His Frontier Christmas Family

by Regina Scott

  Perhaps she’d been listening to Beth too much.

  She had her coat on over her nightgown for warmth and modesty when Levi returned with her brothers and Mica. The baby went readily to Callie’s arms, head down and thumb in mouth. Even the boys trudged for the loft with a murmur of “Merry Christmas.”

  “Looks like someone finally tired them out,” Callie marveled.

  “They aren’t the only ones,” Levi murmured. “Someone danced my feet off.” He gave her a wink before heading after her brothers.

  She should be tired as well, but as she lay in bed, scenes of the day played out in her mind. Frisco and Sutter racing down the hill. Beth and the deputy caught under the kissing bough. All the Wallin ladies making her look like a princess. Levi dancing, and dancing, holding her in his arms and looking at her as if his heart would burst.

  And she made up her mind to tell him how she felt at the first opportunity.

  * * *

  Callie woke to Mica’s happy gurgle, then dressed quickly in the cold. It must have been earlier than usual, because no light gleamed around the curtain. And there was the oddest sound, as if a dozen women were sighing over and over, just beyond the house. Callie bundled up Mica and went to peer out the window.

  All she saw was white, swirling wildly past the glass. The hall, the church, were invisible. It was as if the entire world had disappeared.

  Fear stabbed her. Hugging Mica close, she hurried out into the main room.

  “Blizzard,” she said to Levi, who was standing by the stove.

  He turned to her. Though he smiled as if to reassure her, she saw the lines of tension fanning out from his eyes. “I heard it come up early this morning. I’ve already warned the boys not to open a window or door or go outside. So long as we stay put, we’ll be fine.”

  She wanted to believe him. Her brothers came thudding down the stairs.

  “Did you see it, Callie?” Sutter wanted to know.

  “You can’t see it,” Frisco told him. “It’s nothing but white.”

  “And it’s nothing to sneeze at,” Levi reminded them, bringing two steaming cups to the table. “But thanks to you two, we’re all set. We have plenty of wood for the fire and the stove, and plenty of food and water. We just have to wait it out.”

  His matter-of-fact approach calmed her. Callie set Mica in her chair and went to pour herself a cup of cocoa.

  “How long do we have to stay inside?” Sutter asked, holding his cup with both hands as if to warm himself. A cowlick stood up at the back of his head. Callie smoothed it down as she passed.

  “It could be hours,” Levi admitted with a smile to Callie as she came up beside him. “It could be all day.”

  Both of her brothers groaned.

  “It won’t be so bad,” Callie told them, pausing to take a sip of the silky chocolate. “You can do some chores. We can read.”

  “But the sled,” Sutter protested.

  “Just think how much snow the storm will leave behind,” Levi said.

  “It was getting rutted with everyone coming to the dance,” Frisco allowed. He elbowed Sutter. “I get to be in front the next time we go down.”

  Sutter’s face darkened. “It was my turn to go first.”

  This could be a long storm. Callie turned to Levi. “Let’s get breakfast on the table.”

  The next few hours, she and Levi worked side by side to keep her brothers peacefully occupied, singing songs, playing the harmonica and the music box, reading and drawing. Frisco and Sutter ran to the window every few minutes at first, anticipating how high the snow would pile and how fast the sled would go. But as the snow started to mount, they shifted about, complaining.

  “When will it be over?” Frisco asked.

  “Won’t it ever stop snowing?” Sutter lamented.

  Even Mica turned to grumbling, banging her new rattle on the table before pushing the toy away completely.

  “How about popping some corn?” Levi suggested.

  Frisco kicked at the wall under the window. “We already strung enough, and Christmas is over.”

  “Not for stringing,” Levi told him. “For eating.”

  The boys perked up.

  That kept them busy for a little longer. Callie put Mica down for a nap, then listened to the corn popping in the kettle. As her brothers fairly hopped in front of the stove, she tried not to think about the cold just outside, snatching at the house with greedy fingers.

  Her brothers’ fingers were just as greedy. The twins hardly waited until Levi poured melted butter on the tufts of yellow. Then he motioned them and Callie to carry the bowls over to the rug. Why was it a smile from him made the world a better place?

  “Let’s play a game,” he said. “It’s called Two Truths and a Tall Tale.”

  Callie hadn’t heard of the game before. Neither had her brothers, it seemed, for Frisco and Sutter frowned as they munched their corn.

  “How’s it work?” Frisco asked.

  “I’ll tell you three things,” Levi explained. “Two will be true, and one will be farfetched. Whoever guesses which is the tall tale wins that round and gets to go next.”

  Sutter sat higher. “I’ll play.”

  Frisco eyed Levi. “Me, too. I’m good at spotting the truth.”

  Levi’s look turned serious. “My name is Levi Wallin. My middle name is Aloysius. And I made a fortune panning gold.”

  “That’s easy,” Frisco bragged. “Nobody’s named A-lo-wish-us.”

  Levi smiled. “Actually, that was the truth. My pa gave me that name from the old country. The tall tale is that I made any money panning. I came home with less than when I left.”

  So had Pa and Adam. Count on Levi to remind her brothers of that. Frisco pouted, most likely to have guessed wrong, but Sutter nodded at Levi.

  “Try another.”

  “All right,” Levi said with a smile to Callie. “I am a pastor. I am six-and-twenty years old. And I play the fiddle as well as my brother Simon.”

  “Do not!” Frisco cried.

  Levi grinned. “Right you are. I can play the harmonica, but I never learned to play the fiddle. Our pa taught Simon when I was a baby. And then Pa died.”

  Sutter looked impressed, likely that Simon had learned so young. How sad, though, that Levi had had so little time with his father. She hadn’t enjoyed being carted from one camp to the next, but at least they’d all been together most of the time.

  “My turn,” Frisco announced. He frowned for a moment, then his brow cleared. “My name is San Francisco Murphy. I have a twin brother named Sutter, and I was the most important shepherd in the Christmas play.”

  Now Sutter frowned. “But all three of those are true.”

  “No, they ain’t,” Frisco said with a grin.

  Callie decided not to correct him on the word. She nudged Sutter’s leg with her foot. “Your name isn’t just Sutter.”

  Sutter scrambled to his feet, nearly oversetting his popcorn bowl. “That’s right! I’m Sutter’s Mill Murphy.”

  Frisco nodded. “Your turn.”

  Sutter sat down. “No, it should be Callie’s turn. She guessed first.”

  “Very generous of you,” Levi said with a smile. “So, Callie, what are your two truths and a tall tale?”

  Callie eyed him, an audacious thought bubbling up. She’d wanted to have a moment alone with him since last night, but the blizzard would make that impossible, perhaps for days. Could she speak her mind in front of her brothers and Mica? They’d likely find out soon enough. She simply couldn’t hide her feelings much longer.

  She drew in a breath. “My name is California Murphy. I’ve lived in eight gold rush camps, and I’m in love with Levi Wallin.”

  * * *

  Frisco and Sutter immediately beg
an arguing about how many camps they’d lived in, completely accepting Callie’s outrageous statement about loving him as the truth. Levi could only stare at her. She met his gaze boldly, though color was creeping into her cheeks. Had she meant that?

  “Nine!” Sutter yelled in triumph. “We lived in nine camps.”

  “And you probably lived in more before we were born,” Frisco agreed. “My turn.”

  “Mine,” Sutter argued. “I said it first.”

  “After I told you.”

  “Did not!”

  “Did, too!”

  Levi shook himself. “Boys! Go see how high the snow is now.”

  With a scowl at each other, Frisco and Sutter rose and headed for the window.

  Levi moved to the chair closest to Callie, leaning over to speak for her ears alone. “Was that the truth?”

  She nodded, gaze on her fingers rubbing at a spot on her trousers. “I thought you should know, in case you felt the same way.”

  He did. It had been building since the moment he’d seen her again, standing with a baby in her arms, laundry at her feet and the sun in her hair. Beneath the tough exterior she hid behind, she was soft as new-fallen snow. He only wished he had the right to offer her his heart.

  “Half way up the window,” Sutter reported, returning to the rug.

  “And it’s still blowing,” Frisco added, joining him.

  “Might for a while yet,” Levi told them, wrestling with his conscience. “Ma told me the first year they arrived in Seattle it blew for three days straight.”

  Frisco and Sutter looked horrified.

  Overhead, something creaked. All the Murphys stared at the ceiling, their faces washing white. Levi wasn’t sure what had frightened them, until Callie recovered.

  “This isn’t a tent, boys,” she told her brothers, gaze falling to theirs. “Levi’s house is built nice and strong. The roof won’t collapse.”

  So that was their concern. “Not with that pitch,” Levi promised. “The snow can only build up so high before it slides right off. Before it’s over, the drifts could reach the eaves. You boys will have to help me dig a path out from the door.”

  “And we can sled off the roof,” Sutter realized.

  Frisco grinned.

  Levi got them busy building a fort from the chairs and quilt from Callie’s bed. Callie went to feed and change the recently woken Mica, but she kept glancing in his direction. He hadn’t answered her, and she knew it. Every moment he remained silent, her doubt would grow. She deserved better.

  When the boys started bickering again, Levi pulled down the quilt and bundled them on the rug.

  “I have a story for you,” he said, feeling as if the cold from the snow had seeped into his bones.

  “Like A Christmas Carol?” Sutter wanted to know.

  “Maybe not as good,” Levi allowed, rubbing his palms on his trousers. “And I’m not sure about the ending. But I can tell you it started here at Wallin Landing.”

  The boys settled at his feet, pulling up the quilt around themselves. Callie set Mica on her lap, head cocked as if she wasn’t sure what he was about.

  “A good seven years ago,” Levi said, “there were two young men, best friends.”

  “Like me and Sutter,” Frisco said, earning him a grin from his brother.

  “That’s right,” Levi agreed. “They were determined to make their fortunes, so they gathered a stake and set off for the northern gold fields.”

  Sutter wiggled up to his knees. “Which strike? Cassiar?”

  “Wild Horse Creek?” Frisco guessed.

  “Vital Creek,” Levi told them, avoiding Cassie’s look.

  “We were there,” Sutter said, sitting back down again.

  “I know you were,” Levi said. “These two friends filed a claim at the other end of the camp from your father’s. They knew they were going to strike it rich. They’d come home with gold spilling out of their pockets, and everyone would respect them.”

  Frisco and Sutter sighed as if they could imagine it.

  “Fool’s dream,” Callie spit out. Mica shifted in her lap to look up at her with concern.

  Levi nodded. “It certainly was. After weeks of panning, they had little to show for it, even though the claims on either side of them were doing well. Worse, their supplies were gone, and only one of the miners in the area was kind enough to share. So, desperate to find gold, one of the friends did what no prospector can ever forgive. He moved the claim markers.”

  Callie gasped, the sound like a knife in his heart. Frisco and Sutter were staring at him.

  “But that’s not fair,” Sutter protested.

  “The other fellows staked that claim,” Frisco agreed. “It was their gold.”

  “Yes,” Levi said, “it was. The other prospectors realized what had happened before his friend did. But they didn’t know which friend to blame. They came across the other friend first, the innocent one. He told them he didn’t know anything about the claim markers being moved, but they wouldn’t listen. They took him down to the stream and got out a rope to string him up.”

  Sutter was on his feet. “But he didn’t do it!”

  Frisco frowned at him. “It’s just a story.”

  Sutter glanced from his brother to Levi. “Is it, Uncle Levi? Is it just a story?”

  Levi shook his head, gaze moving from Sutter to Callie, who was hunched around Mica. “It’s a story, Sutter, but it’s not a tall tale. You see, the innocent one was my friend Scout. And the guilty one, the one who was so desperate to strike it rich he broke the law, was me.”

  “That’s not true!” Sutter shouted. “You’re nice. You wouldn’t let your friend die for something you did.”

  “I nearly did,” Levi said, shame clogging his throat. “I was so scared of what I’d done, of what they might do to me if they knew. But I couldn’t see Scout swing for it. I stepped forward and admitted my guilt to the lot of them.”

  Sutter sank back down again. “What happened?”

  Callie was whiter than the snow swirling outside. “Did they leave Scout be?”

  Levi swallowed, remembering. “They didn’t want to believe he hadn’t been involved. He was my partner, after all. He had to have known. They stripped off his shirt, beat him something fierce. Two of them held me so I couldn’t stop them. Then they put the noose around my neck.”

  Even now, he felt the rasp of hemp, heard the jeers all over again. Only this time, he couldn’t close his eyes against it. This time, it was a part of him.

  “I thought I was going to die,” he admitted, knowing every gaze was on him. “But another man came along, drawn by the noise. I think God pointed him in the direction. Thaddeus Bilgin was a preacher, come to minister to those in the camps. He talked them out of killing me, promised I’d make up for what I’d done. I started by giving our claim to the men I’d wronged. They found gold on it within the week.”

  “Figures,” Frisco muttered.

  “What happened to Scout?” Sutter asked.

  “The minister and I nursed him, but as soon as he could walk, he left Vital Creek. I never laid eyes on him again.”

  Sutter’s face twisted. “He must have been awful mad at you.”

  The lump in Levi’s throat grew larger. “He has every right. I nearly got him killed. I was supposed to be his friend, to look out for him.”

  “But you made up for it,” Sutter protested. “You tried to make things right.”

  “I am still trying,” Levi said. “I will go to my grave trying to be a better man than I was that day at Vital Creek.”

  As if the parsonage was as disappointed with him as they all were, it gave a mighty creak.

  “Frisco, Sutter,” Callie said. “Go check on the loft.”

  Her brothers jumped up
and ran for the stairs. As soon as they were out of earshot, Callie rose and came to Levi’s side. She looked bowed, as if carrying Mica was suddenly too heavy for her.

  “Thank you for the truth,” she said. “I understand now. You never cared about me or the boys or Mica. You’re trying to make up for what you did at Vital Creek. You can’t give me your heart, because you lost it on the gold fields, just like Pa and Adam.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Callie had hurt when Ma and then Pa had died, when Anna had breathed her last, when she’d heard that Adam would never come home. That hurt was as bad as the pain that wrapped around her now. She’d believed that Levi was different, better than the men she’d known on the gold fields. Now she knew he’d been worse. She’d thought he truly cared about her. Now she saw he cared more about comforting his conscience. He was as lost to her as if he had gone north to pan.

  His face was shuttered, as if he would hide the ugliness he’d just confessed. “I stand by our partnership, Callie. I will do right by you and the boys and Mica.”

  Callie pulled Mica close. “Doesn’t matter. I took care of them before you came along with your fool dream of making us a family. I can take care of them again. That’s one good thing to come out of this. All of you at Wallin Landing have shown me I have something to offer. As soon as the snow thaws, I’ll find a way to move my family out of the parsonage.”

  He recoiled as if she’d struck him. Perhaps she had. At the moment, she wanted to grab him by the shoulders and give him a good shake. She could forgive his past, could see that he was trying to make amends. That wasn’t the problem. The boys, his family had all reached out to him. She’d been ready to hand him her heart. He couldn’t see the light of their love because he was too focused on the dark of the past.

  * * *

  Somehow, they made it through the rest of the day. The wind blew so hard the house moaned, until even Mica whimpered as she cuddled close to Callie. Snow came down the chimney, setting the fire to popping and hissing. Levi, Frisco and Sutter kept stirring the wood around and adding dry tinder to keep things burning. The wind drove the snow through the smallest cracks—under the front door, beside the bedroom window and through the shutters in the loft. Levi had the twins drag down the pallets and quilts to keep them from soaking up the moisture. Callie used every spare cloth mopping and drying.