Chapter One With a few groans and sighs, the old building settled down for the night. Under the star-washed sky its stone walls glowed, rising up over Boonsboro''s Square as they had for more than two centuries. Even the crossroads held quiet now, stretching out in pools of shadows and light. All the windows and store fronts along Main Street seemed to sleep, content to doze away in the balm of the summer night. She should do the same, Hope thought. Settle down, stretch out. Sleep. That would be the sensible thing to do, and she considered herself a sensible woman. But the long day left her restless—and, she reminded herself—Carolee would arrive bright and early to start breakfast. The innkeeper could sleep in. In any case, it was barely midnight. When she''d lived and worked in Georgetown, she''d rarely managed to settle in for the night this early. Of course, then she''d been managing The Wickham, and if she hadn''t been dealing with some small crisis or handling a guest request, she''d been enjoying the nightlife. The town of Boonsboro, tucked into the foothills of Maryland''s Blue Ridge Mountains, might have a rich and storied history, it certainly had its charms—among which she counted the revitalized inn she now managed—but it wasn''t famed for its nightlife. That would change a bit when her friend Avery opened her restaurant and tap house. And wouldn''t it be fun to see what the energetic Avery MacTavish did with her new enterprise right next do