Naomi’s Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

as her temperament, and that, everyone knew, was
     quiet, controlled, and serene, even in the midst of raising her four younger siblings
     and managing her difficult father. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Naomi’s blue eyes
     flash with anger. Small wonder the family had been shocked when Naomi refused to go
     along with her daad’s decision for her life.
    “What about clover?” Naomi asked, clearly thinking about her bees while he’d been
     wool-gathering.
    “This field has plenty of clover. So does the one on the other side of the lane. I
     suppose you mainly want clover honey.” He snapped the reins, telling the mare to step
     up. “We’ll go back a bit farther toward the woods.”
    The ground rose in a slow, gentle slope, then lifted more abruptly to the nearest
     of the rolling ridges that marked off Pleasant Valley. The woods were a mix of hemlock,
     pine, and maples.
    He drew up where the lane widened enough to turn around before it petered out to a
     narrow track. “Right along there at the edge of the pasture you’ll find a nice growth
     of alfalfa, and that field running up to the woods is filled with wildflowers in summer.”
    “Really?” The face she turned to Nathan was animated. Apparently there was something
     that could excite her—the bees. “I’ve always wanted to try alfalfa and wildflower
     honey. You can get such different flavors by providing a variety of vegetation the
     bees like. Daad’s fields have mostly red clover. It makes a nice, mild honey, but
     I’d love to have other flavors.”
    He nodded, not knowing much about it but enjoying seeing her pleasure. That boded
     well for her response to his offer, he’d think.
    “There’s something else I want to show you.” He turned the mare, enjoying the ease
     with which the animal moved. One thing you had to give Sam Esch, for sure…he knew
     how to train a buggy horse.
    “Right up here,” he said, as they moved back up the lane toward the house and outbuildings.
     He could sense the interest simmering in Naomi. So far, so gut.
    He drew up at the outbuilding, and hopped down. He held up his hand to Naomi, but
     she was already jumping down as lightly as a girl.
    He unlocked the door with the key that hung from a hookwell out of reach of the kinder. “This was built for a chicken coop, but Daad decided
     the chickens did better on the other side of the barn. He used this place for storage,
     but we cleared it out last year.”
    He fell silent, giving her time to observe the wide-plank floor, swept clean, the
     windows at either end, the long rows of wooden counters on either wall where nesting
     boxes had once sat, and the rectangular wooden table he’d moved in.
    “I thought this would be the kind of space you’d need for processing and packaging
     the honey,” he said finally, when she didn’t speak. “Will it do?”
    She looked at him then, her eyes shining. Funny, but he’d never noticed how dark a
     blue her eyes were—almost navy in color. No one would describe Naomi as beautiful,
     but her eyes were, for sure.
    “It is a hundred times better than what I have now,” she said. “But are you sure?
     You might find some other need for this space—”
    “I would not go back on our arrangement once we have a deal,” he said. He shouldn’t
     have to say the words. Surely she knew that about him.
    “A deal,” she repeated slowly, and he could almost see her calculating. “Well, with
     what I make at the bakery, I should be able to pay a reasonable rent. But I don’t
     know where I’m going to live yet, and that might—”
    “I’m not wanting to take money from you, Naomi,” he broke in, wondering if it was
     guilt he was feeling for manipulating her this way. “You see, with Emma being gone
     for three weeks or more helping Elizabeth, I need someone to watchthe kinder. So I’m offering a trade: you get this for your honey yard in exchange
     for taking care of the kinder for me until Emma comes back.