“Good morning, Mr. Barrett,” Delta Kennedy said as she appeared in the doorway, herding Charlie along in front of her. The little boy looked uncomfortable in his Sunday clothes, and although his mother had tried to slick down his hair, a cowlick stood up stubbornly at the back of his head.
Delta looked fresh and beautiful, thought Seth. She showed no signs that she had been here at the church until late the night before, not leaving until everyone was satisfied there was no more danger of flooding. She took Seth’s hand when he extended it, and even though she wore gloves, he felt the warmth of her grip through them. He smiled and closed his left hand around hers as well.
“Good morning, Mrs. Kennedy,” he said. “I hope you and Charlie are well this morning.”
“We’re fine, thank you.”
Seth looked down at the boy and asked, “Are you about ready for Christmas to get here, Charlie?”
That made the boy perk up. He smiled, nodded, and said, “I sure am.” Then he grew serious and added, “Except for one thing.”
“What’s that?” Seth asked.
“We don’t have a Christmas tree.”
Cutting down a tree, bringing it into the house, and decorating it was a fairly new custom in these parts, Seth knew, brought over from Germany by the many settlers from there.
Delta frowned and said, “I’ve tried to explain to Charlie that I can’t really do that. Besides, we have more important things to worry about.”
Charlie looked crestfallen as he muttered, “Yeah, I guess so.”
Delta mouthed Sorry to Seth as she steered Charlie on up the aisle to their usual pew. He smiled to let her know it was all right.
When everyone was seated, Seth walked up the aisle to the pulpit, carrying his Bible in his left hand. He set it on the pulpit and opened it to the passage he had marked in the Gospel of Luke covering the Nativity. He motioned for everyone to stand for the opening prayer. Once every head was bowed, he led the prayer in a powerful voice that filled the sanctuary. Then, while everyone was still standing, they sang a hymn.
After Seth welcomed the congregation, he went on, “I want to say a special thank you to everyone who came here last night to help tame the raging floodwaters and turn them back from entering our church. It was a valiant effort, and we might not be in here this morning enjoying this service if not for all the hard work of so many people. And the Lord was truly with us last night, struggling right alongside us.”
A chorus of “Amen” came from several places in the sanctuary.
Seth led them in another couple of hymns, including “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” because of the season, then launched into his sermon. As usual, all the fretting he had done about it proved to be for nothing. He began by reading from the Scripture, and the power of the beautiful words filled him and transported him out of himself. At moments like this, he knew the Lord truly was speaking through him.
No one came forward during the altar call, but Seth didn’t allow himself to be disappointed about that. Winning people over to the Lord was an effort that had no real end. He would go on doing that good work as long as he drew breath. That was why he had been led to this place and inspired to put his old life behind him.
He called on one of the deacons to lead the benediction, and while that prayer was going on, Seth walked to the rear of the church and took up his place by the door again. The service’s conclusion was the same process in reverse, as Seth shook hands, smiled, and talked with the members of the congregation as they departed. He was glad to see that no rain was falling. Maybe folks would be able to get home on their horses and in their wagons and buggies without getting soaked.
As Delta and Charlie came to the door, Seth smiled down at the boy and said, “I’ve been thinking about that Christmas tree you were talking about, Charlie. Maybe if your mother doesn’t object, you and I could go up in the hills this afternoon and get one.”
Charlie’s eyes widened as he exclaimed, “You mean it, Preacher?”
“I do,” Seth said solemnly, then glanced at Delta. “But only if it’s all right with your mother.”
She was frowning a little, and he suddenly worried that he had put her in a bad position by giving in to the impulse he’d felt. Maybe she had some good reason she didn’t want to have a Christmas tree.
But then she smiled and said, “That’s very kind of you, Mr. Barrett. But wouldn’t chopping down a tree mean that you’d be doing work on the Sabbath?”
Before Seth could answer, Charlie said, “Shoot, no, Ma, choppin’ down a tree is fun, not work.”
“Well, I guess that would depend on how big the tree is,” Seth said with a grin. “But I don’t reckon a nice-sized sapling would be too much of an effort.”
“Are you sure?” Delta asked. “I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“No trouble at all,” Seth assured her. “I wouldn’t have said anything about it if it was something I didn’t want to do.”
“Well, then . . . I suppose it would be all right. But only if you’ll come and have Sunday dinner with us first.”
“I could do that,” Seth said, nodding.
“And then you can use our wagon to bring in the tree,” Delta went on.
“Good idea, since all I have is a saddle horse.”
“All right. Give me an hour?”
“I’ll be there,” Seth promised. He couldn’t seem to wipe the grin off his face. The idea of having dinner with Delta and Charlie and then spending the afternoon with them had put it there, and he didn’t figure it was going away anytime soon.
Seth felt a little bad about praying for the rain to stay away Sunday afternoon, but he did it anyway. He didn’t want anything to interfere with the outing he had planned.
So far, so good, he thought as he hitched up the team of mules to the Kennedy wagon after a fine dinner of fried chicken, potatoes, greens, and berry cobbler. The food was good.
The company was better.
A feeling of warmth filled Seth as he sat at the table with Delta and Charlie. A cloth of fine Irish linen covered the table, and Seth could tell that Delta had brought out the best china and silver she had for the meal, too. This was the sort of normal family experience Seth had never had in his hardscrabble life before coming to the Hill Country.
Charlie talked most of the time he wasn’t eating, mostly about trees he had seen that he thought would be good for the Christmas celebration. Delta didn’t say much, but she smiled a lot at Seth, and that was more than enough for him.
Now as Seth finished hitching up the mules, Charlie hurried out of the house wearing his hat and coat. Delta followed him and stood in the doorway with a shawl around her shoulders.
Seth smiled at her and said, “Why don’t you put a coat on and come with us?”
“I don’t know. It still looks like it might rain again.”
“It’ll be less likely to if you come with us.”
Delta laughed and asked, “How do you figure that?”
“Rain wouldn’t dare fall on someone as pretty as you.”
“Aw, Preacher!” Charlie exclaimed. “Don’t go talkin’ like that to my ma.”
“Hush, Charlie,” Delta said. “Let Mr. Barrett say whatever he wants. He’s our guest, after all.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Charlie muttered.
“I suppose I could get my slicker,” Delta said. “Charlie should take his, too, just in case.”
“Sounds good,” Seth said with a nod. “You don’t mind your ma coming along, do you, Charlie?”
“No, I reckon not,” the boy said, but he didn’t sound all that sincere about it.
A short time later, Seth helped Delta climb onto the wagon seat and take her place beside Charlie. Again, the feel of her gloved hand in his sent a definite tingle through Seth.
He went around the wagon and swung up onto the seat from the other side, so that Charlie was sitting between him and Delta. No one could accuse them of behaving improperly. He picked up the reins, slapped them a
gainst the mules, and got the team moving.
He had a pretty good idea where to look for a Christmas tree. A hill not far away was covered with junipers that weren’t too big yet. One of them ought to do just fine, Seth thought. There was an ax in the back of the wagon he could use to cut down the tree they chose. He would let Charlie have a few swings, so the boy would feel like he’d contributed, but Seth intended to do most of the work himself.
“This looks like it may be a good Christmas, despite the weather,” Delta commented as the wagon rolled along.
“Maybe the best ever,” Seth said. That grin was back on his face.
A few hundred yards away, a man on horseback lowered the field glasses through which he had been watching the three people on the wagon.
This Christmas looked like it might be a lucrative one indeed, Oliver Hudson thought with a satisfied smirk.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Evelyn Channing had been afraid that Hudson would try to come into her blanket-partitioned area of the cave the night before, but neither he nor any of the other men had intruded upon her privacy. She couldn’t have stopped him, no matter what he tried to do, but maybe there was still a spark of something decent buried deep inside him. There must have been, she tried to tell herself, or else she never would have fallen in love with him to start with.
Of course, all that was finished now. No matter how much he talked about how he was going to marry her and how she would come to accept that, she knew she never would.
After the things she had seen, there would never be anything in her heart for Oliver Hudson except hate and fear.
Once she had realized that no one was going to bother her, she had fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep that left her feeling drugged this morning. When she dared to venture out, she found herself alone in the cave except for two men whose names, she recalled, were Deke and Packy.
They were sitting on crates beside the fire, drinking coffee, Evelyn saw as she tentatively pushed aside one of the blankets and looked out. Deke noticed her and immediately came to his feet, motioning for Packy to do likewise.
“Mornin’, ma’am,” Deke said.
“Yeah, mornin’,” Packy rumbled. He was shorter and more ruggedly built than Deke, who had a certain roughhewn handsomeness to him. Both men were outlaws, though, cold-blooded killers, and Evelyn couldn’t ever allow herself to forget that.
“How about a cup of coffee?” Deke went on.
Evelyn didn’t want to act the least bit pleasant or friendly to them. They had helped kidnap her, after all. But the coffee smelled so good she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “Yes, please. That sounds wonderful.”
It was a little chilly in the cave, even with the fire burning. Evelyn was glad for the jacket she wore. She must look terrible, she thought, after sleeping in her clothes the way she had. Even though she didn’t have a mirror, she knew her hair had to be a tangled mess.
Using a thick piece of leather to hold it, Deke took the coffee pot from the edge of the fire and filled a tin cup for her. He turned toward her and held it out. Evelyn swallowed her fear and walked out of the partitioned-off area. They were only blankets, she thought; they didn’t offer her any real protection.
Her hands shook a little as she took the cup from Deke and lifted it to her mouth. She sipped the coffee, found it to be hot and bitter but very bracing.
“Sorry it’s nothin’ fancy,” Deke told her.
“That’s all right. It’s very good.”
“We saved you some bacon and a couple of biscuits from breakfast, too.”
“Thank you. That was very nice of you.” She looked at the gray daylight outside. “What time is it?”
“When it’s this cloudy, it’s hard to tell, ain’t it? Got to be close to the middle of the mornin’, though.”
“That late? I . . . I must have been really tired.”
“I expect so, if you’re not used to riding a lot,” Deke said.
Packy sat back down on his crate. Evidently he wasn’t interested in making small talk.
“Where are all the others?” Evelyn asked. She noticed that most of the horses were gone.
“Oh, they’re around,” Deke said with a casual wave of his hand. “Some are standin’ guard, others are scoutin’. The boss said he had to run an errand and rode off a while ago. He left Packy and me to look out for you.”
To keep her from escaping, that was what he meant, Evelyn thought.
It was still a little disconcerting, too, to hear Oliver Hudson being referred to by one of these hard-bitten outlaws as “the boss.” How could she have been so foolish, so blind?
Deke told her to sit down on the crate where he’d been sitting. Evelyn hesitated, but then she realized there was no reason not to. She couldn’t get away, but for the moment these two men were treating her decently. They were probably too afraid of Hudson to do otherwise.
She sat down while Deke took some bacon from a skillet and put it on a tin plate along with the two biscuits he had mentioned. He gave the plate to Evelyn. Just as the smell of the coffee had made her realize how thirsty she was, the aroma and the sight of the food made her ravenously hungry. She dug in.
After several minutes she asked, “Is it still raining?” She had heard the roar of the storm for much of the night.
“No, it’s stopped,” Deke told her.
“But not for good, I’ll bet,” Packy put in.
“It’s got to stop and dry out one of these days,” Deke said. “Otherwise this whole part of the country is gonna be underwater pretty soon.”
“Like the great flood in the Bible,” Evelyn said.
Deke frowned and said, “Uh, yeah, I reckon. To be honest, I don’t remember much about that. Been a long time since I set foot in a church and heard the Scriptures read. Goin’ on twenty years, I’d say.”
“That’s a shame. I haven’t been as diligent a church-goer myself as I should have been.”
Packy said, “No time for it when you’re always on the dodge.”
“Come to think of it, though,” Deke mused, “I believe the boss mentioned somethin’ about goin’ to church when he left.”
That wasn’t possible, Evelyn thought. If a man as evil as Oliver Hudson ever set foot in a church, hell would surely freeze over.
But it was Sunday, she reminded herself. Somewhere, services were going on right now. Maybe Hudson had meant what he said.
If he had gone to church, though, it wasn’t because he cared about his immortal soul. That was already doomed.
No, he had to have more wickedness in mind . . . although what could that have to do with church services? Evelyn had no idea.
Just as Seth had thought, there were plenty of trees the right size growing on the hill he had in mind. He brought the wagon to a halt at the edge of the road, waved a hand at the juniper saplings, and said, “There you go, Charlie. You go pick out a good one.”
“All right!” Charlie said as he stood up, moved past his mother, and jumped to the ground.
As he ran up the hill, Delta called after him, “Try not to get too muddy!”
Charlie didn’t seem to hear her. He was too excited.
With the boy running around in the trees on the hillside, that left Seth and Delta sitting together on the wagon. Seth smiled and said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have sent him to do that. He was our chaperone.”
“I’m a grown woman who was married for a good number of years, Mr. Barrett,” Delta said with a smile of her own. “I don’t exactly require a chaperone. And you’re a minister, so it goes without saying that your morals are above reproach.”
Seth couldn’t help it. He threw his head back and laughed.
Delta cocked her head a little to the side and asked, “Did I say something amusing?”
“No . . . No, not really. It’s just that you don’t know me as well as you think you do, Mrs. Kennedy.”
“I doubt that,” she said. “I regard myself as an excellent judge of character, and you strike me a
s a fine man, Mr. Barrett.”
“Seth,” he said. “Why don’t you call me Seth?”
“Because if I did that,” she answered, “I’d have to ask you to . . . to call me by my given name, and I’m not sure . . . I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
Seth’s expression was serious now as he looked at her and said, “I don’t see why not. I don’t see how it would hurt a thing in the world if you and I became better friends.”
“Mr. Barrett . . .”
“Seth,” he reminded her gently.
“All right . . . Seth.” She drew in a breath. “As I just mentioned, I was married for quite a few years—”
“And it’s been three years since your husband passed away,” Seth broke in. “I mean no disrespect to the late Mr. Kennedy. From everything I’ve heard about him, he was a very fine man, and I know that must be the case or else you never would have married him. I can see that in Charlie as well. His father raised him right.”
“He would have,” Delta said softly, “if he hadn’t been taken from us so soon. Too soon.”
“I agree. But you’re still a young woman, Delta.” Seth knew he was being too forward, but he charged straight ahead. That was the way he had been in the life he’d led before coming here, straight ahead no matter what the odds, and it wasn’t something he could change the way he had changed his name. “You shouldn’t have to spend the rest of your life alone.”
“I’m not alone. I have Charlie.”
“You know what I mean. And someday Charlie will grow up and leave to live his own life.”
“Of course he will.”
“I’m not asking you to make up your mind about anything. I’m just asking you to think about the things the future could hold . . . for both of us—”
“Hey!” Charlie’s eager shout floated down the hill. “How about this one?”
Seth and Delta both looked up the slope and saw Charlie standing next to a well-formed juniper about five feet tall. Seth said, “Do you think we can get that in your house?”
A Texas Hill Country Christmas Page 19
