Her Montana Christmas by Arlene James

Author:Arlene James [James, Arlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

If Thursday’s practice had been somewhat disorganized, Friday’s was pure chaos. Ethan tried to take joy from the small delights. The children loved the animals, Chauncey Hardman made an excellent narrator, better even than Robin or Ethan himself, and the angels and human sheep were absolutely adorable. Chauncey nearly swallowed her tongue when Lilibeth showed up sans makeup, her pretty blond hair hidden beneath a cheap black wig and a pale blue veil. The teen beauty was taking her role seriously, a fact that pleased Ethan enormously.

Nevertheless, Ethan wondered if he shouldn’t have kept the Christmas pageant a small, simple production, limiting the characters to just the holy family, a shepherd or two and a single angel. So many of the children wanted to participate, however, at least according to their parents, that he’d decided to go big. Sadly, big equaled chaos.

Robin seemed to be handling it okay, though, so he tried not to stress. Thankfully, the second run-through went more smoothly, and that made him feel better about the whole thing, especially as he would finally get to show the bell ropes to Robin.

Finding a moment as everyone was leaving, he murmured in her ear, “Can you stay?”

She reached up a hand and touched that precious little flat mole right below the wing of her left eyebrow. “I, um, really don’t have much time tonight. We’re working so feverishly at the museum to get everything ready there, and—”

“I want to show you the ropes for the bells,” he interrupted softly, knowing an excuse when he heard one.

Her blue gaze zipped to his, and she whispered, “I have a few minutes,” emphasizing the word few.

He smiled and went to hold the side door to help Ryan Travers and Cord Shaw get the sheep out of the building, Julie Shaw Travers being the sheep rancher in this area. After that, he helped everyone else he could find, holding coats and mittens, knit caps and scarves, even the occasional handbag, while folks outfitted themselves for the chilly night and hurried away, racing to their vehicles against the blustery winds that swept down off the icy mountaintops.

Finally, only he and Robin remained, but he stalled her until he’d locked all the doors. He’d managed to keep this secret from the rest of the town so far, and he saw no reason to give up the plan now. Assured that they wouldn’t be interrupted unexpectedly, he moved to the cabinet in the vestibule and removed the shelves.

Hauling out the heavy box in which the ropes with their brass fittings had come, he slid it across the stone floor. Robin went down on her knees, heedless of the damage that she might do to her slim, black knit pants, and folded back the flaps. The ropes, he had been surprised to find, were crimson, and the fittings shiny brass.

“These are beautiful.”

“I know. It’s a pity they won’t be seen.”

“Maybe you can leave the closet open after Christmas,” she suggested. “Once you ring the bells, there’s no reason to keep the closet closed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.