The Evergreen Bride by Pam Hillman

Author:Pam Hillman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2014-09-21T18:19:36+00:00

Chapter 9

Samuel pictured the carving in his mind as he turned the block of wood in his hand. The entire carving wouldn’t be much bigger than the palm of his hand, and the details would be small and delicate. He itched to be out in the woods felling timber, but falling temperatures and a steady rain earlier in the day had kept them from the woods. Even so, the time hadn’t been wasted. It had taken two days for Zeke to fix the brace on the engine, and Samuel and Jack had cut up the rest of the logs small enough to run through the saw blade.

He chuckled. Actually, they’d cut up anything and everything that even looked like it could be used in Jack’s house. They were a long way from having enough lumber, but that hadn’t stopped Jack from sketching his dream house out on paper.

“What do you think about this?”

Samuel paused in his carving and eyed the crude drawing Jack had made. He pointed with his knife. “I’d put a door right there, off the main room. That’ll make it easy to add on an extra room when you need it.”

“Good idea.” Jack nodded toward the block of wood as he scratched in a door with his snubby-nosed pencil. “What are you making?”

Samuel hefted the three-sided carving, the image of their small country church beginning to take shape on one side. “Christmas present for Annabelle.”

“She’s not going to be here for Christmas.”

“I know.”

Jack laughed, still fiddling with his plans. Suddenly, his pencil poised in midair, he squinted at Samuel, an odd look on his face. “You sweet on my sister?”

Samuel didn’t see any sense in denying it. He nodded toward the open sawmill doors. “It’s stopped raining. Maybe you should hook up the mules and head on in to town with that load of logs.”

Jack ignored him. “I should have noticed before now, I guess. She doesn’t stop by here every day to see me.”

“Sure she does.”

“What about last Sunday?”

“She tripped and I caught her. That’s all.”

Jack crossed his arms over his chest, the worn fabric of his work shirt stretched tight. “Looked like more than that to me.”

Samuel gritted his teeth. It was more. A lot more. But Jack didn’t need to know that. “It wasn’t.”

Jack snorted. “When are you going to tell her how you feel?”

Samuel sighed. There was no use trying to deny that he had feelings for Annabelle. “I’m not.”

“Why not? She’s going to Illinois next week.”

“And that’s why I’m not going to say anything. She’s got her heart set on a white Christmas, and I won’t do anything to ruin it for her.”

Jack stretched and reached for his hat. “You just keep thinking like that, buddy, and she’s liable to meet some yahoo up in Illinois, and then where will you be?”

After Jack left, Samuel stared at the block of wood where he carved his hopes and dreams for the future. Would it be enough? Enough to bring Annabelle back to him?

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