His Winter Rose and Apple Blossom Bride

by Lois Richer

“Don’t worry about it, honey. I’m sure Ashley will forgive you.”

  “Of course I will. It was an accident. Everybody has them. I had one tonight, remember?” Ashley dabbed at the table, made a face at her drenched plate. “I think I’m finished my lasagne.”

  “Here, I’ll take care of that.”

  This was not exactly romantic. But then who’d said anything about romance? Ashley was simply waiting for a tow truck.

  “Do you need another cloth?” he asked, wondering if her clothes were ruined.

  “I’m fine.” She sat down, giggled at the croutons floating across Tati’s plate. “I think she’s finished, too.”

  “Mom sent over some pie, if you’re interested.”

  “Maybe later.”

  “My hands are icky.” Tati held them up for inspection.

  “Yes, you may be excused. Go and wash them off.”

  “Okay.” Having been forgiven, she dashed out of the room, banging into a stool as she went, which sent the cat’s dish flying.

  “I’m seeing a pattern here.” Ashley chuckled at his pained glare. “Don’t be such a grump. She’ll grow out of it soon enough.”

  “I hope so,” he muttered. What had seemed so appetizing before now looked like leftovers. Would a meal ever be just a meal again? Michael began clearing the table. Ashley helped, scraping plates and stacking them in the dishwasher.

  He stored the leftover lasagne in the fridge, knowing he’d be glad of it tomorrow. Anything not to have to cook. He wanted every extra minute to work on his carving.

  “Okay, that’s enough cleaning,” he told her when she finished scrubbing the counter. “Let’s have some tea.”

  Ashley checked her watch, glanced out the window. “It’s taking quite a while for the tow truck, isn’t it?”

  “All the more time for the grader to clear your road,” he said quietly.

  She nodded but the faint line of worry across her brow didn’t disappear. “I guess.”

  “Can we play this?” Tati emerged from her room holding a game she loved that involved hippos and marbles.

  “Want to play?” he asked, watching Ashley’s face for signs that she was bored.

  “I haven’t played this for years!” She helped Tati open the game, ran a finger over the hippos’ backs. “But I used to be quite good.”

  It was asking for trouble to let Tatiana play it now when she was tired. He’d probably spend the rest of the night hunting for marbles but Michael figured that would be worth it for the pleasure of watching Ashley relax, even giggle as she tried to beat Tatiana.

  “Okay, sweetie,” he said when all the marbles were safely stored inside the last hippo. “I want you to get ready for bed.”

  “I don’t want to sleep when Ashley’s here!”

  Her indignant words made him smile.

  “I didn’t say you had to go to bed, but I want you in your pajamas. When the tow truck calls we’ll take Ashley to her car.”

  “In my pajamas?” she asked, wide-eyed.

  “Uh-huh. Until then you can stay up—as long as you can stay awake.”

  “Wait till Wanda hears about this!” The little girl dashed from the room.

  “I’m sorry I’m keeping her up. I never intended to be here so long.” Ashley picked up two stray marbles from the floor and tucked them into the box. “I must be ruining your evening, too.”

  “Not at all. It’s nice to have the company.” Normally he was loathe to give up a second of his free evenings once Tati was tucked in, but Ashley being here was different. “Do you like mint tea?”

  “Yes.”

  He carried it through to the living room, poured her a cup and handed it to her. She stood in front of the fireplace, holding her mug, but Michael knew it wasn’t because she was cold. Her gaze kept straying to the window.

  “What really happened out there today?”

  She turned, frowning. “I told you.”

  “Not all of it.” He sat, waiting.

  Ashley’s gray eyes rested on him for several minutes. Finally she drew a deep breath, nodded. “After I went into the snowbank, a man frightened me,” she admitted quietly.

  “What man?”

  “I don’t know his name.”

  “What did he do?” he asked as a spurt of anger bubbled up inside, right beside the wish to protect her.

  “It’s not so much what he did today,” she said, her voice halting. “He just…scared me.”

  “I see.” But Michael didn’t see, not at all. She’d been terrified, had kept looking around during the entire ride home. There was more to it than she’d admitted, but he could see by her expression that she wasn’t going to tell him. Not now anyway.

  Tati came racing into the room in what she called her ballerina pajamas just as the phone rang. He answered, agreed to meet the tow truck in ten minutes.

  “I guess it’s time to go.” Ashley rose, returned her cup to the kitchen and pulled on her boots. “I’m sorry to make you go out again, Mick.”

  “It’s no problem.” He bundled up his daughter, pulled on his own things and waited while Ashley drew on her kid gloves. “Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  They drove back to her car, saying little save for Tatiana’s chatter and even that didn’t last long. Soon her head drooped against her seat and soft snores emanated from the back.

  Michael pulled in behind Ashley’s car, parked and left the motor running.

  “I know it wasn’t the nicest experience for you but I’m glad we could spend some time together.”

  “You’ve been very gracious.” She tilted her head to peer through the windshield. “It’s getting quite cold. I’m glad I didn’t have to stay out here for long.”

  “Ashley?”

  “Yes?” She turned her head to stare at him.

  “You can tell me the truth you know,” he said softly. “I only want to help.”

  “Thank you.” But she said no more.

  Behind him Michael could see the tow truck coming, its lights flashing over the snow. He bit back his frustration.

  “Stay here. I’ll talk to him.” He got out, used her keys to unlock the door and set the gearshift into neutral. Then he returned to his car, waited by the hood as the little sports car was winched free.

  Ashley joined him as soon as her car broke free of the snow’s embrace. Michael didn’t miss her quick scan of the area nor the way she hurried toward her vehicle just a shade too fast, as if she couldn’t wait to get away. He followed, waited while she climbed inside and started the engine.

  “Let it warm up for a couple of minutes. I’ll follow you to the end of this road, just to make sure everything’s okay,” he said as the truck driver removed his chain. “I’d appreciate it if you’d call me when you get home. Otherwise I’ll worry that you’re stranded somewhere else along the way.”

  “That’s not necessary, really. I’ll be fine. And it will take me a while to get there. You have things to do.”

  There it was again, that quick inspection. As if she thought someone was tailing her.

  “I’m sure you’ll be fine, but phone me anyway.” Michael placed his hand on the door, stopping her from rolling up the window, then bent to look straight into her gaze. “Please, Ashley?”

  After a moment she nodded. “Okay. Thank you for everything. Say bye to Tati for me.”

  “I will. Take care.”

  There were a lot of other things he wanted to say, but Ashley rolled up the window. As soon as she could see through the windshield she shifted into gear then moved off. Michael could do little more but follow her to the end of the road and watch as her taillights faded into the night.

  Michael drove home, put Tati to bed and went to his studio. But he couldn’t work. He kept seeing Ashley’s face when he’d first confronted her. She’d been white, shaking. Who was this man, what had he done to her?

  Michael grabbed the phone on its first ring.

  “I’m here. I’m sorry it took so long. Piper phoned
just as I got in the door. She was frantic and it took a while to explain.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, it’s fine. The plow had already been through so I had no trouble.”

  “Good.” He waited, hoping, praying she’d explain.

  “Thanks for rescuing me, Mick. It’s nice to have a friend.” The soft words were barely audible.

  But Michael heard every word and a rush of sweet joy filled him at the implication. At least they could be friends.

  It was enough. For now.

  Chapter Six

  “We’ve invested so much time and effort in planning this winter festival. It’s going to seem anticlimactic without the final event.”

  “I wish I could do something.”

  “Thanks, Ash. But you’re doing enough.” Piper folded her legs beneath her as she glared at the fireplace. “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to find someone to build those sets, but without them we can’t do the play.”

  “Are you sure?” Ashley felt sorry for her friend. Piper devoted hours of time outside of work to make sure every detail of her various publicity campaigns went off without a hitch. But despite her best efforts, this one just wasn’t working out.

  “The play needs those backdrops to make it fit the time period and we don’t have enough in the budget to pay someone to build them.” She sighed, leaned back and closed her eyes. A moment later she’d regained her equanimity. “Guess I’ll have to keep praying about it. What are your plans today, Ash?”

  “I have the art class at school. And there’s a weaver I want to visit—Tracey. Have you met her?”

  “Oh, yes.” Piper’s eyes sparkled. “She does excellent work. Are you still pursuing the idea of a show for the artists?”

  A rush of excitement filled Ashley as she thought about the works she’d seen in the past few weeks.

  “I suggested it to the art guild and they decided to sponsor an indoor sale and show during the winter festival. And why not? Their work is fantastic—so much innovation and ingenuity. It’s not just the same old thing with these people. They’ve tons of talent and use them very creatively, but with the Bay being so isolated, they are each locked away in their own little world.” She sighed. “I just wish I could get someone from the city to come out here and see what I see.”

  “Maybe you’ll have to organize a showing yourself.” Piper swallowed a last mouthful of coffee, rose and stretched before putting her cup in the dishwasher. “I’ve got to go for a fitting for my dress today. Want to come?”

  “Yes!”

  They agreed to meet at noon. Piper paused before she left.

  “The panic thing—is it any better now, Ash?”

  “That night—on the road, it was worse than it’s been for a while,” she admitted. “In the back of my mind I think I figured I’d feel safer when I got here. It’s so isolated that I guess I thought there wouldn’t be any surprises in good old Serenity Bay. It’s not turning out that way.”

  “Not all surprises are bad, Ash.” Piper hugged her, then held her back, meeting her gaze. “You probably won’t like me saying this, but I don’t think you came here looking for safety. I think you came because you need answers and because a lot of your questions are tied up with the Bay. Can I give you a piece of advice?”

  “You will anyway.”

  “Yes, I will.” Piper smiled. “I think you have to stop looking around you and begin searching inside. God doesn’t let things happen to us randomly. There’s always a reason and if we let Him, He will use them to teach us. Maybe you should start asking what He’s trying to teach you.”

  One more hug then Piper hurried off to work. Ashley pondered what she’d said, refilled her coffee and opened her Bible. But she couldn’t seem to dig into any of the verses she read. They were just words, some of them she’d even memorized. But nothing spoke to the apprehensive feeling she couldn’t quite suppress.

  Dissatisfied, she finally closed the leather cover. A small bookmark fell out: Perfect love casts out fear.

  “Either I don’t have perfect love for You, Lord, or I don’t understand this verse.” She thought about Michael, his quiet request for her to trust him. But she couldn’t. She didn’t dare, and she wasn’t exactly sure why. He wasn’t like Kent and in her head she knew that, but it didn’t seem to matter. She had to deal with her recurring dread in her own way.

  Ashley prayed for peace, but though she felt better when she’d finished, the angst, the underlying sense of disquiet remained hidden inside her heart and she knew why.

  Because no matter how she wanted it to be finished, no matter the ways she’d learned or devised to chase away the fears, pretend they didn’t exist, or attribute them to something else—the truth was that the man who’d abducted her all those years ago was still out there.

  For years she’d kept that night locked away in her mind, refused to face it. She’d never told Rowena or Piper until recently because her parents had insisted that she’d imagined it all and she wasn’t certain they were wrong.

  Ashley admitted she’d been upset. Her parents’ breakup, teen hormones, her grandmother’s sudden death—her emotions had fluctuated wildly that year. Eventually she’d taken a psychologist’s advice, which coincided with her parents’, and convinced herself she’d let her too-vivid imagination take over back then, that it had all been a horrid dream. That there was no man.

  Until she’d returned to the Bay, and the face had reappeared. Twice.

  Now, no matter how she denied it, she had known that face, recognized his voice when he’d rapped on her window. And that couldn’t have happened if it was her imagination.

  So what was she supposed to do about it?

  Piper would be shocked if she knew Ashley had spent the last two weeks scanning newspaper files for reports of missing or abducted children. She’d found a couple of incidents, both of which police claimed were parental abductions. But no record of another child being taken.

  So was her case a fluke? Had he changed his modus operandi? Moved? Gone farther afield?

  So many questions, so few answers.

  Thinking about it only added to her tension, so Ashley whispered a soft plea for help, then headed for the weaver’s house.

  *

  “I feel like I’ve hit the mother lode,” Ashley exclaimed as she stared at the pieces displayed around Tracey’s room. “Haven’t you ever shown these?”

  “I tried once. But the galleries prefer artists who’ve already had good showings. Except, how do you get a good showing if you can’t show?” Tracey made a face.

  “Vicious circle.”

  “It’s not just that. It’s such an effort to pack everything up, take it in there, then try to display it properly. Then there’s the expense of finding a sitter and staying in the city while they evaluate everything.” Tracey glanced at her toddler. “It’s so much easier to sell them on the Internet. At least while the kids are small.”

  “I understand, believe me.” Ashley watched her cuddle her little boy. “These times are special. You don’t want to trade them for the off chance that someone will maybe let you display.”

  They talked about Tracey’s plans for the winter festival show and about her other two preschoolers playing just outside the big picture window.

  “It must be nice to allow them the freedom to play in the yard alone.” Ashley watched the pair digging holes for a snow cave. No worries there.

  “They’re always up to something,” Tracey giggled. “I have to keep my eyes on them every moment, but I will say I like living here a lot better than living in the city. I feel safer. Here everyone’s so friendly. We know all our neighbors and they are only too eager to pitch in whenever I ask.”

  “Serenity Bay’s a great place. I should know. I grew up here.”

  “And now you’re back.”

  “For a little while. Until Piper’s wedding and the winter festival are over. I agreed to stick around that long. Then I need to get back to work.�
��

  “But I thought you said you’d lost your job?” Tracey asked, tapping on the window and shaking her head. “See what I mean? Always into something.”

  “I’ll get another job.” After the freedom of calling her time her own, Ashley couldn’t quite reconcile herself to going back to a stuffy gallery, but by the end of February she’d probably be over trekking through snow and only too ready to go back to mild Vancouver.

  “Why don’t you stay here? You could open a gallery, hold weekend showings when the skiers come down.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be possible,” Ashley told her.

  “No, I suppose it takes a lot of money.” Tracey grinned. “Can’t blame a girl for trying, though. I notice you’re driving a new car.”

  “I rented it. A friend helped me realize my other one just couldn’t handle the winter roads around here.” She glanced at her watch. “Speaking of roads, I’d better get on one. I’m meeting Piper for lunch. Can I take this piece?” she asked, lifting a beautiful tapestry from the table.

  “If you like.”

  “I know exactly where I want to place it to get some shots. Then I’ll contact someone I know. I promise I’ll return it in mint condition.”

  Tracey wrapped the weaving in tissue and set it inside a box.

  “Feel free to stop by anytime,” she said as Ashley left. “I’m always glad to have someone older than five to talk to.”

  Ashley tossed a snowball at the kids, then scrambled to get into her SUV before they sent a volley of missiles back. Michael had been right, she admitted as she headed for the seamstress Piper had hired. She did feel safer driving in this bigger vehicle.

  She paused at the stop light, glanced to the right. A stray sunbeam drew her attention to a rusty truck parked in front of the post office. The same truck that had stopped the day her car had gone off the road.

  The horn behind her roused Ashley into action. She drove around the block for a second look, but by the time she arrived back at the spot, the truck was gone and the church bell was signaling twelve noon.

  It wasn’t him. She was imagining the similarity. But her hands were clenched around the steering wheel as she pulled in next to Piper’s car. She sat for a few moments forcing herself to calm down before she stepped out of her vehicle and went to the door.