Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe: A Short Story (The Brides Series 1.5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

this?” he asked, pulling out a long strand of sleigh bells, which jangled ever louder as he lifted them out. He managed to look completely befuddled by the discovery. As if a six-foot length of sleigh bells had somehow gotten in there by itself. The rascal. He was enjoying every minute of this. Just as he’d enjoyed the sleigh ride they’d taken after church on Sunday.  They all had.
    Levi looked at his brother wide-eyed. His mouth fell open in the most comical fashion, but he didn’t say a word.
    “Sleigh bells,” Jake said in a hushed tone. He covered his mouth with both hands. Levi copied him, covering his mouth too. They simply stared at each other, evidently enthralled.
    Becky and Pop shared a look of amused surprise. Now they were quiet?
    “Ah, yes,” Pop said as he laid the bells across their waiting hands like a big sagging W. “Now I remember. I have a special song to play, and I’m going to need your help.”
    “Jingle Bells!”
    “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” he corrected. “At least that’s what we called it when I was a much younger man.” His eyes twinkled.
    Pop was the same as always, Becky decided, watching him. He was perhaps a little older looking, but still as fit as a man half his age. Today, he’d taken special care with his appearance. His silvery-white hair was neatly combed and tied with black twine at the back of his neck, in his customary Western queue. He wore his Sunday-going-to-church black wool trousers, his best black boots, and a navy button-down flannel shirt that brought out the blue in his steel-blue eyes. She thought he looked especially nice. Distinguished. Dashing even. And where the hem of his trousers rode up over the top of his boots, she saw a band of bright red, the tops of a pair of wool socks. Bright red. She shook her head, amused. His hearing was the only real sign of age that Becky had noticed. Sometimes, she suspected he heard what he wanted to hear and didn’t hear what he didn’t want to hear, but just as often she wasn’t sure anymore.
    Now, as she watched him tune the strings of his dulcimer, she noticed how closely he bent over the polished wooden board, as if he was straining to catch each strum and pluck of the cords. He frowned as the boys ran past with the long strand of sleigh bells trailing behind them, making a racket. She suspected he could hear his instrument well enough to tune it, but that it was more of an effort.
    “Can you get them to be still?” he asked her, his voice gravelly and a little gruff. His eyes sparkled with the light of good humor though, so she knew he wasn’t as irritated as he sounded.
    “Boys!” Becky lassoed them in her arms as they ran past, yelling, and gathered them close. “Grandpop needs a few minutes of quiet so he can get the dulcimer ready. You want him to play, don’t you?”
    “Play it!”
    “Play it now!”
    “You’re going to have to be very quiet, all right?” She placed one hand on Levi’s shoulder, the other on Jake’s, bracketing them before her, the sleigh bells trailing on the floor between them. She gazed at them in a solemn fashion. “Or…” she added thoughtfully, as if she truly had her doubts, “maybe you can’t be quiet...?”
    Immediately, their eyes grew wide with offense.
    “We can be quiet!” Jake protested.
    “Can so!”
    “Levi! Too loud!” Jake’s whisper likely could have been heard down at the barn.
    “All right then,” Becky said, hiding a smile. “Show me.”
    The boys shared a glance, and some silent communication passed between them. Without a word, they slunk off, with the sleigh bells carried carefully between them, and disappeared underneath the dining table to watch their grandpop working over his dulcimer, his forehead creased with concentration.
    Becky tilted her head, considering him. For all his barks, that man loved his family. He loved Isaac—enough to risk sending off for a bride for him without permission or foreknowledge—and he loved their