Read Online A Creed Country Christmas by Linda Lael Miller - Free Book Online

him. Other men had tried to court her during the intervening years, too, though she’d discouraged them, as well. She’d always imagined that if she ever married, it would happen in a fit of wild, romantic passion. She’d be swept off her feet, overcome with desire.
    Lincoln stirred something in her, something almost primal—that was undeniable. But wild, romantic passion? No.
    On the other hand, she knew he was kind, generous. That he worked hard, was an attentive father and didn’t judge people by the culture they’d been born into. Thathe let his suspenders loop at his sides in the mornings while he shaved.
    She smiled at the image, even as Tom introduced her to Weston Creed, and Gracie ran shrieking for joy into the kitchen, hurling herself into her laughing uncle’s arms.
    He swung her around. “Brought you a Christmas tree,” he told her. “Your papa is putting it in the woodshed to dry off a little. What’s Saint Nicholas going to bring you this year?”
    Gracie paused at the question and her lower lip trembled. A troubled expression flickered across her perfect face.
    “I hope he doesn’t come,” she confided, in a whisper that carried.
    Weston looked genuinely puzzled, though Juliana suspected everything he said and did was exaggerated. “Why would you hope for a thing like that?”
    “Because he doesn’t know the others are here,” she said, near tears. “And I don’t want any presents if Billy-Moses and Daisy and Joseph and Theresa don’t get some, too.”
    Juliana’s heart melted and slid down the inside of her rib cage. If Lincoln did propose, she might just accept. She wasn’t in love with him—but she adored his daughter.

Chapter Four
    W hen Lincoln got back inside the house, he found Wes standing in the middle of the kitchen, holding a dismayed Gracie in his arms.
    “Well,” Wes told his niece solemnly, “we’d better get word to Saint Nicholas right quick, then.”
    Shedding his coat, Lincoln raised an eyebrow.
    “Christmas is only four days away,” Gracie fretted. “And the train won’t come through Stillwater Springs again until next week. So how can I write to him in time?”
    Lincoln and Juliana exchanged looks: Lincoln’s curious, Juliana’s wistful.
    “ Papa ,” Gracie all but wailed, “could we send a telegraph to Saint Nicholas?”
    “What?” Lincoln asked, mystified.
    “He won’t bring anything for the others, because he doesn’t know they’re here!” Gracie despaired.
    Something shifted deep in Lincoln’s heart, and it wasn’t just because he was standing so close to Juliana that their shoulders nearly touched. When had he moved?
    He thought of the gifts on the shelf in his mother’s wardrobe, the box of watercolor paints he’d bought on impulse back at the mercantile the day before. “Oh, I already did that,” he lied easily.
    Gracie was not only generous, she was formidably bright. Her forehead creased as Wes set her gently on her feet. “When?” she asked skeptically.
    “In town yesterday,” Lincoln said. “Soon as I knew we were going to have company, I went straight to the telegraph office and sent the old fella a wire.”
    Gracie’s eyes widened, while her busy mind weighed the logistics. Fortunately, she came down on the side of relief rather than reason, and Lincoln felt mildly guilty for deceiving her, pure motives or none.
    She beamed. “Well,” she said. “That’s fine, then.”
    “’Course, he’ll probably have to spread things a little thinner than usual,” Lincoln added. “Saint Nicholas, I mean. Times are hard, remember.”
    Gracie was undaunted. “All I want is a dictionary,” she said. “So I can learn all the words there are in the whole world.”
    Lincoln wanted to sweep her up into his arms, the way Wes had apparently done upon arrival, but he figured that would be laying things on a little thick, so he just replied quietly, “I’m proud of you, Gracie Creed.”
    Beside him, Juliana sniffled once, but when he