Buch lesen: «All a Cowboy Wants for Christmas: Waiting for Christmas / His Christmas Wish / Once Upon a Frontier Christmas»

Acclaim for the authors of ALL A COWBOY WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS:

JUDITH STACY ‘Opposites attract in this sexy, passionate Western about a fighting man insistent on getting his way and a courageous woman who is not afraid to best him at his own game.’ —RT Book Reviews on JARED’S RUNAWAY WOMAN

‘These light, charming, heartwarming novellas bring the style of Western courtship to light, and deliver just enough romance, Western aura and engaging characters to satisfy a reader’s appetite for a taste of the wild and tender West.’

—RT Book Reviews on Stetsons, Spring and Wedding Rings anthology, featuring Judith Stacy

DEBRA COWAN ‘Cowan does an excellent job of bringing her characters to life and keeping the readers guessing about the bad guys.’ —RT Book Reviews on WHIRLWIND REUNION

‘Three talented authors prove there’s nothing quite like a wedding, or the feelings of optimism and love that go along with the celebration. With their different outlooks on the occasion they deliver stories connected to their single-title series with pathos, tenderness and humour. These sweet, gentle, emotional tales will lift your spirits and your heart.’—RT Book Reviews on Happily Ever After in the West anthology, featuring Debra Cowan

And introducing new and exciting voice

LAURI ROBINSON.

You can find her sexy and unforgettable cowboy heroes and heart-racing romances in Mills & Boon^® Historical Undone! eBooks

All a Cowboy Wants for Christmas
Waiting for Christmas
Judith Stacy
His Christmas Wish
Lauri Robinson
Once Upon a Frontier Christmas
Debra Cowan

www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author

JUDITH STACY fell in love with the West while watching TV Westerns as a child in her rural Virginia home—one of the first in the community to have a television. This Wild West setting, with its strong men and resourceful women, remains one of her favourites. Judith is married to her high school sweetheart. They have two daughters and live in Southern California. Look in on Judith’s website at www.judithstacy.com

Dear Reader

For me, the best part of Christmas is the gifts. Not the kind that come wrapped in colourful paper with big bows—though those are always nice. The gifts most meaningful to me are the ones that don’t come in packages. They are the joy I feel from donating to the homeless shelter, hearing the sweet voices of the children’s choir performing traditional carols, and seeing my loved ones gathered around the red and green lights twinkling on our Christmas tree.

In WAITING FOR CHRISTMAS, this same joy is experienced by Marlee Carrington, who reluctantly travels to Texas to spend the holidays with distant cousins and meets handsome businessman Carson Tate. They’re drawn together by the town’s Christmas festival, yet Marlee’s past makes her reluctant to commit to a future with Carson. All of that changes when Marlee receives a special, long-awaited gift that only the man who loves her can bestow.

WAITING FOR CHRISTMAS also brings the return of Ian Caldwell and Lucy Hubbard. Readers met this troubled couple in MAGGIE AND THE LAW, and again in A HERO’S KISS, and have anxiously wanted to know how things turned out for them. Their story is concluded here.

Best wishes to you and your loved ones for a warm, happy holiday season.

Judith

DEDICATION

To David, Stacy, Judith, Seth and Brian.

Thanks for always making this fun.

Chapter One

Harmony, Texas, 1889

Five weeks. Just five weeks, then she could leave.

Marlee Carrington gripped the handle of her carpetbag and reminded herself that five weeks wasn’t so very long. She’d certainly managed to live longer than that in places far worse than this wild, uncivilized land called Texas.

Around her on the platform the passengers she’d spent the long journey with hurried to meet friends and loved ones, their expressions bright with joy despite the gray winter sky. Porters carried luggage from the baggage car. The locomotive hissed, shooting steam into the cold, crisp air.

Marlee stepped away from the crowd, keeping to herself.

The town of Harmony, what little she could see of it from the railroad station, spread westward. The wide dirt street was bordered by watering troughs and covered boardwalks, and lined on both sides with wooden buildings, a few of them two stories tall. She’d expected as much, but seeing it sent a tremor of uneasiness through her.

The arrival of the train had attracted a great deal of attention. Townsfolk flocked to the station. Young boys and girls raced through the crowd. Several dogs followed them, barking.

All manner of people moved about. Rugged-looking men dressed in coarse clothing, some with long, unkempt beards. They hustled about, intent on their work, driving horse- or mule-drawn wagons to the train station, yelling, cursing. And all of them had pistols strapped to their sides. Some carried rifles—right out in the open, in broad daylight.

Marlee gasped. Good gracious, what sort of place was this?

Four weeks. Maybe she would only stay four weeks.

Shouts drew her attention to a group of men near the baggage car involved in a heated discussion over something. Marlee glanced at them, then looked away, not wanting to draw their attention by staring, afraid—

Well, she didn’t know what, exactly, she was afraid of. She was just afraid.

In the crowd of people still streaming toward the train station, Marlee spotted a number of men who, judging by the nicer clothing they wore, were probably merchants and businessmen. They joined the fray around the platform, shouting directions to their drivers and the porters unloading the box cars.

Clutching her carpetbag tighter, Marlee ventured to the edge of the wooden platform and craned her neck, searching for a familiar face in the crowd. She expected her aunt and uncle to meet the train. She’d hoped her cousins, Audrey and Becky, would come, too.

A jolt of unease shot through Marlee. Would she recognize them? Years had passed since she’d seen them—she’d been only a child when they’d made the trip to Pennsylvania to visit.

The sea of strange faces seemed to double, the shouting intensified, the children raced faster, dogs barked louder. A wave of anxiety crashed over Marlee.

What if her aunt and uncle had forgotten she was coming? What if they’d left town? What if they hadn’t really wanted her to visit them, after all? What if they were just being nice when they’d invited her here? What if they’d changed their minds and fled, leaving her stranded here in this frightening place amid a town full of strangers?

Marlee drew in a quick breath, forcing herself to calm down.

No, of course her aunt and uncle hadn’t left town. They simply were late arriving at the train station to meet her. That’s all it was.

Surely.

They’d asked her to come here and spend the Christmas holiday with them. That meant they truly wanted her here.

Didn’t it?

Didn’t it?

“Oh, dear …” Marlee mumbled and turned away.

Her heart beat faster in her chest, racing along with her runaway thoughts. She’d only been here a few minutes but already she didn’t like it. She didn’t belong here. She didn’t fit in. No one—not even her cousins, probably—would accept her.

An idea struck her.

She could leave sooner than planned. Much sooner. In a week. She could make up a story about receiving a telegram from Mrs. Montgomery stating that Marlee was desperately needed during the Christmas holiday after all, and she could tell her aunt and uncle and cousins that she was leaving.

For a moment, Marlee let the vision play out in her head. She could return to Philadelphia, to her home—though it wasn’t her own home, of course. Yet the Montgomery mansion in which she had a small room was the closest she’d come to feeling as if she had a home in many years.

She’d worked as the personal secretary to the wealthy and socially prominent Mrs. Montgomery for several months now. It was a job she was lucky to have gotten immediately upon graduating from the Claremont School for Young Ladies, with an education she was lucky to have received.

Girls with her background—no father, a working-class mother, a childhood spent shuffling from one distant relative to another—seldom received so golden an opportunity. Mrs. Montgomery had taken a chance in hiring her. Marlee had not—and would never—give her one tiny reason to regret her decision.

Another wave of anxiety washed through Marlee, this one stronger than the last, remembering how circumstances had forced her into the journey that had landed her in this place.

Mrs. Montgomery had decided to spend the Christmas season with friends in Canada. Marlee had assumed she would accompany her, as she always did to handle correspondence, schedule social events and organize her charity work. For a few hopeful days, Marlee had thought the dear old woman would take her along, that this Christmas might somehow be different from all the rest.

But Mrs. Montgomery had decided that this holiday visit would be for enjoyment only and had informed Marlee that she would not be needed.

Marlee paced the platform as the vision filled her mind of what awaited her in Philadelphia, if she cut short her visit here in Texas.

Mrs. Montgomery’s grand home would seem awfully sad and lonely at Christmas. A few of the servants had been left behind, but they had families nearby to spend the holidays with. One of them would surely invite Marlee to their home. But she wouldn’t feel wanted or accepted there. Wouldn’t that be the same as spending the holiday here in Harmony? How would that be different from all her other Christmases?

Well, for one thing, Marlee told herself, there wouldn’t be any gun-toting men in buckskins. Or dogs roaming the streets. Or children unaccompanied by nannies. She wouldn’t be forced to live with family members she didn’t really know, in a town that surely had strange customs, with no friends, nothing that would make her feel welcome, wanted or accepted.

Marlee’s heart soared as another thought struck her.

She could leave. Now. Right now.

She could go inside the station and buy a ticket back to Philadelphia. She could make up a story about receiving a telegram from Mrs. Montgomery stating that Marlee was desperately needed over the Christmas holiday after all, and she could ask the station master to notify her aunt and uncle that she was returning home. And she could leave.

Marlee turned and headed toward the ticket window when the roar of the crowd seemed to dip and the chaos around the station diminished. She spotted a man striding toward the railroad station. Heads turned. People moved aside and let him pass.

He was tall—good gracious, he was tall—dressed in dark trousers, a crisp white shirt and a dark blue vest. Though the air held a chill, he wore no coat, just a black Stetson pulled low on his forehead.

He carried no gun. Was he unafraid here among all these men who brandished weapons? Maybe he was simply arrogant. Or was it confidence?

The man moved with great purpose through the crowd, then vaulted onto the platform with practiced ease. The men gathered there hurried to him. He turned, and for an instant, faced in Marlee’s direction.

Was he looking at her?

Her breath caught and her heart raced—but for an entirely different reason this time.

Handsome. A strong chin, thick brows and blue—they were blue, weren’t they?—eyes that seemed to slice right through her. Marlee’s heart raced faster, somehow. Her knees trembled, sending a strong quake through her. She stood mesmerized, unable to take her eyes off him.

Her thoughts scattered.

Was he simply looking in her direction? At something behind her? Or was he gazing at her?

Another thought jolted her back to reality.

Good gracious, she probably looked a fright. She’d spent days aboard the train. Her dark green traveling dress was limp and wrinkled. She’d done what she could to freshen up as the train neared the station, but she no doubt looked pale and drawn. Was her hair disheveled? Her hat straight?

The man shifted his weight drawing attention to his wide shoulders, his long legs.

A few days wouldn’t be too long to stay here in Harmony, would it?

Marlee watched as the man turned back to the men who crowded around him. He spoke, and they quieted. He spoke again and one of them answered, then they all nodded in unison. He pointed and they turned, and with one final word, the men headed off to do his bidding.

A longing, deep and strong, bloomed in Marlee. Such command. Such presence. Such power and strength.

The man, whoever he was, was important. Very important.

And everyone in the town of Harmony knew it.

She watched as he moved down the platform, talking to the train conductor.

Two weeks. Two weeks here wouldn’t be bad—not bad at all. In fact—

Squeals of delight jarred Marlee from her thoughts, forcing her back to reality as two young women raced through the crowd and dashed up the steps onto the platform.

“Marlee!” one of them cried.

“We’re so glad you’re here!” the other said.

Her cousins. Audrey, only one year younger than Marlee’s own twenty years, and Becky barely a year younger still, wearing gingham dresses and matching bonnets. Both girls threw their arms around Marlee and hugged her tight. Becky pulled the carpetbag from her grasp.

“We thought this train would never get here,” she declared.

“How was your trip?” Audrey asked. She leaned back a little, looked closer at Marlee then let out a little squeal. “You look so much like Mama. Doesn’t she, Becky?”

Her sister gasped. “She does! And that means you look like us!”

Marlee saw the resemblance immediately. All three of them were tall and slender, with light brown hair and deep blue eyes.

“It’s like we’re really sisters,” Becky declared, and gave her another hug.

“You must be starving,” Audrey said, and linked her arm through Marlee’s as they crossed the platform. “Mama’s been cooking all morning.”

“We’ve fixed up a room for you,” Becky said.

“It’s small,” Audrey pointed out.

“But it’s so pretty,” Becky said. “Audrey made new window curtains.”

“Becky hooked a new rug,” her sister said.

“I love your dress,” Becky declared. “You have to tell us about what the girls in Philadelphia are wearing.”

“Wait until you hear what the town is doing for Christmas this year,” Audrey said.

“This is going to be the best Christmas we’ve ever had,” Becky declared.

With a cousin on each side of her, Marlee descended the steps and headed toward town. She glanced back over her shoulder and spotted the man still talking to the conductor.

Five weeks. Five weeks, as originally planned. Five weeks in Harmony, Texas. It really might be the best Christmas she’d ever had.

Chapter Two

“This Christmas is going to be marvelous,” Becky declared, as Marlee walked with her cousins down the boardwalk away from the train station.

Marlee spotted a few women wearing simple dresses covered by long cloaks. Some carried market baskets; most tended the small children who swarmed around them. The street was filled with carriages, horses and wagons.

“Here we are,” Becky announced and gestured to a large display window filled with blue speckled pots and pans, an array of colorful blankets and knitted hats and scarves. Harmony General Store was painted on the glass.

Marlee followed her cousins inside. She’d read about the store her aunt and uncle, Viola and Willard Meade, owned in the letters she’d received from them over the years. It was exactly as she’d imagined, with aisles and shelves filled with merchandise, everything organized and spotless. But she hadn’t expected the place to look so warm and inviting.

“She’s here!” Becky shouted.

Customers turned to stare. At the rear of the store, the woman behind a counter looked up and smiled. Marlee knew immediately that this was her aunt Viola. Tall with slightly graying hair, she resembled Marlee’s own mother.

“Oh, Marlee, welcome,” she said, as she hurried down the aisle. She threw her arms around her. “We’re so blessed to have you here this Christmas.”

“Thank you. I’m pleased to be here,” Marlee said, and decided there was no sense mentioning that only a few minutes ago she’d seriously considered jumping aboard the next eastbound train to escape this place.

“Your uncle Willard is seeing to the arrival of the new merchandise,” Viola said. “You girls show Marlee her room and get her settled.”

They passed through the curtained doorway into the family living quarters, a large room with a wooden table and chairs, cupboards, a sideboard and a cookstove. Ruffled curtains covered the windows. A narrow staircase led up to the second floor. The room was warm; the aroma of baking ham hung in the air.

“We used this for storage,” Becky said, as she headed toward the rear of the room. “But we emptied it so you could have a place of your own.”

Marlee lingered in the doorway as Becky and Audrey went in ahead of her. The room was small, but larger than the quarters she’d been assigned at Mrs. Montgomery’s Philadelphia mansion—and much more inviting.

Dark green curtains hung on the windows, bringing out the warm colors in the patchwork quilt and rug. A bureau stood against one wall, and on another a small writing desk and stool; a rocker with a soft cushion sat in the corner.

Emotion rose in Marlee. They’d put this room together for her? Her? It seemed too good to be true.

“It’s lovely,” she said, in little more than a whisper. “Absolutely lovely.”

“We picked green because it’s Christmas. We even decorated a little,” Becky said, pointing to the bureau where a golden star was nestled among evergreen boughs. “You’re going to love our Christmas this year. We’re having a big festival. The whole town is going to be decorated.”

“We’re going to have music almost every night,” Audrey said.

“Real musical performances at the social hall,” Becky said, then gave her sister a teasing smile. “Performances that will include a certain man.”

Audrey blushed. “Nothing is going on between Chord Barrett and me.”

“Nothing?” Becky said. “Well, he certainly finds every excuse possible to stop by the store a dozen times every day.”

“He’s just seeing to his duties,” Audrey insisted, then said to Marlee, “Chord is one of the town’s deputies.”

“A deputy and a musician?” Marlee asked.

“Chord’s whole family is singers and musicians,” Becky said. “The Barrett Family Singers, they call themselves. Malcolm and Selma—that’s Chord’s ma and pa—gave all their children musical names. Chord’s younger brother is named Allegro, but everybody just calls him Al.”

“Then there’s Melody, Lyric and Aria,” Audrey said.

“Piccolo and Calliope are twins,” Becky added. “The family has performed everywhere. Malcolm is in Colorado lining up more performances for them.”

“Chord doesn’t travel with the family as much as he used to now that he’s a deputy sheriff,” Audrey said.

“And because he likes to be in Harmony near you,” Becky pointed out.

A little grin crept over Audrey’s face, but she ignored her sister’s words.

“You get settled, Marlee, and rest up a bit from your trip,” she said. “We’ll all have supper after the store closes.”

She and Becky eased out of the room and closed the door.

Marlee unpinned her hat and took off her shoes. She needed to unpack, but the bed looked awfully inviting. She lay down and fell asleep.

Marlee came awake with a start in a pitch-black room. A minute passed before she remembered where she was. She didn’t know how long she’d slept but her growling stomach told her it must have been a while.

She rose and eased open her bedroom door. Wall sconces were lit in the kitchen, but she saw no one and hoped she hadn’t slept through supper. The sound of voices drew her across the kitchen, and she realized the store was still open for business. She parted the curtain at the doorway—then gasped.

He was here. That handsome man she’d spotted at the train station. He was in the store standing at the counter, talking to her aunt and an older, slightly balding man who was probably her uncle Willard.

Good gracious, he was even more handsome up close.

Marlee’s head felt light as she stared. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. A strange heat rushed through her.

Then he shifted and his gaze cut to her. Marlee froze in the doorway, a handful of curtain fabric twisted in each fist. For a few seconds—or was it hours?—their gazes locked. His expression darkened and his eyes dipped to her feet, then rose to her face again, as if he was seeing straight through her.

Goodness, she looked terrible. Here she stood in her stocking feet, in a rumpled dress she’d actually slept in, with loose strands of hair curling around her face. She’d hardly been at her best today on the railroad platform when she’d thought he’d looked at her—and now, somehow, she’d managed to look even worse.

Marlee jerked the curtains closed and dashed back to her room.

“Did you see who came in the store today?” Uncle Willard asked.

Marlee sat at the supper table with her aunt, uncle and cousins, and the meal of ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, fried apples and corn bread smothered in butter spread out before them.

“Carson Tate,” Uncle Willard said, not waiting for anyone to answer his question.

“He was at the train station today,” Audrey said. “You might have seen him, Marlee. Tall, dark-haired, wearing a black hat.”

“And looking too handsome for his own good,” Becky added with a giggle.

Marlee froze. So, Carson Tate was the man she’d managed to embarrass herself in front of not once but twice—and on the same day.

“He’s the biggest businessman in town,” Audrey said. “He owns—well, he owns just about everything.”

“He said he’s got some investors coming to town,” Uncle Willard said, “and he wants to show them how prosperous the merchants in Harmony are.”

“If they’re here during the Christmas festival, they’ll easily see what a wonderful town Harmony is,” Audrey said.

“I doubt they want to look at tinsel and evergreen boughs,” Uncle Willard said. “He didn’t say exactly what kind of investments they were looking to make.”

“More like he wouldn’t stand still long enough to explain it,” Aunt Viola said. “That man is always in a hurry, always rushing from place to place.”

When their meal was concluded, Marlee helped clean up. She’d pitched in to get supper on the table as well. Back in Philadelphia in Mrs. Montgomery’s mansion, there’d been cooks and assistants, serving girls and servants who’d handled everything. She’d not been needed—or wanted—in the kitchen.

“I think Carson Tate is the most handsome man in town,” Becky declared in a little singsong voice as she washed the dishes.

The cup Marlee was drying slipped, but she caught it before it hit the floor.

“Everybody’s mama is hoping he’ll take a shine to her daughter, that’s for certain,” Audrey said.

“He’s not courting anyone?” Marlee asked.

“No,” Audrey said.

Marlee let out the breath she realized she’d been holding.

“I’m telling you the man is too busy for courting,” Aunt Viola said, as she carried plates to the cupboard. “He’s always running toward the next money-making deal as if the devil himself were nipping at his heels.”

“Having money is good,” Becky pointed out.

“But it’s not everything,” Audrey said.

“Audrey Meade, you’re sweet on Chord Barrett,” Becky said. “Admit it.”

Audrey blushed, then smiled broadly. “Yes, of course I am,” she said.

“I knew it!” Becky declared.

Becky and Audrey broke into laughter. Aunt Viola slipped her arm around Audrey’s waist and gave her a hug. Marlee watched this intimate moment between sisters, between mother and daughter, and her heart ached a little for her own mother, whom she hadn’t seen in months, and for the siblings she’d never had. How wonderful it must feel to be a part of a vibrant, loving family.

They finished washing the dishes and put everything away while Uncle Willard helped himself to the last of the fried apples. He and Viola went upstairs.

“Do you need anything?” Audrey asked, as she stood on the stairs.

Marlee shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Good night, then,” Audrey said, and followed her sister up the stairs.

In her room, Marlee lit the lantern on her bureau. The soft glow of the flame spread its warmth. The gold Christmas star nestled in the evergreen boughs Audrey and Becky had placed on her bureau sparkled in the light. Memories of past Christmases floated in Marlee’s head.

They were of Christmas mornings spent with near strangers, mostly. Marlee’s father—whoever he was—had left before Marlee was old enough to register a memory of him. Her mother had been forced to take a job as a servant and leave her daughter with relatives. All of them had been kind to Marlee, but none had been loving and accepting. She’d always been the outsider on those Christmas mornings, when gifts were handed out to squeals of delight from the rightful daughters and sons of those relatives who’d taken her in.

Rarely had Marlee seen her own mother on Christmas. As part of a large household staff, her mother had been expected to fulfill her duties as seamstress to the mistress of the house, not cater to the wishes of her daughter. Marlee had understood, just as she’d accepted that this year her mother was in Europe attending to the wardrobe of her employer, but it had made for lonely, quiet, often tear-filled Christmases, just the same.

The memories crowded Marlee’s mind and seemed to sap her strength. Fresh air would do her good, she decided. She fastened her cloak around her shoulders, put on her bonnet and grabbed her handbag as she left her room. All was quiet in the kitchen. No sound floated down from upstairs.

Certainly her aunt and uncle wouldn’t approve of her walking the streets alone at this late hour, but she wouldn’t be long. Just a quick stroll and she’d come back. They wouldn’t even know she was gone and, besides, what could possibly happen to her in this little town with the quaint name of Harmony?