by Jillian Hart
Toby nodded, his gaze downcast, and trudged off, circling around the pickle barrel. Elijah watched, his heart strangely full. More shoppers scurried in, shaking off the effects of the storm. Near white-out conditions blanketed the view of the street, but it gave the world a Christmassy feel.
Christmas. While he appreciated the reason for the season and celebrated Christmas Eve at the church’s candlelight service, he always spent the day alone.
But not this Christmas.
“Arthur, I need gifts and things for a stocking.” He wanted to get this holiday right, including a tree to decorate. “I haven’t had a reason to do much celebrating Christmas Day, not since my pa passed, almost a decade now.”
“Then you’re talking to the right man. I can help. I noticed how your boy looks at the train set in the window every time he walks by. Watch.”
Sure enough, as Toby made a loop around the store his gaze strayed to the window where a train sat on wooden tracks in front of a shiny red depot. Town buildings and peg people and wooden horses lined the track. A boy could spend many hours in play with that gift. Elijah nodded. “Then it’s a sale.”
“I’ll throw in some Christmas candy for a stocking.” Arthur kept his voice low as Toby returned. The man knelt to check the shoes, and Elijah’s mind wandered.
What about Christina? She’d looked as if she belonged in his house, looking at home in the parlor, and the image stuck with him. The distant toot of the afternoon train arriving sounded faintly, reminding him of the time. The afternoon was speeding by and his new furniture would be delivered in a bit. When he dragged his attention to Toby, the boy stood red-faced, shaking his head at whatever Arthur was saying to him.
“I think these will serve you well, young man.” Arthur gathered the neatly folded stack of clothes they’d picked for the kid. “If you need anything else, you be sure and let me know. I’ll do my best to help you, son.”
“You’re real nice,” Toby muttered, staring at his new shoes. “I feel real bad. There’s somethin’ I gotta tell you.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“I was real hungry when I first got off the train.” Toby gulped, gathering his courage. “I stole three pieces of beef jerky from the jar over there.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m awful sorry. Please don’t get mad.” Toby braced himself as if expecting a blow. “I swept up your boardwalk so you wouldn’t have to.”
“Ah, so you’re the mysterious snow clearer.” Arthur moved behind the counter to tear off a length of brown paper from the roll. He sent Elijah a wink. “Here’s how it’s going to go. From now on, we start fresh. You pay for anything you take out of this store, and we stay friends. Agreed?”
Toby blew out a breath of relief. “And I’ll shovel off your boardwalk for as long as you want so I can make up for stealing from you.”
“How about until school starts up again?” Elijah gave the kid’s shoulder a squeeze of approval. “That seems long enough to make up for what you did. What do you say, Arthur?”
“Sounds good to me.” Arthur smiled as he tied a string around the paper, securing it with a bow.
“You did a good job, Toby, fessing up.” Elijah watched as the kid’s head bobbed downward again. He still looked miserable as he shuffled up to take one of the two packages Arthur handed him. Something else was bothering the boy.
Elijah took the heavier package, paid for the Christmas gifts Arthur promised to deliver after closing and steered Toby through the doors. The jingle of harness bells rang dully through the thick snowfall. Only faint shadows through the white hinted at the horses and sleighs passing on the street. Determined shoppers were out, clogging up the boardwalk and radiating tension. So much to do, with tomorrow being Christmas Eve.
“You and I need to get back to the house.” Elijah turned, but Toby wasn’t there. He was a few paces back, slumped against the mercantile wall. Tears spiked the boy’s lashes.
Maybe this was overwhelming for him. Maybe he was missing the parents he’d lost. Elijah backtracked. “Hey, there. You don’t look all right.”
“Nope.” Toby choked out. “If I told you what I done, you won’t want me to live with you no more.”
“Well, now, you’ll just have to tell me and see.” He leaned against the siding, too. “I’m in an understanding mood, so you just go ahead and say it.”
“I didn’t mean to h-hurt her.” Toby’s head bobbed forward until his chin touched his chest. “I wouldn’t want to hurt no one, not ever.”
“I believe that.” Elijah knelt down so he was eye level. This was his first real test as a pa, and he didn’t want to fail. “Who got hurt?”
“Miss Christina.” His voice sounded small, wobbling with misery.
“So, you were the boy I couldn’t catch that day at the train stop.” It had been snowing and the kid had such a head start that Elijah hadn’t seen more than a faded red hat and a dark coat disappearing around the train engine. Now it all made sense—why the boy had run, why he blushed around Christina. “You knocked into her pretty hard. Was it your first reticule snatching?”
He nodded vigorously. “I bumped harder than I figured—I didn’t mean it. I didn’t know she was hurt until I seen her in the doctor’s office.”
“And that’s why you ran away. That’s why you were afraid I was going to arrest you.”
“But she didn’t know it was me, so I felt badder and badder. She kept being nice to me.” Toby blinked hard, refusing to let his tears fall. “Are you gonna put me in jail now?”
“You need to make things right, but you already know that.” Elijah wished his thoughts didn’t veer off to her. Was she preparing for her wedding? Maybe pressing her dress, figuring out how to wear her hair? It tore his heart out, leaving him in utter darkness.
He couldn’t let her marry another, not without letting her know how he felt.
Do I have a chance, Lord? He stared at the heavy snow, obscuring all view of the sky. Heaven felt so very far away.
* * *
“I wish I could do more for you, but I run the place—I don’t own it anymore.” Mildred circled behind the front desk. “If you can’t pay cash for the night, then I can’t offer you credit.”
“I understand. I had to ask.” Christina wasn’t surprised, but she’d hoped. Already the sun had gone down. Night had fallen, and it was still storming.
“Personally, I don’t see the harm in letting you stay one night, since the room would stay empty anyhow. What’s a night between friends, but my boss doesn’t see things that way. There’s rules I have to follow.”
“Rules are rules. I understand.” Christina set the door key on the scarred countertop. Tom had refused to pay for the night’s lodging after she’d tried canceling their wedding.
“But our bargain still stands. You’ll be cleaning for me tomorrow morning?”
“Absolutely. You have no idea how grateful I am.”
“It was nothing.” Mildred tucked the room key away reluctantly. “I’ll see you tomorrow and be sure and come in early for breakfast. You’ve earned it. Do you have a place to stay tonight?”
“Don’t you worry about me. I’ll get by.” She’d swung by the livery stable on her way through town earlier and checked out the stalls and the entrances. For the six months she’d been homeless, she’d learned a thing or two about finding shelter. “You have a good evening, Mildred.”
The storm battered her when she crossed the street. The quick supper she had sat like a stone in her middle as she wove down an empty street, then a vacant alley and pried the wooden latch on the livery’s back door with her button hook.
The moment she eased through the door, the relative warmth of the stable surrounded her. Horses in their stalls craned their necks, coming up to their gates to take a look at the newcomer. She reassured them softly; they nickered in return and went back to their business of eating grain or drowsing contentedly.
It didn’t take long to locate a few clean horse
blankets. She was grateful to the livery owner for the thick bed of fresh straw in an empty corner stall. Her injured arm ached from the cold, but soon she was tucked beneath the wool blankets and getting warmer. As the wind gusted against the siding like an eerie song, Elijah filled her thoughts.
Was he tucked safely in his house? Had his furniture been delivered? Did he and Toby sit down at their new table to say grace over a hot meal? How were they passing the evening? Reading? Getting Toby settled in his new room? Sitting before the hearth sharing stories?
She prayed for it to be so. If her soul longed again for the sight of Elijah’s smile, she had to ignore it. She had to let him go. Her feelings ran deep for him, deeper than she could allow herself to acknowledge. It would be wrong to give in to her affections. She owed Tom a debt, one she could only repay by marrying him. Her only way out would be to talk him into letting her work off what she owed him in his barn instead of marrying her. She wasn’t sure he was the type of man to consider a compromise.
A creak of the front door opening rocketed through the silence. She sat up, pulse pounding. Was it the stable owner? Or the local law? Dreading the image of Sheriff Kramer, or worse, Elijah, she bolted to her feet, the straw rustling tellingly. What did she do? Did she hide and hope to remain undetected? Or did she run?
Footsteps padded across the hard-packed floor. She held her breath, heart banging against her ribs. No, it was too late to run for it; she’d be spotted. With no other choice, she silently grabbed her satchel and crept carefully into darkest corner of the stall. Maybe the shadows would hide her. She waited, trying not to imagine the worst—being discovered, being trussed up and marched to jail, being locked behind steel bars for trespassing. She did not want to explain to Elijah why she’d been arrested.
A match flared to life at the front of the livery. The clink of a glass lantern chimney echoed, and the horses stirred, drowning out all other sounds. She waited, fighting against the rise in her soul, the way it rose whenever the marshal was near. Was it Elijah, or her wishful thinking?
Memories of him filled her mind. How he’d made her laugh on the train, how he’d watched over her, how she’d never felt more safe with anyone. The midnight-blue gaze, the curve of his chiseled mouth and the lilt of her heart when he’d taken her hand. The affection she’d tried to fight, the caring she had denied, fought for light. She had to wrestle it back into the dark. She feared what she felt for Elijah could never be.
“Hey, Miss Christina, are you here?” A boy’s familiar whisper cut into her ruminations.
“Toby.” She gripped the side of the stall, standing on shaky legs. “Why aren’t you home with the marshal?”
“Cuz I promised him I’d make all the things I’d done right.” He spotted her and rushed over. “That’s why I’m here.”
“How did you know where to find me?”
“When the boardinghouse lady said you’d left, I knew where you’d gone. There’s no place warmer than a stable with animals in it, when you’ve got no place to go.” Toby opened the stall gate, so little, so sad. “It’s all my fault. I broke your arm.”
“No, you didn’t. How could you say such a thing? I fell, and it didn’t even happen here in town.” Then her gaze fell on something he pulled out of his old coat pocket—a faded red knit cap. She could barely see it in the ambient light from the distant lantern. She recognized that hat. Not that she’d gotten a look at the boy who’d slammed into her on the train platform that day, but he’d been about Toby’s height. He’d worn a dark coat. “It was you. You stole my reticule.”
“Yep, I did and I wished I hadn’t.” He bowed his head in shame. “I never meant to hurt you. I wished I hadn’t done it as soon as I did.”
“I see.” She took a breath, letting the realization sink in. It should feel like betrayal. She should be furious or hurt. But those feelings weren’t the ones building within her. “You must have been desperate to do such a thing and pretty disappointed to discover there wasn’t even a penny inside.”
“Nope, you were broke.” Toby sniffled. “I tossed your reticule out when the train was moving, so I can’t give it back.”
“Oh.” He hadn’t kept it. The treasures within were gone, the remembrances of her loved ones.
“Can you f-forgive me?” The light found him, illuminating the earnest need for absolution. Honest green eyes pleaded. “I wouldn’t blame ya if you couldn’t.”
“Of course I can.” She knelt in the straw and held out her arms. Toby rushed into them, and she hugged him, savoring his little boy sweetness. She ached for a happy family of her own, a wish that felt out of reach.
Wasn’t that life? Some dreams you lost, some dreams you reached. Only God was in charge.
She let Toby go. “You don’t have to steal anymore, Toby. The marshal is going to take care of you.”
“That’s what he told me and I believe him.” Toby rubbed at his eyes. “I don’t know what I done to get so lucky. But I prayed real hard for a long time, before I gave up. Just the way my ma taught me.”
“Then it’s not luck that Elijah came into your life.” She brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes.
“Not luck at all.” Boots thudded close and light spilled far down the aisle, the lantern held in a man’s strong hand. The shadow behind it took on shape. First she saw a hint of wide shoulders and the crown of a Stetson. Everything around her vanished in comparison.
Elijah strode forcefully into the aisle—carved granite face, high cheekbones, iron jaw. “Guess Toby was right. He knew how to find you.”
“I—” The man stole her breath. He scrambled her thoughts. He made the wishes within her whisper, longing to come true. “Why are you here? I thought we’d said our goodbyes.”
“Not even close.” His dark blue gaze gentled, softening with affection. Affection for her? She could only stare, taking it all in, the breathtaking combination of steely man and loving heart. He leaned closer. “You and I are not finished yet.”
“We aren’t?” Hope took wing inside her. Why couldn’t she breathe properly? His closeness stole every speck of air in the stable as she wished. How she wished.
“Miss Christina? I got somethin’ for you. It was here a minute ago.” Toby dug deep into his pocket. The bump of his hand followed the garment’s lining; perhaps there was a hole in the pocket seam. The lantern light fell on what Toby pulled from his pocket. Gold glinted like a sign from above.
“My adoptive mother’s brooch.” She couldn’t believe it. Happiness rolled through her at the sight of the treasures. “My sisters’ locket. You kept them.”
“I had to. After I got kicked by the horse and you helped me, too, I kept ’em.” Toby swallowed hard, holding the jewelry out to her. “I couldn’t pawn ’em.”
“This is the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received. Thank you.” The beloved brooch felt familiar in her hands. She traced the gold filigree edging and the soft ivory cameo. With it came the legacy of her adoptive mother’s love, the woman who’d raised her with care and gentleness. “You have no notion what this means to me.”
The gold locket opened with a small click and she took out the image, her gaze drinking in the sight of her two sisters, their image lost no more. Realization washed over her. “I’m not sure how much I can get for this jewelry and it will be hard to pawn them, but, Toby, you may have just given me my freedom from Tom. Oh, you dear boy.”
“No need to sell your treasures,” Elijah answered, hanging the lantern on a post nail. “I stopped by Tom’s place on my way here. That’s why we tracked you down.”
“You talked with Tom?” Her pulse skidded to a stop. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I care what happens to you.” The light in his deep blue gaze made her hope. His granite features gentled. “I paid your debt to him.”
“What? Oh, Elijah, no. It was so much money. I—” Words failed her. Why had he done that for her? Tears burned behind her eyes as her hopes began to build.
“Y
ou were worth it, Christina. Whether you marry Tom or not is now entirely up to you.” Elijah towered over her, so close he scrambled her senses, drowning out all things but him. Only him. His warm hands gathered hers, engulfing them with his strength, with what felt like tenderness.
“It’s a lot of money, Elijah,” she choked out. “How can I let a debt stand between us?”
“Because it was no debt. I did it—” He paused. Emotion lit him up, where shadows had lingered before. “Well, I did it out of love. That kind of act can’t be reimbursed. It’s not a debt to be owed. You just have to accept it.”
“Out of love?” She studied him—mountain-tough, rugged and strong. The kind of man who kept his promises, who stood for what was right, who had captured her unwilling heart with his every kindness. From the very first moment she’d met him, she’d prayed for a husband like him, for a man with his true heart to love her forever. That prayer wasn’t about to be answered, was it?
“I love you, Christina.” Abiding affection warmed the low notes of his voice. Honesty shone in his adoring gaze. “From the moment I first set eyes on you, you changed my heart. You brought me back to life. You made me see what my future could be. I don’t know how you feel about me, but I have to ask. Do you think you can come to love me, too?”
His words were a gift, as precious as a blessing from above. His question stymied her. He had no notion that he’d touched her heart the same way.
“No,” she said gently. “I don’t think there’s a way I can come to love you. Because I already do.”
“You do?” He winced, thankfulness carving into his face. He looked as if he couldn’t believe it, as if he’d just received the best gift of all.
“I do. I love you, Elijah.” The words felt freeing. Joyous.
“Then I have a question to ask you.” He went down on one knee. “You traveled a long way to find a husband, and I’m hoping it’s me. Will you do me the honor of being my wife? Will you marry me?”
“Marry you? I would love nothing more.” She laid her hand against the slant of his jaw, tenderness lifting her up with a power she’d never known before. “Elijah Gable, you are the best Christmas gift I could ever have.”
