The Amish Christmas Kitchen Read Free Page A

heartbeat. A dream . . . only a dream . . . She pulled Seth’s pillow close for a moment, seeking any warmth in its pristine chill, then flung it from her to land with a soft thud across the room.
    * * *
    In the cool, moonlit confines of his narrow bed, Daniel was dreaming. He knew it on some level but he couldn’t wake....
    Hot, chocolate-drizzled cookies overflowed from Clara’s hands as she reached out to him. He wanted to lick the sticky goodness that dripped between her slender fingers and twine his hands in her loose blond hair. “Clara is as shy as a doe . . . gotta take it slow.” Slow. But Daniel was hot and his mouth ached for a taste of her full lips. Seth’s wife . . . Seth’s wife . . . Entrusted, treasured, given . . . Mine. The word seared itself inside his eyelids, and he reached for her, intent on taking what she offered. But then a large goat blocked his way and Clara was suddenly distant and removed, half-turned from him. Absurd that a goat should stand between them. . . . He moved to push the animal away and fell on a patch of ice. Then he was a child again, making snow angels in rising biscuit dough....
    He woke, sweating, and slipped on his pants. He needed a drink of water to banish the strangeness of his thoughts and crept quietly downstairs toward the kitchen.
    â€œCan’t sleep, buwe? ”
    Daniel nearly jumped as he passed his grandfater’s bed in the dark living room.
    â€œDa, you scared me to death. Are you all right?” Daniel moved through the shadows and turned a kerosene lamp up low as he blinked at his elder.
    Sol Kauffman had once been a big bear of a man, but now, at nearly ninety-two, his frame had shrunk and his mind drifted between the past and the present with a lot of odd statements in between. But tonight, he looked at Daniel with seemingly lucid eyes and sat up as if wanting a midnight chat.
    Daniel suppressed a sigh and sank into a nearby chair, sliding it close to the comfortable couch.
    â€œYou’ve been dreaming, sohn? ”
    Daniel smiled in surprise at the accurate assumption. “ Jah .”
    â€œ Ach .” Sol reached a heavily veined hand to brush at his long white beard. “About a woman, no doubt.”
    â€œYeah, I’m afraid so.”
    â€œWell, that be your problem, buwe . Yer afraid . . . of her?” The faded blue eyes seemed to search the heart beneath Daniel’s bare chest.
    Daniel looked away. “ Nee . . . she just . . . Well, it’s not an easy situation, Da.”
    â€œBecause of the promise you made to Seth Loftus that day in the wood?”
    Daniel turned to stare at his grandfather and felt his heart begin to pound in his throat. I’ve never told a living soul what Seth asked of me the day he died—not even Clara. She just thought I was nar-risch . . . asking her to marry me so soon—after . . .
    He cleared his throat. “Da, how do you . . . What are you talking about?”
    Sol gave him a toothless smile. “You think I’m alone all nacht down here, sohn? Nee . . . when I cannot sleep, I talk with the angels. ’Twas an angel what told me about when Seth wuz dyin’ and him asking you to take his Clara in marriage . . . A heavy load to bear, I’m thinkin’ . . . a heavy load.”
    Daniel wondered if he was still dreaming when he leaned closer to the auld man and touched his hand. “Da . . . did . . . did the angel tell you how I can keep my promise to Seth? Because Clara won’t have me, and . . .”
    His grandfather startled with a jerk and a frown, his bushy white brows nearly meeting. “What? What’s that you say?”
    â€œClara Loftus, Da . . . the angel?” Daniel felt a surge of desperation.
    â€œYou woke me up for such foolishness as this? Turn the lamp down—it be the middle of the nacht! ”
    Daniel pulled back in confusion, then hastened to rise and turn down the lamp. He had no desire to wake his