An Old-Fashioned Christmas Romance Collection

by DiAnn Mills

  The button was already a forgotten issue for Grace. “Why did you come after me?”

  “I…well…” David’s brow furrowed. “Let’s get you home.”

  He gently scooped her into his arms, and she curled herself against his warmth, locking her arms around his neck. He carried her as if without effort and soon the voices of the other skaters grew closer. Someone shouted as they came into view, but Grace was shivering with cold and she no longer had a clear picture of her surroundings. She leaned into David’s warmth and surrendered her plight to his will.

  “What happened?” Lydia squeaked as David neared the group at the fire.

  David stumbled up the bank and was instantly surrounded by curious young people. “She broke through the ice and is soaked.” David pointed out the obvious.

  “Lydia, would you get my shoes from over by that oak?”

  Lydia hurried to the tree while David lowered himself to a log.

  “Let me drive her home,” a young man from town offered.

  “Thanks, but I’ll see her home.” David finally had Grace willingly in his arms. He wasn’t in any hurry to give her up.

  “Where’s your car, man?”

  “I—” David forgot that, like Grace, he had walked to the creek.

  “Borrow my car—or better yet, I’ll drive you both.”

  “Thanks,” David sighed. He would have willingly carried her home if he had to.

  Quickly, he traded his skates for shoes, enjoying the solid base on which to plant his feet. Then he gathered Grace close to his heart again and carried her to the young man’s car. He held her in his lap and loosened her skates as the car bumped along a pasture road and up Grace’s drive.

  Grace opened her eyes as the warmth from the kitchen touched her face. She could feel David’s chest rumble as he spoke with her mother, but the words were fuzzy. The muscles in David’s arms strained as he carried Grace up the stairs to her bedroom and laid her on her bed. She felt his breath tenderly brush her cheek. Then he spoke quietly with Mrs. Rudman at the door and left.

  A flood of emotions too jumbled to describe overtook Grace and tears started to flow freely. She wanted David’s arms around her once again. She needed his warmth and tender touch. She longed to feel loved and cared for. She yearned for her father to be the pillar of strength he had always been for her. He would tell her how to cope with the present and plan for the future.

  Grace longed for John to be part of the family again, to share their joys and sorrows together. She wanted to have the opportunity to know his fiancée and welcome her into their midst.

  She cried for Guy and wished her brother back among the living. He would have had cheerful encouragement for her. Perhaps he could have spoken to David and made him see that she had changed, that she desired to know him as more than a brotherly friend. She needed a second chance for love to grow.

  Grace felt her mother’s arms fold around her and rock her gently as the tears continued to flow.

  Lord, thank You for restoring peace to Mother. I do want to trust You for everything. Please grant me the peace and patience I need so much. If You will guide me, I know I can endure these times of trial.

  Grace eased away from her mother’s embrace and sniffed, “Thanks.”

  “Let’s get you warmed up.”

  Mrs. Rudman helped Grace undress and lower herself into a hot tub of water. The water instantly revived her senses.

  Before long her mother had her gowned in thick flannel and tucked into bed with a hot water bottle to warm her feet. Grace still didn’t feel warm, but sleep came quickly.

  When she woke an hour later, she saw her mother in a bedside chair, dozing over a Bible that was opened in her lap. Her attention was abruptly moved, though, to a pounding downstairs. She swung her legs out of bed, but when her feet hit the rag rug, she gasped. Pain throbbed through her left ankle and Grace gripped the footboard. As she adjusted her weight to her right foot, her mother woke.

  “Why are you out of bed?”

  “Someone’s downstairs.”

  “I’ll go. It’s most likely David. He promised to return.” Mrs. Rudman set aside her Bible and left the room, but she soon returned. “If you feel up to it, you should come down to visit with David. You—we all—should enjoy every chance to visit with him before he leaves again for Michigan, and he was so worried about your getting sick.”

  Grace raised her eyebrows at her mother’s retreating form. Leave it to her to play matchmaker. Certainly, Grace liked the idea of being matched with David, but she didn’t want a romance with him to be because of the efforts of someone else. She wanted to know that David wanted it, too.

  Oh…Lord, why can’t I leave this in the past? She started to change into a clean dress. Because David Matthews is the best guy who ever showed he cared for me, and I turned him away. She yanked her dress over her head. But I was immature and foolish back then. Slowly she buttoned the closure. Have I really changed that much? I still can’t deal with my emotions. I melt at the slightest look or touch from him. He would laugh if he only knew.

  “Grace.” Mrs. Rudman opened the door with a worried frown. “Has your father come up here?”

  “Why, surely not.”

  “I know. I usually help him walk anywhere he goes, but now I can’t seem to find him anywhere.” Mrs. Rudman seemed close to tears. “This is so strange.”

  “He has to be here somewhere. Did you look on the porch?”

  “David is looking outside right now. I’ll go and see if he found him.”

  Mrs. Rudman hurried down the stairs. Grace moved to follow, but her ankle didn’t appreciate the weight applied to it, and she had to hobble slowly down the stairs.

  “I didn’t see any sign of him around the house or the barn,” David was telling Mrs. Rudman in the kitchen. “I didn’t even see any footprints to follow.”

  “He has to be in the house somewhere,” Grace declared.

  “Then I’ll check upstairs again,” Mrs. Rudman sighed.

  “I’ll make another circle around the house,” David said.

  Grace limped into her father’s bedroom, looking in every space and even opening the closet. She shuffled on to the parlor and found her father’s rocking chair empty. The quilt that usually rested across his lap was folded haphazardly on the floor nearby.

  Grace was looking out the window when David came back in with snow capping his head in white.

  “I went ahead and checked the root cellar and springhouse, but found nothing,” he reported.

  “I don’t understand where he could have disappeared to. He can’t walk far alone.”

  “Gracie…where is your father’s cane?”

  “Here—well, usually it rests right here against the wall.” Grace met David’s wide gaze. “But he never uses it…”

  “I think I had better extend my search outside.”

  Grace followed David through the house. Her limp wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it had been. They met Mrs. Rudman in the kitchen.

  “Nothing upstairs, not even a clue,” she moaned.

  “I think I’ll do more looking outside, maybe talk to some neighbors,” David said.

  “His cane is gone, Mother,” Grace interjected.

  Mrs. Rudman shook her head in despair. “Should I ring on the telephone for help?”

  “But…” Grace couldn’t believe it had gone this far.

  “Yes,” David said, “It may be time to bring in extra people. Tell anyone who answers the ring to start their search here and fan out. But some should also look in town. Someone could have picked him up at the road and given him a ride in.”

  Grace sank to a kitchen chair, weakened by worry.

  David continued to organize details of the search. “Then I suggest you call John and demand that he get here to help. And don’t take any excuses.”

  Mrs. Rudman’s face reddened with the shame of already letting her son put so much distance between himself and the family.

  “I’ll ta
ke the car and start looking between here and my home,” David said as he buttoned his coat.

  “I’m going with you,” Grace suddenly announced.

  “No,” David said firmly. “You’ve already had a full day, and you don’t need to get cold again.”

  Grace stood and braced herself for a fight. “I’m either going with you, or I’ll start my own search.”

  Chapter 6

  David stared at Grace. He couldn’t believe how vulnerable she could look one minute and how very stubborn the next.

  Mrs. Rudman cleared her throat and went to the phone to give the ringer several quick cranks. She was soon announcing the disappearance of Mr. Rudman across the party wires.

  David stood rigid, meeting the challenge in Grace’s eyes. He would never forgive himself if she went off on her own and caught her death of cold or found another patch of ice to fall through, but this was a fight he hated to back down from. He wrestled with himself, then ordered, “Dress in your warmest clothes and layer up. You’ll ride in the car, but if you dare get out and start prancing through the snow, I’ll bring you right back here. Do you understand?”

  Grace’s eyes narrowed at the ultimatum, but the corners of her lips twitched with the joy of even a small victory.

  David shook his head at her as she collected her coat, a sweater, and a blanket. He would always thank God that if nothing more, he had been like a brother to this wonderful young woman. They might never have more between them, but as long as he could hold on to her friendship, he would feel blessed.

  “At least five families responded to my call.” Mrs. Rudman broke through his reveries. “Plus the reverend will start the search in town.”

  “Good.” David led a bundled-up Grace to the back door. “We’ll let you know as soon as we find him. Don’t forget to call John.”

  Snow swirled in when they opened the door. They plowed through a good two inches of the white stuff and climbed in the car. The snow was getting heavier and sunset was swiftly approaching. Time was of the essence.

  David drove to his home to inform his parents of the situation. His father was on an errand to town, but his mother promised to go to Mrs. Rudman and wait with her for word.

  Grace waited patiently while David made a sweep around his farm for any signs. When he returned to the car empty-handed, she met him with a new idea. “I feel like we should check down by the gatehouse.”

  “Why? There’s nothing down there. I think he would have headed to a neighbor’s house or to town.”

  “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I have a gut feeling about it.” She shrugged.

  “Okay, it can’t hurt to look around.” He told his mother the direction they were headed and quickly returned to the car.

  They followed a good road for only a short distance. The road to the new gatehouse was a rough track through old pastureland. The car jolted in and out of ruts. Grace struggled to stay in her place on the leather bench seat.

  David turned on the headlights as the shadow cast by the dam deepened, and their beams shone out over the bulldozed land to where it rose sharply at the dam’s base. He stopped the car at the foot of the dam and turned to Grace.

  She leaped from the car and started a brisk inspection of the snow up to the water’s edge. David scrabbled from the car after her.

  “I told you to stay in the car or I’d take you straight home,” he yelled over the car’s engine.

  “And I told you I had a feeling we’d find something here.” She stooped, picked something up, and held it toward the car lights.

  David moved closer. It was a mitten. “It’s small. Do you think it is his?”

  “I don’t recognize it.” Her face crumbled in defeat.

  “It was likely left by a skater.” David surveyed the area and found nothing more.

  Grace sat on the stump of a once great tree that had been sawed and hauled away for lumber. Soon silent sobs rocked her frame.

  David approached her slowly, wanting to give comfort but afraid of being rejected. He bent his knees and brought his face level with her. Cautiously, he placed his hands on the stump on either side of her. “Gracie, I—”

  “You know,” she interrupted with a whimper, “this very afternoon, I asked the Lord to grant me peace and patience to weather the storms in my life. I didn’t ask Him for a new trial.” She slammed both fists into David’s shoulders then left them there as she gripped his coat collar. “I can’t lose my father like this.” She was adamant as she stared into his face.

  “It’ll be all right, Gracie.”

  “But you don’t understand what I’ve been through,” she cried. “No one really understands.”

  “I understand.” David tried to hug her to him, but she kept her arms stiff between them and rubbed her fingers along the wool of his coat.

  She gave a brittle laugh. “Do you remember the last day I saw you before you left for Detroit?”

  “Don’t…” David didn’t want to rehash the past or hear any hollow apologies.

  But she continued, “I told you of my inflated dreams to leave this valley and see the world. Do you know how many months it took me to save enough money before I left for Cleveland? And do you know that within five months I was flat broke, living in a run-down boardinghouse?”

  “Gracie, you don’t have to…”

  “I fell for a guy with all the right stuff…”

  David hung his head. He didn’t want to hear that she was in love with someone else.

  “…or so I thought,” Grace continued. “He promised to introduce me to fashionable people and teach me how to fit in.” She swung her arms out to her sides. “He lavished gifts on me and made me feel like a queen. Then he took my money with a crazy promise to buy me an automobile. According to him, the right kind of car would give me a foot up in the world.”

  She brought her arms in with a shiver. “I was so foolish—naive—that I handed my whole savings over to a handsome cad and never saw it again. I couldn’t even pay my own way home for Guy’s funeral. I took a loan…now I’m stuck in this job…no reason to dream—” Her voice broke.

  “Oh honey, I’m sorry.”

  “See, you were better off without me,” she continued. “Failure follows me on every side.”

  “What?” David cupped her face in his hands. “Everyone learns by mistakes. Mistakes don’t make failures.” His thumbs massaged along her jawline. He had never desired to kiss Grace Rudman more than this moment.

  She still glowed with the sweet blush of innocence, but now a maturity and a touch of wisdom also adorned her. She radiated with winter’s touch on her cheeks, and her eyes, staring back at him, glistened with…Could he dare to call it hope? A hope for them? Hadn’t they put that in the past and settled for friendship?

  He felt himself drawn to her. Her lips shined like a fresh ripened apple. Their breaths mingled in a frosty cloud.

  Unexpectedly, a shot rang out and echoed through the valley. They jumped to their feet as one, craning to determine the direction of the shot. Could it be one of the searchers?

  Soon another shot followed.

  “It sounds almost like it came from the top of the dam,” David said. “I’ll go check it out while you get back in the car.”

  Immediately, David started the steep ascent up the embankment. He slipped several times as he attacked the dam wall from an angle.

  “Umph!” came from behind him. He turned to see Grace sliding down to the foot of the dam, her arms flailing out to steady her descent.

  “Gracie, please, go back to the car.” He tried to keep his voice gentle but strong.

  She picked herself up and started the climb again. Her face was set with determination as she strained with each new step. He watched as she neared him, puffing for each breath. She flung her hand out to grasp his arm. David reached for her and drew her up to meet him.

  “Do you know that you can be very stubborn?” David asked, stifling a chuckle.

  “I get it from m
y father…and if he had the will to walk all the way out here…I can get myself to the top.”

  She pulled away from him and dug her toes into the dirt. Her left foot slipped and she cried out. David steadied her.

  “My ankle,” she gasped. “I twisted it in the creek.”

  “Oh Gracie, why didn’t you say so?” David sighed.

  They were more than halfway up the eastern side of the dam now. David put his arm around her waist to steady her as they looked across the ridge. It was much lighter here and the sinking sun was still visible in the cradle of nearby hills.

  A short distance along the leveled top of the dam was a group of five people. Sitting on the ground, looking out over the valley and town of Tappan, were two older men. Standing around them were three teenage boys, one carrying a hunting rifle. David and Grace hurried to them as fast as Grace could manage on her weak ankle.

  “Father,” Grace called out as they neared the group.

  Mr. Rudman turned to his daughter with a very lopsided grin and grunted what could have been her name.

  She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his thin shoulders. “Oh Daddy…” Grace whimpered as tears started.

  David approached his own father who was seated next to Mr. Rudman. “How did you come to be here, Dad?”

  “Well,” Mr. Matthews began slowly, “I was headed to town when I met up with an old friend. We hadn’t seen each other in a very long time and decided to take a drive. I parked my car along the road at the other end of this giant dam while we took a little stroll.”

  David frowned at his father’s casual description. He looked to Mr. Rudman and saw a mischievous glint in his tired eyes. “I should paddle you both,” David muttered under his breath, but he was overjoyed to see a visible change in Mr. Rudman’s spirit.

  One of the boys spoke up. “You’re right, Mr. Rudman, the shadow of the dam is spreading across the whole valley.” It was Thomas Cord. He eyed Grace with an apologetic tip of his head.

  Mr. Rudman bobbed his head in agreement.

  “One day everything under that shadow will be a great lake,” Mr. Matthews stated. “It will draw hundreds of people for fishing and boating vacations, but better yet, this here dam will save many homes in the outlying areas from being threatened by yearly floods.”