A Time for Giving

by Raine Cantrell

  “And you’ll be my strength, my hope, and my love?”

  The heavy beat of his heart matched her own. Ellie looked up at him and saw the world of love reflected in his eyes. She thought of all the years she had secretly loved him. And it was time to give that love, freely, as he had asked, as she had dreamed.

  “Ellie, please.”

  She kissed him lightly. “Yes, Jacob. I will be all that you’ve asked me.”

  “And will you love me, Ellie? Will you give me the promise of your love?”

  Ellie’s tear-bright eyes searched his. A storm of emotions made her tremble. “Jacob, I have loved you forever,” she murmured against his lips. “You make me feel whole. I want—”

  “Show me, Ellie. Share your love with me.”

  Hidden in the shadows at the top of the stairs, Thomas waited until he heard the door to Ellie’s room close. He thought of Ellie, and the way she had praised him for taking over as man of the family today, and other times, too. The secret he carried brought an understanding that there were other ways a man became one like his brother. Courage, as Jacob said, came in many forms. Honesty always won in the end, and families were built on the love they shared.

  He knew where Ellie hid the Christmas presents, and Jacob’s were still in the carpetbag in his room. Thomas didn’t think they would mind if he took their place, and set them out beneath the tree.

  Ellie told him that this was a time for giving, not only gifts that could be seen, but those that couldn’t.

  “Oh, Jacob, look. The sun’s out and made jewels of the ice and snow.”

  “I have my own jewel. A Christmas bride.” He cradled Ellie, and knew he had all his gifts within her. She had showed him how deep the sharing of two hearts could be, and he cherished it. But her small cry about the sun sent alarm through him. “Ellie, the children! The presents!

  “Oh, sweet Lord. This is not how I wanted to wake you.”

  “I can’t think of a better way, Jacob. You made me feel like a bride last night. I love the thought of being a wife this morning.” She hid the wince climbing out of bed caused, and began to gather her clothes. Jacob was already buttoning up his shirt, tucking it into his pants.

  He caught her admiring look. “Love, if you don’t want to see how impatient children expecting their gifts to be under the tree, treat their mother, hurry.” But he blew her a kiss, not daring to do more.

  Ellie hurried.

  They both stopped short at the parlor door. Thomas, Caleb, and Krista sat waiting for them. “Merry Christmas,” they chorused.

  “Merry Christmas,” Ellie and Jacob said together, then shared a bewildered look. The presents were all under the tree. The stockings were filled with the bulge of nuts and apples.

  “We’ve been waiting and waiting for you to wake up.”

  “Well, they’re here now, Krista, so you don’t have to wait,” Caleb and Thomas said in unison.

  “Make them sit down, and I’ll get the present,” Krista told her brother and uncle. She found it quickly, and returned to hand the small brown paper package to Ellie. “It’s very, very special. I know you’ll love it, Ellie. Ladies—”

  “Krista!” the boys warned, avoiding the questioning look that Jacob gave them.

  “Well, she needs to know that it’s from Papa.” Krista squeezed herself next to Ellie on the settee. “Do hurry. I haven’t seen it yet.”

  Caught by her excitement, Ellie loosened the string and spread open the paper. “A fan! And oh, what a beautiful one,” she added, touching the lace-trimmed edge.

  “Open it, Ellie. I want to see the picture painted there.”

  She did as Krista asked, exclaiming and thanking them over and over. Beneath the boughs of a flowering tree, sat a lady in her court dress. On his knees beside her, a swain appeared to pledge his love with his hands crossed over his heart. “The painting is lovely. I don’t know what … more … to—” Ellie turned her face to Jacob’s shoulder, taking refuge there as she had during the night.

  “Isn’t it romantic, Papa? Doesn’t she like it? We thought and thought so hard to get a gift that would make Ellie love you.”

  Holding one love, and looking at his son, his brother, and his daughter, Jacob knew he was blessed. “Ellie,” he whispered, “shall I tell them?”

  She shook her head and sat up. “I do love him. And I will marry him.”

  Whoops and yells, hugs and kisses greeted her news. Ellie was hard put to contain the joy in her heart. It was sometime later when they got around to opening the other presents. They all sat on the floor in front of the tree and listened to Jacob praise the scarf Krista made for him. The boys gifted him with a new whittling knife. And more than the shirts Ellie had made for him along with new knitted socks, he treasured her grandfather’s Bible that had seen him safe through earlier wars.

  Krista loved the new dress Ellie had sewed with its matching ribbons for her hair. The doll from her brother and uncle wasn’t the bisque one she longed for, but Ellie had made a matching dress to hers. But best of all, she loved the miniature Noah’s ark with the pairs of animals from her father.

  She nearly knocked him over with the hug she gave him, and was content to sit on his lap while the boys opened their gifts. Like Jacob, Ellie made them shirts and socks, but there were new pocketknives, too. It was the gifts that Jacob made for them that drew a strange silence.

  Thomas stroked the new rifle stock, engraved with his name and carved with a flight of geese. Caleb stared at the fancy wooden stirrups and a leather bridle.

  “Don’t you like them?” Jacob was forced to ask when the silence grew uncomfortable. “I know you wanted a new rifle, Thomas, but we can put the stock I made for you on your rifle.”

  “Yes, we could.”

  Jacob tried to swallow his anger. “Son, I know you wanted a pony, but I couldn’t get one this year. I traded another pair of those stirrups for that handworked bridle, since Ellie lets you ride her mare.”

  “Oh, they’re fine gifts, Papa.” Caleb glanced at his uncle. “You better tell him.”

  “Tell me what!”

  “Jacob, we didn’t have any money to buy a present for Ellie. So Caleb and I traded my rifle and his saddle to buy the fan.”

  “That’s where you went—”

  “The day of the storm,” Thomas finished for him. “We didn’t want to ever leave Ellie, and if you couldn’t get her to marry you, we had to do something.”

  Before Jacob could move his daughter from his lap, Ellie was up and hugging the boys. “I love you both. You’re a fine man, Thomas. As generous and unselfish as your brother. And you, my Caleb, I’m so proud to know you’ll be my son.” Krista wormed her way between them while Ellie cried.

  Jacob gathered them all close in his arms. “No one has had a better Christmas. But please, let me get Ellie to stop crying long enough to open my gift to her.”

  But she couldn’t stop, and in the end, Jacob had to unwrap it for her. The walnut box was satin smooth, and he watched Ellie trace the flowers and vines he had spent hours carving in the wood. She whispered her love when she saw the heart in its center, and the initials entwined. Theirs. At his urging, she opened the box, and the soft strains of a waltz played. As much as she knew she would treasure this gift from his hands, the plain gold band that Jacob lifted from its cotton nest and placed on her finger was every Christmas wish and dream come true.

  They married on the last day of his leave. Ellie had to say good-bye at the church. Krista, not to be outdone by her brother or uncle, had a last-minute gift for her father.

  Ellie waited her turn to kiss Jacob one last time as he made his way through family and friends who came to offer good wishes. She loved the way he took the good-natured teasing over his young daughter’s gift.

  Krista loved being held up high in his arms. But she had a wifely tone when she issued her last-minute instructions. “Now take good care, Papa. Be very careful.” With a smothered g
iggle, she looked at the loaded wagon, then kissed his cheek. “Now I know you’ll never be hungry again, Papa.”

  “No, little one, I certainly won’t.”

  Ellie had been as surprised as her husband, for Krista had caged all her grown rabbits with the help of the boys.

  “She’s your daughter—” Ellie and Jacob said at the same time. He was laughing when he finally held his wife.

  “She’s ours, Jacob. Like the tomorrows that will come. Keep safe and come home to us, love. Our time for giving has just begun.”

  More from Raine Cantrell

  Novellas

  Apache Fire

  Widowed and childless, Angie is named The Woman of Sorrow by Niko, a noble warrior of the Apache. But as passion ignites between them, Angie must weather the storm of prejudice and injustice for another chance at true happiness—and true love.

  The Bride’s Gift

  Nicholas Dowling’s mail-order bride is not what he’d hoped for—she’s too young, too delicate, and far too superstitious for a pragmatic man like himself. But not even Brianna’s untamable spirit can’t cast a shadow over her luminous beauty, and before long the blaze of their attraction grows into something neither one of them was expecting.

  Miss Delwin’s Delights

  Kit Sidell, Texas’s most eligible bachelor, has an insatiable sweet tooth. But when the challenge of a wager brings him to the kitchen of Birdie Delwin, Kit finds himself tempted by much more than her dessert menu.

  More Than a Miracle

  Maureen O’Rourke made a home for herself and her children in an abandoned cabin in the Colorado mountains. While searching for his lost child, Gabriel Channing stumbles upon the cabin, and finds a whole new family instead. But it will take more than a Christmas wish to make these two broken families one—it will take more than a miracle.

  The Secret Ingredient

  Hallie Pruitt has a habit of taking in strays—both unwanted animals and captivating cowboys. When handsome Cade McAllister seeks shelter in her home while his broken leg heals, it’s her homemade candies that keep him sober, but it’s the piping hot fantasies she describes in her diary that provides the secret ingredient to Cade’s heart.

  Novels

  The Homecoming

  In the aftermath of the Civil War, one man’s vow to stand alone is shaken by the return of the love of his life. A new novel from national bestselling romance author Raine Cantrell.

  For most Texans, Reconstruction stood as a second declaration of war. Returning to his Texas farm at the end of the War Between the States, Matt Coltrane finds his land ravaged by scavengers as part of a greedy Reconstruction land grab. Turned bitter by the war, Matt attempts to avoid others, until Laine Ellis, the only woman he ever loved, is threatened. Despite the odds against him, Matt swears to protect her, as well as his land.

  Born to be a Southern lady, Laine Ellis grew up in a lonely cabin on the edge of the bayou. Stubborn and courageous, she is raising her brother and sister after raiders killed her parents and destroyed her home. Laine doesn’t entertain any man’s attention, until Matt’s return. She loved him with a girl’s starry-eyed innocence and now wants him with a woman’s passion. She and Matt struggle in the face of old enemies and new challenges to bring their dreams to life as an entire country strives to put itself back together.

  Wildflower

  In the idyllic mountains of Colorado, a woman will risk her life to save the ones she loves.

  For two years Jenny Latham has lived alone with her young son in the Colorado mountains, trying to manage her guilt over letting an abusive husband control her for too long. Her beauty makes her the object of many men’s desires, but with a broken heart and an independent streak as strong as the mountains themselves, Jenny refuses them all. But when she accidentally shoots a stranger and takes it upon herself to nurse him back to health, she finds all of her defenses wavering.

  The stranger is a handsome man named Charmas, but he claims to remember little else, having lost his memory after the accident that led him to be in Jenny’s care. Overcome by Charmas’ allure, Jenny begins to succumb to her feelings of passion, until her world is shattered by the reappearance of her violent husband. Jenny will gamble with her very life in order to protect her son and Charmas from harm.

  Silver Mist

  In a race to strike it rich, a naïve woman discovers how precious a man’s love can be.

  Dara Owens has been sheltered by her brothers in quiet Rainly, Florida, unaware of the rough nature of the rest of the world. That is, until “white gold” fever takes over Rainly, and prospectors overrun the town in the search for phosphate rock. With the miners comes gambling and robbery, and suddenly quiet Rainly isn’t a safe haven for an innocent beauty anymore, especially once the rugged Silver McQuade arrives on the scene. But once Dara meets Silver, no warnings about this charming seducer can keep them apart. As the small community becomes divided over the presence of the miners, Dara is torn between loyalty to her home, and her newly awakened desire.

  Western Winds

  A headstrong woman more than meets her match in an unexpected inheritance.

  When she inherits her father’s sprawling Texas ranch, the Reina, Lacey Garrett is determined to run it on her own. With a long line of men waiting to wrestle control of the land away from the willful young woman, many with dreams of winning her hand as well, Lacey has her work cut out for her. But of all the difficulties Lacey foresaw, never could she imagine a last minute change in her father’s will that leaves part of the Reina to another heir.

  Rafe Parrish is a loner with a dark past, and no happier to be sharing control of the homestead with Lacey than she is. Angered by her arrogance, Rafe is determined to have it all: the Reina and Lacey herself. Lacey will have to fight for what is hers, or risk surrendering to Rafe’s dominance, losing control of her heart in order to stay on the land she loves.

  Calico

  An Irish spitfire meets her match in a western romp.

  Maggie O’Roark knows how to walk, talk, and fight like a man. When Maggie inherits her uncle’s profitable silver and gold mines, she’s determined to prove she can operate them on her own, even as her wedding date approaches. When Maggie’s groom is kidnapped just before the wedding, Maggie is convinced saloon owner C.V. McCready is responsible, in a desperate bid to keep her from re-opening the mines.

  McCready is a silver-tongued con man, but when he sees Maggie in her wedding finery, he becomes obsessed with protecting her from less savory men who would do anything to get their hands on her mines. McCready kidnaps Maggie and claims her in a marriage by proxy, setting the stage for the fiercest and funniest battle of the sexes in the West.

  Desert Sunrise

  A desperate woman meets her destiny on the Arizona frontier.

  After her husband is murdered on their wedding night, Faith Beckett is on the run, with her father and siblings in tow. They have a land stake on the far side of the Arizona Territory, a perilous journey for even seasoned travelers, and are in need of a guide as determined as Faith.

  Delaney Carmichael was raised by the Apache, and a man as hard and dangerous as the land he loves. On a mission to restore his family’s honor, he has no time to help Faith and knows he’ll be better off if he ignores her beauty. But when Faith walks head on into danger, he’s moved to save her despite his best judgment. Ensnared by Faith’s turquoise eyes and a mystical connection to ancient Apache legends, the hardness of Delaney’s heart is softened as mutual passion is revealed in the wild lands of Arizona.

  Tarnished Hearts

  Not even a war between the states can keep apart a Southern aristocrat and the love of his life.

  Tormented by his past and denied his dream of becoming a doctor, Southern aristocrat Trevor Shelby has little in his life to live for, until he meets the beautiful overseer’s daughter, Leah Reese. Unused to the warmth and kindness Leah shows him, Trevor learns to love from the young woman, while his int
ensity teaches her about passion. Despite the difference in their social classes, they dared to dream of a future together, a fantasy that is shattered by lies, betrayal, and the outbreak of war.

  Darling Annie

  Acts of charity quickly lead to a flirtation with the deadliest of sins for DARLING ANNIE.

  Kellian York has big plans for the brothel he’s inherited in Loving, Texas. Too bad that just days after his arrival the Legion for Decency has burned it to the ground, citing their mission to rid the town of drinking, gambling, and “loose women.” Set on vengeance, Kellian targets the spinster leader, Annie Muldoon, never expecting that the beautiful young woman would let Kellian and his girls move into her boarding house.

  Believing she has a responsibility to protect and redeem the women formerly in Kellian’s employ, Annie soon realizes she’s made a terrible mistake inviting them, and especially Kellian, into her home. Unsure whether he’s trying to torture her or seduce her, Kellian’s striking presence is beginning to rouse the passionate nature she’s tried to hide. Annie decides to take her fate, and Kellian’s, into her own hands, and learns a few tricks of the trade from her boarders, before turning the tables on Kellian. Will the saint redeem the sinner? Or the sinner seduce the saint?

  Whisper My Name

  A young woman is tempted from her path by a handsome cowboy as mysteries about her past are revealed.

  Before taking her vows at a convent to become a young novice, Dominica Kirkland is summoned to an isolated Idaho ranch by Toma Colfax, a friend of her deceased father. Alone and naïve as to the ways of the world, Dominica soon finds herself overwhelmed, and reluctantly accepts the help of Luke, a ruggedly handsome cowboy. Drawn in by her beauty and her innocence, Luke makes it clear that he’s interested in Dominica, no matter what vows she’s considering.

  But at Toma Colfax’s ranch await more questions than answers for Dominica. Toma claims no knowledge of the letter that called Dominica to the untamed wilderness. Slowly long-kept secrets are revealed, about Dominica’s family, about Toma Colfax, and about Luke. Dominica must make painful choices, to return to the safety of the convent and live a life of solitude, or risk everything, including her heart, to stay with Luke.