Chapter Five

	Over the next few weeks, Hayley was surprised at how quickly the time seemed to
pass.  There were no guests at the lodge during the first two weeks, but after her
adventure in the snow, Jules began to spend more time inside, either near her or where he
could see what she was doing.  After the initial exchange between them when he had
brought her in out of the snow, he had never mentioned the episode again.  Although he
had explained to her how much danger she had been in, Hayley still didn’t believe it had
been as bad as he was making it out to be. She was certain that after catching her breath,
she would have been able struggle her way back to the lodge, eventually, and although
she would have been tired and cold, she would have arrived safely.  It wasn’t like she had
been miles away from the lodge in the middle of nowhere and completely helpless!  She
was certain he had over reacted.
	Jules, however, saw the episode in a completely different light.  While she
regarded it as a valuable lesson learned for the future, he felt responsible  for what he
considered her near miss with a frozen death.  And so, he began spending as much time
with her as he could, instead of leaving her alone.  He took advantage of this time 
indoors to finally begin showing her what he expected of her on the job, a task he guiltily
realized he should have taken on when she had first arrived.
 	As hostess, it would of course be her job to answer the phone and book the
reservations, but that was not all.  When the Lodge did have visitors, she would need to
be visible, chatting with them and making sure all their needs were met.   If they wanted
anything, it would be her responsibility to either arrange it, or speak to Jules about it. 
She was to learn everything the lodge had to offer so she could answer any question
without having to look it up.  She was also to learn all the events that happened within
the area, that tourists might be interested in taking part in.  If any guest mentioned an
interest in anything, she was to know if such an event was happening during their stay, or
if there was anywhere the particular activity was offered if it couldn’t be done at The
GreyWolf itself.   If any guest had a special interest, a note was to be made on their
reservation so GreyWolf Lodge could do their best to assure it was included in the
itinerary.  After a lifetime of living in the area, Winny had been able to produce all these
answers without even thinking during her five years at the job.  Hayley, on the other
hand, would have to learn it all from scratch.
	The lodge was equipped with colourful brochures for the guests to read and learn
about just about anything that could be done or visited in the Whitehorse area.  Events
varied from   various dog sledding races to Klondike festivals and museums.  Whitehorse
was a city steeped in the history of the Klondike Gold Rush, as was all the Yukon.  Many
of the activities paid homage to that history that brought thousands of men north to settle
the Yukon. Locals dressed in period clothing for festivals and visitors could pan for gold
just as  prospectors did in 1898. 
	Hayley took advantage of  the guest-free time to spend hours reading on those
occasions that Jules wasn't around the lodge.  Not only was she learning what she had to
know for the upcoming guests, but she found that she was fascinated with the
information herself. The more she read, the more she wanted to know about the history
of ths remote part of the world.
	If anyone were to think life in the Yukon was stagnant, they would be wrong. The
locals made the best of their long winters with short days, and Hayley was amazed at the
variety of activities there were to take part in.  To combat the winter blues, there was the
Sourdough Air show, and the winter carnival known as the Sourdough Rendezvous, in
late February.  The carnival showcased races and contests of all kinds to lift the spirits
after a long winter.  In contrast, during the summer of almost endless days, there was the
Sourdough Rendezvous Gold Rush Bathtub Race in August, where Hayley was amused to
see that bathtubs made into boats retraced the Gold Rush route up the Yukon river from
Whitehorse to Dawson.   Another summer events to attend was the Klondike Harvest
Fair, and of course, there were many lodged just like the GreyWolf, where guests could
fly in to the wilderness to hunt or fish, or simply enjoy a vacation.
	The event that interested Hayley the most, however, was the festival in
celebration of the summer solstice, that coincided with National Aboriginal Day in June. 
Everyone was invited to a huge Potlatch on this longest day of the year.  Many stayed up
all night,  or slept outdoors under the midnight sun.  This was a phenomenon Hayley just
couldn’t wait to see.  The only other thing that amazed her more than the sun staying up
almost all night in the summer, was the beauty of the Aurora Borealis in winter.  Pictures
of the painted night skies were beautiful, and she imagined the real thing would be
positively breathtaking.  She must remember to ask Jules to show them to her sometime.
	She was sitting by the fire one afternoon, pouring over one of these brochures,
when the telephone rang.  Marty had come looking for Jules, and the two of them had
disappeared right after lunch on a dog sledding trek into the bush to collect a Christmas
tree that would be left outside the lodge until it was time to bring it in and set it up.
Hayley hadn’t seen them since.   She set down her reading and walked over to the desk to
answer the phone.
	“GreyWolf Lodge, may I help you?” she asked.
	“Hello, hello,” an older man’s voice greeted her.  “That’s not Winny, I don’t
believe?”
	“No, Sir, Winny has retired.  My name is Hayley, I’m her replacement. Is there
something I can do for you?” Hayley spoke in her sweetest voice, cultivated during her
years as waitress in San Diego where she learned to smile and speak sweetly, whether the
customer was praising her of ripping  a strip off of her for something that wasn't her fault. 
	“This is Hector Shellington,” the voice on the phone replied. “My wife, Dolores,
and I have been to the GreyWolf Lodge many times in the past.  We have decided we
would like to spend the Christmas holidays at the Lodge this year.   I hope we aren’t
calling too late to be able to get our regular rooms.”
	As soon as he had mentioned his name, Hayley had pulled out the client book that
she had spent days organizing, and was quickly leafing through it as the man was
speaking.  Winny had kept a lot of information about all the regular guests, much of it
written on scraps of paper and stuffed into a small box.  Hayley had transcribed this
information onto larger sheets of paper which she had placed in a binder and organized
into an alphabetical system so it would be easier for her to find any previous guest
relatively quickly.  Making them feel welcome and remembered, was an important part
of the job. She was sure she had seen the name Shellington while she had been
organizing the book, and when she found the page she was looking for, the wrinkles
smoothed from her brow, and she smiled.
	“I don’t think there should be any problem, Mr. Shellington, just let me have a
look at the reservations and see if rooms four and five are available through the holidays. 
Will your daughter Carolyn be coming with you this trip?”
	“Why yes, yes she will be!”  Hector Shellington’s voice showed that he was
impressed with this personal touch.
	“When would you like to arrive and how long would you be staying this trip, Mr.
Shellington?”  Hayley asked, and he replied with a warm friendly tone.
	“We were hoping three weeks, unless you can’t fit us in?  I hope this weekend
isn’t too soon, the idea just came to us.  We’d like to stay through Christmas and New
Years and fly out the beginning of January.”
	“Of course we can fit you in, Mr. Shellington, you’re a valued guest here with us
at the GreyWolf Lodge. And you’re in luck, rooms four and five are available right
through that time.”
	“Oh please, call me Hector!” he said, sounding pleased as punch.  “I never
thought anyone could ever replace the wonderful Winny, but GreyWolf has surpassed
himself in hiring you.  You’re a gem, my dear, a true gem!  I can’t wait to meet you.”
Hayley smiled to herself.  It didn't seem to take much to impress Hector Shellington, she
thought.  A   pretty voice and catering to his every need, that's all. She remembered
regular customers at the restaurant who had been just like him.  Greet them with their
coffee, just the way they always liked it, before they even ordered it, and ask them how
their families were doing, and she had their hearts.  She had always had a good memory
for things like that, and it had served her well.
	She finished making the arrangements with Hector Shellington and bade him
goodbye.  As she hung up the phone, however, one small piece of information was
confusing her.  Hector had referred to “GreyWolf” as a person, and presumably he was
talking about Jules.  He hadn't mentioned anything like that when she had met him, and
he had told  her to call him Jules.    She was pondering this when, moments later, Jules
appeared through the front door, shook the snow off his boots, and slipped out of his
parka.  Hayley looked up, eager to tell him about her first actually hostess task.  She felt
like she was finally earning her keep.
	“A Mr. Hector Shellington just called to make a reservation for the Christmas
holidays,” Hayley said, and was surprised when she immediately noticed a frown come
over Jules’ face.  
	“Just him and his wife?” Jules demanded to know.
	“And their daughter, Carolyn,” Hayley supplied, and the frown deepened on
Jules’ face, and he cursed under his breath.
	Chewing on the corner of her lip, she looked at her boss. This had been the first
reservation she had made since arriving at the Lodge.  She had thought she had done
well.  She had been pleased with herself, actually, and had been hoping Jules would
smile at her and tell her she had done a good job.  But looking at him, she was beginning
to wonder if she had  done something terribly wrong instead, and voiced her concern.
	“Did I do something wrong, Jules? Should I have checked with you first?”
He sighed.  “No, no Hayley, you didn’t do anything wrong. The Shellingtons are regular
guests here at the lodge.  Heaven knows, they’ve put a lot of money into this place since I
opened up, they could almost consider themselves share-holders!  I could never turn them
away,  I was just hoping I’d get through a year without them showing up here for once.” 
He walked over to the fireplace and dropped into one of the armchairs, staring off into
the flames.
	“Oh,” she said, her voice weak.  Jules was sitting there looking like there was a
great weight on him all of a sudden, and she had no idea why.  She still felt she’d had
something to do with it, however, and hoped to find out what she could have done to
make things better. Maybe next time she could do things differently.  
	“Should I have told him there were no vacancies?  Is there anyone else you would
like me not to book into the lodge?  I'll make notes on their guest information if there is.”
	“Of course not. Hector is no fool. He would know there are always vacancies in
the middle of winter.   Things don’t start really picking up around here until February or
March at the earliest, when the races start.”
	“The races,” Hayley said quietly, nodding to herself.  “The Yukon Quest starts in
Alaska this year, but there is the Silver Sled in March.”  Although she spoke out loud, she
wasn't really speaking to him.  She was reciting to herself what she had learned, as if to
test her memory.  As she brooded over his dilemma, staring at the list where she had
written the Shellington’s in, she didn’t see him glance at her for the first time since she’d
told him about Hector’s reservation.  She didn’t see his look of surprise that she already
knew about the races.  
	The annual Silver Sled dog sled race ran in March and  drew competitors from far
and wide.  Although the hundred mile long race was run in the Kluane region, to the west
of Whitehorse,  it wasn’t unusual for tourists to book their winter trips around this event. 
The Yukon Quest, on the other hand,  was a grueling thousand mile trek that crossed the
border between Alaska and the Yukon in mid-February.  The Quest alternated years for
it's starting point, and this year the race would be starting in Fairbanks and ending in
Whitehorse.  There was no other race like it because, unlike other races, no replacement
supplies can be flown in to the contestants on the course.  What you left with was all you
had for the duration of the course.  The distance between some checkpoints was longer
than the entire Silver Sled route itself. As far as the lodge was concerned, the Silver Sled
drew more guests.
	The one she hadn't mentioned, the FULDA challenge at the end of January, was
even longer than the Quest. At twelve hundred miles in length, the FULDA followed the
Gold Rush Trail, from Skagway Alaska, through Whitehorse, then northward to the
Arctic Circle.  It was a feat of endurance with strict entrance qualifications.  So far,
however, the GreyWolf had never had their reservation list affected by the FULDA.
	“I could have told him we were closed for repairs?” Hayley lifted a brow in
question, still chewing on her lip, and Jules sighed. When she looked like that he had no
problem remembering why it was that he had been spending so much time working on
the plane and helping Marty with chores when she had first arrived — before she lost
herself in the snow, that is.  Now he had been forcing himself to stay around her, and
moments like this always made him remember! 
	“It’s alright, Hayley,” he said softly.  “You did the right thing. There’s no reason
at all why Hector and Dolores shouldn’t spend their Christmas vacation here at the lodge
with us.  We are not going to start picking and choosing who comes and who doesn’t. 
I’m not running an exclusive club here.”
	Hayley frowned. “But you sounded so upset about it.”
	Jules groaned, and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on
his hands.  “It’s Carolyn,” he said, staring into the flames.
	“Oh,” Hayley said quietly, and glanced away, feeling somewhat embarrassed that
she had poked into his private affairs. Obviously he and the lady, Carolyn, had a past. 
Maybe they had been lovers, and something had come between them.  Maybe seeing her
again would be a painful experience. The frown on Hayley’s face grew deeper as she
stuttered a barely audible comment.  “I see.”
	Jules turned to look at her.  She was looking awfully strange, avoiding looking at
him and puttering with papers on the desk that he was certain didn’t need to be puttered
with, and she was frowning like the weight of a great hurt was resting on her shoulders. 
What on earth had he said to make her look like that, he wondered.  He’d assured her she
hadn’t done anything wrong, which she hadn’t. It was just that Carolyn Shellington was
— .  Damn! Just what was Hayley thinking?
	“What do you mean, I see?” he demanded.
	Hayley blushed, startled by both his question and his tone.  “Well, I thought — I
mean, it seemed like there was a reason why you didn’t want to see Carolyn Shellington
again.  I thought that maybe — “
	“That maybe we had a checkered past? That we had been lovers?” He raised his
brow as he spoke to her, and her blush deepened.
	“Well, how should I know? You could have been,” she blurted out.
	Jules actually laughed. “Me and Carolyn Shellington?  Not on your life!”  He
stood up and crossed the room to where she was still standing behind the desk.  He
reached a finger to lift her chin up, forcing her to look at him.  Before he did anything
else, he suddenly felt it was very important to make sure Hayley knew there was nothing
between him and Carolyn.  “Don’t worry, I do not have, and never have had, any wish to
be Lady Carolyn Shellington’s lover.  She is the most spoiled little rich girl I have ever
met.”
	“Oh,” Hayley said again, embarrassed at having thought what she had. “And
that’s why you don’t want to have her around her? Because she’s — bossy?”
	Again, Jules laughed, then returned to the fireplace, beckoning Hayley to follow
him.  “Bossy is one word that would work.  There’s another word that starts with ‘b’ that
I would consider more accurate.”  He glanced at Hayley and noticed that this comment
had seceded in bringing at least a hint of a smile to her lips.  “The thing is, Carolyn hasn’t
shared my opinion on our future.  Every time she’s been here, she’s been all over me,
making it clear that she wanted me, but I have never given her anything more than the
common courtesy that is expected of me as her host.  In fact, she told me point blank that
she wanted me, and that she intended to have me.  She told me why too, and that made
me even more angry with her than ever. 
	Hayley sat down, and looked at him.  So, she hadn’t been entirely wrong after all. 
There had been a love connection between him and Hector’s daughter. It was just one
sided, that’s all.  Clearly, Jules didn’t enjoy the attention, and didn’t want to be in
Carolyn’s company again.
	“And why was that?” Hayley asked, when Jules didn’t speak again right away. 
“Or perhaps it is none of my business?”
	Jules shrugged and leaned back in the chair.  “She wanted me because I am
unattainable.  Because I am off-limits where her parents are concerned.  I’m Indian, and
that  would be a slap in her father’s face.”
	Hayley looked shocked.  First of all, she had never actually thought about Jules as
being native.  Although his complexion resembled hers, and his hair and eyes were black,
she had never made the connection.  All she had thought, she reminded herself, was that
he was tremendously handsome!  She had also thought, on the phone at least, that Hector
Shellington was very friendly.  It had never occur to him that there would be any racism,
especially when Jules said the family frequented the lodge as much as they did.
	“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “Mr Shellington seemed like
such a nice man, and I thought you said they came here more than almost anyone else?
Why would they do that if Hector didn’t like you?”
	“Oh, Hector Shellington is a nice man, and he does like me   — in my place.  As a
businessman, host, tour guide — what have you — I’m top on his list it seems. But when
it comes to the men that court his daughter, the men that would be allowed to marry his
daughter,  I would NOT be acceptable, and she knows that. I would be completely
unacceptable to her father, as a son-in-law, and that’s the only reason she has any interest
in me.
	“For my part, not only do I abhor her attitude and her reason, but if she did get her
hooks into me it would be the worst thing that could ever happen to this business. Hector
Shellington would see to it that no one wanted to stay at GreyWolf Lodge ever again. I
have already made it clear to her that I would never be interested in her, but she doesn’t
give up easily.” He frowned, then sighed.  “I’ve put too much into this place to have a
little witch like her ruin it all on a whim.”
	Hayley watched as he ran his fingers through his hair.  He looked almost like he
was in pain.  She could see why he wouldn’t want Carolyn Shellington around, but if he
refused to accommodate her father, things could turn ugly for the business.  Either way,
there was a problem.
	“Could you talk to Hector?  Tell him what Carolyn is doing and assure him that
you have no interest in her?”
	“Good Lord, no!” Jules scoffed. “Little Carolyn can do no wrong.  He’d never
believe me.  And if he asked her to confirm what I had said, she would deny the whole
thing, and probably make up some lie to make him think I was the one pursuing her.”
She sighed.  “There must be some way of letting her know you mean it when you say you
don’t want anything to do with her?  Some way to send a clear message to her, and to her
father at the same time.”
	Jules raised one corner of his mouth in a sneer.  “The only thing that would show
Carolyn Shellington once and for all that I am off limits would be if I — “  He stopped in
mid sentence, and looked at Hayley.   What he had been about to say had seemed like an
impossibility, but one look at Hayley and an idea had formed in his mind that he just
couldn’t seem to shake.  Could it possibly work?  Could he prove to Carolyn Shellington
once and for all that Jules Landon was no longer the eligible bachelor that she could hook
her claws into for her amusement and his ruination?