Mail-Order Christmas Brides Boxed Set (70 page)

She turned around and looked, expecting him to follow her gaze. Enough light was coming in the window for him to see everything. She had meant to sew some of her flannel into a wall covering for the worst of the gray logs on the south side of the cabin, but she hadn’t. She didn’t know what had happened to make them look so bad.

“You won’t find me being upset about that,” Adam said, his voice pinched. “I’m the one who left this place the way it was.”

When she didn’t say anything, he continued, “Besides, everything’s clean in here and you put up a
tree,” Adam said. “That should be good enough for anyone.”

“I did knit some stars for it.” Eleanor looked over at the small pine and wondered if anyone would even know what those yellow patches were. They seemed to be more twisted every day.

“Those stars are quite nice,” Adam said, but she noticed he wasn’t looking at her eyes when he said it.

“You don’t need to spare my feelings.” She squared her shoulders. “I told you I’m not very good at knitting. The points won’t stay the way they should. But not many women are better or quicker than me when it comes to weaving on a loom.”

“Well, see there,” Adam said, his voice sounding relieved. “That’s good.”

“Not that I have a loom here,” she reminded him. “Or any sheep for wool, either, so why would I need one?”

The challenge his mother had laid down was between the two of them, Eleanor thought as she looked at the rest of the cabin. She might have decided to leave, but that didn’t mean she wanted to retreat because someone thought she couldn’t do a good enough job. It wasn’t the first time that Eleanor had needed to prove she was competent. Every time a new herder had come to the Nantucket area, she would have to demonstrate that she could take care of her sheep. Even though she worked for her father, the others wanted her to prove her worth as if she was an outsider.

She’d faced up to those herders. She could do the same with Mrs. Martin.

“I’m going down to the creek,” she announced, as she finished looping the scarf around her head.

“It’s still cold. I’ll go for you,” Adam said as he walked over to the water bucket.

Eleanor turned to her valise. “I just need to get some thread before I go. And we’ll need the ax from the shelter.”

“I already used it to cut open a space in the creek when I brought water up for the horses. I was going to go down and get another bucket filled for the house, anyway.”

“We’ll need that long stick that’s leaning against the wall back by the hay, too,” Eleanor said as she walked over and pulled the blanket off the peg by the door. “I’m going to catch us some fish.”

“Fish? But I don’t think—” Adam started to say, but she was already opening the door.

“I’ll meet you down there,” Eleanor said as she bent into the wind. “I need to see if I can find some wild onions, too. Christmas dinner should be the best we have, after all.”

Adam did what he was told. He gathered the bucket and went behind the house to the shelter to get the stick. Eleanor had slipped the thread into her pocket before she left the cabin. The freezing air outside cheered him up or maybe it was the determined way Eleanor had walked out the door and faced the wind that made him feel hopeful for the years ahead. She wasn’t a timid flower like his Catherine had been.

He just hoped Eleanor wouldn’t be too disap
pointed when she didn’t find anything in the creek. Some of the soldiers at the fort were fond of fishing on their days off, but he had never heard any of them boast about catching anything in these shallow creeks around here, at least not when it was this cold outside.

He smiled slightly, for some reason remembering that Jesus had multiplied the loaves and the fishes. With Eleanor’s faith, he wasn’t going to bet against her.

He kept walking until he topped the small rise and saw Eleanor on the banks of Dry Creek. She had squatted down, holding the blanket around her until he couldn’t see anything of her but the top of her copper-colored head.

“Are you warm enough?” Adam asked when he got close.

“Yes,” she whispered back, but her teeth were chattering so much he knew it wasn’t completely true. “Keep your voice down and give me the pole. You’ll scare the fish.”

“Okay,” he said quietly as he sat down on the cold ground and handed her the stick she wanted. His army coat was long and heavy so he slid close enough that he could open his coat to the side and let her settle into the warmth under his arm.

She was like ice when she leaned against him. Of course, that might be because her blanket had snow on it. Still, he sat quietly and let his body temperature adjust. Before long, he felt her shivering stop.

“It’s all right if you don’t catch anything,” he said
after a bit. “I saw those potatoes in the shelter. We could boil them for dinner tomorrow.”

“Shhhhh,” she scolded him.

He smiled. A few strands of her glorious hair were blowing against his face. He was content.

* * *

The time passed and Eleanor knew she would have been forced to give up on catching anything if it weren’t for the steady warm feeling of being close to Adam. She wasn’t so sure it was right to let his arms encircle her when she wasn’t going to stay here and marry him, but she didn’t say anything. A lifetime stretched ahead of her and she suspected embraces like this would be rare when she left this place.

Still, she should tell him her decision.

Just then she felt a tug on the pole she held and bent forward in her excitement.

“I’ll be,” Adam said in surprise as he scrambled to his feet. “Do you need me to help pull him in?”

“Please.” A glimpse through the ice showed her that the trout was larger than the other ones she’d caught here earlier and she couldn’t get to her feet when the blanket was wrapped around her. She would have a hard time without help.

Adam was able to lift the fish through the hole in the ice and he laid it on the snow next to her.

“My father always said that once you catch one trout, there’s another one around,” Eleanor said as she removed the hook from the fish.

“My mother always said lightning never strikes in
the same place twice,” Adam said with a grin as he sat back down beside her.

“Well, we’ll just see who’s right,” Eleanor said as she put more bait on the hook and let it fall back into the freezing water.

Within the next hour, she had caught four more trout, all of them large.

“I guess your father wins,” Adam said as he took the fish to string them together so they could be carried back to the cabin. “Five big ones. This is going to be some Christmas feast. You did it.”

Eleanor shifted the blanket up to her shoulders as she stood up and turned to face Adam. His eyes were shining with so much approval that it made her feel shy.

“I prayed on my way down here,” she confessed. “So it wasn’t really me getting the fish.”

“I figured as much,” Adam said as he turned away and looped the string of fish around the end of the pole. “I’d say God makes a better fishing partner than most people.”

“At least He knows to keep His voice down,” Eleanor said, grinning up at him.

He laughed. “I guess that’s true. Shall we head back?”

“I need to find some more wild onions down here, too,” Eleanor said as she pointed to a snow-covered place along the river bank. “I found some over there last week.”

Together they went over and scraped the snow away. The stalks were dead, but when she knelt down
and pulled the plants up there were small onions on the bottoms.

“We can roast these by the fire with the fish,” Eleanor said as looked over at Adam. He had knelt down beside the plants, too. Together they had gathered a couple of dozen onions and she couldn’t see any more stalks. “My father used to roast them with a little bacon.”

“Sounds good to me,” Adam said as he stood up and brushed the snow off his knees.

Then he held out his hand to help her up and Eleanor took it. She had the onions wrapped in a corner of her blanket so she rose awkwardly and almost dropped them before she stood straight.

“Here,” Adam said as he steadied her with one hand and tied a knot around the onions with the other using a corner of her blanket.

“Thank you.”

She had to hold the corner of the blanket, but she still managed to look up at him. The clouds had cleared since they had started fishing and the sunlight fell bright around his head, almost making her squint. Maybe it was some stray snowflakes that made him shine so brightly, she thought. But what accounted for the warmth in his blue eyes?

“As it turns out you’re even prettier in sunshine than you are in moonlight,” Adam said softly.

For the first time, it occurred to her that he was courting her. She’d passed off his nonsense of last night as the effects of being tired. But she’d never had a beau before.

She knew what she should say, but she didn’t have the nerve. Not when he was looking at her as if she was rare and fragile and—

The kiss surprised her even though she had known it was coming. His lips were more insistent than last night, though, and she felt her breath quicken in her throat. When he did raise his head, he still held her close enough that she could hear the beating of his heart.

“The onions,” Eleanor whispered as the knot in the blanket loosened and they all fell to the snowy ground.

“I’ll get them,” Adam said as she started to bend down to pick them up.

She let him gather them.

It wasn’t until he stepped close again so that he could tie another knot in the blanket that she found enough bravery to say the words he deserved to hear.

“I’m not staying,” she said, not able to look him in the eyes. Instead, she kept her eyes focused on the top brass button on his coat. She had never realized how shiny all those buttons were. She waited for him to say something in return, but when he didn’t she raised her eyes to his.

“You should go back to the house,” he said indulgently. “Haven’t I been telling you that all the time we’ve been down here? Well, all the times you would let me speak and weren’t worried about me scaring away the trout.”

He had the look of a satisfied man, she thought to herself, and tried not to feel pleased that kissing her
could make him feel that way. “I’m not talking about here.”

She should have looked away, she told herself. Instead, she saw the gradual realization that she meant something else turn his face hard.

“No,” he said as he turned, and started walking up the slight hill.

Eleanor scrambled after him, balancing the pouch of onions on her hip as she went. He had the advantage of longer legs, though, and she didn’t catch up with him until they were at the door to the cabin. Like the gentleman he was, he was waiting so he could open the door for her.

“You know it’s not good for us to marry,” she said as she stood there and he reached over to open the door.

“No, I don’t know that,” he said curtly as she walked into the cabin.

Eleanor was ready to give him all of the reasons why they couldn’t marry. But she had only taken one step into the cabin when she heard the sobs.

“Hannah,” she breathed and turned to see Adam coming right behind her.

“Where is she?” he asked.

Both of them quickly looked around the main room.

“She has to be in the back,” Eleanor said as she started walking that way.

Please, Lord,
she prayed as she hurried.
Don’t let anything be wrong with Hannah.

Chapter Six

T
here was no window in the back room but enough light filtered in through the logs and the open doorway that Eleanor could see the girl as she sat on the bed, hugging the kitten and crying as if her heart would break.

“What happened?” Adam demanded to know with a fierce glance at his mother who sat near the girl, looking bewildered.

“I didn’t say anything,” she protested as she lifted her finger and pointed. “It’s that cat.”

“The kitten?” Eleanor asked as stepped close to the bed.

She focused on Hannah and gently asked, “Did something happen?”

The girl nodded and tried to catch her breath. “Little kitty has a hurt on his leg. Just like mine.”

“Oh,” Eleanor said as she knelt down by the bed. She looked up at Adam and he gave her a slight nod so she kept talking. “Yes, he was hurt, but he’s get
ting better every day. He has scars, but they’re going away. Before he knows it, he’ll be all well.”

Hannah looked at the cat as if she wasn’t sure Eleanor could be believed. “Did his mother die, too? When he was hurt? Was it a fire?”

Eleanor heard the gasps that came from both Adam and his mother, but she kept her eyes on the girl and spoke as softly as she could. “I don’t know what happened to the kitten, but I think he ran in front of a wagon wheel and that’s how his leg was injured.”

Hannah nodded seriously. “And you’re making him better? Are you a doctor?”

Eleanor shook her head. “No, but remember those sheep I used to have?”

The girl nodded.

“Sometimes they would get hurt and I had to help them get better,” Eleanor said.

Hannah seemed satisfied with that and Eleanor was preparing to stand up when she heard the girl sigh.

“Can you make me better, too?” Hannah asked then, her eyes wide and her hope evident. “Like the kitty.”

In her shock at being asked, Eleanor stared down at the girl’s trusting eyes and was speechless.

Adam’s mother shifted her position on the bed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course she can’t.” The older woman patted Hannah on the back and glared down at Eleanor. “Why, she’s no more a doctor than I’m a—a—” She sputtered for a moment and then gave up. “Well, she’s not a doctor. That’s all there is to it.”

“I only take care of lambs,” Eleanor managed to add in a civil voice as she saw the hope dim in the girl’s eyes.

“Was one of them your black lamb?” Hannah asked. “One of the ones that was hurt?”

Eleanor nodded. “Yes, the black lamb was one of them.”

The girl was quiet for a minute. “I wish I could have seen your black lamb.”

“Me, too.”

“But you take care of kitties, too.”