A Cowboy for Christmas (23 page)

“She’ll take it,” Nick told the clerk.

Lacey was still wearing her boots, but that didn’t matter. It wasn’t like she was going dancing anywhere, and they were practical in the snow.

“And she’ll need a pair of shoes, too,” Nick added.

She started to object, but the look he gave her stopped her.

“Merry Christmas, Lacey.”

The clerk quickly helped her choose a pair of comfortable shoes, and they were ready to leave. Because of the snow, she put her boots on for the walk back to the hotel. They stopped at the stable so Nick could arrange their ride to the ranch in the morning. When they reached the hotel, Lacey took the bag with her old clothes in it up to her room, and then they went into the small dining room to have dinner.

As accustomed as they were to the tight quarters of the way stations, the hotel dining room seemed quite spacious and elegant, and they found the food was delicious.

“I can’t wait to get out to the ranch and see your brother,” Steve said, excitement growing within him.

“I feel the same way,” Nick agreed.

“I’m so happy for you,” Lacey told him, smiling at him across the table.

“This has been an adventure, that’s for sure.”

They talked over dinner how she was going to look for a job in town the next day, and when they’d finished eating they went back upstairs. They stopped outside Lacey’s room to say good night.

“I hope everything goes well for you tomorrow,” Lacey told the reverend.

“Thank you, and I hope you find a job,” he said.

“So do I. Keep that in your prayers.”

“We will,” Nick promised. “We’ll come back and see you when we’re in town.”

“I’d like that.” She looked down at Steve and then bent down to give him a hug. “You take care of Reverend Miller.”

“I will.”

“Good boy.”

They were smiling as she went into her room and closed the door.

Lacey stood just inside her room and fought back the tears that threatened at the thought that she wouldn’t be seeing much of them anymore. Realizing she had to be strong, she tried to be optimistic. She had escaped from Phil and
the horrible life she’d been living. She was in a new town, starting over. Things could only get better. As she went to bed that night, she said a prayer for the reverend that the reunion with his brother would go well, and she prayed for help finding a job so she could live a better life.

Nick and Steve were up early. Steve kept watch for Lacey but didn’t see her that morning. After eating a quick breakfast in the hotel dining room, they hurried down to the stable to find Rob, the stable hand, ready and waiting to take them to the Lazy Ace. They climbed up onto the buck-board’s driver’s bench with the driver and held on as best they could as they started out on what would be one of the longest journeys in Nick’s life.

“What business you got out at the Lazy Ace?” Rob asked.

“My brother, Dan Roland, is the foreman there.”

“I know Dan. He’s a good man.”

They fell quiet then as they continued the trip out to the ranch. It was a sunny day, but still cold. They could tell it was going to be a white Christmas this year.

“There’s the ranch up ahead,” Rob told them as the house and outbuildings came into view.

“It looks very successful,” Nick said, impressed.

“One of the best in the area. Jack Anderson’s worked hard to make it what it is today.”

As they pulled up in front of the house, Nick saw an older man open the front door.

“There’s Jack now,” the stable hand said. Then he called out, “How you doin’, Jack?”

“I’m getting along all right.”

“I brought you some company.”

“I see that.” Jack stepped out on the porch, wondering who the man with the young boy was.

Nick and Steve climbed down from the buckboard and looked quickly around, hoping to see Dan. When they saw no trace of him, they started up to the porch to speak with the ranch owner.

“Do you want me to wait for you?” Rob asked.

“If you don’t mind.”

Jack had heard them, and he called out, “Come on inside, too. I don’t want you freezing out here while we’re talking.”

“I’ll just go on down to the stable and visit with some of the boys.”

“All right.”

Jack turned his attention to the young man coming up the porch steps and he frowned. Something about him seemed familiar. “Do I know you? Who are you?”

“No, sir. We’ve never met before. My name’s Nick Miller. I’m here to see your foreman, Danny Roland. I’m his brother.”

Jack’s expression changed dramatically. Dan had told him when he’d first come to work for him about how he’d been separated from a younger
brother in his childhood, and the thought that his brother had found him after all this time left Jack amazed. “You’re Dan’s brother?”

“Yes, sir. I am.”

He put out his hand to shake hands with him. “Welcome to the Lazy Ace, Nick, and who is this, your son?”

“This is Steve. He’s one of the boys from the orphanage that I run.”

Jack looked at Dan’s brother with even greater respect. “It’s nice to meet you, Steve,” Jack said, shaking hands with the boy, too. “Come on in!”

Dwylah had been upstairs when she heard the buckboard drive up. She was just coming down the stairs as Jack ushered a man and a boy inside.

“Well, who do we have here?” she asked as she reached the bottom of the steps. In that moment, the man looked her way and, at her first glimpse of him, she went still. He looked so much like Danny.

“This is Nick Miller. He’s Dan’s brother—”

“Oh my.” Dwylah couldn’t believe it. Here, Dan and Penny were missing and maybe in danger and his brother had shown up. “Well, hello. I’m Dwylah, and it’s so wonderful that you’re here and just in time for Christmas—”

“I’m glad to be here, too.”

“Dan told us about you.”

“He did?” Nick was surprised.

“Yes, he did. You two went through some hard times as children.”

“Yes, we did,” he agreed. “And speaking of children, this is Steve.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Steve.” She turned to the boy.

Nick glanced around the front hall. “Where is Dan? Is he around?”

Jack stepped up, his mood turning serious. “We need to talk.”

“What’s wrong?” Nick was suddenly worried by the change in his manner.

“Leave your coats out here and let’s go in the parlor.”

Nick helped Steve take his coat off and after they’d hung them up, they all made their way to sit in the parlor.

Steve’s face lit up when he saw all the Christmas decorations on the mantel over the fireplace. “It’s so pretty.”

“Why, thank you, Steve,” Jack said. “Miss Dwylah and I worked on decorating for quite a while.”

“Mr. Anderson, is Dan in some kind of trouble?” Nick asked, sensing something was wrong.

“We don’t know for sure,” Jack began, and then he quickly told him how Dan and Penny had ridden up to the canyon, and how the storm had passed through and their horses had come back without them. “Two of my men are out searching for them right now.”

“How long has it been?” Dread filled Nick. The
thought that after traveling all this way, he might have lost Danny again tormented him.

“The hands rode out the night before last, right after the horses showed up.”

“Would it help if I rode out, too?” Nick offered. “I’d be glad to help with the search.” He certainly knew how hard his brother could be to find if he didn’t want to be found.

“Lou and Fred are my two best trackers. If anybody’s going to find my daughter and Dan, it will be them.”

Everyone was silent for a moment.

“So if Lou and Fred are looking for them, they’ll be back real soon, right?” Steve asked in his innocence. “It is almost Christmas. They have to be back by then.”

Dwylah smiled down at him tenderly, wanting to reassure him. “Yes, Steve. They’ll be here.”

“Good,” Steve said brightly. “Reverend Miller has been waiting for this for a long time.”

Dwylah and Jack both looked at Dan’s brother with renewed respect.

“You’re a minister?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am. As I told Mr. Anderson, I run an orphanage in St. Louis.”

“That’s such a wonderful calling for you,” Dwylah said.

“Yes, ma’am. It is. I get to be with children like Steve.”

“So tell me, how did you find out that Dan was working here at the Lazy Ace? The two of
you have been separated for so long, I’m sure Dan never thought you’d see each other again,” Jack said.

Nick went on to explain what had happened at the train depot that fateful day back in St. Louis. “If it hadn’t been for Steve, here, running away from the orphanage, I would never have been at the train depot and seen Danny just as he was boarding the train.”

Dwylah was awestruck at his story. She looked down at the young boy, concerned about him. “Why did you run away from Reverend Miller’s orphanage, Steve?”

Steve hung his head in shame.

“It’s all right, Steve,” Nick said.

He looked up at the elderly lady and told her how this was his first Christmas without his family, and how he’d been so scared and angry over being all by himself.

“Oh, darling, I am so glad Reverend Miller found you. Why, if he hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here with me right now!” she chuckled, wanting to cheer him if she could.

Her words did manage to get a shy, little smile out of him.

Dwylah glanced over at Jack then, wanting to make everyone feel better. “Well, those two hands had just better hurry up and find Penny and Danny and get them back here, don’t you think, Jack?”

Jack’s mood lightened in the face of her unfailing
good nature. “That’s right.” He looked to Nick and Steve again. “Where are you staying?”

“We have a room at the hotel in town,” Nick answered.

“Why don’t you go back into town and get your things and come out here and stay? We’ve got plenty of room, and then you’ll be here when they do get back.”

Nick was touched by his generosity. They were virtual strangers and yet he was opening his home to them. “We’d like that very much.”

“We’d like it, too,” Dwylah added.

“I’ll have one of the boys follow you into town and bring you back after you get your things from the hotel,” Jack said.

“Would you like to stay here with us while the reverend goes to town, Steve?” Dwylah asked, wanting to spend more time with him.

“Oh no, ma’am. I can’t do that. I’ve got to see Miss Lacey again,” he said seriously.

“Who’s Miss Lacey?” Dwylah asked them both, surprised by his answer.

“She’s my friend,” Steve replied before Nick could say anything. “She’s all alone, so I’ve got to go see her. She doesn’t know anybody in town, and it’s almost Christmas.”

“Lacey came in on the stage with us,” Nick explained.

Dwylah could tell this girl named Lacey meant a lot to the boy. She couldn’t help herself. In her usual way, she put Jack on the spot. “Jack,” she
said, “have we got room enough for one more person to stay with us?”

Jack was surprised by her question, but after getting to knowing Dwylah during the time they’d been together, he knew he shouldn’t have been. “I suppose we can arrange something.”

“Good.” She turned to Steve again. “When you get back into town, you ask your friend if she’d like to come and spend Christmas here at the ranch with us. There’s no reason for her to be there in Sagebrush all by herself.” Dwylah would never forget the look of delight on the boy’s face at her invitation.

“Really?”

“Really. As long as that’s all right with the reverend.” Dwylah realized she should have included him in making the decision.

Nick didn’t know how it had happened, but he found he was rather glad that Lacey wouldn’t be alone this year on Christmas. He just hoped Dan got back in time to share the blessed day with them. Thinking of his brother then and knowing the potential danger he and the rancher’s daughter might be in, he offered up a silent prayer for their safety and their return home.

“I’m getting worried,” Lou told Fred as they covered the endless miles looking for Penny and Dan.

“They’re out here somewhere. Dan’s a survivor. You know that, and he’s not about to let anything happen to Penny.”

“But they’re on foot.”

That realization troubled them both deeply, for there weren’t a lot of places to seek shelter here in the canyon.

Lou and Fred reined in to stare out across the snow-covered landscape, hoping to see something, anything, that would give them a clue as to where Dan and Penny were. They’d made it to the closest line shack the day before, after camping out that first night. It had been a harsh night in the cold, but they’d done it. When they reached the shack and found no sign of them, they’d immediately started out again. The traveling was slow, but they were not about to give up.

They couldn’t give up.

This was Dan and Penny.

“Lou, look!” Fred almost shouted as he caught sight of the solitary horse that had just come into view in the distance with what looked like two riders on its back.

“Well, I’ll be . . .” Lou couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Let’s go get ’em!”

They wanted to gallop over to them, but they knew better. Urging their mounts on to the safest, quickest pace, they rode out to meet them.

Dan and Penny had been riding since first light. The going was slow, but they were covering miles back toward the ranch house, and they knew that
was good. It was Dan who spotted the two riders coming their way, and his mood lightened considerably.

“We’ve got company,” he told Penny.

“Really?”

“It’s Lou and Fred.” Dan knew if Jack was going to send anyone out to look for them, it would have been these two.

“What are you two doing out here?” Dan asked as the two groups met. “Did you get lost in the storm?”

“I don’t think we’re the ones who are lost,” Fred came back at him. “Are you all right, Penny?”

“I’m fine, Fred. Dan took real good care of me,” she answered. “Is Papa worried?”

“I think that’s safe to say,” Lou said.

“Is he doing all right?” Dan asked.

“Except for worrying about Penny, here, he was fine when we left.”