The Christmas Angel Read online

  “What about Sara?” she asked.

  “What about her?”

  “That looks pretty serious to me.”

  “It is,” he said honestly. “We’re having a rough time right now . . .”

  “I sort of sensed that.” Christina always had good insight and intuition about people. That was part of what made her a good reporter and a good writer. It wasn’t hard for her to guess at the problems brewing between him and Sara.

  “But we have a commitment,” he said. “I’m not about to mess that up.”

  “I didn’t think you would,” she said quickly. She shrugged a smooth shoulder.

  “You’re terrific, Christina. You could get any guy you want. What’s so special about me?” He laughed, trying to make light of the charged moment.

  “I told you. You are special. You don’t realize it, though, and that’s part of your charm.”

  Luke felt himself almost blush at her compliments.

  Christina leaned toward him and her voice became softer, more intimate. “Listen, I respect your relationship with Sara. Honestly, she’s a catch. But so much of life is timing, Luke. You have to meet someone on the same page, or else it just doesn’t work. At least, that’s what I’ve figured out.”

  Luke swallowed hard. He wanted to argue, to defend his relationship with Sara. But Christina had hit the nail right on the head.

  “I think I’m on your page. That’s all I’m trying to say.” Christina paused, took a breath, and then met his gaze, the candlelight casting her face in a warm glow. “And maybe Sara just isn’t there yet.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE LIGHT SNOWFALL ON SUNDAY MORNING SLOWED EMILY and Dan down, but it didn’t deter them altogether from church. That morning would be their first time there together with Jane. As they drove through the snow-covered village, Emily realized she was feeling tired from all the visitors the day before. They had come and gone throughout the day, stopping by to see Jane and bring baby gifts. First Betty, then Jessica. Next had been Molly and Matthew Harding, her boyfriend, with their three girls all together. “You have a stable of babysitters here, standing by for your calls,” Molly had teased her.

  It was good to know. With the snowy weather that had started yesterday, Emily was already feeling a bit housebound. It was good to get out, even if just to church and back.

  As Dan carefully steered the car through the icy streets, Emily knew that they’d be late.

  They slipped into the sanctuary from a side door, Emily carrying the baby. The service had already begun and Reverend Ben was making announcements about a Christmas Fair meeting and other church business. They walked in quietly and found a place in the rear row. Still, many heads turned and Emily saw the news fly through the congregation.

  She spotted her sister, Sam, and their children sitting several rows ahead alongside her mother. Jessica turned and smiled at her. Finally, her mother’s head turned toward her. Lillian passed a swift cool glance over Emily, as if they’d never been properly acquainted.

  Emily held the baby a little closer and met her mother’s grey gaze with a calm expression. She was sure Lillian had heard the news from Jessica by now—or from any number of people. Of course, her mother hadn’t even bothered to call to wish her luck.

  It hurt but it was no more—and no less—than she expected.

  The service went by quickly. When it came time for the congregation to share their joys and concerns of the week, Emily was feeling self-conscious about announcing their news, though it was indeed a great joy to her. Reverend Ben cast her an expectant glance, but she couldn’t do it. She glanced at Dan. He sat staring straight ahead, his hands folded in his lap over a hymnal. He wasn’t going to do it, either, she realized.

  Suddenly, Jessica stood and turned in their direction. “We have some happy news to share. My sister, Emily, and her husband, Dan, are temporary guardians of the baby Emily found outside the church about two weeks ago. Her name is Jane and she’s just beautiful.”

  Now everyone felt free to turn and openly look at Dan and Emily. She sat and smiled, holding up the baby, who now slept in her arms.

  “Congratulations, Emily,” Reverend Ben said, and everyone smiled and clapped.

  Everyone except her mother, who stared down at her prayer book in her lap and didn’t even deign to glance Emily’s way.

  A short time later, when the service was over, Emily carefully made her way down the middle aisle and out of the sanctuary. It took awhile, though. People kept stopping her to admire the baby and wish them all good luck.

  “What a yummy little thing,” Sophie Potter said. “Look at those apple cheeks.”

  Emily had to smile at the compliment. Sophie, who had lived on an orchard her whole life, thought all babies had apple cheeks.

  “I guess you won’t have time this year to work on the Christmas Fair, Emily,” Sophie went on.

  Every year Emily volunteered for the fair and was usually stationed at the wreath and garland table with Jessica.

  “I’ll have to come as a customer this year, Sophie. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to buy lots of things.”

  “Oh, don’t be silly, dear. I’m not complaining. On the contrary, it’s nice to see you with new priorities.” Sophie gently patted her arm. “Now if you need any help with that baby, if you have any baby-sitting or questions about anything at all, you feel free to call on me. Maybe I can be her spare grandma. Most of my grandchildren live so far away, I don’t have any little ones left to fuss over.”

  Emily was touched by the offer. Sophie would certainly know how to fuss over a baby. But spare grandma was not the term she’d use. Only grandma was more appropriate, considering what her own mother’s interest was likely to be.

  “I’m taking next week off,” Emily said. “Maybe we’ll take a ride out to the orchard and visit.”

  “That would be lovely, dear. You know me; I’m always there unless I’m over here at church. Drop in anytime.”

  Emily and Dan soon met with Reverend Ben, who stood by the doorway sharing a word or two with the congregants as they left the sanctuary. His smile beamed as he took in the baby. “My, my. Look at her. She looks so healthy and clean, maybe even bigger than when you found her?”

  “She’s a bit below average weight and height, they say,” Emily noted. “I don’t believe she grew at all in the hospital last week with that infection. But I think she’ll catch up fast.”

  “She sounds like a mom already, doesn’t she?” Dan remarked with an indulgent smile. He slipped his arm around Emily’s shoulder.

  Reverend Ben and Emily shared a private glance. He knew the worst and best of her, her torment over Sara and her joy at finding her daughter again. “Changing diapers doesn’t make you a mother,” he’d once told her. “Loving a child does, even at a great distance.” He knew that she was already a mother and didn’t have to tell her so.

  “I was so pleased to hear that you and Dan had stepped in to be Jane’s guardians,” Ben told them. “How did all this come about?”

  “I’m not exactly sure,” Emily said honestly. “I went to visit her in the hospital a few times. And it evolved from there. I just feel so relieved having her with us. I was afraid of where she might end up, so I had to do something.”

  “I understand. Good for you, Emily. It’s a big step. And you and Dan both look very happy.”

  Emily met his warm smile, then felt a bit guilty. She had never called Reverend Ben to tell him the news personally or even to consult him about the decision. Her minister had always been a close confidante, especially in the days when she had felt so troubled and weighed down by her feelings of loss over Sara.

  She hadn’t turned to Reverend Ben for counsel in a long time, she realized, not even over this question of taking temporary custody. Well, it had all happened so fast. She hadn’t asked anyone’s advice. She would have to let Reverend Ben know that his take on things was still important to her. She wanted him to baptize the baby. She would discuss it with it
him soon, she decided, once things felt more settled.

  The reverend looked down at Jane again and placed his hand gently on her forehead. “Let me give her a blessing,” he said. “Dear Lord, please watch over this dear child, lend her the grace of Your divine love, and aid her foster parents in her care.”

  “Amen,” Dan said solemnly.

  Emily stood silently a moment gazing at Jane, who stared back at them wide eyed. She looked from Emily to Dan and suddenly seemed to smile, making little cooing sounds as she looked up at them and blew a giant spit bubble.

  “Good job,” Reverend Ben said to the gurgling baby. “That was a beauty.”

  Laughing, they all said good-bye. Dan and Emily moved on into the crowded sanctuary, where people were putting on coats, hats, and scarves, bundling up for the cold weather outside.

  “Day two . . . drum roll,” Sam said, coming up beside them. “How are you guys doing? Are you surviving the ‘Invasion of the Baby?’ ”

  “We’re taking this one hour at a time,” Dan replied. “So far, so good.”

  “Come on now, Dan,” Emily said. “It’s not such a big deal. Everything is basically the same—”

  “Except that it’s a lot more complicated,” he finished for her. “Just take getting out of the house in the morning. The car seat, the baby bag, the pacifier we forgot to put in the baby bag . . . I thought we’d never get here.”

  “It’s a different routine,” Emily argued. “We’ll get used to it.”

  “The question is not when or how, but why. Why on earth have you done such a thing? Taking in this child, from unknown origins besides?” Lillian stepped up beside them. “Have you lost all perspective? All common sense and reason?”

  “Lillian, calm down. This is a temporary arrangement. We’re interim guardians,” Dan began to explain.

  “Interim, my foot. I know how these things work. One thing leads to another. You’re both too old for this. When the child is applying to college, you’ll be checking out nursing homes.”

  “You don’t seem to understand. We won’t be raising her,” Dan insisted. “We’re trying to help out, to do a good deed.”

  “A good deed, indeed. You’d better not get sucked into raising her. She looks innocent enough now, surely. But this little baby will most likely grow up to have all kinds of problems, mentally, physically, emotionally. Bad genes, bad chromosomes—they used to call it bad blood in my day. Same difference. The mother was most likely a drug addict. Have you even given a thought to that reality?”

  As if reacting to Lillian’s insults, the baby suddenly started crying. Emily soothed her, rocking her in her arms. She wanted to take Jane away, but there seemed no place to go.

  All she could do was turn her body to the side, shielding the baby from her mother’s outburst.

  Dan stepped forward and put himself between Emily and her mother. He rested his hand on Lillian’s birdlike shoulder, towering over her.

  “This isn’t the time or the place, Lillian,” he began in a firm tone. “You’re upsetting Emily. I won’t stand by and—”

  Lillian shrugged off his touch. “As if either of you care what I think. She never did.” Lillian raised her cane a few inches off the floor and pointed it at Emily. “She probably did this just to spite me. To shame me, more precisely.”

  Emily could only stare in disbelief. “Mother, this is not about you. How unbelievably . . . egocentric.”

  “Foolish girl, you’re well on your way to fifty and you have so little insight into your own actions.”

  Reverend Ben suddenly came into view, obviously summoned by Sam. The two men walked quickly in their direction. Emily felt relieved at the sight. Even her mother would be mollified by the sight of her minister. Wouldn’t she?

  “Lillian . . .” Reverend Ben called to her from the other side, making her turn away from Emily to face him. “Would you care to go into my office for a visit? We could talk over your feelings about Emily and Dan taking in this baby. Maybe your daughter and son-in-law would like to come and explain their side of it to you.”

  Lillian stood up ramrod straight, her head tilted back as she peered at Reverend Ben through half-closed eyes. “I have neither the time nor the interest for such touchy-feely nonsense. I know why she did this. It’s perfectly clear to me. As for my views, there’s no secret about how I feel, Reverend. It seems to me my entire family has lost all common sense, all judgment. . . .”

  She was going off on another diatribe, Emily feared, keenly aware of the other parishioners staring at them.

  Jessica rushed up beside her mother and held out her coat, like a bullfighter waving a cape at the charging beast. She spoke in a hushed, embarrassed tone. “Mother, I have your coat. Put this on. We’re taking you home.”

  Lillian stared at Jessica defiantly a moment, then straight at Emily. Finally, she held out one arm and allowed her younger daughter to help her put on the coat.

  “I’m just an old woman. Nobody listens to me. What does it matter what I say?” she muttered as Jessica took her arm and led her out of the church. Sam followed, carrying Tyler and leading Darrell by the hand.

  “Emily, I’m so sorry.” Dan leaned forward and hugged her, gently enfolding the baby as well. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to stop her.”

  She rested her hand on his arm. “I know you tried. I expected something like that, just not here. I thought she’d wait until we were somewhere private.”

  Dan sighed. “Well, at least we got it over with.”

  Emily stared at him, feeling she might laugh out loud. “You’ve known my mother all these years and really think that’s the end of it?”

  Dan’s expression changed to one of amusement. “You’ve got a point, as always.”

  She forced a small smile in answer but could tell he knew she felt shaken by the encounter. He reached out and touched her shoulder. “Let’s go home now.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Let’s.”

  REVEREND BEN WATCHED DAN AND EMILY LEAVE, FEELING HE SHOULD go after them but at the same time at a loss for words. He knew he shouldn’t have been shocked by Lillian Warwick’s outburst. It had been as easy to predict as snow in the wintertime around here. Still, the contempt and anger behind the cold, stinging words had dismayed him. This was a woman who rarely missed a Sunday service, who listened intently to his sermons each week, a woman who most likely considered herself a “good Christian.”

  And no matter what one might say about Lillian, Ben felt that the deeper failing lay not with her, but with him. He’d failed her as a minister. All these years, he’d failed to reach her, to touch her heart. He’d failed to even coax her into his office for some counsel.

  Ben sighed and turned toward the sanctuary. It stood empty now, though the space seemed to echo with Lillian’s harsh words and his own feelings of futility.

  ON MONDAY MORNING EMILY FOUND FAT WHITE FLAKES THAT looked like feathers falling from the low grey sky. She didn’t mind at all. She wasn’t going to work and was in no hurry to start the day. Still wearing her bathrobe and nightgown, she sat by the kitchen window with Jane and showed her the snow.

  Dan was getting ready to leave the house, driving up to Boston for the day to work in a research library. He’d made special arrangements to examine some historic documents and didn’t want to miss the appointment despite the weather.

  Emily wished he would skip the trip and stay home with her and the baby. She was worried about him driving all that way in the bad weather and also felt a bit apprehensive about being alone all day for the first time with Jane. She struggled not to show it, though, and kept up a calm front. She didn’t want Dan to think they’d made a mistake, that she couldn’t handle the baby.

  “So I’m off,” he said, taking a last sip of coffee. He wore his down jacket, a Red Sox baseball hat, and a scarf and gloves.

  “I’ll keep my cell phone on, in case you need to call me,” he promised. “I’m not sure about the reception in the library, th
ough. It might not get the signal.”

  “I won’t need to call,” she assured him. “I can handle the baby.”

  “I know that. I just mean, if there’s an emergency.”

  “Well, you’ll be too far away to do anything if there is one.” She held Jane to her shoulder as she glanced out the window. “Honestly, I don’t know why you have to go all the way to Boston in this weather. Can’t you do it another day?”

  “I really have to go,” he insisted. “I checked the reports. It looks bad here, but it’s fine on the interstate. And there isn’t much snow toward the city.”

  She couldn’t persuade him to stay, she realized, so she gave up. “All right. Drive safely.”

  “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I might be late, though.” He leaned over and kissed her. He gazed at the baby a moment, but didn’t kiss her, too, Emily noticed. He walked out the back door in the kitchen. “I’ll call you later,” he promised.

  “We’ll be here.” Emily held up Jane’s hand to wave good-bye. It was silly, she knew, but she couldn’t help it.

  The baby’s infant seat was set up on the kitchen table and Emily strapped her in. Then she sat at the table and started to eat the bowl of cereal she seemed to have poured for herself hours ago. It was soggy and the milk was warm. She thought about tossing it out and starting over, then decided to just finish it. Who knew when she would get another chance?

  With one eye on Jane, she began to skim that morning’s headlines. She had scanned the first page of the news when Jane began fussing. Emily put everything down and picked her up again.

  She checked the baby’s diaper. Wet again. She took her into the bedroom for a change. Dan hadn’t made the bed. She would do it later, she decided.

  She changed Jane’s diaper, then changed her onesie, too, which had also gotten wet. The baby’s clothes drawer was ominously empty, and Emily saw that Jane’s laundry had mounded up, overflowing the basket. In two short days? Babies sure went through clothing, she realized. She would have to do wash later.