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we open your trunk and look at your dresses?”
    “Aye, that we shall.” Caitrin glanced back over her shoulder as she left the barn. Jack Cornwall was gone.

CHAPTER 3
    C AITRIN set her basket of tinned oysters on the glass display case and looked around in search of Rosie Mills. Evidence of the previous night’s harvest celebration littered the large room that had begun as Seth Hunter’s barn and had been transformed by Rosie and Caitrin into the Hope Mercantile and Post Office. Planks set on sawhorses still held stacks of plates and tin cups. A half-empty crock of apple cider sat beside a dish of stale popcorn. Lanterns, their wicks burned low, hung from nails around the room.
    Caitrin frowned. It wasn’t like Rosie to leave such a mess. It wasn’t like her to be late to work, either. At that moment Caitrin spotted two figures framed by the door in the wall that divided the front of the mercantile from the barn at the back. Rose was caught up in Seth’s arms as the man tenderly kissed her. Chagrined to have interrupted such a private moment, Caitrin quickly ushered Erinn back out of the mercantile, and then she called softly from the doorway. “Rosie? Rose Mills?”
    A flushed face framed by a bright yellow bonnet emerged into the light. “Caitrin?” Rosie said. “Oh, it’s you.”
    “Aye, and how are you this fine morning, lass?”
    “I’m wonderful,” Rosie murmured as Seth Hunter’s tall frame emerged to stand behind his fiancée.
    “Miss Murphy,” he said, tipping his hat. “Good morning.”
    Caitrin noted the bright twinkle in Seth’s blue eyes, and she smiled. “Finely and poorly, as we say in Ireland,” she returned. “But I believe the pair of you have seen the day off to a better start than I. Now if you’ll excuse me, I shall send Erinn to the creek to fetch water.”
    Grabbing her niece by the hand, Caitrin marched the protesting child through the mercantile door. “But, Auntie Caitie, I wanted to fold the bolts of fabric this morning. You promised I could.”
    “Aye, that I did.” Caitrin handed the girl a pail. “But we must scrub and mop first. The mail coach from Manhattan will be here soon. Shall we have our customers thinking we run a pigsty instead of a tidy shop?”
    Scowling, Erinn headed for the creek, the tin bucket creaking as it swung on its handle. In a moment Seth’s son, Chipper, burst from the nearby soddy and raced his dog toward the water to greet their visitor. Caitrin folded her arms and studied the children for a moment. Then she lifted an eyebrow at the mercantile.
    Seth had emerged in the barnyard, whistling as he saddled one of his mules. “Jimmy was by here a few minutes ago,” he called. “He has reason to believe Jack Cornwall spent the night in his barn. He’s gone to round up Rustemeyer so we can search his land.”
    “The best of luck to you,” Caitrin said. And she added under her breath, “You’ll need it.”
    After allowing Rosie a moment to compose herself, she walked back toward the building. Caitrin was proud of the establishment and all it had come to mean to the growing community of Hope. Thanks largely to her initiative, the rough board siding wore a coat of bright red paint, a large lettered sign hung from chains over the door, and bright glass cases lined the walls. The mercantile itself was stocked to the rafters with everything a traveler could need on a journey west to the wild frontier or east toward the safety of cities and towns.
    Caitrin peered around the doorframe and gave Rosie a knowing grin. “Is it all right to come in now?”
    “Don’t be silly,” the younger woman protested, her cheeks suffusing a bright pink all over again. “Why wouldn’t it be all right?”
    “Well … you and Seth … a pair soon to be married …” Caitrin gave a shrug.
    “If you must know, Seth had just given me a good-morning kiss,” Rosie said, stuffing a strand of wayward brown hair back into her bun. “I was upstairs in my little