The Christmas Quilt Read Online Free PDF Page A

Gideon.
    “Betty and Susie, too. They each have a girl and a boy.”
    He had eight nieces, nephews and in-laws he’d never met. How sad was that? “Grandchildren must make my mother happy.”
    “Not as happy as having you return.”
    Gideon swallowed back the lump that rose in his throat. “When you see them—”
    He paused. Coming here had been a mistake. It opened up far too many painful memories. “Tell them I’m doing well.”
    Taking his box with the quilt packed inside, Gideon turned and made his way toward the exit. Ten feet short of the opening he heard her call his name.
    “Booker, please wait!”
    Keep walking. Pretend you don’t hear her.
    His feet slowed. He could give good advice to himself but he apparently couldn’t follow it.
    What would it hurt to speak to her one more time? After today he’d never see her again. Just this once more.
    Turning around, he waited until she reached him. Her aunt hung back, a faint look of displeasure on her face. It wasn’t seemly for Rebecca to seek out an Englisch fellow.
    She moved toward him until her cane touched his feet. When she opened her mouth to speak, he forestalled her. “I know what you’re going to say, Miss Beachy, but there is no need.”
    He couldn’t take his eyes off her face. He memorized the fine arch of her brows, the soft smile that curved her lips. Shewore a pair of dark, wire-rimmed spectacles, but he knew her eyes were sky blue. If this was the last time he saw her face he wanted to remember it until the day he died.
    “There is always a need to show our gratitude for the kindness of others, Mr. Booker.”
    “Consider me thanked. I’ve got to get going.” Any second now he was going to blurt out his identity and undo all of the good he’d accomplished.
    He was keenly aware of Rebecca’s aunt standing a few paces back. A burly man came out of the crowd and stood with her, a look of displeasure formed on his face, too. Gideon turned his back to them. It was possible they’d met but he wasn’t sure.
    This was nuts. He wanted to see Rebecca again. He’d done that. He wanted to help her and he had.
    Mission accomplished. Walk away.
    No, what he really wanted was an answer to why she stopped loving him. But that was an answer he was never going to get.
    “Good luck with your surgery, Miss Beachy. I wish you every success.” He turned away and walked out into the stinging cold sleet.

Chapter Three
    R ebecca held on to her aunt’s arm as they entered the lobby of the Wadler Inn. The instant she stepped inside the building she was surrounded by the smells of wood smoke, baking bread and roasting meat. She felt the heat and heard the crackling of burning logs in the inn’s massive fireplace to her right.
    The clatter of cutlery and plates being gathered together as tables were cleared came from her left. The Shoofly Pie Café was adjacent to the inn and accessible through a set of wide pocket doors. The murmur of voices and sounds told Rebecca the doors were open. The discordant noise increased the headache growing behind her eyes.
    As her aunt moved forward, Rebecca automatically counted her steps so she could navigate the room by herself in the future. Although she had stayed at the inn several times in the past, she needed to refresh the layout in her mind. She thought she knew the place well, but a chair carelessly moved by one of the guests or a new piece of furniture could present unseen obstacles for her.
    The thump of feet coming down the stairs and the whisper of a hand sliding over a banister told her the inn’s openstaircase was just ahead. The tick-tock of a grandfather clock beside the stairway marked its location for Rebecca.
    “Velkumm.” Emma Troyer’s cheerful voice grew closer as she left the stairs and came toward them.
    “Hello, Emma.” Rebecca smiled in her direction.
    “I just finished readying your room. I’m so happy you decided to stay with us again.”
    “We’re glad to be here,” Vera