Mail-Order Christmas Brides Boxed Set (35 page)

Timing, he reminded himself, as he pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked the front door to his new house. Timing was everything. He held his heart in check as he opened the door.

“I love your house,” Christina said. Her footsteps echoed in the empty parlor, her skirts rustled as she spun around taking in the details—gray stone fireplace, big windows with window seats and polished wood floors that gleamed. “I can just picture it. Furniture, curtains, a fire blazing in the hearth. It will be a wonderful place for you and Toby.”

“I’m gonna live
here?
” The boy’s jaw dropped. “You’re gonna be my pa?”

“If that’s all right with you.” Elijah went down on one knee to better gauge the kid’s reaction. “What do you think?”

“I think you’d make a mighty good pa.” Tears stood in green eyes. “But maybe you don’t want a boy like me.”

“Maybe I do.” There were those fatherly feelings again, filling him up. Looked like his life was about to change. Now he had a family when his life had been empty for so long. “Do you know the first thing we’re going to do? Head over to Lawson’s and get you everything you need. New shoes, new clothes.” Toby swiped his tears away with a frayed sleeve.

“And a tree, too,” Elijah added, climbing to his feet. “We’ll need presents to go under it. What do you say, Christina? We could use a woman’s help with our shopping. We’re men. We don’t know where to start.”

“That’s what the shopkeeper is for.” She knew what he was asking her, and she couldn’t do it. It would hurt too much. Seeing Elijah accept Toby broke the last of her control over her heart.

This was a daydream, a moment out of time. She’d been a fool to think she could have more. “I promised Mildred I would help her this afternoon. She’s shorthanded, since two of her maids are on holiday, so no shopping trip for me. Toby, I’m thankful you have a home.”

“Me, too. I can’t believe it.” The child didn’t meet her gaze. His face flamed red again. “Maybe I’m just dreamin’.”

“Not a chance.” She smoothed flyaway strands of his hair. “You’ll see. Some good things last. It’s okay to believe.”

Toby swallowed hard, nodding once. She turned away, too tangled up with emotion to say more. This was goodbye. Their paths—hers, Toby’s and Elijah’s—would take different turns.

From this point on maybe she’d spot them in church and smile, or see them on the boardwalk and wave. But her life was no longer hers. She owed Tom a debt she couldn’t pay. The only honorable way out was to marry him. “Goodbye, Elijah.”

“It’s been a pleasure knowing you.” Something great and luminous flickered in his blue gaze. Something that looked like love.

“No, the pleasure has been all mine.” It took all her will to force her feet to take her from him. Every step she took felt like a blow, one wound on top of another. Icy snow needled her face as she tripped down the front steps and into the storm. For all the years to come, she would never forget Elijah’s kindness or his goodness. She would always keep a piece of their time together alive and safe in her heart.

Chapter Nine

“H
ow do those feel?” Arthur Lawson asked, kneeling in front of a silent Toby.

The boy nodded once, refusing to make eye contact with the shopkeeper.

“They look pretty good.” Arthur pressed his thumb against the leather, feeling for Toby’s big toe. “Got some growing room in there, but not too much. Why don’t you take a walk around the store and test them out.”

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.”