Sleigh of Hope

SLEIGH OF HOPE

A Grayson Christmas

Wendy Lindstrom

Copyright 2012, Wendy Lindstrom

Published by Wendy Lindstrom, 2012

Cover design by Kim Killion of
Hot Damn Designs

eBook design by
A Thirsty Mind

All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means whatsoever without written permission from the author.

 Note: This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Though it contains incidental references to actual people and places, these references are merely to lend the fiction a realistic setting. All other names, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Dear Reader,

I’ve received many letters requesting Adam and Rebecca’s story. I hope you’ll enjoy reading a Christmas novella about their blossoming love in Sleigh of Hope.

Wendy

 SLEIGH OF HOPE

A Grayson Christmas

Chapter One

Fredonia, New York

December 1880

A
fter the annual family Christmas meeting, Adam and Rebecca bolted across the street to his sister’s greenhouse. Grateful to get a minute alone, they stopped at the door, gazing at each other as snow fell around them.

Fluffy flakes of snow speckled Rebecca’s dark hair and gray wool coat. “What do you want for Christmas?” she asked, the warmth in her brown eyes melting him.

He wanted to kiss her sweet lips, but he jammed his hands in his pockets to keep them both out of trouble. “All I want for Christmas is for you to turn sixteen.”

She laughed. “Eighteen months is going to feel like eighteen years.” With a sigh, she leaned against the weathered planks of the greenhouse. “It will be wonderful when we’re old enough to court.”

It would be beyond wonderful, but he couldn’t think about it when that day was still over a year-and-a-half away. “Which family will receive your basket of delicious cookies for Christmas?” he asked, tugging the end of her pretty blue scarf to bring her closer.

Her smile told him she enjoyed his flirting. “Probably the Cavneys.”

The Grayson family gave to the community year round, but it was a family tradition to help a local family at Christmas. This year they would donate lumber and labor to repair the Cavneys’ home that had been partially burned from a cook stove fire the day before. The Grayson ladies would bring food and keep everyone fed during the restoration.

A wave of excitement rolled through Adam. He had worked the family sawmill for a year and knew a lot about lumber and building materials. He was also becoming a good carpenter, thanks to his new dad, Duke Grayson. With a saw or hammer in his hand he would help repair the Cavneys’ home and be a smart, industrious Grayson man just like his dad and uncles. This year he was even making gifts for his family.

“Want to see the bootjack I’m making for my dad?” he asked, remembering how he had nothing to give last year when he celebrated his first Christmas with the Grayson family. He had come to Fredonia with his sister Faith and their aunts six months before that seeking a safe new life. Faith had opened a greenhouse in Colburn’s old grist mill, and married Duke Grayson four months later.

“Sure, if it won’t take long. My father will be back shortly to walk me home.”

“We’ll hurry.” He reached for the door latch eager to show her his handiwork and steal a few minutes alone with his sweetheart, but the door was ajar. Someone was inside.

Everyone at their family meeting had headed to their own homes afterward to escape the frigid, snowy evening. Rebecca’s father had gone to the harness shop in town. Whoever was inside was not family.

Adam laid his fingers across his lips and warned her to be silent. “Wait here,” he whispered.

Easing the door open, he slipped quietly into the greenhouse and ducked behind a tall cluster of lemongrass.

His sister’s business was closed now, so whoever was trespassing could only mean trouble. That he had considered causing a little trouble himself by bringing Rebecca inside and stealing a kiss was an urge he’d been battling for the last fifteen minutes. He’d had more than his share of trouble in his life and he couldn’t allow anyone, including himself, to mess up his new, perfect family. Not now when he finally had Duke Grayson as a father.

Snow pelted the huge greenhouse windows as he peered through the thin, fragrant reeds. His new dad would not want him to do something stupid like surprise whoever was rummaging in the parsley flat a few feet away. But the Sneak would be here and gone by the time Adam could get help. So he would handle this like the Grayson man he was trying to become. He would act with courage and protect those he loved. He would be fair but firm with the Sneak on his sister’s property. And he wouldn’t brag one word about his actions to anybody no matter how well he handled the situation. Secretly, though, he hoped Rebecca might spy in the window and watch him catch the bad guy.

The hope of becoming a man like his dad and uncles straightened his spine and filled him with confidence. In one bold stride he stepped from behind the lemongrass and confronted the trespasser.

A round-cheeked baby with his fingers stuck in his mouth stared up at him with curious blue eyes. Drool dangled from his fist onto his dirty, bare feet. A ragged blanket lay on the floor beside the baby.

“Whoa!” Adam back-pedaled two steps and scanned the greenhouse to see if the boy’s mother or father was with him. He saw no one.

The baby wobbled as if he might tip off his feet at any minute.

“How did you get in here?” Adam asked, wondering why the baby had no shoes or at least a warmer blanket. It was freezing outside.

The baby pulled his fingers from his mouth. “Gah!” He slapped his wet hand against the side of the pine cart. “Gah... da-dee-da-da.”

“Oh boy...” Adam’s heart lurched and he knew without being told that this baby had been purposely left here for his sister Faith or one of their aunts to find. For a parent to abandon their baby was a desperate act, but it happened, right here in his own town sometimes. Faith and Duke would want to help, but they already had him and Cora, and they would probably start having more children soon. Would they want another baby?

The boy’s head of dark hair bobbed as he whacked the wooden flat. “Da-dee-da-da.”

His gibberish was sweet and sad. Was he calling for his da-da? Adam’s heart wrenched. Many times he’d whispered to his own absent father to take him away from the brothel and give him a real home.

He knelt and opened his arms. “Come on, buddy. I’ll help you find a warm home.”

The baby grasped his outstretched fingers and tugged.

Adam rocked forward on his toes and laughed. “You’ve got quite a grip, little man.”

The baby lowered his head and gnawed on Adam’s fingers.

With a laugh, he lifted the slobbery, dirty boy into his arms. “I’ll find you something better to gnaw on.”

“Put him down!”

Surprised by the angry male voice, Adam spun away and raised his arm to shield the baby. He found himself standing eye-to-chin with a bigger boy, who did not look friendly.

“I was going to get him something to eat,” Adam said.

“You’re not taking my brother anywhere.” The dark-haired boy slashed his arm through a cluster of lemongrass, breaking and uprooting several reeds. “Give ‘em back. Now!”

Adam knew he couldn’t protect the baby and fight the big brother too. He considered setting the baby behind a flat of herbs to keep him safe from the beating he was likely to receive. But it was too dangerous to let the baby wander the greenhouse alone. There were too many poisonous plants and other dangers. Besides it would terrify the little guy to see them fight. Why couldn’t his stupid brother see that?

“There’s no call to sneak in here and tear up our plants,” he said, glaring at the boy who appeared much stronger. “I’m just trying to help you.”

Instead of punching him, the boy stuck out his arms. “Give me my brother. I’ll find another place.”

Adam kept his hold on the boy and took a step away. “Another place for what?”

“That’s not your business.”

“This is my sister’s greenhouse, and you didn’t respect the closed sign on the door,” he said, stepping away yet again. “That makes you and your brother my business.”

The boy’s eyes flared like blue flames and he moved toward Adam. “I’ll push your nose out the other side of your head if you don’t give Benny to me right now.”

Adam wavered. He’d had enough beatings in his life to know how bad they hurt, but he also knew it was his duty to protect the baby from the older brother’s bad decision. Hiding out in a greenhouse in the middle of winter could only mean they had big trouble of their own. Fear and desperation mixed with anger in the older boy’s eyes. There was no doubt the boys were in trouble.

What would Duke do? What would his uncles, the Grayson men, do?

They definitely wouldn’t fight a person in trouble. They would help. Even if that meant getting their nose broken.

“I can get you food,” Adam blurted, hoping he got the words out before the boy used his fist to cram them back in his mouth.

The boy hesitated with eyes squinted as he sized up Adam. “When?”

“Now, if you and your brother come home with me. My sister will gladly feed you.”

The boy shook his head. Dirty strands of brown hair tangled in the threadbare collar of his gray jacket. “They will send us back to the orphanage. You get the food. I’ll wait here with my brother.”

Adam didn’t know how they had come to be at the greenhouse, but they were obviously seeking refuge here. It would be easier if they would just cross the street with him and let Faith and Duke help, but the boy was afraid of being discovered.

“All right then.” Adam headed toward the stone room at the back of the greenhouse where Faith kept her enormous tub of heated water. He held the baby and gestured with his chin for the older boy to follow them.

“Give him to me,” the boy said, grabbing his shoulder from behind.

Adam ignored the bite of pain. “I’ll hand him over as soon as I get him in a safer place. If anyone spots you in here you could get in big trouble. But you’ll be in worse trouble if you or your brother touch the wrong plants in here. You could be dead.”

The boy’s hand fell away and he followed Adam without another word.

The instant they stepped into the small stone room, Adam handed over the baby. As the steamy warmth embraced them, he could see relief fill the older boy’s face.

“What’s your name?” he asked, knowing this might be his only chance to question the boy as Duke would surely do.

“Leo. Leo Sullivan.” He wiped drool off Benny’s face and nestled the tired baby against his shoulder. “Who are you?”

“Adam Grayson.” Introducing himself as a Grayson still caused sparks of excitement in Adam’s chest even though he’d been a Grayson for almost a year now. He was no longer Adam Dearborn, who lived behind the brothel his mother had owned and worked in. He belonged to a well-respected family and was best friends with Rebecca Grayson, who would someday become his wife. He couldn’t have imagined this kind of life even eighteen short months ago because he and his family had been as desperate and afraid as Leo was right now. “Where did you two come from?”