His Christmas Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch (Spicy Version) Book 9)

by Merry Farmer

  The ladies laughed.

  “Or how those handsome, rugged, breathtaking husbands you’ve been promised leave their dirty socks on the floor,” Elspeth added.

  “Or how they have no sense of time and come home, clueless, half an hour after you’ve put supper on the table,” Eden laughed. She handed around teacups, passed a plate of cookies, then took a seat on the floor beside baby Winslow.

  “Men are the strangest creatures,” Corva agreed, giggling as if they were all schoolgirls sharing gossip between classes at school. “Franklin is as stubborn as a mule. I know he has limitations because of his legs, he knows he has limitations because of his legs, but will he let me fetch a coffee for him while he’s working at his desk? No! He has to go through all the rigmarole of getting up and making it for himself.”

  “He sounds proud to me,” Holly said.

  Corva laughed. “Proud, yes. Also bull-headed and unable to accept help when it’s offered.” Her teasing indignation was replaced by an impish grin. “But I do like the way he tries to make up for his infirmities when we’re horizontal.”

  The others giggled and snickered and started adding their two-cents, one on top of the other.

  “Travis feels it’s his solemn duty to make sure that I am completely satisfied at all times,” Wendy said.

  “Cody insists that it’s his way of wiping every horrible memory out of my mind,” Miriam agreed, all smiles.

  “I would share what Athos is like, but it’s not suitable with small children in the room.” Elspeth blushed.

  “How do the two of you manage with so many children in the house?” Eden giggled.

  “Quietly,” Elspeth answered, her face growing redder and redder. “And now that he has Arthur for his assistant and Hubert helping out, he’s been known to take long lunches.”

  The women all laughed together.

  “Well, Luke is still trying to figure out what he’s doing,” Eden added as they all shook with mirth. “But heavens above, is that boy a fast and eager learner.”

  They dissolved into laughter that bordered on tears, sipping tea when they could and exciting the babies, who had no idea what their mommies were in stitches over. Holly laughed along with them, but her smile wasn’t as broad or her laughter as free as the others. Her only experiences with intimacy definitely didn’t match up with her friends’. Bruce had always been quick about taking care of his needs without a single thought for her. If not for conversations like this back at Hurst Home and letters from her friends, she would have had no clue that intimacy was supposed to be pleasurable.

  Although hints of electricity between her and George when their hands touched unexpectedly and a few meaningful glances stolen across the room hinted that there was more than she’d experienced with Bruce. But with George that seemed so far off.

  All of her friends must have noticed that she was drinking her tea instead of sharing stories, but it was Eden who said, “Don’t worry, Holly, you’ll have something to tell in no time at all.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Holly lowered her eyes.

  “I do,” Miriam said. “A man as handsome as Rev. Pickering? A woman as sweet and wonderful as you? Why, I’m sure we’re bound to hear a story about the two of you burning down the church at some point.” She finished with a wink.

  Elspeth cleared her throat and reached for her teacup around Howey, who still snuggled in her arms. “I think she might have meant that because George is our pastor, she won’t be sharing stories about him.” She sent Holly a significant look.

  Holly was grateful for the excuse. “It wouldn’t be proper,” she agreed.

  The others hummed and nodded, their grins a little too telling. Even Miriam seemed to catch the hint. “But I heard you enjoyed yourselves skating yesterday,” she said.

  “We did.” Holly’s smile returned in full force. A moment later, it faltered. “Although I have to say, our lovely afternoon was marred by the presence of Rev. Robbins.”

  Wendy and Elspeth hummed in knowing agreement and exchanged glances. Corva and Miriam, on the other hand, looked baffled.

  “How so?” Corva asked.

  Holly felt as though she’d stepped into something she wasn’t certain of. “Well, it’s just that he was soliciting people for donations.”

  Wendy and Elspeth continued to look disapproving. Eden seemed more interested than anything else. Corva and Miriam continued to blink as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

  “He’s collecting for his Indian charity,” Corva said.

  “Wait, I thought he was collecting for war orphans,” Miriam countered.

  Corva frowned and shook her head. “I was there the other day when he told Howard and Elizabeth about his efforts to improve the condition of the western tribes and to Christianize them.”

  Miriam deflated slightly. “I could have sworn I heard him telling Mr. Gunn that he was collecting to help war orphans. Mr. Gunn served in the war, you know.”

  A zip of surprise had all of the women sitting straighter, the subject instantly changed.

  “He did? I didn’t know that,” Wendy said.

  “I think it had something to do with spying,” Miriam went on. “At least that’s what Cody told me. And he heard from Mason. Apparently, Mr. Gunn helped him and Libby out with something last year.”

  “I know that he served in the Crimean War as a young man,” Elspeth added. “He was my Uncle Stephen’s valet, and they went off to Sevastopol together.”

  “Two wars?” Holly shook her head in disbelief. “Are we talking about the same, kind, white-haired, mild-mannered gentlemen I met at the hotel last week?”

  “Yes,” the others answered, nodding.

  “How fascinating.” Holly sat a little straighter as she thought about it. “A double war hero.”

  “I never thought of it that way,” Wendy said, gaze unfocused as though she was thinking of it now. “Whatever is he doing in Haskell?”

  “Whatever is Rev. Robbins doing in Haskell?” Eden asked.

  “Howard invited him,” Corva said. “Rev. Pickering couldn’t very well perform his own wedding.”

  “But why is he still here?” Eden went on.

  “Because Howard thought that George and I should have some honeymoon time,” Holly answered.

  “That still doesn’t explain why he’s so adamant about collecting for charities,” Eden said in baby-talk to her son, even though her question was serious.

  “He came into my shop the other day,” Wendy said. “He had quite the story about ‘those poor, wretched savages’ and how a fine businesswoman like me could do so much to help him. Him, not them. I told him that I didn’t have anything to spare, since so many of my Christmas supply orders still had to be paid for. He didn’t like that answer one bit.”

  “Oh?” Miriam blinked, looking upset.

  Wendy hummed, then went on. “I was just a few minutes away from feeling anxious enough to call for Travis when Mrs. Plover came in for a fitting. Rev. Robbins left, but I must say, he left me with a bad feeling.”

  “Howard wouldn’t bring anyone into town who was a threat,” Corva said, but she didn’t sound entirely convinced.

  “Athos says he’s been at the train station every time a train arrives,” Elspeth said. “He stands there with his donation box, pontificating to the new arrivals. He’s also asked about train schedules nearly every day.”

  “Good.” Wendy nodded. “Maybe he’ll find a train going somewhere he likes and he’ll leave.”

  The women shared an uneasy laugh. Holly had to admit she would have welcomed news of Robbins’s departure with relief. She had had enough of uneasy topics though. She was together with friends for the first time in a long time, and she was in a mood to be happy.

  “Did you hear that I’m starting a choir?” she asked. “For the Christmas pageant to begin with, but I’m hoping George will let me continue it after the holidays.”

  Her announcement was met by a round of enthusiasm, not just
for the choir itself, but that the subject had been changed.

  “I would love to join a choir,” Miriam jumped right in. “I miss singing so much. Will you be accepting anyone who wants to join or will you have auditions?”

  Holly spent the rest of the afternoon answering questions about her plans for the choir, who would be allowed to join, and what they might sing. The more she answered, the more enthusiastic she was. But as much of a treat as it was to be with her dear friends again, planning for the future, the specter of Rev. Robbins and everything he might or might not have been up to hung in the air. The only thing Holly could do was keep her eyes peeled.

  “You got it?” Trey asked as he and George secured firm grips on the trunk of one of the trees that had been brought into the church as decoration the week before.

  “Yeah,” George confirmed from his squat position. “Ready? One, two, three.”

  The two men lifted the tree and its heavy stand. With short, grunting steps, they carried it from the spot on the chancel where Holly’s choir would now stand, moving it to the side. One of the stained-glass windows would be covered on either side at the front of the sanctuary because of the new placement of the trees, but it was worth it to give Holly the space she needed for her choir. He’d give her a lot more if he could, if he had half an idea what she might want.

  George ground out a breath as he and Trey set the tree down in its new spot, and George stood with a grunt. “I’m not as young as I used to be.”

  Trey laughed, a hand to his own back. “None of us are. We think we’re immortal when we’re on the low side of our twenties. Then we get to the other side, up into our thirties, and it all goes away.”

  George huffed a laugh and moved to flop into the first pew, staring at his and Trey’s handiwork of the day. “At least, from what the old men in their later thirties and forties and even older tell me, we all get a second wind once we acknowledge we’re not young anymore.”

  Trey lowered himself into the pew beside George with a groan that could have been agreement or just his back hurting. “I’ll let you in on a little secret,” he said. “I’m gonna be thirty-five this summer.”

  “Really?” George looked his friend over. “I always thought you weren’t quite thirty.”

  Trey laughed. “We all look like babies in our family, but believe me, I’ve lived a little.” He reached up to rub the scar that cut across his face. Few people in town knew as much about that scar as George did, how Trey had received it in an ill-fated foray on the wrong side of the law, how he’d nearly lost his eye and his life because of it, how it turned his heart and convinced him to walk on the right side of the law. But there was much more that George sensed he didn’t know.

  That thought led him right back to the others that hadn’t left him alone for a week. He cleared his throat. “So Trey. In all those years of life you’ve got…” He paused, second-guessing the question he wanted to ask.

  “What?” Trey called him out. It was clear as day that he knew something was on George’s mind.

  George adjusted his posture, rolled his shoulders, and dove in. “Have you ever had to forgive someone for something that was your fault in the first place?”

  Trey stared at him, arms crossed. “This has to do with that pretty new wife of yours, doesn’t it.”

  George rubbed a hand over his face. “That obvious, eh?”

  “I can’t believe you messed things up already,” Trey chuckled. He nudged George’s arm.

  “I messed it up over a decade ago,” George replied, not taking the bait of Trey’s light-hearted attitude.

  Trey sobered up. “Right. You said you knew Holly from way back, in Baltimore.”

  “Not only did I know her, I almost married her.”

  Trey’s brow flew up. “Is that what that rumor circulating through town is all about?”

  George winced. “There’s a rumor?”

  “Does it count as a rumor if it’s true?” Before George could answer, he pushed on with. “So what did you do to mess things up, and why are you asking about forgiving her?”

  George sighed. “The other day, when Holly made the suggestion to get up a choir, starting with the Christmas pageant, I was surprised. Surprised because she has a background in music and has been involved in choirs for years, going all the way back to before the time I knew her in Baltimore.”

  Trey blinked. “So?”

  “So I didn’t know.”

  “That she was musical?”

  “Any of it. That she had experience with choirs, that she loved music, that she can sing.”

  Trey waited for more, and when it didn’t come, he said, “And?”

  George blew out an impatient breath. “All those years ago, when I fancied myself so in love, I never stopped to ask what her interests were. I didn’t know about the choir, and I suspect I didn’t know a lot of other things too. I pursued her, convinced her to marry me, and got all the way up to the point where I was standing at the front of a church with my brothers, and I didn’t know the first thing about her.”

  “Come on. I’m sure you knew the first thing.” Trey tried to cheer him up.

  “No.” George shook his head. “I look back now, and the only reasons I can remember about why I wanted to marry her was because she was pretty and we had good conversations whenever I went into her parent’s store.” He paused. “And because I knew it would irritate the living daylights out of my family to have a shop girl sitting at the family table with us.”

  An uneasy look came to Trey’s face, made slightly more sinister by his scar. “You wanted to marry a girl to annoy your family.”

  “Exactly.” George slumped against the back of the pew. “If a young man came up to me today and told the same story, I would chastise him for selfishness and counsel him to think about the feelings of the woman. No woman wants to marry a man simply so he can use her to make a point.”

  “But,” Trey began slowly, “if what I’ve heard is true, she came to her senses and left you at the altar. So no harm done?”

  George shook his head. “There was a lot of harm done. Holly’s life changed dramatically because of my selfishness, and not for the better.” He could say so much about what he’d learned of her first marriage, but those things were Holly’s and Holly’s alone. The more he thought about them, the more he suspected that the white streak in her hair was the result of some sort of trauma that blackguard husband put her through. She still hadn’t said a word about that, though.

  He cleared his throat and went on. “The thing is, I think I changed her life because of my selfishness twice now.”

  “Once way back then and once just last week?” Trey suggested, brow arched.

  George shrugged. “She didn’t come out here to marry me. She came to apologize for before. I was the one who insisted we go through with things.”

  “I know. I was there. Remember?” Trey chuckled. “Wish I had known what the two of you were talking about then.”

  “It wouldn’t have made any difference,” George sighed.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I wanted to marry her.” It all seemed so clear now. Too clear. With everything that had happened in his life and all of the lessons he’d learned, even with his dedication to serving God instead of himself, he’d still gone and bound Holly to him because he wanted her, without asking what she thought.

  He was lost in his thoughts and Trey in his for several long seconds. Trey rubbed his chin, considering, then said, “So do you know for a fact that she was absolutely determined not to marry you when she came here on that train?”

  George shrugged. “She said she came to apologize.”

  “She came hundreds of miles, alone on a train, for the single purpose of telling you she was sorry for not marrying you before.”

  “Yes.”

  “So what was she planning to do after she said her piece?”

  George blinked. “I don’t know. Move on, I suppose.”

  “By herself. I
n the West.”

  “Yes.” But George was far less certain now.

  Trey leveled him with a look. “Have you stopped to consider that part of her might have hoped that you’d still marry her, even after she apologized?”

  As much as George wanted to deny that was a possibility, he couldn’t. He could only stare into space and consider it.

  “Have you considered that she might have been carrying a torch for you all these years?” Trey went on.

  “I seriously doubt it.” That much George was certain of. “After the way I treated her? No. She was right to run when she did.”

  “Well, it seems to me that she ran right back to you at the first chance she got.”

  That simple statement sent a deep buzz of excitement through George’s gut. What if she had held onto a tiny hope that they could start over, try again? Things had begun to get easier between the two of them in the last few days. They were far from what he would consider normal relations for a new husband and wife, but he had to admit that the two of them were at least becoming friends.

  And that moment at Piedmont Pond. He’d held her in his arms and she hadn’t been stiff or pulled away. He’d dipped closer to her, fully intending to kiss her. She hadn’t moved away. In fact, she’d tilted her head up to him. She might not have known his intentions. On the other hand, she might have and might have welcomed a kiss.

  Trey jolted him out of his thoughts with a slap on his arm. “Maybe you should talk to your wife about all this stuff, get it out in the air.”

  “Easier said than done,” George grumbled. Although he hated that he felt that way. It should be easy to talk about anything and everything with his wife. What was holding him back?

  Trey started to chuckle and shake his head. When George sent him a questioning look, he said, “Look at me, doling out marriage advice. And me a confirmed bachelor.”

  “Ever consider changing that status?” George pressed him, eager to change the subject.

  Trey laughed harder. “All the time. These days, more than half of my buddies have found themselves wives. Sam and I joke that we’re the last men standing. But I tell you what,” he moved to stand. “Watching how happy the rest of you are with your domestic bliss has been making me reconsider my lone wolf life.”