Millie Criswell, Mary McBride, Liz Ireland

by A Western Family Christmas Christmas Eve; Season of Bounty; Cowboy Scrooge

  “We’ll just set these on a table in the back of the church,” she said as they entered the darkened building, grateful no one was in attendance. Only the spill of light coming from two stained-glass windows offered any illumination. “The reverend will know where they came from.”

  “Guess you’ll be rewarded for your good deed in the next life. Are you going to attend the pageant? It’d be fun to see the kids all decked out in their nativity costumes.”

  She shook her head. “No. I haven’t been in years. I just bring the cookies. That’s my contribution.”

  Clasping hold of her arm, he guided her down the snow laden path toward her house. “Bet the children are disappointed you don’t come. What could it hurt to”

  “I’m not going, and that’s final!” Eve’s voice was as cold as the air they breathed. “I’m not going to the pageant. I’m not going to celebrate the Christmas holiday. And I’m not going to be bullied or made to feel stupid because I choose not to.”

  He stiffened at her tone. “Well, hell! Don’t go getting your corset strings all in a knot. I wasn’t trying to—”

  “I don’t wear a corset,” she interrupted. “They are very uncomfortable, not to mention extremely unhealthy. I don’t wish to have misshapen organs.”

  He grinned, and his face felt as if it would crack. “Is that a fact? Hmm. Now that’s a mighty useful bit of information.” He’d already held her in his arms and knew firsthand that her soft body hadn’t been encumbered by anything but what the good Lord gave her.

  “You promised to behave,” she reminded him, but didn’t look him in the eye, for fear of what she’d see.

  “So I did.”

  When they reached Eve’s home, Gabe pushed hard on the stubborn gate, digging out some of the snow with his boot. Glancing toward the house, his brow wrinkled in confusion. “What’s that on your porch? Someone must have come by and dropped off a Chris—” She glared at him. “Package. Maybe your friend Mrs. Cooper from the post office.”

  “I don’t think so. Folks around here know better.” Though her cousins weren’t above sending her gifts, despite her instructions to the contrary. It could have come from them, she supposed. Last year they had sent her a lovely woolen shawl and a book of poetry. Keeping with her refusal to honor the holiday, she hadn’t returned the gesture, which, to this day, she still felt guilty about.

  Hurrying through the gate, Eve’s scarf caught on the fence post, and Gabe helped to free it, though it was difficult, as his hands were as numb as hers. “Let’s hurry inside and sit by the fire. I need to thaw out.”

  Her teeth started chattering. “Me, too.”

  Making their way up the walk was an arduous task. They had to lift each leg out of the snow and plant it, and hope they didn’t fall in the process.

  When they neared the house, Eve heard a mewling sound and wondered if a stray kitten had wandered onto her property, looking for a place to get warm. “Did you hear that? I think it might be a kitten.”

  Gabe heard the noise, too, though it didn’t sound like a kitten to him. He stepped onto the porch, kneeling beside the wicker basket that had been left there. The basket was covered with several heavy wool blankets, and he lifted the edge and peered in. “What the hell?” he said, his eyes widening.

  “What is it? Did someone drop off a litter of kittens? I hope—”

  “It’s not a kitten. You’d better come up here and take a look.”

  Eve hurried to the porch and Gabe lifted the blanket, allowing her to look in. She gasped, then clutched her throat. “Merciful heavens! That’s not a kitten!”

  Gabe picked up the basket and cradled it to his chest. “No, ma’am,” he said with a delighted smile. “It sure as heck’s not. It’s a baby.”

  Chapter Seven

  “It’s a baby!” Eve said stupidly, following Gabe into the house and shrugging out of her winter wear as quickly as she could tear off the heavy garments. She dumped it all on the floor, instead of hanging it up, as she normally would. But this was not a normal day.

  “Who on earth would leave a baby on someone’s front porch?” she asked. “And why would they leave it on mine, of all places? Everyone in town knows I’m not married.”

  Setting the wicker basket down in front of the hearth, Gabe peeled back the blankets covering the child, hearing the confusion and fear in Eve’s voice. “Maybe whoever left the child wasn’t from around here. I suspect this note that’s attached will explain some of the mystery.” Despite everything it had gone through, the child slept the sleep of the innocent, and Gabe did his best to unpin the note without awakening him or her. He wasn’t quite sure yet if they were dealing with a boy or a girl. All babies looked alike to him, especially when they were infants, and this child couldn’t have been more than a month old, if that.

  “Is the baby all right?” Eve asked anxiously. “Do you think it might have gotten too cold and developed frostbite or pneumonia?”

  Gabe shook his head. “I don’t think it was out there long enough for that to happen, and the baby had plenty of coverings to keep it warm. The mother or father was trying to protect it from harm. I’m certain of that.” He held up the wrinkled notepaper. “Do you want me to read it, or will you?”

  Eve held out a trembling hand. “I’ll do it.” She drew in a breath, then began reading aloud:

  “Dear Friend, I can’t care for my baby girl no more, and hope you’ll take good care of her. She’s a sweet baby, but she don’t have a name, so you should feel free to call her whatever you want.

  “Please don’t come looking for me. I’ll be gone by the time you read this. I’m not a bad person, just someone in trouble who needs help, so please don’t you judge me too harshly. God will do that soon enough. Please find room in your heart for my baby and give her all the love I can’t. Bless you!”

  “It’s not signed,” Eve said, not surprised by that fact, handing it back to Gabe. “I guess we should notify the authorities.”

  “I thought Cedar Springs didn’t have a sheriff.” Eve’s frown deepened. No sheriff. No doctor. What on earth was happening to Cedar Springs? “We don’t. Barney Piper quit two months ago. Left in the middle of the night, so no one could talk him out of it. I guess Mayor Moody would be the best person to tell about this.”

  “Don’t think that’ll be possible,” Gabe said. “Burt’s gone home to Denver for the Christmas holiday. Told me last time we spoke that he was heading home two weeks before Christmas to visit his parents. That’d be about now.”

  “Then we’ll tell the reverend.”

  “Guess we could, but it’s not likely he’ll be able to do anything about this, with all he’s got to contend with at the moment. Besides, the child was entrusted into your care, not his.”

  Tiptoeing over to the basket, she stared down at the sleeping infant, and her heart felt heavy in her chest. She was a beautiful baby, all pink and rosy with soft downy hair the same blond color as her own. She was perfect, like the little porcelain doll Eve played with as a child; only this baby doll was all too real.

  “I can’t keep her, Gabe. We need to find someone who knows how to care for a baby. I don’t have any experience with such matters.”

  “I do,” he said, making Eve’s eyes widen. “I have a son, remember? And that son was once a baby.”

  “Are you suggesting that we keep this child?” She could see by his determined expression that that was exactly what he was suggesting. The notion was impractical, not sensible at all, totally absurd.

  “Just for the time being, until we can locate her parents.” The mystery of the child’s sex had at least been established. He’d always wanted a daughter to spoil outrageously.

  “But the mother—I’m assuming the note was written by a woman—doesn’t want the baby. And there was no mention of a father. We may never locate them,” Eve tried to reason.

  “I suspect the poor woman doesn’t have a husband, or if she does, they can’t afford to keep the child. Or maybe they were
just too young, or maybe she’s sick. Hell, I don’t know.”

  “You can’t go around speculating about such things. And I can’t have this baby living here, especially during the Christmas holidays. It wouldn’t be fair to the child.” The baby awoke and started to cry. “See? There’s a problem with her already.”

  “Why can’t she stay here? You don’t celebrate the holidays.” Gabe bent over and picked up the crying infant. “The ’problem,’ as you put it, is that she’s soaked clean through and needs a dry diaper and clothing. Do you have anything we can use?”

  “I—” Eve was so nervous she was shaking. A baby! She didn’t know anything about babies, about how to care for them. She loved children, but she wasn’t equipped to take care of them. And children needed two parents. They didn’t need a spinster who…

  “Eve, do you have anything we can use for diapers?”

  Looking up, as if she’d just heard the question for the first time, she nodded. “Yes. I’ll get some clean dish towels. And I may have something up in the attic that she can wear. My mother saved all of my baby things, thinking that someday I’d be able to use them for my own children.”

  “Well, I’m relieved that your mother was such a smart woman,” Gabe said to Eve’s retreating back, cradling the screaming infant to his chest and uttering soothing words of comfort.

  “You just hold on, little baby. Gabe’s gonna get you fixed up in no time. You’ll see.”

  A few moments later, Eve rushed back into the parlor, holding several clean linen towels and two safety pins. “Here,” she said, handing them to him. “I’ll go up to the attic while you change the baby. You know how to do that, right?” He certainly seemed at ease with the child.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to change her?”

  Eve looked horrified at the prospect. “I’ve never in my life changed an infant. I wouldn’t know where to begin, and I’m afraid that I might stick her with the pins.”

  Gabe was tempted to tell her that she should begin at the bottom, but didn’t think she’d appreciate his humor at the moment. “It’s not hard. I’ll teach you. But first I guess you’d better go fetch those baby things, then we’ll get you properly instructed in taking care of this baby.”

  “I don’t want to learn to take care of this baby,” she said. “It wouldn’t be wise.”

  “You’ve got to quit being afraid of life, Eve. You’re afraid to form attachments, to let yourself feel anything. That’s no way to live. Life comes with risks. That’s just the way it is.”

  His comment hit a bull’s eye, and Eve’s face whitened. “Not for me,” she blurted, disappearing up the stairs.

  Staring after her, Gabe shook his head. “Damn stubborn woman! Come on, Noelle,” he said, deciding the name was perfect for the sweet cherub, especially since it was getting so close to Christmas. “Let’s get you comfortable, then we can think about what we’re going to do about Miss Eve Barlow. She’s a stubborn, opinionated woman,” he said to the child who was mesmerized by his deep voice, “but I think you’re gonna like her as much as I do.”

  Upstairs in the attic, Eve was sorting through her mother’s trunks, trying to locate her old baby clothing, bottles, and such. Alma Barlow, bless her heart, never threw out anything, so Eve had a pretty good assortment of baby items by the time she was finished sorting through the various trunks and boxes.

  Holding up the small pink sacque and the tiny silver rattle that used to be hers, she heaved a sigh. She’d always wanted a baby of her own, and now someone had left one on her front porch. How odd was that?

  If she believed in such things as Christmas miracles, she might have thought God had lent a hand in what had happened today. Florinda was always saying that he worked in mysterious ways. But Eve was too realistic not to think that some poor unfortunate woman had unknowingly chosen her—inept, knows nothing about babies Eve Barlow—to care for her infant.

  “I can’t care for a baby,” she whispered softly. And even if she could, would she really want to subject an innocent child to her ill-fated curse? No one she loved—or professed to love, as in Daniel’s case— and with whom she had shared the Christmas holidays, had survived. The infant was in jeopardy.

  “We can’t keep that child,” she told Gabe when she returned to the parlor a few minutes later. He was holding the now sleeping infant in his arms, walking back and forth in front of the fireplace, singing softly to her, and Eve’s heart twisted at the beautiful sight. She knew he would make a wonderful father.

  “Shh. I just got Noelle to sleep.”

  “Noelle? Why are you calling her Noelle? You can’t name that child. It’s not yours. And besides that, we can’t keep her. Christmas is coming, and—” His brows raised in question. “I told you about what happens during the Christmas holidays. If I allow this baby to stay here with me, something dreadful is going to befall her.” Tears filled her eyes at his look of disbelief. “I’m not being foolish. I’m not.”

  Crossing the room in quick strides, Gabe nestled the baby in one arm, and with the other wrapped it around Eve’s shoulders. “You’re not cursed, Eve. I know you think you are, because of what’s happened to you in the past, but you’re not. And yes, you are foolish to think that way. Nothing is going to happen to this child. Your arriving home when you did probably saved little Noelle’s life.”

  She refused to believe him. “That was pure coincidence.”

  “Was it? Maybe it was a miracle. Did you ever think of that? Maybe you were destined to find this child, like the three wise men were destined to find the baby Jesus.”

  “Gabe, I’m sure you think you’re doing the right thing by wanting to keep this child, but we both know we’d be doing a disservice to her in the long run. Our relationship with this baby, with each other, is for the short term. We’d grow attached to Noelle, and then we’d have to give her up. How wise is that?”

  “Christmas is the season for miracles. I say we wait and see what happens. I’m willing to take care of the baby. I’ll do her feedings and change her nappies, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it. I was pretty good with Robby when he was an infant. Marilyn preferred to let the nursemaid take care of him, but I did as much diaper changing and feeding as I could. I wanted to form a deep bond. One that would never end.”

  Sadness filled his eyes, and it tore at Eve’s heart. She hated seeing him look so wounded, and clutched his arm. “All right. Let’s keep Noelle for now and see what develops. Maybe we’ll be able to locate her parents.”

  He nodded in relief, kissing the baby’s cheek. “I’ll send a telegram to the Denver police tomorrow, notifying them of the child, the note and the fact that we’re taking care of her for the time being. I doubt they’ll have any objection.”

  Eve heaved a deep sigh of longing and wished she, Gabe and Noelle were a real family, not just three misfits who had come together out of necessity and bad weather. Thinking that such a thing was possible was foolish, she knew. But a tiny corner of her heart still hoped that miracles really did happen.

  The following two weeks passed by in a blur for Eve. She grew proficient in diapering Noelle, feeding her a bottle, and getting up in the middle of the night to change and feed her again, which, she had decided, was the biggest struggle. During those times, she usually found Gabe in the makeshift nursery ahead of her, and they ended up taking care of the baby together. Like parents. Though she tried not to think along those lines.

  The entire town was abuzz about the foundling infant and had started referring to Noelle as the “miracle child.”

  Reverend Brewster had come by to say how pleased and proud he was that Eve had taken another lost soul into her home and heart during this holiest of seasons.

  Gabe had made the rounds of shopkeepers, and had even gone door-to-door to many of the neighbors, despite the inclement weather, making inquiries to see if anyone might know to whom the child belonged. Though no one had any idea, they had given them generous donations of baby clothes, diapers and
foodstuffs. It seemed everyone was in a giving mood, just as Gabe had predicted would happen during the Christmas holiday.

  As promised, he had contacted the Denver authorities, but the telegram they’d received back just yesterday from the police department hadn’t shed any light on the matter. It instructed Gabe and Eve to keep the child until further notice. They offered little hope that the parents would ever be found and suggested that adoption would be a strong possibility for them to consider.

  Sitting in front of the fire that evening, Noelle sleeping contentedly on Gabe’s stomach as he reclined on the sofa, Eve was reminded once again of how real their present situation seemed. It was as if the three of them were already a family. Gabe had made no further mention about leaving, and despite her reservations concerning next week’s Christmas holiday, neither had she.

  “I can’t imagine why anyone would give up her child,” she said for what seemed like the thousandth time. “Noelle is so precious. Her mother must be beside herself with grief and worry.”

  “I suspect the woman had little choice in the matter. Knowing firsthand how difficult it is to lose a child…well, I just think Noelle’s mother had a damn good reason for doing what she did.” He’d read the note over many times, and had finally come to the conclusion that the woman was ill, possibly even dying. He couldn’t contemplate any other reason remotely strong enough for someone to have abandoned a child.

  “I’ve grown so attached to her, I don’t know what I’ll do when and if they finally find her parents,” she said, staring into the crackling flames. She’d thought about adoption but didn’t think that would be fair to Noelle. The baby needed a loving home with two parents. Eve wanted her to have the kind of childhood she, herself, had had while growing up.