Where They Belong: A Sweet Cheyenne Christmas Story (The Sweet Cheyenne Quartet Book 5) Read online

  Where They Belong

  A Sweet Cheyenne Christmas Story

  Copyright © 2015, Caroline Lee

  www.CarolineLeeRomance.com

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  First edition: 2015

  This work is made available in e-book format by Amazon at www.amazon.com

  Cover: EDHGraphics

  Contents

  Once Upon A Time…

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  AUTHOR’S NOTE On Historical Accuracy

  Other works by Caroline Lee

  The Sweet Cheyenne Quartet

  A Cheyenne Christmas

  A Cheyenne Celebration

  A Cheyenne Thanksgiving

  A Cheyenne Christmas Homecoming

  Where They Belong: A Sweet Cheyenne Christmas Novella

  The Mothers of Sweet Cheyenne: A short story collection

  Everland Ever After

  Click the image to be taken to a listing of all the Everland books!

  Sign up for Caroline’s Newsletter to receive exclusive content and freebies, as well as first dibs on her books!

  Dedication:

  For the staff at

  George Mason University’s

  Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities,

  who every day teach people to be

  more understanding and accepting.

  Once Upon A Time…

  Fifteen years ago, a young woman came west from Chicago, looking for work to support herself and her two younger sisters. Molly Murray was hired by a down-on-his-luck rancher who offered her room and board in exchange for keeping his house. Ash Barker quickly came to treasure Molly, and the way she made Christmas special for his teenaged brother Nate… and himself. When the two younger Murray sisters arrived in their lives—including seven-year-old Annie—the five of them became a family, and their first Christmas together was very special indeed.

  Wendy and Nate became good friends despite a rocky beginning, and they soon all settled in, learning the “sign language” the sisters had created for little deaf Annie. Their neighbor Serena Selkirk came into their lives, teaching the younger Murray sisters to dream big. Five years after they’d settled in Cheyenne, after the birth of Molly and Ash’s second son, Wendy decided to follow her dreams and travel to St. Louis to teach and write. Nate missed her, but wanted her to be happy, and so he devoted himself to exchanging letters with her.

  Change came to Cheyenne with the arrival of a sophisticated schoolteacher from New York City. It turned out that Sebastian Carderock III wasn’t just a brilliant oralist and mathematician, but wealthy as well. He was the prince that Serena had been waiting for, and she chose him over her neighbor, Cam McLeod. But the following year, Cam got his own Happily Ever After when he rescued a lovely woman and her son. It only took a bit of convincing before they were a family, and Cam’s father was stepping out with Serena’s aunt.

  Finally, Nate had enough with all of the romance going on around him, and decided to find out where he stood with Wendy, and why she hadn’t written him back in two years. Right before Christmas—almost exactly eight years after meeting her—he arrived in St. Louis. He managed to get her fired, learned her terrible secret, and convinced her that she was worth loving after all. For her part, Wendy had her work cut out convincing the once-shy half-Indian boy she’d come to love that he was worthy of love too.

  Through all of these romances and adventures, Annie watched supportively. She’d blossomed at the ranch, being given the care and training of the colts, and had helped build their reputation and business. Once she’d begun school in the city, she lived with Sebastian and Serena, and joined her friend in her charitable work and social obligations. As she grew, she found a balance between life in the city, where she enjoyed the companionship of her friends, and life on the ranch, where she found comfort with her horses and love from her family. She was accepted. She was loved. She was understood.

  But years of Sebastian’s oralism training had readied her for the wider world. She could now communicate with more than just her family and close friends, who knew her sign language. She could go on her own adventures, and find her own romance.

  This is her story.

  CHAPTER ONE

  New York City, December 1890

  The big luggage cart very nearly ran her over.

  She might have been gawking a bit, but that was to be expected; Grand Central Depot was huge. So much bigger than any of the train stations she’d been through to get here, and just incredible compared to Cheyenne’s. Of course, Cheyenne’s station was nothing like the covered platform it used to be, but it still couldn’t rival this masterpiece of height and space and human ingenuity.

  And the chaos! There were men in suits—real suits!—and little round hats hurrying back and forth, some with their noses buried in newspapers, and some gesturing animatedly to their companions. She could smell their sweat and taste their cigar smoke all around her. The men who worked for the railroad wore matching dark uniforms, and seemed content to ignore everyone as they waved and pointed and managed to organize the turmoil. There were even women; some unescorted like she was, some with families, and plenty with children. The acrid rush of steam from the far end of the Depot told Annie that a train had just whistled, and she could feel the pulse of the machine through her boots.

  The Depot was so overwhelming, and no surprise that Annie didn’t see the luggage cart the two porters pushed until it was almost too late. They’d probably been yelling at her to get out of the way, which might have worked had Annie been able to hear them. She couldn’t hear any of the shouts, the whistles, the calls and the humanity that she knew must be loud around her. The noise must’ve been even worse than the chaos, and she was almost glad to be deaf… but she wouldn’t have minded hearing some warning of the approaching luggage cart.

  But as it happened, she needn’t have worried. Right as she turned into the path of the lumbering behemoth on wheels, and realized what was about to happen, a hand tightened around her wrist and yanked her out of danger. She smacked into a hard chest, her breath leaving her lungs in one great whoosh as warm arms wrapped around hers to steady her.

  Barely a moment of contact, and then her mysterious rescuer stepped back and she saw his smile and knew he wasn’t so mysterious after all. He was the one she was supposed to have been looking for, instead of standing there beside the platform gaping at the sights like the country bumpkin she was. Apparently, he’d found her instead.

  “Glad I got to you in time, Miss Murray.” The twinkle in his chocolate-brown eyes told her that his tone had been teasing. She’d lost the ability to hear at age three, after a bout with the German measles, but she’d always been good at understanding someone from their lip movement. Sebastian’s oralis
m training had taught her to understand the sounds that those lips were making, and to attempt to reproduce them. She’d never heard herself speak, but could feel the sounds behind her ears.

  “Hello, Reggie.” The R sound was hard for her, and had driven Wendy nuts trying to explain it. Annie still wasn’t sure if she’d mastered it, but Reggie’s smile told her that it didn’t matter.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” She swallowed, assuring herself that she wasn’t lying to him. He was asking if she was okay after her near-miss with the luggage cart, which she was. She didn’t have to confess that his smile made her knees weak—had for years—and that every time she inhaled she got a whiff of his appealing sandalwood scent.

  Reggie stepped back, his hands lingering on her upper arms as if unsure that she was capable of standing on her own, and that more than anything made Annie’s back straighten and her chin rise.

  She’d just come across most of the country on her own, against her family’s urging. She’d told them that she needed to prove that she could do it, and since she was a grown woman, they finally had to agree. There’d been close calls and misunderstandings along the way, but Annie had navigated her own way through the confusing transfers and negotiations, and by God, she’d made it—alone!—to New York City in one piece.

  …Only to be nearly run down by a piece of equipment. Some of the starch went out of her shoulders then, and she ventured a small smile in his direction. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

  “It was my pleasure.”

  He smiled again, and Annie’s breath caught. Oh goodness, he was… he was even handsomer than she remembered, but looked less like his older brother than he had during his last visit to Cheyenne. He was perfectly imperfect.

  Reggie Carderock had Sebastian’s dark hair, but it never managed to stay quite as well-coiffed as his brother’s. Even now a lock had fallen across his forehead, and Annie wondered where his hat had gone. His grin pushed all thoughts aside, and she had to stiffen her knees to keep herself upright. There was a little gap between his front two teeth, and between that and the dimple in the opposite cheek from his brother, she thought him much more approachable. Touchable, even, although she’d never admitted that to anyone besides herself, and only then in the darkest part of the night when she only had her dreams for company.

  And so her cheeks were burning when he offered her his arm, picked up her valise, and escorted her through the chaos and out into the slush of Vanderbilt Avenue, where a carriage waited. He helped her in, and then went to speak to the driver. Annie settled against the seat—much softer than the one she’d been sitting on for the last days—and watched his profile.

  She’d met him nine years ago, at the marriage of her dear friend Serena to Sebastian, the oralist schoolteacher who’d come to Cheyenne to teach Annie. Reggie had stood beside his older brother at the altar, and Annie had thought him the most charming man in the whole world. Of course, that was back when she was twelve and he was a layabout who lived on his father’s money. Since then, she’d learned to speak and now divided her time between her horses at the ranch and her obligations in Cheyenne. And he… well, every other year he visited Cheyenne, and she got to know him better. He wasn’t a layabout; he just had different goals than the rest of his family. She watched him talk about medical school and the work he was now doing at the clinic for the workers of New York, and found more and more things to admire about him.

  And then his mother had written to Sebastian to offer to sponsor “his little deaf friend” for a season in New York. It was an amazing opportunity, and one that Annie would be foolish to pass up. At least, that’s what Serena had said, and Wendy had agreed. Annie’s sister had spent a few years among the “high society folks”—as she called them—in St. Louis, and thought that it was important for a young woman to see something of the world. In fact, she’d looked a little disappointed that she couldn’t go too, just for the adventure; but she was due to have her baby within the month, and Nate rarely let her out of his sight. Their oldest sister Molly was the one who objected so fervently, but since she also objected to Annie traveling alone, the younger woman assumed it was just Molly being overprotective. But now, having to crane her neck to see the tops of some of the buildings here, Annie was beginning to think that maybe her sister had been right when she’d warned her how different things were in the East.

  Reggie climbed in beside her, gave a little smile, and the carriage started with the slightest of lurches. It had been a bit of a relief to see that the “automobile” craze Nate was always talking about wasn’t quite as widespread as she’d feared, and that Reggie’s carriage was pulled by a pair of beautiful matching gray mares. She’d almost stopped to pet them, but then remembered that here, in the city, she couldn’t stop to make friends with random horses. She had to be proper. Well… more proper, at least.

  She wanted to know all about the sights they were passing—she’d read about the city on the train—but instead turned towards Reggie expectantly. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. Oh dear. Did he not remember that she could understand his words by watching his lips? It wasn’t easy—had taken years of practice—and Annie had to concentrate, but it was the best way to communicate with people who could hear. They often slurred their words together, and she missed many of them, but was able to get the general gist of their statement. It wasn’t easy, but it worked.

  As if knowing that speaking wasn’t her first choice of communication, Reggie reached into the pocket formed between the cushion and the wall, and pulled out a notebook. He’d brought a notebook. He’d thought to bring a notebook?

  Reggie Carderock was turning out to be a delightful surprise.

  We’re going to my parents’ house now.

  His scrawl was as bold and masculine as he was, and made Annie smile to see it. She would always be more comfortable communicating in writing, or sign, and Reggie thinking to bring a notebook made her all warm inside. Of course she had her own notebook—she would never have dreamed of traveling across the country alone without having a ready means of communication—but she loved that he’d thought of it as well. She took the pencil when he offered it.

  I look forward to it. And then hesitantly:Will you be there too?

  Yes. I’ve never bothered to get my own house, since I’m away so often.

  Then he went back and wrote in “at the clinic” after “away” and Annie’s heart squeezed a little. She loved that he was always so intent on the truth, so careful to make sure that he communicated everything properly. It was so different from the way she’d learned to “talk,” when Wendy helped her create a series of signs for various things. The “language” she’d grown up with was far from accurate or specific; she and her family could communicate entire sentences with only a few words. It wasn’t until Wendy taught her to read and write that she learned how to make a complete sentence or to understand the complexities of grammar. But even now, when she used her notebook to communicate, she usually used a sort of short-hand.

  Here in New York City, she’d have to remember to be careful what she wrote, what she said. Reggie’s family were the sort who would care.

  The trip to his parents’ home took longer than expected. Cheyenne was big, but a person could walk across it still. New York City was… well, it was tremendous, and crowded with people and street cars such that the horses had to pick their way carefully through the slushy streets. Annie spent the time with her nose practically pressed to the window, eager to see the sights and buildings she’d only read about. Reggie had the driver take them up Park Avenue and across Fifty-First, so she could see St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and then up—briefly—through Central Park. Then his heavy scrawl identified the sights of the Theater District and Longacre Square, and even though he mentioned that the area was improving, he refused to let her get out and gawk. Her cheeks grew warm from his teasing, but she didn’t mind.

  It was almost evening when they final
ly arrived at the luxurious Carderock home on Fifth Avenue, and Annie tried to pretend that she wasn’t completely flabbergasted by such elegance. The front entranceway was bedecked in garlands and heavy red bows, and each of the large windows—there were ten that faced the street!—had a beautiful matching wreath hanging from the center. She couldn’t help but compare them to the simpler decorations she and her sisters and brothers-in-law had labored over in their cozy house in the Cheyenne wilderness.

  Inside the foyer, Reggie waved off the stately older man in the servant’s black, and took her coat and hat himself. It was gentlemanly, and Annie smiled softly at him in appreciation. She could swear that she saw his cheeks color slightly, but it could’ve been the light from the electric lamps making odd shadows.

  There was mistletoe hanging from the giant crystal chandelier above their heads, but she pretended not to notice.

  When he offered her his arm, she placed her fingers on the wool of his jacket, and he led her into a parlor. The elegant lady who’d been waiting there rose to greet them, and Annie almost gaped at her dress. Mrs. Carderock was still a beautiful woman, and Annie remembered her being the paragon of sophisticated grace… but that was at her son’s wedding, almost a decade ago. Here she stood, in her own home, dressed in a gown elaborate enough to attend a ball. Annie was suddenly very glad that she’d changed into her nicest pale blue dress this morning, rather than the travel-stained dark gown she’d worn for most of the trip, or the skirts and shirtwaists she normally wore in Cheyenne.

  Heaven knew what Mrs. Carderock would think if she knew that even those skirts were fancier than the jeans she preferred when she was on the ranch, training her colts.