Lee wasn't quite sure when he and Jesse became the ones in charge of the wishing tree in the center of Hope Valley, but he loved the responsibility. It made sense, because he had all the sawmill equipment and the land with all the best trees on it. It had probably happened the same way everything happens in Hope Valley. There was a need, and someone volunteered to help. And in this case, that someone was Lee.
Lee had found that volunteering always brought a gift with it. Now he found himself looking for the tree all year long as he walked and drove the sawmill's land. So in essence, he had Christmas in his heart every day of the year. And that was the gift.
And now, a couple of days before Christmas, Lee and Jesse were in the wagon looking for the flag Lee had left at the end of the row of trees.
"There it is," Lee said to Jesse. The small red flag waved listlessly in the light breeze. The snow on the ground was three feet deep, and they were meeting four of the sawmill workers who would help to get the tree into the wagon.
Walking down the row, Lee pointed at it. A strip of red cloth was tied to a branch. Lee had found it last August and it was the perfect height and fullness for the town square. He'd looked at it then and imagined it covered with snow as it was now, and Lee smiled. It didn't disappoint. It was definitely the right tree.
"Got it?" Lee asked Jesse.
"Yep," Jesse said, nodding. "We should have this down in no time."
"Okay," Lee said. "I'll be back at the office. Let me know when you're ready to set it up."
"Will do," Jesse said.
Lee untethered his horse from the back of the wagon and pulled himself up into the saddle. "Hey, Jesse," he called out as he started down the road. "Merry Christmas!"
Jesse turned and smiled. "Merry Christmas, Lee."
Lee turned his horse and headed toward town. The other benefit of having the tree be his task was that he and Jesse knew that they would never be asked to serve as Santa Claus. Lee had been roped into it one year by Rosemary, and he figured that gave him immunity for the rest of time.
It was always Rosemary's least-loved job, finding one of the men in town who would be willing to don the Santa suit. As Elizabeth had said one year when she'd had the task of finding Santa Claus, the closer it got to Christmas, the more the men in town refused to make eye contact with her. Rosemary just couldn't understand it. She would think that the men of Hope Valley would be jumping at the chance.
Rosemary had asked Lee once, "Why doesn't everyone want to be the jolliest, happiest person on earth for a day? Why does everyone run away from me!"
Laughing, Lee said, "Okay, fine. We'll put you in that suit for an entire day and see how you like it. That white hair that keeps getting stuck in your teeth, the pillow strapped to your stomach, the sweltering suit, having every child in town try to pull your beard off, the kids that run away screaming because they're afraid of you, not to mention having to say 'Ho! Ho! Ho!' every minute and a half..."
Rosemary opened her mouth wide in shock. "Well, bah humbug to you too, Lee Coulter!" She went to the door grumpily, looking a little like Scrooge herself. "You'll see, I'll have someone by the end of the day!"
This year, Rosemary had her sights set on Bill Avery, and he was not going to be an easy nut to crack. But Rosemary knew the key was persistence, and that she was the woman for the job.
Unfortunately, she'd begun to notice that Bill was crossing the street to avoid her, so finally she had simply decided to go to his office.
Bill was too quick for her. Molly was feather dusting his desk when he suddenly slipped out of his leather chair and disappeared beneath it.
"Cover for me," Bill said from under the desk, whispering as loudly as he could.
Molly turned around quickly and faced the door, looking as if she'd just swallowed a canary.
"Molly, I need to speak to the Judge," Rosemary said, waving her hand in the air. "On a matter of great importance!"
Molly raised her eyebrows and tried to sit casually on the front edge of Bill's desk to cover him. She held the sides of her long skirt in her hands and fanned it out, smiling sweetly as if it was something that anyone would do.
Rosemary frowned at her and tilted her head. "Molly, where is Bill?"
Molly looked around, still pinned by both hands to the front of the desk. "Bill?" she said.
"Bill Avery, our judge?" Rosemary said, her frown deepening. "Where is he?"
"He just slipped... out," Molly said, smiling hugely.
"Well, then, I will just wait," Rosemary said, starting to walk around Bill's desk.
"NO!" Molly said, standing in her way. Now the front of Bill's desk was open to the front door. He crawled out so Molly could see him, but Rosemary couldn't. He pointed to the door, and Molly positioned herself so that Rosemary's back was to the door while Bill slinked out sideways.
Molly exhaled loudly in relief, completely exhausted from the stress of the last few minutes.
Rosemary put her hand on Molly's forehead. "Are you alright?" she asked, concerned. She walked Molly over to Bill's leather chair and sat her down in it, then went to get her some water. Molly was fanning herself with the feather duster when she saw Bill peek around the corner of the window. Molly frowned and waved him away just as Rosemary came back with the water and sat in the chair opposite her.
"Molly, dear, if I may say so, you're acting very strangely. Do I need to go and get Carson?" Rosemary asked.
Fanning herself again with the duster, Molly said, "No, no, really I'm just fine! Just a little warm, is all," she said. "Phew!"
They were quiet for a bit, and Rosemary sat up straight every time someone walked past the window. Finally she couldn't bear it any longer.
Standing, Rosemary said, "Well, I have things to do. I can't sit here waiting for him all day." She smoothed her skirt gracefully and raised her chin. "Please tell Judge Avery that I'm looking for him," she said, focusing her eyes on Molly in a way that made her shrink back in the chair a little.
"Yes," Molly said, nodding. "I will certainly do that."
For some reason, all week long Bill had always been where Rosemary was not, but Elizabeth was the one who finally gave her the answer.
Jack's birthday party had been combined with Rosemary and Lee's Christmas Eve gathering, and she knew she had him. There was no way that Bill would miss Jack's birthday party. Persistence!
The Coulters always looked forward to Christmas, but this year would be made even more memorable because they had Violet. And because they weren't certain exactly how long they would have her, it made it even more important to Rosemary and Lee that this be a Christmas that none of them would ever forget.
The week before Christmas, Rosemary, Lee and Violet had traveled to Brookfield as they promised, and had spent the afternoon with Frances and Harold. They'd been a little nervous about how Frances would react to seeing Violet after so many months, but they needn't have been. Frances held her daughter and played with her, and she couldn't stop saying how big and strong and healthy she looked, and what a good job Rosemary and Lee were doing in taking care of her. She mentioned again those difficult days after she was born and how desperately she'd wanted to give Violet everything she needed.
Rosemary talked on the way home with Lee about how the primary emotions she'd seen in Frances were an intense love for her little girl and an almost overwhelming sense of relief that she was being so well cared for.
Frances hadn't mentioned asking for Violet back. She'd only said that she'd like to come visit Hope Valley in the new year and see what Violet's nursery and their home looked like.
Rosemary and Lee had invited both Harold and Frances for Christmas eve, but they'd made friends in Brookfield and had already been invited to the home of the owner of the General Store. Every year Joe gave a dinner for all those who were alone at Christmas, and it was enjoyed so much that now some families had started coming as well.
Harold was helping Joe out on the loading dock at the General Store a couple of days a week and he told Lee that soon he should be able to start paying for their rooms at the boarding house himself.
On the way home from Brookfield, Violet had clutched the small calico horse that Frances had sewn and embroidered painstakingly and beautifully as a Christmas gift.
"It does seem like a happy ending all the way around," Rosemary said to Lee as they drove back to Hope Valley.
Lee turned to her. "Because of you, Rosie. All because of you."
Rosemary nodded. "Well, we'll see. It would be nice to someday get to a place where we know for certain Violet is ours," she said wistfully. "Really ours."
"I know what you mean," Lee said. "Patience and prayer, Rosie. Let's see what the new year brings. Maybe an answer will come."
Today, Rosemary and Clara were at the Coulters' house getting the wooden ornaments ready for the wishing tree. Every year now, this was their ritual. While the men were out getting the tree, they would go through the ornaments that had been taken down the Christmas before and either erase what was written on them in pencil, or paint over the writing if it was particularly indelible.
The idea of the Wishing Tree was simple. Each person writes a wish that they have for Christmas and they hang it on the tree. Then someone else takes down the ornament and works toward making that wish come true. It had been a wonderful tradition for years, and had yielded some truly miraculous results. One year, Elizabeth's wish to spend Christmas with Jack came true after Bill Avery called in a few favors. The next year, the children from the Brookfield orphanage had a Christmas filled with gifts and matching pajamas when the Hope Valley children made that their wish.
This year, it was anyone's guess what the wishes might be and how they would come true, but if history was any indication, most of them would.
"Hello," Elizabeth's voice called out from the back door. She stepped into the house with Rebecca on one arm and her ever-present basket on the other.
Rosemary popped up. "Good morning!" she said brightly. She first hugged Elizabeth and then Rebecca. "Welcome!"
"I wanted Rebecca to see your beautiful new house before the party," Elizabeth said to Rosemary. Then, hugging Clara, she said, "You remember Rebecca?"
Clara smiled, "Of course! And your lovely ranch in Airdrie. What a wonderful time we had there, Rebecca," Clara said as she hugged her warmly.
Rebecca looked at the table filled with wooden ornaments. "And what's going on here?"
Hanging up her coat and sitting down at the table, Elizabeth said, "These are for our wishing tree for the center of town."
Rosemary took Rebecca's coat and said, "I'll explain it all to you while I show you the house. We managed to find the most spectacular fabric for the drapes in the bedroom..." Rosemary's voice drifted off and Elizabeth looked up and smiled warmly at Clara.
"Can I help? Elizabeth said.
"Absolutely," Clara said, handing her an eraser and a paintbrush. "We're just cleaning them up to put out in the square. And as you can see, we have a lot of them!" Elizabeth looked at the baskets strewn across the table, all filled with the wooden ornaments. She picked one that said Make Christmas special for the orphans. She smiled. "You remember this?" she said softly to Clara.
Clara smiled too. "I'll never forget it. Rosemary and I stayed up most of Christmas eve making green and red plaid flannel nightgowns and pajamas for the children. One of the best Christmas eves I can remember."
After erasing that one and putting it in the basket ready to take out to the square, Elizabeth picked up another one. "How do you get through these?" she said, laughing. "Each one I read brings back so many memories."
Clara said, "That's why we've been sitting here all morning! Rosemary and I have been talking about all of them and telling stories. And Rosemary pulled all of the ornaments out this year because the town has grown so much. Some of these are years old. It's bringing back so many wonderful memories."
Finishing another one, Elizabeth reached down deeply into the basket. After a moment, Clara noticed that Elizabeth had gone silent and was rubbing her finger gently across the ornament in her hand. Clara looked down and realized it was in Elizabeth's own handwriting and it said I wish Jack could be here with me.
Clara reached across the table and put her hand on Elizabeth's arm. Elizabeth looked up at her and smiled. There were no tears in her eyes. "We've found happiness, Clara, haven't we? I didn't think it was possible, but it is."
Clara smiled. "Yes, we have." She walked around the table and sat next to Elizabeth, putting her arm around her. "And I feel so certain in my heart that Peter and Jack are up there, and happy for us. I know they wouldn't want us to be alone." Clara looked down at Elizabeth's growing tummy. "And Jack would want little Jack to have a loving father like Nathan. And the wonderful family that you're both giving that little boy."
Elizabeth smiled at Clara. "Have I told you how much you've helped me through all this? From the very beginning, when Abigail brought us all together to talk about our grief. And then, you made me see that I needed to open myself up to love again." She looked fervently into Clara's eyes. "You were the only one who could really convince me, you know? You'd lost Peter after such a short time, as I did with Jack. And then you and Jesse and the joy of your marriage. You showed me a path to happiness, Clara."
Now tears did spring to Clara's eyes as she hugged Elizabeth. When she pulled away to look in her eyes, Elizabeth's were glistening as well. Clara smiled. "You do remember that you caught the bouquet at my wedding, don't you?" Clara raised an eyebrow. "You think that was an accident?"
Elizabeth laughed. "Such a little matchmaker." Smiling warmly, she said, "Thank you. For all of it. Nathan and I have the best life I could ever imagine for myself. And you and Jesse..."
"Are ridiculously happy," she said, laughing. Clara wiped a single tear from Elizabeth's cheek. "I love knowing that this tear comes from joy, Elizabeth." She hugged her again. "We both deserve it."