A Little Christmas Magic (15 page)

It still seemed unbelievable that his family’s pet donkey was about to star in the traditional nativity play for the village. As extraordinary as the person who’d made it happen?

Yes.

Once she had Oliver and Poppy and Jemima into position at the front entrance of the hall, Adam knew she would take her position on the stage as the curtains were drawn back. With the music from her guitar and her lovely voice, she would lead the junior choir in singing the ‘Little Donkey’ carol for what would be a breathtaking opening for the traditional play that was the finale of the Christmas concert. Adam couldn’t wait to see it.

But he didn’t want it to start just yet. Not until he’d had a chance to talk to Emma.

Seeing her slight figure beside the float, holding the lead rope attached to Jemima’s halter, made Adam’s heart squeeze so tightly it felt like it might burst. She’d won the hearts of so many of those people tucked into the warmth of the old hall beside them, including his own children.

Especially including him.

He hadn’t known it was possible to fall in love so fast—and so completely—with someone. Emma had not only won his heart, she would have it for ever, whether she wanted it or not.

She probably didn’t want it. Not after the way he’d treated her. But he had to at least tell her how he felt. To explain why he’d reacted the way he had. To take the risk of making himself completely vulnerable in order to fight for the woman he loved so much.

‘Emma …’

‘Adam …’ Emma looked startled but then relieved. ‘Can you persuade Jemima to move? Ollie’s still getting changed and she won’t budge for me.’

Adam took hold of the donkey’s halter and made encouraging noises but it was like trying to move a very large rock.

‘She’s no’ going anywhere,’ Janet—the woman who’d collected Jemima that afternoon—said. ‘No’ without Dougal. She’s fallen in love.’

‘What?’ Adam peered inside the float to where he could see the fluffy back end of another donkey. ‘There’s another donkey?’

‘Aye …’ Janet’s stare seemed intense in the soft light from the hall windows. ‘I brought him in case she didn’t like the idea of going in the float. But it seems that she’s a very lonely donkey. She needs love in her life.’

‘Don’t we all?’ Adam turned to Emma, who was also staring at him with a curious expression. One of hope? Janet had disappeared into the float. ‘Emma, I need to talk to you. I—’

‘Dougal needs a home.’ The donkey had followed her down the ramp. ‘Jemima doesn’t need to be lonely any more.’

As if to add her opinion, Jemima made a soft, whickering sound and pulled away from Emma to touch her nose to Dougal’s. The two donkeys stood there, side by side, their bodies pressed together.

‘Do you think you could?’ Yes. It was definitely hope in Emma’s eyes. ‘Adopt Dougal?’

Adam wanted to see her smile. To see the joy he knew would appear, even if it had nothing to do with him.

‘Aye … If Jemima’s in love then it wouldn’t be right to separate them, would it?’

‘No …’ Emma was smiling. ‘And it would make Poppy so happy if Jemima had a friend.’ There was more than joy in her eyes. They were soft and full of love. Was it too much to hope that some of that love might include him?

Adam took a deep breath but just as he opened his mouth a figure came swiftly towards them from the street.

‘Dr McAllister—thank goodness I’ve found you. You have to come—quickly. Bryan’s fallen off his ladder. He was trying to fix the lights outside The Inn and he’s come a cropper. I think he might have killed himself …’

For just a heartbeat longer Adam held Emma’s gaze but there was nothing he could say. Not yet. All he could do was to try and communicate that this conversation wasn’t finished.

It hadn’t even begun, in fact.

He turned away. ‘I’m coming,’ he said. ‘Let me grab my bag.’

It took only a few minutes to get to the scene of the accident. Bryan had, indeed, come a cropper and had probably knocked himself out for a short time. He had a good-sized lump on his head and had a mild concussion, but there didn’t seem to be anything seriously amiss. But by the time they’d got him inside to the warmth and Adam had given him a thorough check, repeating his neurological checks at five-minute intervals, and finally decided it wasn’t necessary to call an ambulance, at least half an hour had passed.

By the time he got back to the village hall, he knew he had probably missed everything. The entrance of the children, with Poppy riding Jemima, the singing of the children, the whole play perhaps. At least it was being videoed but the twins would be so disappointed that he hadn’t been there. He searched for them on the stage
where every performer had gathered for a final carol but he couldn’t see them.

Emma wasn’t there with her guitar either.

And where was Caitlin? Was there a problem backstage?

The children gathered on the stage were getting restless. A hum of conversation began in the audience, too. It was getting later and a new snowfall could start at any moment. Everybody was ready to go home.

Adam ducked back out the front door and raced around to the side entrance near the stage. He almost knocked someone over who was rushing in the opposite direction.

‘Adam …
Oh
…’ Emma sounded distraught. ‘Have you seen the twins?’

‘No. They’re not on the stage with the other children.’

‘They’re not anywhere …’ Emma’s breath came out in a sob. ‘They’ve
disappeared
…’

Janet and Caitlin weren’t far behind Emma. ‘The donkeys are gone too. I had them in the float. I was just looking for someone to help me lift the back door.’

‘Jemima must have undone the knots.’ Emma’s voice was shaking. Oliver had told her how clever she was at doing that, hadn’t he? ‘The children must have gone looking for them …’

Caitlin put her arm around Emma’s shoulders but she was looking at Adam. ‘They can’t have gone far, surely?’

‘But it’s so dark …’ Emma whispered. ‘And cold …’

Adam had had plenty of practice in his career of not allowing panic to gain a foothold but this was the hardest test ever.

‘It’s been snowing,’ he said, struggling to keep his tone calm. ‘The tracks will be easy to follow. We’ll get a group to follow where the donkeys have gone and others
to look for what direction the children have gone, just in case they’re not together.’

The snow was falling more thickly now. Silent, fluffy, fat flakes that would quickly obliterate any tracks.

They were already running out of time.

‘Caitlin—go inside and round up as many people as you can to help us look. Make sure they’ve got at least one person with a mobile phone in each group. Janet—go with someone who’ll help you follow the donkeys’ tracks. You’ll be the best person to manage them. Emma?’

Her gaze locked with his instantly.

‘Come with me.’ Her hand joined his outstretched one just as quickly. He held her gaze for a heartbeat longer but he didn’t need to say anything.

They both knew they had to find the children. Nothing else mattered.

T
HE CALL TO
action was taken up by every able-bodied adult present in the village hall on that Christmas Eve.

The children were kept in the warmth, guarded by Caitlin and a group of mothers. Braeburn’s policeman, Angus, organised everybody else into groups that fanned out from the hall to cover every possible direction the children might have taken.

By the time the groups began moving, Adam and Emma were already in the village square. The lights on the big tree and in the shop windows twinkled as merrily as ever but the square was deserted and Adam’s groan of frustration a loud sound in the kind of silence that only came in a snow-covered landscape.

‘I thought they’d be here. They could never get enough of coming to see the tree in the last couple of years.’

Having her own hope snatched away had left too much room for fear to fill. Emma’s gaze raked the area she knew so well now but there was no sign of any small people and the snow was a smooth carpet. The only footprints to be seen were the ones they were making themselves.

‘But it hasn’t been like that this year.’ Adam seemed to be thinking aloud. ‘Because they’ve got a Christmas
tree at home, haven’t they?’ He raised his voice. ‘
Ollie
?
Poppy
? Can you hear me? Where
are
you?’

In the distance, they could hear others calling the children’s names. Much closer came another shout as a square of light appeared between the windows of the local pub.

‘What’s going on? Is that you, Doc?’

‘Aye, Bryan.’ Adam walked towards the inn keeper. ‘The twins have wandered off from the hall. We don’t know where they are.’

‘On a night like this? I’ll get my coat and help you look.’

‘No. You’re supposed to be resting that head of yours. But if you see anything, call Angus. He’s in charge of the search parties.’

‘I will but I canna understand why the bairns would have done that.’ Bryan shook his head as he stepped forward to grip Adam’s arm. ‘But they’ll be all right. They’ve got an angel looking out for them, haven’t they?’

‘Aye …’ But Adam had already turned away.

Why
had
the children run away? Emma’s hand was on Adam’s arm the moment Bryan let go.

‘They must be looking for you,’ she said. ‘Maybe they realised you weren’t there to see the play.’

‘I
wanted
to be there.’ The growl reminded Emma of when she’d first met Adam. ‘I had no choice …’

‘I know that. I’m not blaming you.’ Emma squeezed his arm more tightly. ‘But where would they go if they wanted to find you? The medical centre?’

‘Aye … That’s a thought.’

Adam started to move so swiftly that Emma slipped on the cobbles as she tried to keep up. This time it was Adam who caught her arm and then he took hold of her hand again and slowed his pace a little.

Please, be there
, Emma prayed silently.
Be sitting on the steps of the clinic, waiting for your daddy.

But they weren’t. The steps were covered by inches of perfect white snow.

‘Oh …
no
…’ Emma whispered. ‘I’m sorry, Adam. We’ve come the wrong way.’

‘It’s not your fault. It was a good idea.’

‘It
is
my fault. I should have been watching them. It was my job and I didn’t do it well enough.’ The tear that trickled down felt hot against her frozen skin.

‘If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s mine,’ Adam said. ‘I sent you away. It was my responsibility to look after my children.’ He hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. ‘I didn’t
think
…’

‘You’re the only doctor this village has. Of course you had to go when you were called to an accident. The children were safely in the hall with dozens of people.’

‘I’m no’ a good father. Just like I wasn’t a good husband.’

‘How can you
say
that?’ Emma was shocked. ‘You’re a wonderful father. You love those children to bits, even if you’ve found it hard to show it sometimes. But everyone understands why. You had a perfect marriage. Everybody knows that your heart was broken when you lost the love of your life.’

‘Nobody
knows
…’ Adam was looking away from her. Poised to walk in the direction he was looking. To continue their urgent search.

‘They do,’ Emma insisted. ‘
I
know, too. And I’m sorry. I’ve only made things worse but I didn’t mean to. I—’

‘She wasn’t alone.’
The words were torn out of Adam. He still hadn’t turned to meet Emma’s gaze. ‘When she died in that bed. Tania wasn’t alone. She was with her lover. I wasn’t enough of a husband for her.’

‘No …’
Shock was laced with anger this time as understanding sank in. As she realised that Adam had been living a lie for so long. To keep such an awful truth to himself to protect his children. Even his own mother didn’t know because she’d never have spoken of Tania the way she had that first night if she did.

There was a complete lack of understanding mixed in as well. How could any woman have won the love of this beautiful man and then trampled on it with such devastating effect?

No wonder it was so hard for him to trust again. Or that he’d reacted to her own deception the way he had.

She had to get him to look at her so that he could see the truth. Reaching up, Emma touched his cheek, turning his head so that she could meet his eyes.

‘
No
,’ she repeated fiercely. ‘
She
wasn’t a good enough wife for
you.
’

She could have come up with any number of reasons why Adam deserved to be truly loved but this wasn’t the time and the interruption of Adam’s phone ringing made Emma catch her breath. Good news? Had the children been found?

Adam’s voice was loud a few moments later. ‘What—no sign at all? What about the donkeys?’

He listened again. ‘We’ll have to go further than the village, then. It’s stopped snowing now. If they’re moving, they’ll start leaving tracks again.’

If
they were moving?

Emma couldn’t bear to think of why they might not be moving.

Having snapped his phone shut, Adam stood very still and Emma knew he wasn’t seeing the street. Or the square at the end where they could still see the flashes of the Christmas tree’s lights.

‘We need help,’ he said slowly. ‘A search and rescue team. Dogs.’

‘Dogs …’ The word was too quiet for Adam to hear. Maybe she hadn’t even spoken it aloud but it was enough to trigger a powerful image. An old stone farmhouse at the end of a long drive, with a big kitchen and a fascinating attic. Fireplaces with dancing flames and snoozing dogs on the rugs.

Home.

The image morphed into something that felt like an absolute conviction.

‘Adam? I know where they are.’

‘Where?’

‘They’ve gone home.’

‘Why would they do that? It’s miles away. They wouldn’t make it. They’re just wee bairns …’

‘I just know it’s the direction they will have taken. Let’s get your car and check.’

‘But how can you be so sure?’

‘It’s where I’d want to be,’ Emma said softly. ‘To be with you.’

For a long, long moment Adam held her gaze. Asking for something. Reassurance that the children would be found safe? Or maybe he was asking if
she
wanted to be with him?

All she could offer was hope.

And a hand to hold.

The house wasn’t locked but as soon as they got out of the vehicle Adam knew there was no point in going inside, despite the urgent barking they could hear.

The driveway had been sheltered from a heavy cover of snow by the trees but the tracks were obvious in the headlights as soon as they got close to the house. Messy
tracks that were more than just footprints that were marking a path that led towards the orchard and stables.

There was no time to find a torch so Adam used the light from his phone. He offered Emma his hand to guide her through the half-open gate and was still holding it when they got to the door of the stable.

It was a picture he would never forget as long as he lived.

Two donkeys curled up in the thick layer of straw, their noses touching. Between them, protected by the warmth of the fluffy bodies, were the two children. Oliver had one arm around Jemima’s neck, his face pillowed on her neck. His other arm was around his sister. Poppy, in her blue dress, still had the baby doll clutched under her arm. Both the children had a healthy, rosy glow to their cheeks and were clearly deeply asleep. An exhausted Joseph and Mary with the baby. It was a nativity scene like no other.

The donkeys were awake. Four huge, dark eyes met the light but neither Jemima nor Dougal disturbed the children by even a twitch.

Adam’s first instinct was to gather both children into his arms as if he would never let them go, and he would do that. But first there was something else he had to do. Quietly, he stepped back and made the call to Angus to relay the news that the children were safe and the search could be called off. The inhabitants of Braeburn village could go to their own homes and prepare to celebrate Christmas with their own families.

Emma was still close by and he turned to her as he ended the call. It was time to take the children in to their own beds but catching Emma’s gaze stopped Adam again.

‘I’ve been alone for a long time.’ His voice caught. ‘In a place that I never thought I could share with anyone.’

‘I know.’ She held his gaze. ‘Thank you.’

‘What for?’

‘Trusting me.’ She moved a little closer. ‘I understand why you’ve kept the truth to yourself and that’s something that will never go any further. The children—and the people of Braeburn—can always think that the mother of your children is an angel.’

‘But you’ll know …’ Adam could hear the note of wonder in his own voice. ‘And that means I’m not alone any more.’ He had to swallow hard. ‘It’s me who should be thanking
you.
’

‘There’s no need.’ It looked like Emma was trying to smile but he could see the way her lips trembled. He suddenly felt a little fragile himself.

‘I found your song,’ he told her. ‘With the photographs. You left it behind yesterday. I’m sorry … I had no idea you were sick.’

‘But you saw me at the hospital …’

‘I got things wrong …’ Adam closed his eyes. ‘I saw you with Jack. Holding hands. I didn’t know who he was and I thought … I’m sorry. It’s no’ been easy for me to learn to trust again.’

‘But you trusted me tonight. You told me your terrible secret.’

‘Aye … I already knew how wrong I’d been. Even before I knew who Jack was.’ It was Adam’s turn to move closer. Close enough to touch. To cup Emma’s face and make sure she knew how much every word meant. ‘I’ve been wrong about a lot of things but there’s one thing I can never be wrong about. I love you. I want you to stay. With me. With the children. For as long as we’ve got.’

He saw a whole range of expressions flicker over the face of this woman he loved. Shock as she probably guessed what he’d thought when he’d seen her with
another man. Forgiveness as he admitted his error. The birth of joy as he confessed his love.

And then she smiled.

‘It might be a very long time. I haven’t got the final results of my bone-marrow test but so far everything’s looking as good as it possibly could.’

‘It could never be long enough.’ Adam put his arms around Emma and drew her close. His kiss was slow and tender. A promise of what he intended to show her properly, very soon.

‘Let’s get these bairns safely into their own beds.’

‘Aye …’ Emma’s smile was one of pure joy. ‘And then we can get to ours?’

‘Aye …’

With their arms still around each other, they went back into the stable.

Poppy stirred as her father lifted her into his arms. ‘Daddy …’ Her eyes opened and she turned her head. ‘
Emma
… you’re back. You’ve come home.’

‘I have, sweetheart.’

Oliver had woken up, too. ‘I told you she wasn’t going away for ever,’ he told his sister.

‘But I saw you leave,’ Poppy said. ‘I saw you talking to Daddy and you took your kit-ar and … and I was sad.’

‘You don’t need to be sad any more,’ Adam said. ‘Emma’s not going anywhere.’

‘You didn’t see our play,’ Oliver said. ‘We went outside to find you and saw Jemima going home. We tried to catch her and then we got lost.’

‘She’s got a friend now.’ Poppy smiled at Emma. ‘She’s got Dougal.’

‘Dougal likes me,’ Oliver said. ‘He let me ride him and Poppy rode Jemima and she took us home.’

‘I was scared, Daddy.’

‘So was I, poppet. So was I.’

‘But everything’s all right now.’ Emma’s eyes were bright with tears as she held out her hand to Oliver. ‘Let’s go inside and get you two into your nice warm beds.’

Poppy was almost asleep again in her father’s arms.

‘Emma came back,’ she murmured. ‘I
love
Emma.’

‘So do I, pet.’ Adam’s whisper was loud enough for them all to hear. ‘So do I.’

Emma, with Oliver’s hand in hers, came close enough to lean against Adam’s arm as she returned his tender smile. He could feel the connection of her body against his and he could see a far deeper connection in her eyes. Here they were—the four of them—all connected.

His
family. And they were together. And safe. And very, very soon they would celebrate their first Christmas together. A new and wonderful joy misted his vision.

He knew that it would be the first of many, many Christmases.