Christmas at Harmony Hill Read Online Free Page A

stepped away from the wall out where they could see her in the bit of moonlight creeping through the open door behind them.
    Lucas ran to grab her around the waist, but at the feel of her rounded stomach, hugged very gently. “I was scared I might never see you again,” he whispered. “Like Simon. Beth says he’s gone the same as Mama and little Jimmy, even if we didn’t get to lay him to rest.”
    Heather ran her hand through his dark, curly hair. Such a familiar feel that tears sprang to her eyes. She had often been the one to see Lucas to bed at night and comb his hair in the mornings after little Jimmy pushed him out of her mother’s lap. “How tall you’ve grown.” She leaned over and kissed the top of his head.
    “I’m seven now. Big enough to do lots of things, Beth says.”
    “He is.” Beth’s voice had a smile in it. “Now let me hug my sister.”
    Lucas moved back to let the sisters embrace, but he kept his hand on Heather’s sleeve.
    “You’ve grown too, Beth,” she whispered. “You’re not a little girl anymore.” She pushed her back to look her over in the dim light.
    “I’m almost seventeen.”
    “And she has a feller,” Lucas put in. “Pa’s not too happy about that. Neither are me and Willie.”
    Beth turned toward the boy. “I told you, Lucas, that I won’t leave you. Not until you’re older. And Pa likes Perry fine.”
    “Not like Gideon,” Heather said.
    “No, not like Gideon,” Beth echoed her words. “But I’m glad Gideon is all right.” She reached over to almost shyly touch Heather’s skirt. “Mother got your letter about the baby. She was so happy she couldn’t stop smiling.”
    “What happened to her?” Heather pushed out the question. She had to know, but somehow talking about it made it too real. She wanted it not to be real. To instead be some sort of horrible mistake, but her father’s angry words echoed in her head. She started the rent that tore our family apart .
    “I’ll tell you, but first food.” Beth pulled a jar of water out of her jacket and biscuits and ham out of her apron pocket. “It’s not much, but I didn’t want to chance waking Pa.”
    Heather tried not to grab the water, but she hadn’t been so thirsty since they’d marched across Virginia in the August heat. She let the water fill her mouth and swallowed slowly. It would not be good to gulp it down and have it all heave back out if her stomach decided to be unsettled.
    “Thank you, Beth. And Lucas too.” She smiled at the boy and touched his head again. A shiver went through her from the cool water.
    “You’re cold,” Beth said. “Where’s the blanket, Lucas?”
    “I must have dropped it.” Lucas sounded near tears.
    “Worry not. Your company has warmed my heart.”
    “You still need the blanket.” Beth looked toward the door. “Look. Ring has found it and thinks you gave it to him for his bed. Get him off it before he infests it with fleas.” Beth laughed as Lucas pushed the dog off the blanket. The sound lightened the darkness better than the moonlight sliding through the cracks between the barn’s boards.
    “Ring merely warmed it up for me.” Heather was surprised to feel a smile taking root inside her too as Beth draped the blanket around her. The warmth was more than welcome.
    They settled back in the middle room of the barn. It was darker there, but she knew their faces. Now she needed to know their story. She swallowed the biscuit and ham and could not keep back the thought of her mother’s biscuits she’d imagined eating earlier. She wrapped the last biscuit in the cloth napkin and shoved it in her pocket, her appetite and any thought of laughter gone. “Tell me about Mother.”
    Beth sighed and was quiet a long moment before she began speaking, sorrow plain in her voice. “A week after she got your letter back the first of September, Jimmy got sick. At first we thought maybe he’d caught a chill playing in the creek. You remember how Jimmy loved