of art. Really. It's wonderful. It's wonderful in here. I love the colors, Avery, and the lights. The floor. Everything. You're going to have an enormous. .h.i.t."

She stepped up, stood in the opening to study the restaurant side. "And you got the waitress station in. I couldn't really visualize, but-"

"It's in! I didn't even see." Avery leaped up, dashed through.

"You made her night," Hope told Ryder.

"You're revved about something else," Ryder observed.

"It shows? I am revved. I found something in one of Catherine's letters to a cousin. It was long, and full of family chat, comments about the war, a book she'd read that she'd hid from her father. And mixed in, I found this pa.s.sage about Eliza."

"Something new?" Owen asked.

"It talks about being worried because their father was arranging for Eliza to marry the son of a state senator. And Eliza was bucking him. It's clear bucking wasn't something her father tolerated. More, it talks about Eliza sneaking out at night to meet one of the stonemasons their father hired to build walls on the property."

"A stonemason," Owen considered. "Beneath her station, right? Daddy wouldn't approve."

"Catherine writes she's afraid of what will happen if Eliza's caught, but she won't listen. She claims she's in love."

"Is there a name? Did she write his name?" Beckett demanded.

"No, at least I haven't found it yet. But this has to be Billy. It has to be. She was in love, risking her father's considerable wrath. They both were. The letter was written in May of 1862, just months before Lizzy came here. Months before Antietam. If we could just find some records of who worked on the estate, or find the names of stonemasons from this area ..."

"If she came here, he was here," Avery agreed. "Either lived here, or joined the fight and was sent here. It's a good lead, Hope."

"It's the best we've had in weeks. Months, really. You can see it unfold, at least parts of it. Her father was strict and fierce, and women-daughters-were to do what they were told, marry who they were told to marry. She fell in love with someone he'd never approve of. She ran away, ran to him. Came here to wait for Billy. And died waiting."

"It was a long way to come back then-New York to Maryland," Beckett said, "and in wartime. She risked a lot."

"She loved," Hope said simply. "Enough to give up her family, her lifestyle, risk her safety. She's been so quiet lately. I wonder if I tell her what I found, if she'd be able or willing to tell us more."

"Worth a shot," Owen agreed.

"Let's go over now. Right now," Avery insisted.

"I have guests, and one couple in E&D. I think this wouldn't be the best time. Tomorrow. After checkout. I'll try then."

"I'll come over. Eleven thirty?"

"Yes, good. I really think we've turned a corner. We're closer to finding him. I have to get back."

"I'll walk you over."

"All right."

"Stay here," Ryder told the dog.

"You didn't have much to say," Hope pointed out as they left.

"Thinking. Okay, you're probably right, and he's the stonemason she was messing around with. But without a name, it's still a c.r.a.pshoot."

"We'll get a name." She wouldn't give up until they did. "I have more letters, more papers to go through, and so does Owen. We'll find it." She turned to him at the door of Reception. "Try being positive."

"It goes against the grain."

"Don't I know it."

"Have you had dinner?"

"Not yet. I had a little time, so I started looking at the letters."

"I can bring you something. Guests figure you eat."