A Little Kringle Magic

By Loretta C. Rogers

In Landry, Wyoming, outspoken, bossy Dr. Bea Inseldorf secretly longs for a home and family of her own. She fills her life with caring for everyone else instead.
Widower Tate Reed is filled with bitterness and refuses to celebrate Christmas—his wife died in childbirth at the holiday several years ago. His young daughter misses her mother but also her father, who is no longer the happy, loving man he used to be.
Four days of isolation together in a ranch house and a batch of small round cookies magically change the lives of them all, starved for affection as they are, all seeking the same thing—happiness.

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Nov 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781509237067

Book preview

She didn’t mean to speak with harsh undertones to her voice. Perhaps that’s why she was an old maid. Men didn’t admire women who freely spoke their minds. She tried to soften her voice. You have admitted that you say certain words in your mind but can’t get them out of your mouth. Mr. Reed… Tate… Is the reason you don’t express your feelings because you’ve been taught that it isn’t manly?

There, she had said the words he probably didn’t want to hear, and she mentally berated herself for having such an honest tongue.

He opened his mouth to contradict her. It was something of an irritation that she had used his words to make a point. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off this beautiful woman. He couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have her as a wife. She was everything Mary had never been. He chastised himself. Stop being delusional. You’ve only known this woman a few days. Love at first sight, like the magic in her cookies, is a myth.

He snorted in contempt. Bea apparently mistook his reaction. She said, I apologize. There are times when my tongue seems to override the sensible side of my brain. She stepped away from the bed to the rocking chair. I’m here if you need me.

Praise for A LITTLE KRINGLE MAGIC

Christmas magic liberally sprinkled throughout this warm and cozy holiday romance.

~Anonymous

A Little

Kringle Magic

by

Loretta C. Rogers

Christmas Cookies

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

A Little Kringle Magic

COPYRIGHT © 2021 by Loretta C. Rogers

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Diana Carlile

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Edition, 2021

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-3706-7

Christmas Cookies

Published in the United States of America

Also Available from Loretta C. Rogers

and The Wild Rose Press

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Forbidden Son

Christmas at Hope Ranch

Historical Romance

Bannon’s Brides

The Witching Moon

Lady Adel’s Captain

Cloud Woman’s Spirit

Taming the Lyon

When Comes Forever

Bitter Autumn

A Little Kringle Magic (novella)

Isabelle and the Outlaw (novella)

McKenna’s Woman (novella)

Fate Comes Softly (Anthology)

Mystery and Suspense

Murder in the Mist

Shadowed Reunion

Fatal Passion

The Bone Yard

Audio Books

Isabelle and the Outlaw

McKenna’s Woman

Taming the Lyon

Murder in the Mist

Shadowed Reunion

Chapter One

Landry, Wyoming

December 1880

Doctor Beata Bea Inseldorf stood back to admire the small, festive Yule tree. Of all the holidays, Christmas was her favorite, but this was the first year since her mother’s death that Bea had been totally alone at Christmas, and she was finding it hard to keep her spirits up. She was also finding it difficult to accept the fact that she seemed doomed to die an old maid. Not that twenty-eight felt old, but in Landry, Wyoming, she might as well be sixty, and as the only doctor for fifty miles, eligible bachelors generally considered her overly educated, too tall, and independent, all of which seemingly made her unsuitable to take as a wife.

Since her mother’s passing, Bea had found her childhood home too large and lonely. She’d shuttered it and decided to live in a small but comfortable apartment above her office. She was a member of the ladies’ church auxiliary and sang in the church choir. For all practical purposes, with the modest income from her few paying patients she supposed she had no reason to feel discontent.

A chill permeated the quarters of her medical office that consisted of an adequate waiting area for patients, a small room for her office, and the examination room that doubled as a surgery. She lifted two small logs from the wood bin and used a fire poker to slide the cast-iron top aside. Once the wood was inside the potbellied stove, she slid the top back in place and walked to the window to peer out.

Snow swirled in gusts. Only two days before Christmas, and despite the winter chill that cut through the air and the dark-gray clouds hovering above the town, plenty of townsfolk were out and about, completing their errands and preparations for the holiday. Shamus Murphy from the mercantile stood high on a ladder hanging fresh fir garland decorated with red bows to adorn his store sign. His sixteen-year-old son Ian steadied the ladder. In Bea’s estimation it should be the lad standing six feet off the ground instead of his fifty-year-old father.

A couple of older ladies bustled past with baskets of goodies swinging from their arms. She heaved a sigh when Caleb and Mercy Johnson walked out of the general store. Caleb assisted his young wife into the waiting wagon. Mercy held their little bundle of joy close to her breast. Six weeks ago Bea had helped deliver Caleb Junior. Bea pushed the loneliness aside. She had many wonderful friends, so what if she wasn’t going to have a husband and children? She shouldn’t complain when she was much more fortunate than many others.

She wasn’t complaining. It was just that the emptiness inside her seemed to grow a little deeper each day, and she was finding it difficult to greet friends and patients with a happy smile when on the inside she was slowly drying up.

Bea glanced at the clock again. She gathered the shawl around her shoulders and opened the door. A brisk wind greeted her as she looked up and down the street. She had no idea who or what she was looking for. Stepping back into the warmth of her office, she slipped into her coat and tied a shawl around her head. She grabbed her shopping bag, then hung the sign on the door that read, In case of emergency I am at the mercantile.

Putting her head down, she braced against the wind and trotted across the street and into the general store. Evening, Bea, Olive Murphy greeted her. I guess it’s too cold for patients, huh?

Bea rubbed her hands together.