An Amish Christmas Quilt (26 page)

“Not in this weather.”

Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. They were stuck in this frigid cabin for the rest of the night. A chill ran through her bones just thinking about it.

But then she remembered, and she could breathe again. Gid was here. He had strong hands, a quick mind, and a
gute
heart. He could take care of them both. She was safe.

He snatched the garbage bag and the bucket and went into the other room where Brownie and Pete stood silently, side by side, no doubt trying to share their body heat. Dottie leaned her head to the left to see what he was doing. He took the dead flashlight from the windowsill and put it and the bucket on the floor. Then he hung the garbage bag around the open window by stuffing the bag's edges into the small space between the window frame and the wall. He used the blade of his pocketknife to wedge the garbage bag deeply into the narrow slit all the way around the window.

He searched the floor and found several pebbles, which he stuffed tightly into the slits, effectively anchoring the garbage bag into place. The plastic blocked the wind and kept the snow outside.

“That was smart,” she said.

She saw him grin by the light of the lantern. He quickly took off Pete's saddle, but left the blanket. Opening the door just wide enough to slip through, he picked up the bucket and went outside. He came back with a bucketful of snow that he set next to the fire. “The horses could use a drink,” he said. He scooped some snow from the bucket with the tin cup. “Let this melt, and then you have a drink too.”

He wouldn't stay still. After throwing another log on the fire, he cut one of the apples in half and fed it to the horses. He used one of his snowshoes as a clumsy broom to sweep up the pile of snow in the front room and push it out the door.

Dottie stayed close to the fire, flexing her fingers and toes and letting her body soak up all the warmth it would. She still wore her bonnet and
kapp
plus her coat and Gid's gloves, but she didn't think she'd feel truly warm ever again.

Gid went to the boarded-up window and took the scarf from around his neck.

“Is that one of Anna's?” Dottie asked.

He nodded. “I hope she doesn't mind.” With his pocketknife, he sliced the scarf into six pieces. Bits of yarn rained on the floor. He stuffed the pieces of scarf into the gaps in the boards, effectively sealing up any cracks where the wind wanted to sneak in.

By this time, the water in the bucket had melted to slush. He let Pete and Brownie have a drink and then went outside and filled it with snow again.

With the windows sealed and the fire crackling, their little shelter felt almost cozy. When he had refilled her tin cup with snow and watered the horses for a second time, Gid sat next to her on the floor. “How are your hands? How are your feet? Are they warm?”

“My feet will never be warm again,” she said with a half smile. “But I'm sitting on a dirt floor in a shack with two horses in the next room. All things considered, I am toasty enough.”

He held out his hand. “Let me see.”

Hesitantly, she folded back Mamm's quilt and stuck out one of her feet. Gid wrapped it in his surprisingly warm hands. Taken aback, she tried to pull away.

“It's okay,” he said, flashing his irresistibly cocky grin. “I don't bite.”

“Boys don't usually touch my feet.”

He chuckled. “Oh, well, girls touch my feet all the time. I've been told I have really nice feet.”

She couldn't keep one side of her mouth from twitching upward. That boy was completely devoid of humility.

But she surely liked that smile.

She relaxed as he massaged up and down the bottom of her foot, being careful not to touch anything above her ankle. Even in these dire circumstances, the bishop would not approve. “Your foot feels like a popsicle.”

“What flavor?”

He didn't reply, just grinned and rubbed until he was satisfied. He did the same with the other foot until Dottie knew that she wanted her feet rubbed every day for the rest of her life.

He sat back and unlaced his boots, laid them aside, and took off his stockings. Dottie caught her breath when his bare feet were exposed and she saw that one of his big toes sported a purple bruise. “You really do have a sore toe.”

His eyes sparkled with firelight. “Ice-fishing accident.” He held out one of his socks to her. “Here. Would wearing my socks be disgusting?”

“Um, yes.”

“Can you put them on anyway? I'll feel better knowing your feet will be warmer.”

“What about your feet?”

“I'll put my boots back on.”

Dottie didn't mind wearing Gid's stockings. As a matter of fact, she didn't mind a lot of things about him. She slipped his long, wool socks onto her feet and immediately knew it was a good idea. “
Denki.
These are wonderful-
gute
,” she said. “But I feel bad taking your socks. You need warm feet too.”

“You can consider my socks your first Christmas present.”

“Oh,” she said, slumping her shoulders. “Tonight is Christmas Eve.” A sudden and profound feeling of loss filled her chest. “I'm missing it.”

“I'm sorry.”

She might not be in danger of freezing to death, but she was still sitting on a dirt floor in a shack with two horses in the next room while her family ate stollen and sang carols without her.

The thought of stollen was too much. Her composure disintegrated in a deluge of tears. She plucked off Gid's bulky gloves and buried her face in her hands.

Gid scooted closer and wrapped his arms around her. “It's okay,” he said in his low, soothing voice. “It's going to be okay.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder and bawled harder. His kindness only served to remind her how
deerich
—foolish—she had been. “I don't have anyone to blame but myself,” she sobbed. “I was running late because I insisted on redoing poor Eva's cookies.” She fingered a corner of Mamm's soiled Christmas quilt. “Then I spent all that time at Anna's house embroidering leaves onto this quilt that's completely ruined, and I wasted an hour on the card that is now a pile of ashes.”

She felt him stiffen beside her. “I shouldn't have taken you on that sleigh ride. I messed up your whole schedule.”

She lifted her chin and found his face within inches of hers. Ignoring the way her heart seemed to pause in its rhythm, she said, “But . . . I wanted to come.”

“I practically dragged you kicking and screaming.”

“But wasn't it wonderful-
gute
how happy Lou was?”

His expression relaxed. “It was wonderful-
gute
how happy I was.”

This time her heart did jumping jacks. She should insist that he quit looking at her like that. She would die of a heart attack. “I'm sorry I snapped at you.”

“I shouldn't have put my oar in the water when I don't really understand what you've been through this past year.”

“Mamm spent last Christmas in the hospital. I wanted this Christmas to be nice for her.”

Gid pulled her closer and nuzzled his chin on top of her head. “Do you think she'll be disappointed about the quilt?”

His embrace was uncommonly comforting, as if he had pulled her into his circle of protection.

She wiped the leftover tears from her face. “
Nae
. She would rather have me home safe than get a thousand special quilts for Christmas.”

A load of coal seemed to settle on top of Dottie's chest, and she nearly growled out loud. “
Oy
, anyhow. I didn't lose track of time. I lost track of what's important. I worked so hard to give Mamm the perfect Christmas that I didn't realize how many feelings I was hurting or how much time I was spending away from home. All those hours spent working on her quilt could have been spent just being with her. My
mamm's
perfect Christmas isn't about
lebkuchen
. It's about being with the family.” Tears stung her eyes again. She blinked rapidly to clear them away. “And I can't even give her that. I've messed up everything for everybody, even you. You could be at Onkel Joe's house, playing games with Junior and singing Christmas carols.”

“Now why would I want to be there when I get to spend Christmas Eve with the prettiest girl in Bonduel?”

She nudged him with her elbow. “Ha,” she said. “If it weren't so sad, I'd laugh.”

“I'm not joking. Now that it's unlikely we'll freeze to death, we have every reason to celebrate.”

She smirked. “Oh, really? What reasons?”

“Plenty of dry logs to burn and Anna's green scarf.”

“I can celebrate that, I guess,” she said.

“We have a spacious cabin with enough room for us and our horses.”

Dottie thought of Brownie out in the blizzard. “
Jah
, thank you, Lord.”

“And it's Christmas Eve. This is the night Jesus was born. That's the best thing to celebrate.”

She nodded. “
Jah
, of course.” She grabbed his hand and held on tight. “
Denki
for reminding me.”

He cleared his throat. Maybe she shouldn't have touched his hand. He seemed a little discombobulated. “I'll be right back,” he said.

With that, he stood up, taking his warmth with him. He grabbed the tin cup from the floor and walked into the room with the pony and the horse. He maneuvered around the animals and opened the door, letting a blast of cold air into the room. Dottie shivered. The snow had drifted three feet high just outside the door. He didn't have to go far to scoop some of the white stuff into the cup and slam the door as quickly as possible. He'd let in too much cold air as it was.

He came back to the fire and laid the cup at the edge of the coals. It didn't take long for the snow to melt. Sitting down, he slipped his hand into the pocket of his snow pants and pulled out a candy cane. “You gave me this last night,” he said, a tease gleaming in his eyes. “I'm impressed at how big it is.”

She grinned. “Any Christmas party worth attending serves extra-large candy canes, not those tiny ones they hand out at the bank.”

Before unwrapping it, he crushed it into smaller pieces, then tore open the wrapper and let the shards of candy fall into the cup.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Just wait,” he said. “It's all part of the Christmas Eve festivities.”

When the water started steaming, he pulled the cup from the fire, using one of Dottie's red mittens as an oven mitt.

“Christmas peppermint tea?” he said, handing her the other mitten to use as a hot pad so she wouldn't burn her hands.

Dottie grinned uncontrollably and took a sip of Gid's peppermint tea. “Delicious,” she said. “It tastes like Christmas morning.”

She took another sip before handing it to him. He drank, and when he handed the cup back to her, his eyes danced and she saw something deep and tender there.

Warmth tingled to the very tips of her toes. Who needed a fire when she had Gid Stutzman around?

She and Gid shared the tea until it was gone. “The fire is wonderful-
gute
. I'm almost hot,” Dottie said.

“Here,” he said, getting up on one knee. “Take off your bonnet and coat. You don't want to sweat under there. That will actually make you colder.”

She removed her bonnet, leaving her prayer covering in place. She folded the bonnet neatly and was about to stuff it in her pocket when she remembered the riches she had been carrying with her. She slipped her hand into her pocket and retrieved six Hershey's kisses. “Look what I found.”

Gid bloomed into a smile that pushed the shadows back a bit. “Where did you get those?”

“Lou gave them to me as we were leaving. A Christmas gift.”

Gid palmed the apple. “We've practically got a Christmas feast.”

After laying the chocolate next to the apple, Dottie unzipped her coat, and Gid helped her slip it off her shoulders. She stuffed the bonnet in her pocket, and Gid hung her coat on the hook. He sat next to her and picked up a piece of chocolate. “Shall we eat?”

Dottie quirked one side of her mouth upward and took the chocolate from his fingers. “Not yet. I'm going to make you a fancy Christmas dessert.”

He cocked an eyebrow. She was beginning to adore that self-assured, cheeky grin. “What else is in that pocket?”

She unwrapped the first chocolate kiss and plopped it into the cup.

“Wait,” he said. “Save the foil and the little paper thing.”

She looked at him sideways.

He shrugged as amusement flickered in his eyes. “This tiny piece of foil might save our lives.”

She unwrapped the rest of the chocolates, carefully making a little pile of foil and paper next to her. All the chocolate went into the cup, and using a mitten, she held it close to the fire until the chocolate melted.

She held out her hand to Gid. “If I may trouble you for your pocketknife.”

His grin grew wider as he pulled out his pocketknife and flipped the blade up. “Careful. It's sharp.”

“Believe me, Gid Stutzman, I know how to handle a knife. I can chop a peck of green peppers for chowchow in about two minutes.”

“Okay,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I just want you to know that I am really handy with a pocketknife. It takes a lot of skill.”

“If you were any more arrogant, your head would swell bigger than this cabin and we wouldn't be able to fit inside.”