His Frontier Christmas Family

by Regina Scott

  “It will certainly add something to the music,” Simon was saying.

  “And when I affix wheels to the bottom,” John said, “we can move it over to the hall to play for dances.”

  Levi touched Callie’s arm. Very likely he was trying to remind her about the upcoming dance, but all she could see was the piano.

  “And Rina’s theatricals,” James said.

  “You’re forgetting one thing,” Levi said. “No one knows how to play it.”

  No one? Again her fingers tingled. Was this truly meant for her? Was this the answer to her prayer?

  Thank You, Lord. Here’s how I can contribute to Wallin Landing.

  Beth stepped away from the instrument, head coming up. “Simon can play. He’s musical.”

  Simon shook his head. “I play the violin. There’s a world of difference between a stringed instrument and a percussion one.”

  “Not that he couldn’t learn,” James said as Beth glared at Simon.

  Callie opened the case, and her heart nearly jumped from her chest and onto the keys. It had been so long. What if she’d forgotten?

  Mica glanced from the ivory keys to Callie and back, as if wondering the same thing.

  John scratched his chin. “I thought you had someone ready to play, Beth, or I would never have helped you pick this out from the catalog.”

  James put a hand to his back. “Or sprained ourselves carrying it in.”

  “Beth, this had to have been a huge expense,” Levi said. “Can you return it? Sell it to someone in Seattle?”

  That did it. She couldn’t lose that piano. Callie sidled up to Levi. “Hold Mica.”

  He took the baby, gaze on his sister.

  Beth raised her chin. “I won’t return it. We need a piano. I’ve wanted one since Simon designed the church. If we must, I’ll learn to play. It might take a while, and I’m not sure who could teach me, but...”

  Callie brought her fingers down on the keys, a thrill running through her as the music flowed from her touch. In Levi’s arms, Mica clapped her hands along.

  Everyone turned. She could feel them staring at her and almost faltered. Who was she to play a piano in church? Yet something rose higher inside her with each note. This was what she was meant to do.

  “Get on board, children,” James sang as she hit the chorus. “Get on board, children. Get on board, children. There’s room for many and more.”

  “You can play!” Beth was fairly hopping on her feet. “How marvelous! Oh, how marvelous!” She threw her arms around Callie and hugged, halting Callie’s efforts.

  Once more pride was shining from Levi’s eyes as he moved to join her. Simon, John and James came along, as well.

  “It’s a bit out of tune,” Simon said, head cocked. “Only to be expected from the jostling it must have taken aboard ship on the way here.”

  Callie rested her hands in her lap to keep them from leaping back upon the keys.

  “Beautiful,” Levi said, and he sounded as if he meant more than her playing.

  “I see we’ll need to lay in a stock of sheet music,” John said.

  “Oh, Godey’s has some,” Beth told him. “All the latest songs. I have months’ worth.”

  Callie rose, glancing from one face to the next, enthusiasm dipping. “What’s sheet music?”

  Beth stared at her. “You mean you play entirely from memory?”

  Callie shrugged. “I hear it, I can play it.”

  “Where did you learn?” Levi asked, still with that look as if he’d discovered she could fly.

  “We lived over a dance hall in Vancouver one winter,” Callie told them all. “I talked the piano player into showing me how to play. Pretty soon I was as good as he was. I used to earn money playing.”

  James laughed as he clapped Beth on the shoulder. “Behold your virtuoso, sister.”

  Was that praise or criticism? Levi must have noticed her confusion, for he stepped closer. “My brother means we are blessed to have someone of your talent to play the piano for us.”

  Talent? She glanced around to find them all smiling and nodding. They believed her good enough to play in church.

  They believed in her.

  She thought she might bust a button off her suspenders.

  “Will you play for Christmas service, Callie?” Beth asked.

  Callie nodded, throat too tight to speak.

  Levi handed Mica to Beth and turned to Callie. His smile was soft, his look warm. She felt it, too, something more than the music, more than their partnership, more than Christmas. Before she knew what he was about, he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

  Joy sparkled in the air, brighter than snowflakes. If she turned her head, she could kiss him back. Maybe he’d put his arms around her, hold her close, tell her that his kindness had grown beyond expectations.

  Maybe her present from Levi for Christmas would be the gift of love.

  * * *

  Levi had meant the kiss as no more than a response to the moment, but the touch of his lips to Callie’s cheek raised such a tumult of emotion in him that he froze. She had stopped playing moments ago, yet it seemed he still heard a melody in his heart.

  James cleared his throat. “Ah, Christmas. How I love thee, eh, Levi?”

  Levi couldn’t come up with a response, especially with Callie gazing at him that way.

  “Drew must have brought in the Christmas tree into the hall by now,” Beth said. “Let’s go see.” She took Mica and led the others out, giving Callie a grin as she passed.

  Callie’s cheeks were pink, as if the touch of his lips had painted them. “Thank you,” she murmured, “for everything. James is right. Christmas can be special.”

  He tucked her hand in his arm. “It’s all the more special with you here. You play so well. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She shrugged, gaze on her boots. “It didn’t really matter. There wasn’t a piano to play—until now.”

  “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?” he teased. “Some other hidden talent I should know about?”

  Her blush deepened, and she met his gaze with a smile. “Not me. You?”

  Scout’s face flashed through his mind. Levi kept his smile in place. “Nothing that matters. Let’s go see that tree.” He led her out the door.

  Before he’d left for the north, his family used to bring in a Yule log. Beth had told him they had decided a few years ago to celebrate with a tree instead. Drew had brought in the perfect specimen, a cone of a fir seven feet tall. He’d erected it in a corner of the hall, just as Beth had planned. The area around the tree was now a beehive of activity, though not enough to take Levi’s mind off Callie beside him.

  Each family had made a different set of decorations, all orchestrated by Beth. Dottie pointed out the wooden star to Peter as John climbed the ladder to place it at the top of the tree. Simon’s children had cut snowflakes from paper, and he lifted first one child and then another to sprinkle the ornaments about.

  Drew’s children had dipped candles; Catherine and Drew were helping them seat the tapers in tin clips on the branches. James’s family had made tiny crowns of gold paper. James kept trying them on, to Seth’s giggle and Victoria’s frown. Beth, Harry, Tom and Dickie were busy placing bright red apples here and there among the greenery, while, at Beth’s hip, Mica tried to grab them back.

  Frisco and Sutter had evidently come down with Nora, for they were getting tangled up in their popcorn strings, which Beth must have carried from the main house. Levi led Callie to them.

  “Like this,” he said, showing them how to loop the strings from branch to branch around the tree. The boys set to work with a will.

  Beth came around the tree and drew Levi and Callie back from it.

  “We have a small problem,” sh
e murmured, Mica in her arms. “I stored some of the presents from Father Christmas in the pantry this morning, and someone’s been through them.”

  Callie stiffened. Levi sighed. “Frisco and Sutter were so excited. I suppose they couldn’t wait.” He glanced to where Drew and Simon each had one of the twins up on their shoulders to finish the popcorn garland at the top of the tree.

  Callie followed his gaze and frowned. “How did they know where to look?”

  Beth threw up a hand. “How did Levi and I know where to look? Ma hid them in a different place each year, and we usually found them anyway.”

  He remembered. Once he’d figured out that Father Christmas was really Drew and Ma, he’d felt rather smug knowing what he was getting before he went to peer into his stocking.

  “But you were expecting the presents,” Callie protested. “This is all new to my brothers. I think they truly believe some stranger is going to bring them gifts tonight.”

  Now Beth frowned. “Then who could have sorted through the presents? All the children have been out of school since the theatrical, but everyone has worked hard to keep them busy.”

  “Let’s leave it for now,” Levi said. “There was no harm done.”

  Beth nodded, frown easing. “Very well. I best go help the others.” She hurried to rejoin the family around the tree, taking Mica with her.

  Callie stepped in front of Levi as if to keep him from following his sister. “If you truly think Frisco and Sutter are guilty, you can’t coddle them again.”

  Levi raised a brow. “I thought we agreed they were innocent.”

  “My brothers?” She shook her head. “I was hopeful, until I heard Beth’s explanation. All the other children are accounted for. Who else could it be?” She waved a hand to encompass his whole family. “You can’t tell me one of your brothers did it.”

  Levi smiled. “I imagine James peeked a time or two before I was born, but as everyone likely bought the gifts at his store, he wouldn’t have to this time. Drew would have been too upright, Simon probably stopped believing in Father Christmas when he was six. John would have been too good to cheat. I know it wasn’t me, and Beth and my sisters-in-law would have had no need.”

  Callie cocked her head to look up at him. “What about me? I might have burned with curiosity.”

  “Up until this morning,” he said, “I’m not sure you thought Father Christmas was even coming.”

  She sighed. “Which means it has to be Frisco and Sutter. You can’t let them get away with it.”

  Levi shrugged. “Why not? As I said, no harm done.”

  “But they cheated,” Callie protested. “You know as well as I do how that could turn out.”

  Levi felt as if someone had dumped snow on his head. “What do you mean?”

  His stomach cramped as he waited to hear her denounce his actions at Vital Creek. But Callie merely shook her head.

  “You must have seen what happens when one partner cheats another,” she told him. “Anger, lashing out and worse. Why, I’ve known men to kill when they thought their claims were taken from them.”

  So had he, and he’d been the one to take it.

  “This isn’t a claim, Callie,” he said. “It’s just two boys who couldn’t wait to see their Christmas presents.”

  “Christmas presents today, mining claims tomorrow,” she insisted, hands on her hips. “They have to understand that keeping your word means something. Pa never taught them that. Neither did Adam. They kept promising life would be better. It only got worse.”

  She turned away, but not before he saw the tears shining in her eyes. He felt as if his own heart was breaking. He drew her farther from the others, gathered her close.

  “I know how strong the lure of gold can be, Callie,” he murmured. “We won’t let Frisco and Sutter follow that path, but right now, they’re just boys. They’ll make mistakes, and so will we. The important thing is to forgive, learn from those mistakes and become better.”

  She rested her head against his chest, and he only wanted to keep holding her like this, sheltering her from every loss.

  “But if they don’t know they’ve made a mistake,” she murmured, “how will they learn from it?”

  Levi started at the truth of her statement. Was that his problem? Had Ma and the rest of his family looked the other way so many times, thinking they were being kind to their littlest brother, that he’d failed to develop the character necessary to withstand the promise of the gold fields? He might have made different choices if he had been held accountable more often, yet he found it hard to blame them for his choices. He knew right from wrong. So should the boys.

  “All right,” he told Callie. “We’ll speak to them this afternoon.” He leaned back to gaze into her face. Hope gleamed in her tear-filled eyes. Was he mad to see something more?

  “Don’t cry, Callie,” he said. “All I want is for you and the boys to have a happy Christmas. Let’s see what we can do about that.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Levi looked at her that way, Callie found it hard to believe it could be anything but a happy Christmas. He made her dream of the impossible—peace, joy, love. How easy to just bask in the glow, but she had a duty to her brothers. If the twins had disturbed the Christmas presents, they had to be held accountable. Frisco and Sutter had to grow into finer men than their father or brother, men who understood the value of family over riches, men who kept their promises. She couldn’t lose anyone else to the gold fields.

  She wasn’t sure what was going to happen after the tree was decorated, but Levi’s family stayed together most of the afternoon playing games and singing carols. Whenever the opportunity arose, Levi cradled her hand in his. He was careful to explain things to her quietly, so she understood the traditions, like the fact that the candles, standing tall and proud among the greenery, remained unlit. That spectacle, Levi told her, was for Christmas Day.

  Each of the men slipped out from time to time, often with something bundled under his coat. As they usually returned with more wood for the hearth or a treat for the children, Callie paid them little mind. It was late in the afternoon, as the shadows lengthened, when Beth clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention.

  “Time to head for home,” she said, smiling at Peter, who was drowsing in Dottie’s arms. Mica had her head against Callie’s shoulder, as well. “We’ll regroup in the morning for services.”

  “And the dance tomorrow night,” James declared, giving Rina a twirl with one hand over her head. His wife smiled at him while Victoria stood watchful. Callie caught Levi’s eye and smiled, as well. A real dance!

  As the Wallins gathered up their children and left, Levi led Callie, Mica and the boys across the yard to the parsonage.

  He paused at the door, face solemn. He was going to talk to her brothers at last. Callie stood taller.

  “Boys, I have some bad news,” he said, looking from face to face. “It seems Father Christmas stored some of his presents in the hall. I understand someone pawed through the pack and mixed things up.”

  Frisco and Sutter’s brows shot skyward.

  “Who?” Frisco demanded. “He ought to be ashamed of himself.”

  “Can we help Father Christmas sort them out?” Sutter wanted to know.

  Levi met Callie’s gaze, clearly as confused as she was. She’d been so sure her brothers were the guilty ones, but Frisco and Sutter were simply not that good at acting. Could they be innocent after all?

  Levi seemed to think so, for he laid his hands on her brothers’ shoulders. “I believe things have been settled. I just wanted you to be aware in case you found something odd in your stocking.”

  The boys nodded and slipped past him into the house.

  Levi paused with Callie at his side. “I don’t understand. Did I describe it too vaguely?” />
  “No,” Callie murmured, watching her brothers take off their coats and hang them beside the door. “They sounded too concerned to be guilty. You’ve seen how Frisco acts when he’s caught, blustering out an excuse. This was something different.”

  In her arms, Mica wiggled as if she didn’t understand, either.

  Levi shook his head. “Maybe Beth was wrong. Maybe someone else in the family went through the presents looking for something.”

  Callie could only hope he was right. If her brothers were innocent, accusing them outright was a sure way to hurt them.

  She carried Mica into the parsonage, Levi closing the door behind them. But instead of starting supper, he headed for the side door. Odd. The wood box was full. With a shrug, Callie turned for the stove herself.

  A cry from Sutter and Frisco had her whirling. Her brothers were running for the hearth, where all five stockings bulged.

  Father Christmas had come earlier than expected.

  She set Mica in her chair and hurried for her room.

  “Callie!” Sutter called. “Come back! You have to see what you got.”

  Callie grabbed the harmonica from where she’d hidden it in her mother’s pack and rushed back to the hearth. The boys had removed their stockings and carried them to the rug to dump them out. She had a feeling there’d be two more socks to darn by the haste in which they’d pulled the socks from the nails. She went to slide the harmonica into Levi’s stocking, then ventured over to her brothers as Mica raised her hand and grunted in her chair, begging to be picked up again.

  Though they’d each received an orange and a handkerchief, the other gifts held more interest.

  “Look, Callie.” Sutter lifted a steel fishhook. “I’ll catch lots of fish with this, and they won’t wiggle off.”

  “Very nice,” she said with a smile.

  Frisco held up a pocket knife. “And I can make tinder with this, so you won’t have to work so hard to light the fire.”

  Callie put an arm around each of them. “Did any sister ever have such thoughtful brothers?”

  Sutter pulled away to hop to his feet. “Let’s see what Mica got.” He ran for her stocking.