Home for the Holidays

By Mildred Colvin

Tumwater, Washington, in 1888, is home to Anna Wilkin. She can't imagine living anywhere else. Overshadowed by her "perfect" sister, Anna craves acceptance. To please Papa, she agrees to go east to finishing school although she'd rather stay near her beloved woods ... and become better acquainted with a certain young logger she calls Tuck. After the fire that took his parents and little sister, Jeremiah Tucker is afraid to share his heart. Yet more than anything, he wants a home of his own. Falling in love with a tomboy like Anna takes him by surprise. Her sister would make a better wife and be less risk to his heart. If only he could stop thinking about Anna.

Home for the Holidays is a clean and wholesome story set against the backdrop of the Christmas holidays in the historic Washington Territory. Home for the Holidays joins Lesson of the Poinsettia, also by Mildred Colvin, as a lighthearted read of Christmas and faith-filled love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mildred Colvin
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463207161

Mildred Colvin

Mildred Colvin is a wife, mother of three, and grandmother to three beautiful girls. She started writing when her children were young as they asked for stories. Not from a book. No! They were only satisfied when she made up stories. As the stories grew, she wrote some down and sent them off to magazines. Eight were published before her imagination turned toward love stories, which is what she enjoys reading.She has been writing Christian or clean and wholesome romance since 2001. Over the years several readers from pre-teens to older kids in their eighties and nineties have written expressing their interest in her books. She always loves to hear about one of her stories touching someone's heart. Her purpose in writing is to encourage, entertain, and bless someone else.She lives in the United States and sets her characters in the middle states from Texas to Nebraska and Iowa and reaching across Illinois to Colorado. She also has an Oregon Trail series, but the Great Plains states are her favorite setting.She is active in a very special critique group and has written and published over 60 books in both historical and contemporary themes, and plans to continue writing as long as God allows. He has been good in giving her many ideas for stories. Maybe more than she will be able to finish, but she enjoys each one.Please take a moment to visit her website at www.mildredcolvin.weebly.com, and sign up for her Romantic Reflections Newsletter to learn when new books are released. Also learn of promotions and free books through her newsletter.And take a look at her books. You might find something you don't want to put down.

Book preview

Home for the Holidays

Christmas Love ~ Book Two

Mildred Colvin

Historical Christian Romance

Home for the Holidays

Copyright ©2019 by Mildred Colvin

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition

Cover photo copyright © Lenor | Dreamstime.com

Scripture portions are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without permission in writing from its author except for brief quotations in printed reviews. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

DEDICATION

To Jim and Jon for letting me bounce ideas off them.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Chapter 1

Tumwater, Washington, October 1888

Anna Wilkin missed her trousers. Not that she wore them all the time, but they were a lot more comfortable than the new party dress she’d made to wear to her best friend, Larkin’s, birthday party. The lace around her neck scratched, and the bustle Larkin talked her into adding felt like a cage attached to her backside. She rubbed her neck for the umpteenth time.

Stop that. Anna’s older sister hissed in her ear. Kathleen could be so bossy. You’re scratching like a hound dog, and you’re liable to tear that nice dress.

Anna again slid her finger under the lace at her chin just to annoy her sister. I shouldn’t have listened to you and Larkin in the first place. The only reason to wear something this fancy is if you’re trying to snag a man.

She didn’t wait for Kathleen’s next comment but moved to stand by Larkin near the refreshment table. Looked like she needed rescued from Abigail Leonard, anyway. Although a friend of Anna’s, Abigail didn’t like Larkin for some reason. What are you two talking about?

Abigail turned and looked right past Anna. Her eyes widened as if she’d seen a ghost.

Anna swung around. All she saw were four men standing in the doorway gazing uncomfortably around the room. Maybe she’d missed something. She looked back at Abigail. Now she appeared as if she might swoon. Even Larkin seemed focused on them.

Why?

Anna narrowed her eyes and studied the men. The tall, dark-haired one wasn’t bad looking. To his left stood another man who was maybe an inch shorter with lighter hair. He had a square jaw with a cleft in his chin. Another, some might consider the most handsome, glanced their way with bright blue eyes but didn’t seem to take notice of any one of the girls. An unfriendly sort maybe. Anna didn’t bother with the fourth man. What difference did it make? They’d probably been invited to provide dance partners for Larkin’s guests.

Larkin’s father greeted the four newcomers, welcoming them as if they were good friends. Hmm, maybe they were decent men after all if Mr. Whitworth approved of them.

Kathleen leaned forward to look at Larkin. Didn’t I see you talking to those men last Sunday after church?

When Larkin didn’t respond, Anna turned toward her. Larkin’s brownish-black eyes had a glazed look, the kind she got when she was deep in thought, something she often credited to her mama’s Chinook blood.

Larkin couldn’t be interested in those men, could she? Of course, she was nineteen years old now—plenty old enough to marry. In another two months, Anna would be eighteen. Little more than a year younger, but she had no intention of tying herself to some man no matter how handsome he was. If her friend was smitten, she wouldn’t give away her secret. In fact, a change of subject might be a good idea.

She swiveled around to face the table. Hey, what happened to all the cookies? They’re almost gone.

From a group of younger girls gathered at the other end of the table, Abigail’s younger sister Elizabeth stepped closer. She giggled and held up a half-eaten cookie. Maybe I should offer some to the other guests.

Abigail sent a stern look her way. Hush, Lizzie, you’re too young to even be thinking about such things.

Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide. What? Eating?

No. Men. Abigail lifted the half-filled tray off the table. Since no one is eating these, I’ll take them around. She smirked at Larkin. Maybe you should have let your cook make the refreshments.

Larkin didn’t flinch at the jab, but the words had to have hurt.

Anna sent a warning look toward Abigail. She might be her friend, but she could be so cruel sometimes, and she never had a good thing to say to or about Larkin. Everyone else loved Larkin.

She didn’t make them, Abigail. Anna stepped between her two friends. I did. There’s more in the kitchen. I’ll go get them while you ladies drool over the new men.

Anna spoke over her shoulder as she left. You can carry cookies to them if you must, but you’ll never catch me falling all over myself just to get attention.

What made girls act so silly when it came to men? She’d never be like that. Maybe someday marriage to the right man would be all right, but not yet. Being free to be herself meant so much more. Working with Papa in the woods, helping him the way he’d expect a son to, that’s what she liked. A husband would be a hindrance for sure. Maybe that’s why she and Larkin had bonded. Larkin liked fishing, climbing trees, and swimming same as she did. Larkin was sweet and kind too. She and her family often delivered food to the needy, which was something to respect.

Anna admired Larkin’s home as she crossed the room. Tonight, the formal parlor had become a festive faux ballroom to celebrate Larkin’s nineteenth birthday. The elegant room had been emptied of furniture to make room for the dancing later. Anna admired the luxury as she progressed toward the kitchen. If her parents gave her or Kathleen a birthday party, it’d probably be held in their barn. They mostly stayed at the logging camp, but they owned a big two-story house in town. They didn’t have a room as large as this one, or as nice. Considering where Larkin lived, most people might expect her to be a snob, only she wasn’t. Even the fourteen months separating them didn’t stop her from being Anna’s friend.

A small orchestra in the music room played some of Anna’s favorite songs with the music drifting back to the kitchen. They finished Grandfather’s Clock and started a catchy new tune called Clementine. Anna arranged the tray of cookies while she hummed with the music then sang the chorus. ‘Thou art lost and gone forever. Dreadful sorry, Clementine.’

Her feet itched to dance when the band switched to a lively polka. She headed back down the wide hall, carefully holding the tray of cookies. A quadrille had started. Oh my, Larkin and Kathleen were dancing with two of the newcomers. Abigail and her brother, Garrick, along with the reverend’s son and daughter, Matthew and Natalie Bollen, made up the other set. She