Spring Comes To Barncastle Inn

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:18-19

Chapter 1

Sadie Barncastle's lungs burned from the chilly March air, her breath making puffs as she jogged along. The cross-country ski trail that snaked through the wooded property and fields behind Barncastle Inn was a tad muddy, but not quite enough to make her slip—a big difference from the paved and lit city trail she used near her home just outside Boston.

Former home, she corrected herself.

She fought off a sigh, but it came out anyway. Then her foot slipped on a mushy patch of trail and something went pop inside her ankle. The bolt of pain made her gasp and stop short. She limped to the nearest maple tree and leaned against its trunk.

It served her right for not paying better attention to the trail. She tested her ankle, wincing as she rotated it. She'd passed the small pond, once ideal for ice skating, on her way back to the main house that lay around the next corner of trail. Because of the bare branches and sparse foliage, she could glimpse the rear of the building, even from here, more than one hundred yards away. That was home now, and work too, thanks to her cousin Jayne and family.

             
The aroma of burning woodsmoke drifted on the light breeze. That would be from the neighbor's sugar house, with its fire burning as its owner boiled sap to transform it into maple syrup.

             
Sadie licked her lips at the thought. Pure Vermont maple syrup, just next door. Drizzle some of that on a stack of buttered pancakes and the taste was pure heaven, although not good for the diet. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her of the choice she'd made to go for a quick two-mile run before breakfast.

             
A gust of wind made her shiver. She ought to see if her ankle would cooperate, and get herself moving back to the house. Slivers of sunlight peeked through the bare branches. Early spring in New England couldn't come soon enough. Sadie wanted to put her snow scraper away for good, along with her boots and hat, and get ready for sunnier, longer days.

             
She took a few first limping steps to continue her journey back to the house. Crashing noises, sounds of dry twigs snapping and popping underfoot, made her glance over her shoulder.

             
A man approached. His unruly sandy blond hair stuck out rebelliously from under his black woolen cap. A light shadow of beard on his face contrasted with his blue eyes. The collar of his red-and-black buffalo plaid jacket was tucked close to his neck.

             
“Are you all right?”

             
Sadie whirled to face him as she realized her mistake. No phone, nothing with her except her fists and a gimpy ankle. Well, she'd run on it if she had to. Encountering a stranger in the woods wasn't what she'd expected out here. In the city, yes, she'd prepared herself.

             
“Just out for a morning jog. On my way back to the house now, thank you.”

             
“But you twisted your ankle.”

             
“You were watching me?” The idea made her shiver.

             
“I heard something back here, and wanted to check it out in case it was a bear.”

             
“A bear.” Didn't bears hibernate in the winter? Although this was technically spring, so maybe not now.

             
“Yes. Black bears. We have them wander through sometimes. I didn't want them knocking over any of my sap buckets. I can't afford that.”

             
“Ah, I see.” Well, he did have a point. “I'll just be on my way. I promise I'll stay out of the sap buckets. I much prefer the finished product.” She started a few steps along the path, away from the stranger with stunning eyes and disarming smile. Ow, but those steps hurt. She sucked in a breath and tried not to limp.

             
“Daddy, the fire needs more wood!” a tiny voice filtered through the trees.

             
“I'll be right there, Marin,” the stranger called out. “Miss, I can help you back to the Barncastles'. You should keep weight off that ankle. I promise I'm not an ax murderer or anything like that. My ten-year-old daughter's right back there at my sugar house.” He grinned again.             

             
Weight, huh? She knew what he meant. Uncertainty did battle against the pain, and pain won. “Sure, I—I wouldn't mind some help.” The cold helped the pain, but she could feel her ankle swelling already underneath her sock. This didn't bode well for the gift shop work she had to do. Not at all.

             
“By the way, I'm Peter Appleman.” He took half a dozen steps and joined her on the trail.

             
“Sadie Barncastle.” She offered him her hand, which he shook.

             
Then in a swift motion, he pulled her against his left side. The movement jolted her right ankle, and she bit her lip. Slowly, she mimicked his motion and put her right arm around him for support.

             
“A relation to the family, then.”

             
“No, it's just my witness protection program alias.” The words flew out before she could stop them. When she was nervous, she tended to smart off. Like now. “Sorry.”

             
“No problem. I didn't realize you were in hiding.” His voice sounded warm, and she glanced in his direction in time to catch a wink.

             
Her cheeks blazed. “Actually, Jayne and I are cousins. Our fathers are brothers. I used to visit here in the summers quite a bit when I was a kid.”

             
“Ah, so you did.”

             
What did that mean?

             
Appleman...Applejacks Appleman? The kid with strawberry blond hair that went in worse directions than Great Britain's Prince Harry's? Oh dear.

             
She remembered the name Appleman, of course. The neighbor with a brood of kids that for some reason didn't quite make it into upper the pecking order of Castlebury. They'd outgrown all that silliness, certainly.

             
But of course, the way Peter stiffened when she mentioned visiting here as a child told her plenty. He remembered, all right. Everything.

**

So this was the Barncastle cousin who'd more than once made him wish for summer vacation to end when they were all kids? Sadie Barncastle. Of course he hadn't forgotten. She'd been like a pesky fly at first, then had the finesse of a blonde rhino on roller skates when it came to being nice to people.

             
Or maybe he was still seeing things through the filter of a preteen's memories. Kids that age tended to think everyone in the world was looking at them, noticed everything they wore, counted every misstep and awkward moment. Everything was magnified into an “end of the world as we know it” scenario.

             
In the simplest of terms, Sadie had been a brat—except for that one last summer before high school.

             
“Be patient with her,” he recalled his mother telling him way back when. “Some people just need extra patience.”

             
Sadie hobbled along next to him even now, biting her lip from the pain.

             
“Daddy!” Marin bounded up the path behind them. “I put another log on the fire.”

             
“Thanks, Mare.” He smiled at his daughter, her glossy brown hair swishing as she moved. “Where's your hat?”

             
“In the sugar house I took it off 'cause it was too hot in there.”

             
“This is Miss Barncastle.”

             
“Another one?” She fell into step beside them.

             
“Hi,” Sadie said on his other side. “I'm Sadie.”

             
“I'm Marin Kaye Appleman.”

             
“Nice to meet you Marin Kaye Appleman.”

             
“I've never seen you around here before.” Marin had all the inquisitiveness of a rabbit. Her nose twitched, and she scratched it.

             
“I've only been here a few weeks,” Sadie glanced up at Peter. She had brown eyes, pretty ones. He didn't remember noticing them before, probably because of the barbs she was so quick to cast.

             
“So you get to live in the Barncastle.” Marin's voice held a dreamy tone. Peter had to smile at it. She had lively notions of princesses and castles, especially after they moved next door to the Barncastle Inn.

             
“Yes. I'm staying in a spare room in the back of the house at the moment. But that's just enough for me,” she added. “I'm here to open a gift shop.”

             
“Gift shop, huh?”

             
“Yes, a gift shop. It'll specialize in rustic antiques, primitive and country decor, along with Vermont local products. I also plan to restore a few furniture pieces.”

             
He didn't want to imagine the traffic it might cause on the road. “Do you have enough parking on the premises for that?”

             
“Yes, we checked with the powers that be in Castlebury, and the Barncastle has plenty of parking and it falls within the zoning parameters, too.” Her cheeks shot with red.

             
“It would have been nice if I'd been told.”

             
“Luke recommended that, too. And I was actually going to, a week before the grand opening, to prepare you for it.”

             
Now it was his turn to bite his lip. If it had been up to him, he'd have raised an issue with the town council about the increased traffic and commercialization coming right to his doorstep.

             
“I see,” was all he said.

             
“I would love to see inside the castle sometime,” Marin said.

             
“Well, I think I can arrange a tour for you, if your father is okay with that.” Sadie glanced up at him again.

             
“Sure, sure.” But his mind wasn't on castle tours. He thought life would be a bit easier, living on the old family digs since last fall. Some peace, quiet, and a safe place for Marin to run through the woods, much as he had at her age. His parents lived in Florida now, happy enough to let him care for the family home since none of his siblings wanted it.

             
They hobbled along. Or he provided support for Sadie while she hobbled.

             
“Thank you for helping me.” Sadie shivered under his arm. “I guess the walk back is a little farther than I realized.”

             
“Make sure you get an ice pack on that ankle as soon as you can.”

             
“Yes, that's first on my list of things to do.”

             
He glanced down at her in time to see a frown flicker across her features. “Am I going too fast?”