Chapter 20.
Sarah stayed at the Barkley Ranch over the Christmas holiday, she and Heath treasuring their last days together before she left Stockton for Sacramento.
Early in the afternoon of Christmas Day, Nick brought Emily out to the ranch in the buggy and she marveled at the empty streets as they left town. On her lap, she held a large flat box, wrapped in white paper, and tied with a red ribbon. Nick asked if the gift was for him and she simply said, "No."
Silence followed.
Then she stated, "I have yours tucked away."
The house was filled with the kind of relaxed happiness felt on Christmas; Gifts had been given and received and everyone was filled with the expressed love of one another. Emily thought that in itself was sacred.
There were warm greetings all around with Emily sharing a particularly warm embrace with her friend, Sarah.
To Victoria, she presented the wrapped gift which carried a paper tag reading "For The Barkleys."
Victoria sat to unwrap and open the box, and from beneath the folded paper she pulled out a tablecloth of Honiton lace. She gasped loudly and said, "Emily! Please tell me you didn't make this!"
"I cannot tell you that," Emily teased, trying to be lighthearted to spite the blush she knew she was showing.
"Why, this must have taken you all year to make!" Victoria said, not taking her eyes off the tablecloth.
"Well," Emily replied, "Not the entire year." (She had started it in June).
The women ooh'd and aah'd and the men mentally scratched their heads, trying to understand how a person might make such a thing. Or why.
Victoria insisted the tablecloth be used for that very Christmas supper and carried it into the dining room, calling to Silas to help remove all the place settings. Audra, Sarah, and Emily followed her and helped and then placed the lace tablecloth over the solid linen one. To Emily's relief, it fit perfectly. As the four women were finishing re-setting the table, Jarrod came to the entrance and told his mother that Emily's gift from the family was ready.
Emily did not expect a gift from the family; Emily did not want a gift from the family. The very thought of it embarrassed her.
The four women walked down the short hallway and entered the parlor to find Nick standing by the hallway table. On the table was a potted tree, about three feet tall, bearing a silver bow.
"It's an orange tree," he explained, "For your garden when you have one. You can keep it here or in a sunny window until then."
The embarrassment Emily dreaded never occurred for she was overcome with the thoughtfulness of the gift. She stood with a hand covering her open mouth, staring at the faith and promise this living thing held for her.
There were smiles and glances all around, which Emily didn't notice at all. Nick moved closer to her, cleared his throat, and said quietly, "Uh, you should probably say something."
"I love it!" she said breathlessly and Nick noticed her eyes were shining with tears. After a moment, she looked around the room and thanked each member of the family, then she walked around the table, admiring her tree some more.
Victoria smiled at her middle son who was watching Emily enjoy her gift. Jarrod walked over to him, slapped his shoulder, and said, "Nicholas, I think your idea was a success!"
After supper, Emily and Audra took turns playing the piano, mostly Christmas songs. Heath and Sarah slipped away to a quiet corner.
When it was time to return home – Emily declined the offer of a guest room for the night – she decided the tree should remain at the ranch, "for now," and Nick took her home in the buggy.
On the ride home, she asked if he minded all the buggy rides back and forth between their homes. The question surprised him and he quickly looked over at her before looking ahead again.
"'Course not!" he replied, and he leaned sideways to bump her playfully.
"I love my tree, Nick," she said.
He laughed. "I know! For a minute there, I thought you were going to faint!"
She laughed at that and said, "For a minute there, I thought so, too!"
After a silent moment, Nick asked, "Did you really make that tablecloth?"
She turned and looked at him and asked, in mock anger, "What do you mean, did I really make that tablecloth?"
"Well?" He was smiling.
"Of course I did!" she exclaimed. "If I didn't, I'd be lying, and I do not lie."
"Well," he remarked, stammering a little bit, "It's just, I mean, how do you do that?" He was thinking of all the intricate patterns and stitches.
"It's magic," she said, and she leaned sideways to bump him playfully.
Nick pulled the buggy up near Emily's shop, stopping a short distance from her door in order to sit under a street lamp. There, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small, wrapped box, and held it out to her.
She didn't take it. She reached into her coat pocket and brought out a slightly larger package which she held out to him.
They exchanged gifts, each one insisting the other open his or hers first.
Nick gave in, grumbling about how stubborn she was and unwrapped the gift.
It was a hand bound book with linen pages, the title reading, "For Nick Barkley, in deepest gratitude for sharing his valley. Emily Jane Barrett Powell, 1878." The frontispiece contained a pressed orange poppy affixed to the page with glue.
"I picked that the day you and your mother and I went to see the orchards and we had that picnic by the stream. Remember?" she asked.
"I remember, " Nick said, lost in the memory, and gently touching the flower.
Upon the pages, Emily had written out her favorite quotes and poems.
"So maybe you can figure out why I'm so odd," she said, smiling.
Nick wasn't smiling, though. He was paging through the book, stopping to read various entries, all written in the neat legible handwriting he knew to be hers. The last page contained a pencil drawing of Coco.
"I don't know what to say," he said, still looking at the pages, "You made this?"
"Yes," she said, "Just say 'Thank you'"
"Thank you," he said, shifting his attention to his gift to her, "Open it."
It looked like a jewelry box and Emily prayed it wasn't a ring, or diamonds, or rubies, or anything else to which social convention would attach great significance.
It was a brooch, about two inches in diameter, an enameled rendering of a delphinium floret in cornflower blue punctuated by a moonstone in its center. It was perfect: Small enough that she would wear it and not so precious as to stir up comment. Or obligation.
"Nick, it's beautiful!" she said, and asked him to pin it on her dress.
As he did so, he told her how he had the brooch custom made for her in San Francisco. That was a bit too much for her; that this was not something he simply saw in a store and purchased, and she looked at him, though he didn't notice. But then she stopped to consider that this was Nick's effort at personalizing a gift. This was his book of thoughts he wrote for her.
They sat in the buggy, illuminated by the street lamp, and kissed for a very long time.
Emily struggled with her feelings for the next several days. Nick had shown her a truly thoughtful side of himself, and he had remained respectful of her of her desire for space and time. He had not pressured her at all. And, frankly, he made her weak in the knees.
Still, she didn't think she could marry him and it was unfair to continue to spend time with him. She couldn't give him children and she wasn't ready to marry anyone again.
Then again, he was giving her the time and space she felt she needed. He also made her heart flutter and her knees goes weak.
And so it continued in her head and in her heart for days on end.
After Christmas, Audra traveled to spend time with Carl's family outside of Merced.
Heath and Emily helped Sarah pack up the house and Heath saw her off on the train to Sacramento the day before New Year's Eve. He had plans to visit her on New Year's Day, two days later.
Emily declined all invitations to New Year's Eve parties, including the one at the Barkley Ranch.