Read Online Christmas at Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard - Free Book Online Page B

to it or broke all to pieces.”
    â€œThat happens when you don’t let them cool long enough.” Mattie chuckled. “I can just see Gloria getting frustrated and whiny while Roman made out as though he didn’t care one way or the other about her goodies.”
    â€œHe didn’t encourage her, that’s for sure. Seemed put out that Gloria expected us to stop what we were doing and climb down from our ladders.”
    â€œHad it been Mary Kate bringing treats, Roman would’ve fallen all over himself and gobbled half the bars,” Mattie said with a soft chuckle. “But don’t tell him I said so. He thinks I don’t notice the way he gazes at her.”
    â€œOh, to be the man all the young ladies adore,” Amos teased.
    â€œThat was you once upon a time, Amos. All of us girls were so envious of Anna when she caught you.”
    His eyebrows rose. “Even you, although you’d married Marvin with his fine farmhouse?”
    â€œEspecially me,” she murmured in a faraway voice. “You have no idea. From the first day, my marriage felt like a cage, and I felt like Marvin had thrown away the key. It . . . it wasn’t the life I’d hoped for when I was growing up.”
    Mattie’s haunting words made Amos’s throat tighten. Although it was pointless to relive their regrets from all those years ago, he still felt deeply sorry that he’d not been able to amass enough money to impress Mattie’s ambitious dat . Back in that day, so many young men had taken up carpentry that he’d been hard pressed to land enough jobs to keep body and soul together, much less support a wife. He and Anna had lived with her parents for nearly two years before he could afford a one-bedroom rental home down the road a ways from Coldstream.
    â€œI couldn’t have provided the life you deserved, Mattie,” he murmured. “No matter how much we loved each other then, it wasn’t meant to be. But now that we’ve done right by our first spouses, and endured our time of mourning, God’s brought us together again under much better circumstances. So, see?” Amos said in a brighter voice. “It all works out to the gut for them who love the Lord and keep His commandments.”
    â€œAnd what about Bishop Floyd’s commandments? What do you think I should do about my produce business, Amos?” Mattie asked as he steered the rig down a pathway into the woods. “As a preacher, you’re supposed to toe a higher mark than other folks. And as your wife, I’ll be expected to go along with whatever the bishop sees as God’s will for Promise Lodge—no matter how I envisioned our new colony when you and I and my sisters bought the property.”
    Amos considered his answer carefully as he parked the rig in an open area surrounded by cedar trees and crimson sumac bushes. He went around to help Mattie down, pleased that she’d waited for him when she was perfectly capable of stepping to the ground by herself. He stood before her for a moment, his hands remaining lightly at her waist as he gazed down at her. She smelled fresh and looked particularly pretty in a deep green dress that made her complexion glow—truly a temptation to a fellow who’d lived alone for too long.
    â€œI love you, Mattie,” Amos murmured. “I’m going to indulge in a single kiss and then I’ll behave myself while we talk this morning. So for now, clear your mind of all those things the bishop said at the wedding, all right?”
    Delight lit Mattie’s eyes as she reached for him. For a few blissful moments, Amos pressed his lips to hers and held her close, savoring her warmth . . . her eager response to his kiss. Too soon he released her, while his resolve remained strong.
    Mattie’s sigh told him that she, too, wanted more of such close contact, but she stepped away from him. “What a pretty spot. Sort of secluded,”