Callie met Beth on the path up the hill as she was returning with Mica from Nora’s. Beth’s lavender skirts whipped about her legs and lightning flashed from her dark blue eyes.
“My brother is the most stubborn, annoying fellow,” she declared as they drew close. “I begin to believe you could do better.” She stomped past before Callie could disagree with her.
“What did you say to Beth?” she asked as soon as she entered the parsonage. Levi was sitting at the table, Bible open, paper in front of him and pen in hand. He frowned as he looked up.
“What did she say to you?”
“Only that you were stubborn and annoying,” Callie supplied, going to set Mica in her chair. The baby waved at Levi, and his frown eased.
“I’d think you’d agree,” he said, rocking the pen in his fingers.
“Stubborn, certainly,” Callie said, shucking off her coat. “Annoying, occasionally. But kind and helpful and forgiving, too.”
“Those who had been forgiven much should be the first to forgive,” he murmured, gaze returning to the Bible, and she thought he was repeating something he’d read.
She hung her coat on a peg beside the door, brought Mica a wooden spoon, then came to slide in beside him on the bench. She could pick out most of the words on the page, but a few escaped her. He seemed to be reading about a son who had left home. She looked to what he’d written on his paper. “What’s a prodigal?”
He pulled the paper a little closer as if to keep her from seeing what else he’d written. “Someone who turns his back on everything he knows and goes away, then regrets it later and comes home.”
“Must be hard,” Callie said, gaze returning to the Bible. “You’re used to a certain way of life, but you think there’s something better over the next hill. Sooner or later you have to learn the truth and come home.”
He was staring at her. “That’s it exactly. How did you know?”
Callie shrugged. “It’s the way Pa and Adam behaved. It’s the story of most every prospector I’ve ever known. Only some of them never come home.”
She had been thinking of her family, but his shoulders slumped as if he felt her pain. “No, some never do,” he murmured, smoothing the thin pages of the Bible.
“At least Adam tried to shake off the gold fever,” Callie told him. “He’d claim he wanted to settle down to farm, make a good effort. But sooner or later he’d meet another prospector or hear about a strike. Then he’d fill his pack, promising to be back. Only this last time, he didn’t keep that promise, either.”
Mica brought her spoon down on the table with a mighty whack as if just as frustrated by the pattern.
He set aside the pen and pressed his hand over Callie’s on the table. “I’m sorry, Callie. Sorry that he disappointed you. Sorry that he left you. All I can promise is that I’m not going anywhere.”
She wished she could believe that. “Even preachers get assigned to new churches. You might be needed in another town, another territory.”
“Then I’d take you and the boys and Mica with me,” he said. “We’re partners, remember?”
She remembered, but a part of her was beginning to want more.
She couldn’t tell him, couldn’t bear to see sadness or, worse, pity in his eyes. Besides, who was she to know whether these growing feelings were anything more than the fever that had gripped her father and brother?
She didn’t act on those feelings most of the next week. Even when they all attended church that Sunday, she fancied she looked no more interested in Levi’s sermon than anyone else in the congregation. Besides, with her, her brothers and Mica seated on the front row, nobody could see her face to know if she looked moony.
She had expected Levi to talk about being a prodigal, the story he had been studying in the Bible, but he spoke about how angels visited Joseph in dreams to tell him it was right and good to marry Mary. She didn’t remember most of her dreams, but she didn’t think angels had ever come to tell her what to do.
“Did that ever happen to you?” she asked Levi as they left the church after services. Frisco and Sutter were chasing Levi’s nephews around the yard, and Beth was cooing at Mica as she rocked the little girl in her arms.
He shook his head. “No angel ever brought me a message. But God has ways of getting His point across.”
Callie frowned. “Like what?”
He stopped, gaze going out over his departing congregation. “The miracles in nature, a word from a trusted friend, the quiet answer to a prayer.”
“And you know what He wants then,” she pressed.
He nodded, gaze returning to hers. The sadness she’d seen on occasion had been replaced with something else, something satisfied, peaceful. “I know what He wants for my life. I don’t presume to know what He wants for others.”
Callie drew in a breath. “Then maybe I should ask Him about my life. Excuse me.”
She hurried away before he could question her.
She probably could have prayed right there. Levi certainly had no trouble speaking to God aloud in front of others, at mealtimes, during service. But she had never talked to God before. The first time ought to be private. She wanted to make sure she did it right.
She bypassed the church, where a few people were still gathered, and headed down the hill. She avoided the main clearing, having no interest in sharing her thoughts with the other Wallins, and struck out on a path through the forest. The moss was hard under her boots. She could hear it crunching. A bird darted past, most likely frightened by the sound.
Callie sighed, trying to gather her thoughts, which seemed as jumbled as the contents of James’s store. She had said she didn’t want a husband, didn’t want to watch another man dream fool dreams while his family suffered. Levi Wallin might not be running off to pan, but how could she know he wouldn’t dream of more? She was tired of moving, tired of not knowing where her head would be resting a month from now, tired of wondering how she’d find food when winter came.
But he was such a good partner, watching over her brothers and Mica, helping her learn to read. Was it his kindness that was making her start to dream as well?
She stopped in the path, glanced in all directions. The woods had fallen silent. Pa had said that meant there was a predator in the woods. She thought it might be her. She closed her eyes, drew in a breath, let the cold of the air pierce her lungs.
God, Almighty One. From what I’ve seen and heard here at Wallin Landing, You want me to talk to You. I’m sorry to ask questions my first time, but I don’t know what to do. I find myself wanting to be part of this place, this family. I want to be more to Levi than a partner. Is that foolish?
Levi had said God would answer. Maybe there’d be some bolt of lightning. She cracked open an eye. The woods remained silent, wrapped in winter’s chill. Nothing looked or sounded the least bit different. And still she felt conflicted.
Callie closed her eyes again.
Am I doing this wrong? I read in the Bible that I’m supposed to talk without a lot of highfalutin words. Maybe You could just tell me what You want. Is this place meant to be home? Am I meant to be Levi’s wife?
Something touched her face, soft, like the brush of a finger. Callie opened her eyes again. Snow drifted down, thick and tufty, like goose feathers on the air. It reminded her of the last time she’d seen Vital Creek as they had been forced south for the winter, the last time she, Adam, Pa and the twins had been a family.
Was this her answer? Did God mean she’d be forced to leave Wallin Landing like they’d left Vital Creek, or was He saying she’d finally found a family again?
* * *
Inside the parsonage, Levi listened to Frisco and Sutter bickering, but his mind was far away. Even though he’d preached on something appropriate to the Advent season, he kept thinking about the story of the prodigal son. He knew himself to be a prodigal, returned home by the grace of God. But the things he’d done while he’d been away continued to haunt him. He could see Scout’s wide, panicked eyes, hear his friend’s cries that he was innocent as the prospectors surrounded him. How did a man ever make up for betraying his best friend? He felt as if he’d fallen in mud and no amount of scrubbing would ever wash him clean.
Mica gabbled at him from his lap, and he forced a smile. “You’ll make better choices,” he assured her.
Silence was his only answer.
His head jerked up. The twins were nowhere in sight, and he heard no thuds from outside that would have assured him they were chopping wood.
“I don’t suppose you know where they went,” he said to Mica.
She looked at the ceiling even as a thump echoed overhead. Rising, Levi went to set the baby in her chair at the table, then loped for the stairs.
The loft looked empty the first time he glanced around, but two of the pallets were bumpier than usual, the quilts piled up over the pillows as if someone was sleeping under them. Napping, on a Sunday afternoon? He didn’t believe it for a moment.
“What a shame,” he said aloud. “I was thinking about asking Frisco and Sutter to help me churn some ice cream. They must have been tired from all that hard work studying for the theatrical.”
“No, we aren’t,” Sutter said, popping out from beside the hearth. “I’ll help you churn, preacher.”
Levi sat on his bed. “Maybe you could call me Levi.”
Frisco followed his brother out of hiding. “Callie won’t like it. She says we have to call men mister or sir.”
“Or by what they do,” Sutter reminded him. “Like being a preacher.”
Levi was too young to be their pa, and he wouldn’t have felt comfortable having them call him that. Being a father was a serious role. Even Drew had nearly buckled under the responsibility.
“How about uncle?” he suggested.
“Uncle Levi,” Frisco said as if trying out the appellation. “I like it.”
“Me, too,” Sutter said. “Can we go churn ice cream now, Uncle Levi?”
Levi rose. “Shortly. First, I want to know why you decided to hide this afternoon.”
Two gazes met. As if he saw something in his brother’s eyes, Frisco nodded.
“You got to promise not to tell Callie, pre—Uncle Levi,” he said solemnly.
“Callie and I are partners,” Levi told him. “It’s not right to hide things from your partner.”
“Even if it’s a surprise?” Sutter pressed.
Levi cocked his head. “What kind of surprise?”
In answer, the boys beckoned him closer to the hearth. Against the stone, where the chimney shadowed a small section of the loft, was a pile of something. Levi squatted to get a better look.
“Feathers?” he asked.
“Shh!” Sutter warned. “She might hear you.”
Levi was fairly sure Callie was still out for her walk, though he didn’t understand why she’d wanted to leave in the first place. Something told him he was the cause of her agitation. He just didn’t know what he’d done.
“All right,” he whispered. “Why feathers?”
“Miss Beth said she’d help us make a hat for Callie for Christmas,” Frisco explained.
“A real one,” Sutter put in. “All fancy-like. Callie never gets fancy things. We thought she deserved it.”
Levi put out a hand to him. “You’re right. She does. I’ll keep quiet about the feathers. Just see that you look for them outside. No need to tug them out of your pillows.”
“How did you know?” Frisco demanded.
Levi straightened. “I was a lad like you not that long ago. Very likely anything you could think to try, I already did and lived to regret it.”
Downstairs he heard a door shut.
“Frisco? Sutter?” Callie’s voice drifted up the stairs. “Who’s minding Mica?”
“I think you just found something else to regret, Uncle Levi,” Sutter said.
But he couldn’t regret learning about the boys’ surprise for Callie. He was pleased to know they’d thought about getting their sister something for Christmas. Yet it made him think. What could he give Callie and the boys to make their first Christmas at Wallin Landing special?
He should have known his sister would have an opinion on the matter. Beth had clearly remained focused on her matchmaking, for she drew him aside as soon as he, Callie, the twins and Mica arrived for dinner that afternoon.
“James says you haven’t picked out a Christmas present for Callie,” she whispered as they stood near the hearth.
Levi glanced to where his irrepressible older brother was playing a game of fox and hens with all the children old enough to run around in a circle. “I’ve been thinking.”
Beth clasped her hands. “I can help. I have so many ideas. A heart-shaped brooch, perhaps, with a lock of your hair.”
Levi grimaced. “She’d run screaming for the hills.”
Beth dropped her hands, frowning. “Why? It’s a perfectly romantic gesture.”
“Did someone say romance?” Catherine swept up to them. “Has Callie settled on one of the crew, then?”
“No,” Levi said, then nearly grimaced again as Nora and two of the toddlers looked his way.
Catherine frowned. “Are you sure? Harry seems most attentive.”
Even now the big logger was making funny faces that set Mica to giggling in Callie’s arms.
Levi’s skin prickled. “She isn’t courting. You know that, Catherine.”
Catherine drew herself up. “Well, we can fix that. I’ll suggest to Harry that he invite her to the Christmas dance.”
Callie must have noticed Levi’s gaze on her, for she left Harry to cross to his side.
“Everything all right?” she asked him. “You look rather fierce.”
“Yes,” Beth said with a giggle. “He does, doesn’t he?”
Catherine eyed him. “Are you feeling unwell, Levi? I’m sure I have something that would help.”
“No,” he said, taking a step back. Despite his intentions, he slipped an arm about Callie’s waist, saw her brows go up. “And Callie will not be attending the Christmas dance with Harry or anyone else you might suggest.”
Beth’s face fell. “Why not?”
“Because,” Levi said, watching color climb in Callie’s cheeks, “Callie promised to attend with me.”