The Christmas Quilt Read Online Free PDF Page B

until she thought she must have been mistaken. He didn’t move, didn’t speak. She cocked her head to the side. “Is someone there?”
    “Can I help?” His raspy voice was a mere whisper.
    It was Booker. God had given her another chance to spend time with him. “You have already helped a great deal. The price you paid for my quilt was outrageous.”
    “Some works of art are priceless, but what are you doing on the floor?”
    “I dropped my room key.”
    “Ah. I see it.” A second later he grasped her hand and pressed the cool metal key into her palm, then gently closed her fingers over it.
    Waves of awareness raced up her arm and sent shivers dancing across her nerve endings. She didn’t trust her voice to speak as he cupped her elbows and drew her to her feet.The warmth from his hands spread through her body, making it difficult to breathe.
    She’d known this dizzying sensation only once before. The first and only time Gideon Troyer had kissed her. Would this man’s kiss light up her soul the way Gideon’s had?
    Shame rushed in on the heels of her disgraceful thought. What was the matter with her? This man was Englisch. He was forbidden, and she was foolish to place herself in such a situation.
     
    She was inches away from him. Gideon’s pulse pounded in his ears like a drum as he studied Rebecca’s face, her lips, the curve of her cheek. Behind her tinted glasses he saw the way her full lashes lay dark and smoky against her fair skin. The long ribbons of her white kapp drew his attention to the faint pulse beating at the side of her neck just where he wanted to press a kiss.
    She was everything he remembered and so much more. The girl he once loved had matured into a beautiful woman. He longed to pull her into his arms and kiss her. To see if those lush lips tasted as sweet as they did in his memory.
    His grip tightened. Suddenly, she grew tense in his grasp and tried to pull away.
    He was frightening her. This wasn’t a romantic interlude from their past for her. To her he was a stranger. He released her, took a step back and tried to put her at ease. “Would you like me to open the door for you?”
    “No. I can manage.” She retreated until her back was against the wood.
    She didn’t look frightened, only flustered. A pretty blush added color to her cheeks. Adam must have known she was staying at the inn. It would have helped if his cousin had given him a heads-up.
    Gideon said, “It was nice talking to you. Perhaps we’ll seeeach other later since the ice is going to keep me here for a day. Wait, should I use the word see, or is that being insensitive?”
    “I beg your pardon?” Her flustered look changed to confusion.
    “I don’t know how to address a blind person. You’re the first one I’ve met. Can you give me a few pointers so I don’t stick my foot in my mouth?”
    Her charming smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. “There isn’t a special way to address us, and you don’t have to be concerned about using the word see. I use it all the time.”
    “Good, because I’m thinking it would be hard to have a conversation with you if I constantly had to think up a way to replace every word that relates to sight.”
    She nodded slowly. “I see what you mean.”
    “Right!”
    Chuckling, she said, “I’m sure we’ll run into each other if you’re staying here for a while. The inn isn’t very big.”
    “I’d call it cozy.”
    “I don’t find it so.”
    “Why not?” Was she uncomfortable because he was here?
    She shrugged. “It’s not important.”
    “Of course it is.”
    Following a moment of hesitation, she said, “I feel lost when I’m downstairs. The ceiling is so high that sounds echo differently. It’s that way in this long hall, too. I’m used to my aunt’s small farmhouse. I know where everything is. I can move about freely.”
    “You’re comfortable there.”
    She smiled. “That’s right. You do see what I mean.”
    “If you need help navigating your way