Temptation and Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page B

sky.
    She opened the casement window, breathed in the cool, fresh air that drifted in, spiced with the smell of green grass and growing things. The distant clack of a duck, the deeper bell-like tone of a frog, reached her on the evening breeze.
    Issy had already taken charge of the kitchens. She’d done most of the cooking at their uncle’s house. She was a better cook than Em, and enjoyed the challenges. Contrary to Em’s expectations, Issy had reported that the inn’s storerooms and pantries were about half-stocked, with a variety of staples available for creating meals. She was presently in the kitchen, creating dinner.
    Hitching her hip onto the wide windowsill, Em leaned against the open window frame. She would still need to replenish the inn’s supplies. Tomorrow she’d investigate the wheres and hows.
    Edgar didn’t live in, but came in every day from a cottage on his brother’s farm just outside the village. She’d asked him about his duties; aside from tending the bar, he was happy to continue to act as the main body manning the inn’s counter. He and she had very easily come to an agreement; she would take responsibility for all the supplies, all the organization, and everything to do with getting the food and accommodation side of the inn functioning again, while he would oversee the running of the bar and keep track of liquor supplies, although she would order and organize to have the liquor delivered.
    She’d had Edgar introduce her to John Ostler, who lived in a room above the stables. Stables that were neat and clean; they hadn’t had any horses in them for some time. John lived for horses; a shy, reticent man in, she judged, his late twenties, in light of the dearth of equine guests, he’d kept his hand in by helping out with the horses at Colyton Manor.
    From him, she’d learned that the manor was indeed the large house further along the lane, and that it was presently the home of a family named Cynster—and the lady of the house was Jonas Tallent’s twin sister.
    Looking out into the deepening shadows, Em took mental stock of her new domain. The inn had only a single public room—the common room—but it stretched the length of the ground floor. The front door gave onto its center; the long bar stretched more to the right than left, leaving a good space in front of the door to the kitchen, to the left of center, with the staircase beyond, toward the rear left corner of the room. Set in the center of each side wall were large, stone-manteled fireplaces.
    The common room could, she estimated, seat forty or more. There were various tables, benches, and chairs, including more comfortable wing chairs in a semicircle around one hearth. Long custom, it appeared, had made the area to the right of the front door the tap, with round tables with wooden chairs and benches along the walls. The area to the left of the door held padded benches and cushioned chairs, and more wing chairs, arranged in groupings about lower tables. Further back, between the hearth and the kitchen door, stood rectangular tables with benches—clearly the dining area.
    From the dust that lay on the more comfortable chairs and the lower tables, Em surmised that area—presumably for women or older folk—hadn’t seen much use in recent years.
    That, she hoped, would change. An inn like the Red Bells should be the center of village life, and that included the female half of the population and the elders as well.
    Aside from all else, having females and older folk in the common room would help modulate the behavior of the men. She made a note to set standards and institute some method to enforce them.
    Edgar had already told her, in one of his quiet murmurs, that the clientele of the inn had dropped away over the tenure of her predecessor, a man called Juggs. Even the travelers who used to regularly break their journeys at the inn had, over time, found other places to stay.
    She had a great deal of work before her to restore the