Snowbound in Montana (13 page)

“Where did all the stars come from?” Kevin wanted to know.

“They’re always out there,” his father explained. “It’s just that was can see them tonight because there aren’t any clouds or light pollution.”

“What’s light pollution?”

“Man-made lights, like the ones we have on our houses and cars in town.”

“This is so cool,” Anna said. “Thanks for bringing us out here Kevin.”

“Look at that one!” Kevin pointed to a point just above the roof. “It’s the brightest. Do you think it’s the star of wonder?”

At first Eliza didn’t understand. But then Marshall started singing, “Star of wonder, star of night…”

He had a baritone smooth and sweet as maple syrup. Soon other voices joined in, and then Eliza, too, couldn’t resist. “Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.”

When they finished, Kevin’s mother spoke up. “It was the Christmas star that led the wise men to the manger where baby Jesus was born.”

“Wow. Do you think it was the same star, Mom?”

“It might have been.”

Eliza shivered. She wasn’t cold. There was just something so beautiful about this moment. She could sense Marshall standing only a few feet away from her. He’d made no move to talk to her since they’d been separated for dinner. And it struck her as perverse that she should suddenly feel exactly the way she’d denied feeling only minutes ago.

Alone and lonely.

‡

T
he next morning
Eliza was awakened by a most peculiar sound.

“Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!”

Followed by the jingling of…sleigh bells?

She jumped out of bed, almost shrieking when her feet hit the cold, wooden floor. Quickly, she pulled on sock and jeans, a shirt and a sweater. Then she ran to the window, and gasped.

Gliding up to the lodge was indeed a sleigh being pulled by two regal, golden-colored draft horses. In the driver’s seat was…Santa Claus. Behind him, the sleigh was piled high with gaily wrapped gifts.

Eliza grinned. Kevin was going to love this. And she didn’t want to miss a second of it.

As she hurried down the staircase, she could hear others behind her.

“What the heck is going on?”

“Did I just see what I thought I saw?”

On the main floor a fire was burning merrily in the hearth, but there was no other sign of human presence. She grabbed her boots and coat from the drying room and stepped out into a brilliantly sunny day. The reflection from the snow was almost blinding, but she made out Griff and Marshall, going to meet the team, and then tying up the horses, while Santa stood tall from his perch on the sleigh and repeated his cheery message.

A second later, the door flung open again, and Kevin raced out, followed by the rest of his family.

“Holy smokes! It’s Santa!”

And right behind the sleigh, Eliza noted, came several trucks that rolled through the yard, then parked discreetly at the back of the lodge. She guessed they carried propane and the other supplies that had been delayed by the blizzard.

But for now, all attention was rightfully on Santa who was currently apologizing for being a day late. The elderly gentleman playing the role sure looked like the real thing. Even his white beard and hair appeared genuine.

“In all my years as Santa Claus, this is the first time I never managed to make all my deliveries before Christmas morning.”

Kevin was soaking it up. “Really? Where are the reindeer? And where’s Rudolph?”

“Oh, they’re resting, son. It was a tough Christmas this year. I’m sorry you didn’t receive your presents in time.”

“That’s okay. We had fun, anyway.”

“So…you don’t need these, then?” Santa gestured at the presents piled in bags behind him.

“Hey! I didn’t mean that!” Kevin protested.

“That’s okay, son. I was just teasing.” Santa reached back and grabbed one of red velvet bags. “Anyone willing to help me put these under the tree?”

By now everyone was outside and willing to help, teaming up to carry the heavy bags inside. Eliza was one of the last in the line, and found herself paired off with Marshall.

“Good morning,” she said, hating the way he glanced quickly at her, then away.

“Hope you slept well?”

“Not as well as the previous night. It was a little cold.”

He looked genuinely sorry to hear this. “You should have stayed by the fire.”

He was right. She should have. But she’d felt awkward about the prospect of being alone with him, so she’d gone up to her room when the others did. She’d deserved her restlessness night, she decided now. She shouldn’t have been so silly. She’d probably hurt Marshall’s feelings, and he so didn’t deserve that.

Once they’d carried the bag of gifts into the lodge, they had their second surprise of the morning. The Christmas tree lights were back on, which meant the propane tanks had been re-filled and power restored to the lodge.

“Wow, isn’t that beautiful,” Sydney said, stepping back to admire the tree.

When she’d first arrived, Eliza had found the tree a little plain, compared to the ones she’d decorated for Bramble House. But now the tree, glowing with white fairy lights and decorated with hand-painted wood carvings of birds and other woodland creatures, struck her as perfect.

They stacked the gifts under the tree and beyond, there were so many of them. Eliza even noticed a few with her name on them, and wondered how that had happened.

“Can we start opening them, now?” Kevin was dancing from foot to foot again, a sure betrayal of his level of excitement.

“Maybe we should have breakfast first,” his mother said.

“Let the kid open his gifts,” Buck said. “He’s waited long enough already.”

“Yes!” Anna agreed. “It’s time for presents!”

At that moment the two employees who had been present on their first day at the lodge, emerged from the kitchen with trays of muffins and fresh fruit.

“We’re back,” the taller one announced cheerfully, as she set the food out on a nearby table. “I’m sorry we missed all the Christmas fun, but we’re going to do our best to make it up to you today. You can snack on these now. We’ve got urns of coffee, tea and hot chocolate in the dining hall. And in a couple of hours we’ll be serving a three-course Boxing Day lunch.”

The fresh fruit looked especially appealing to Eliza. She filled a plate with chunks of strawberries, bananas, kiwis and oranges, then curled back into her chair to watch while Santa handed out one gift to every guest, before disappearing on his sleigh. Kevin went outside to wave him off, then rushed back inside to start unwrapping.

Eliza took in the melee, smiling and enjoying. She loved the whoops Kevin gave for every gift, whether it was a Lego set or a sweater. She noticed the quiet exchange of gifts between Jason and Sydney and then looked away as they kissed tenderly.

When Kevin became over-excited and started buzzing around the room with a new toy rocket ship, his parents didn’t chastise him, correctly surmising that no one was bothered. In fact, Kevin was making the gift exchange more fun for everyone.

“Are you going to open those?”

Eliza glanced up. Marshall was standing by her chair, eyeing the two wrapped gifts in her lap.

“I’m having so much fun watching everyone else, I almost forgot.”

Marshall sank onto the footstool next to her. “It’s a blast seeing how happy Kevin is.”

“Almost as happy as he was yesterday, playing hockey.” She smiled at Marshall, relieved that they were at least talking to one another again. She glanced down at her gifts, both wrapped in gold paper with red bows. “What are these? I thought Santa was only going to deliver the gifts that were left with him.”

“I think the company decided to throw in a few extras. To make up, in part, for how the blizzard wrecked everything.”

In hindsight, Eliza didn’t think the blizzard had been that awful. In fact, it had fixed more things than it had wrecked. Still, she carefully pulled away the tape from the first of her gifts. Inside she found a pair of ski gloves. She slipped them on. “Perfect size. And they’re so nice and warm.”

“Next time you’re stuck in a blizzard, you’ll be prepared.”

The other gift contained a snow globe. Inside was a ski lodge not unlike the one at Baker Creek. She turned it upside down, then smiled as she watched the snowflakes flutter inside the globe. “Pretty.”

“You like it?”

She nodded. “It will help me always remember this trip. Not that I’m likely to ever forget.”

She glanced at Marshall then, suddenly certain that the company hadn’t arranged for these gifts, but that, somehow, he had.

“Did you get anything?”

He shrugged. “I’m an employee. The company was only worried about the paying guests. But don’t worry. My boss forked over a generous bonus this year.”

“Well, you sure deserve it.” She wished she had something,
anything,
to give him. The fact that he clearly didn’t expect anything, only made her want it more.

“So, what time will we be leaving?”

“Three o’clock. Right on schedule.”

“That’s amazing.” She glanced around the room, noticing for the first time how truly warm it was. And was that roasting turkey she could smell? “It’s almost like the blizzard never happened.”

“We’re back to normal,” Marshall agreed.

Only they weren’t, Eliza thought later, when she was seated for the Boxing Day lunch. The group was a much more convivial one today than it had been five days ago. She hadn’t heard Kevin’s parents speak crossly to him all morning. And his sister was being kinder to him, too. The Kellys were acting all lovey-dovey, but everyone else was mingling more, chatting cheerfully and going out of their way to thank Betsy and her staff for every little thing.

The lunch was a triumph, with roasted turkey and cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes with orange and pecan sauce, broccoli-cheese casserole, cranberries and gravy, and mounds of creamy whipped potatoes.

Eliza held her breath when Ted Arbuckle threw out a teasing comment. “So, getting your money’s worth today, Buck?”

But Buck took the jab in stride. “Sure am. Bonnie and I might have to bring the girls back again next year. On the condition that Marshall, here, can guarantee us another snowstorm.” He winked, while his daughters groaned, and the rest of the guests laughed.

When the meal was finally over, Eliza went back to her room to pack, and put tips into envelopes for all the staff. When she came to the envelope for Marshall, she didn’t know what was appropriate. He’d done so much to make sure everyone had a wonderful Christmas. But she felt so little had been done for him in return. And sure, he was a paid employee of the Montana Wilds Adventure Company.

But he was also a person who deserved to be happy.

She ended up giving him a generous tip, equal to the one she’d left for Griff and Betsy. But she didn’t feel right about it. The ledger remained unbalanced, as far as she was concerned.

*

The bus arrived
at three o’clock, right on schedule. This time Eliza did not scurry to the back, instead taking the seat right behind the bus driver, Stan. He greeted them all cheerfully as they boarded, congratulating them for surviving one of the worst blizzards to hit Montana in decades.

Last on the bus was Marshall. He counted off the guests, ending with her, then sat in the seat across from hers.

“Let’s go, Stan.”

From her window Eliza looked back at the lodge with its cheerful red door. At least four feet of snow had settled on the roof, and the snow was still piled high all around the walls. That door had been a blessing in the snowstorm, a beacon of color in the midst of the white-out. There seemed to be even more snow piled high on the sides of the road, testament to how hard the plows had worked to dig them free.

“That was quite the adventure,” she said quietly, not sure if Marshall could hear her.

“Yup,” he agreed. “I’ll bet you’re anxious to get home.”

She’d been trying not to think that far ahead. But now her stomach tightened and she could no longer stop her thoughts from whirling.

Was John still in Marietta?