Author's Note: It's one week til Christmas (!), and I'm excited to post the first chapter of this short (it'll only be a few chapters long!) Christmas-themed N and E story that I've been working on. While I have many existing stories I should be finishing, it's been fun to bring this new one, filled with a happy Nathan and Elizabeth, to life. I hope it brings you all some joy this Christmas season, and if it does, feel free to share it with friends and/or leave a few words via a review. Have a blessed rest of your Advent and a wonderful Christmas, all!
Her Christmas List
Chapter 1: Headed to the Frozen Pond
Elizabeth's nose was cherry pink from the chill of the mid-December day. Yet, her heart was warm from the inside out as her gloved hand held tight to Nathan's while their wagon ambled along the road from their rowhouses to Hope Valley's frozen-over pond.
A cold spell had waved its frigid wand over the town during the last week and deposited a thick coating of snow overnight, but it was no match for the sweet spell Nathan Grant continually had her under. His hand in hers, so snug and strong, was the perfect safeguard against the brisk air and kept its bitterness at bay.
God, thank you for your grace and mercy in bringing Nathan and me together, for your forgiveness and his forgiveness for my past mistakes, Elizabeth uttered silently, within the privacy of her mind. These five months of courtship with Nathan have flown by faster than Christmas morning, so precious and fleeting. Let me never take for granted the gift of him in my life. I love him dearly, God.
Suddenly, she felt Nathan gently tug her hand in toward his, a little closer, and readjust his hand so it was nestled even more snugly in hers, as if he had heard her private prayer and was putting his stamp of approval on it as well as echoing similar sentiments of love and affection back to her.
The man was quite adept at reading her mind, but he couldn't possibly have heard the words of that silent prayer, could he?
Likely not, Elizabeth assessed. But he seems to have felt their reverberations all the same.
She studied him for a few seconds. A man on a mission, and perpetually a man of great contemplation, his eyebrows were furrowed in deep focus as he led Newton and Sergeant in pulling the wagon, and his intent facial expression hinted at the careful judgment and good wisdom he'd acquired over the years. His dark chestnut hair was crisply cut courtesy of a recent haircut, framing his face quite handsomely and making him look endearingly boyish, even as he was very much a man. His eyes—glistening ice crystals that had been dyed a deep blue, as if they'd been dipped in the most vivid ocean one could find—were earnestly affixed to the horses and the road ahead. Yet, sensing Elizabeth's eyes had touched down onto his, he tore his distinctive eyes off the horses and road and redirected them to hers. The brilliant blue snowflakes in his eyes started cavorting and spinning curiously, and a prancing smile struck his lips.
Caught observing and admiring him, Elizabeth felt heat hurriedly blanket her cheeks, covering them in a warm cranberry.
Nathan just kept grinning at her as she blushed, his blue snowflake eyes displaying a flirtatious kind of kinetic energy. In response to his silent yet sprightly teasing, Elizabeth felt snow angels waste no time coming to life in her heart and stomach, rapidly beating their wings.
"Are you excited for ice skating this morning, Lizbeth?" he asked her after a few moments.
"Yes, I am," she affirmed. "But I am also a bit nervous, to be honest. It's been years since I broke out my ice skates and went skating. I fear I'll be far from steady on the ice."
"Well, I know I'll be slipping and sliding like a vertical stick of butter and will come crashing down at certain points, so you're far from alone," Nathan proclaimed. "The last time I went skating was when I was a kid."
Elizabeth's giggles rang out like the most melodious Christmas bells and simultaneously seemed to shimmer like tinsel.
"A vertical stick of butter, huh? You're a clever one, Mr. Grant," she asserted as she laughed, her shoulder meeting his in a purposeful, playful little collision before returning close to her side.
"So glad you appreciated the analogy, Mrs. Thornton, author extraordinaire and wizard of metaphors," he teased, his prancing smile going nowhere anytime soon.
"In all seriousness, we'll figure out this whole ice skating thing together," Elizabeth promised him, giving his hand a wholesome little squeeze to underscore her point.
"Yes. I'm so happy we have each other. Thank goodness we do, so we can hold onto one other for support," Nathan acknowledged, delivering a flirty yet sweet wink.
At that, Elizabeth's cheeks flushed prettily again, perfectly matching her cherry pink nose. Those solid, anchoring arms and hands of Nathan's would be a first-rate ally in helping steady her on the ice—once Nathan found his groove in balancing on the slippery substance himself—but they'd be an adversary when it came to the proper operations of her heart and keeping it upright.
"I'm going to be just as much of a stick of butter on skates as you are, at first..." Elizabeth conceded.
"Well, you know that saying..." Nathan noted cheekily.
"What saying?" Elizabeth's eyebrows shot up toward the crisp cerulean winter sky in genuine befuddlement.
"Two sticks of butter are better than one," Nathan declared, his eyes having firmly refastened themselves onto the backs of the horses and the road in front of him, their snowflakes gone motionless so he could deliver his statement in mock seriousness. Yet, a miniscule sideways smile slowly climbing up his handsomely chiseled cheeks betrayed his own amusement at his quick-witted teasing.
"Nice try," Elizabeth chided him for his play on words. Her eyes squinted in skepticism, even as giggles burst forth from her lips again and bubbled up around her, like Christmas baubles adorning the air.
"I don't quite think that's the actual saying, Constable," she continued. "It's simply, 'two are better than one.' Butter is not mentioned anywhere."
"Well, I think for our purposes, we can amend the saying to include butter," Nathan argued, bringing his eyes back to hers in supplication—eyes that now looked very much like two lagoons of blue butter themselves.
"Fair enough. I do have to admit I like your version of the saying much better than the original. It's much more inventive."
"Much butter than the original, you mean, Mrs. Thornton?"
"You stop it right now," Elizabeth begged the having-too-much-fun-being-clever man by her side, her eyes rolling in a blithe jumble of exasperation and endearment as she gave his side a speedy jab with her elbow. He was driving her more than a bit mad with his witty wording. But at the same time, she was finding herself feeling very much like she would like to kiss him, as a token of gratitude for the way he was making her heart feel ever-so-light and alive.
"Speaking of butter, do you have any baking plans for Christmas?" Nathan asked Elizabeth. His beautiful blue eyes having reverted to striking ice crystals once again, they now flashed with hopeful delight and eager anticipation.
"Oh yes. Do I ever! Banana bread, pumpkin bread, shortbread cookies, gingerbread cookies...I have a lot of grand baking plans, and I am just hoping I can pull them off at this rate. I can't believe Christmas is officially only one week away!"
"I know, Lizbeth. Life moves too quickly—at this time of year especially. I know you can get all of that baking done, because you always accomplish whatever you set your mind to. But I'm also more than happy to come over and help you bake...and happy to volunteer Allie as well if you think an additional set of hands would be helpful."
"I may just take you up on that offer, banana bread connoisseur," Elizabeth teased Nathan, merry smile sloping up her cheekbones. "You and Allie would be a huge help to me and Jack."
"Good. Offers are meant to be taken," he stated simply, eyes and mouth both smiling. "Banana bread and other Christmas treats are meant to be baked. And time is meant to be spent between two people who are courting."
"No argument from me there," Elizabeth concurred with a comfortable, relaxed smile that was simultaneously tinged with the slightest bit of shyness, for she would never protest against spending time with Nathan Grant and repeatedly falling with him into the easy, natural rhythm they had going. But no matter how many times she did, he always had a way of prompting her heart to forgo its typical cadence.
"Lizbeth," he went on, "I've also been wondering: What do you want for Christmas? I've gotten you a gift already, but I also want to get you something on your Christmas list."
Elizabeth stared at him with sincere eyes that shimmered like a young girl's on Christmas morning. "I already have what's on my list: God's love and His love in the form of Our Savior, and you, your love, and our love. These are all I really want, Nathan. Truly. These are all that really matter. My heart has been filled with so much joy ever since I admitted my feelings for you and stood up to my fears—ever since we became a couple."
The color of Nathan's eyes quickly evolved into an even deeper blue as they filled with intense conviction.
"You know I feel the same way about you, Lizbeth," he avowed. "You fill my world with the richest color and give it renewed life, every day. You're my greatest Christmas gift."
Elizabeth felt her heartbeat resound against her chest and create a rich-sounding, reverberating song, like sonorous windchimes swept up by a winter wind. She didn't even try to steady or quiet it, but instead rested in the meaningful melody it created.
She and Nathan both continued to look into each other's eyes, and, feeling the pull of each other's hearts, gradually leaned in toward a kiss that was soft, sweet, and unrushed, yet also respectfully not prolonged.
They came out of the kiss with tender smiles, and Elizabeth's heart continued to delight in its chiming tune as the horses pressed onward to the frozen pond.
Even after a few moments passed, Nathan was still looking over at Elizabeth with a broad, crooked smile. Though she truthfully quite liked that she was the source of his distraction and found his smile awfully adorable, she soon playfully reprimanded him, saying, "You'd better keep your eyes on the road. You don't want to accidentally lead Newton and Sergeant over the frozen pond." Her pupils seemed to trace figure eights on her pastel blue irises, like the skates of an advanced ice skater, as she teased him good-naturedly.
"Sorry," Nathan acknowledged, his grin growing more bashful as he shrugged his shoulders in honest surrender. "You're just very easy on the eyes, that's all. And you look especially lovely today."
Elizabeth had never quite been able to completely maintain her composure whenever Nathan gave her compliments, though she certainly had attempted to act cool and collected, time and time again. This time was just like all the others previous, and she found that two winter wrens suddenly took up residence in the nests of her eyes, fluttering their feathers and flapping their wings so that her eyelashes rapidly beat against her cheeks—cheeks that were a pretty peppermint pink in response to the consistent, sustained attention Nathan was giving her.
She was very glad she had dedicated ample time and given a great deal of thought to selecting her outfit for the day—a cozy but elegant ballet pink coat and a long dusty rose skirt that drew out the pastels of her cheeks and lips, whose natural colors were made more pronounced by a thoughtful application of makeup.
Though I'm really not sure why I felt applying powdery blush was necessary, she acknowledged to herself, when Nathan so effortlessly gives my cheeks a rosy sheen.
To keep warm, she'd also opted to don two layers of blouses and stockings. Perfectly completing her outfit was a close-fitting wool hat whose hue precisely matched the dusty rose of her skirt and contrasted beautifully with her warm cappuccino-colored hair, currently set in a stylish and youthful bob. The little bow fastened to the hat's side added an extra feminine flourish to her look and seemed to sing of Christmas.
Nathan continued to grin at her, clearly sensing how affected she was by his compliments and quite pleased that he possessed the privilege of making her eyelashes flutter and cheeks turn pink.
After maintaining eye contact with her for several more moments, he finally surrendered to her request, reconnecting his eyes to the horses and road in front of him. After all, he thought, Elizabeth is right—it would behoove him not to lead the horses over the frozen pond.
Then Elizabeth, less distracted by him, looked out at the white glaze of snow that had spread itself so lavishly over Hope Valley, dressing its grass in a stunning white ballgown with a long train, and sprinkling a generous heaping of powder sugar on its tree branches. Oh, how the winter sun made the snow sparkle, as if it held the most glorious crystals within it!—similar to Nathan's eyes, Elizabeth thought to herself. So much for being less distracted by the man, she chuckled internally to herself. My thoughts always seem to find their way back to him.
Nathan had opted to take Elizabeth the back roads to the pond and not go directly through town this morning, but they'd be visiting the heart of Hope Valley later for lunch. She looked forward to seeing the buildings' roofs spread generously with their vanilla frosting snow, as if they were part of a gingerbread house village.
Once the wind had exhaled several more times, zealously carrying its crisp breaths through the air and depositing them on the cheeks of Nathan and Elizabeth alike, the handsome couple arrived at their destination. Nathan brought the wagon up alongside Hope Valley's schoolhouse, which also doubled as the town's church on Sundays, so he could hitch the horses to the railing adjacent to the schoolhouse's steps.
"Warm enough? This cold air is a bit brutal," Nathan noted as he brought the clop-clopping horses to a stop.
"This coat does a pretty good job at keeping me warm, and your hand even more so," she noted, giving him a spirited but sweet little wink. "And hopefully we'll warm up more when we start moving around and skating. But yes, it sure is a chilly one today," Elizabeth admitted, shivering just a bit thanks to the persistent wind.
"Stay right there for a moment," Nathan instructed her as he bounded out of the wagon. Elizabeth watched him then open his saddlebag resting on Newton's back and take out a blanket neatly tucked inside. He promptly climbed back into the wagon.
"Here Lizbeth, before we go skating, take a minute to warm up with the help of this blanket."
He unfolded it and then draped it over Elizabeth's shoulders with great gentleness and care, as if he was placing a shawl of protection on a winter queen.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said softly, not quite trusting her voice. Sharp emotion had suddenly snuck its way into the deepest part of her soul and ruthlessly stabbed her eyes, and, all at once, she unexpectedly found herself trying not to shed tears.
"Lizbeth, what is it?" Nathan asked quickly and concernedly, noticing the blue-grey clouds of her eyes threatening to unleash rain.
"Just...r-r-regrets," she admitted, eyes rueful and voice unstable. "That first time...when you offered me your blanket outside the infirmary...I was so stubborn. I wouldn't admit I was cold, but you saw through my pretense...and I was cold in another way, cold to you in being so stubborn and abrupt that night, and at several other times...I wish I had been kinder to you.
"And then I knew what you meant that night, when you said, "Not yet," in response to my question about if you ever lost someone so close to your heart it teared you apart. I knew you were talking about me, and I loved you and felt the same way, but I didn't fight for you then...I didn't offer you my blanket of love." More tears pooled in her tempestuous eyes, unsettled from her remorse.
"You needed time," Nathan said simply, his blue eyes emitting nothing but kindness, peace, stability, and steadfastness—no storms swirling within them. "God brought us together in His time."
"But I'm still sorry, Nathan."
"I appreciate that. I really do."
He wrapped his arm around her blanket-covered back and hugged and held her for a few moments, and she found that his comforting embrace easily warmed her more than any blanket.
He drew back to look into her eyes, while still keeping his arm behind her back, and then declared reassuringly, "But you know I've forgiven you, and we're together now. It's a beautiful, though cold, day in the present. And we have some ice skating to do, don't we? And newer, happier memories to make?"
"Yes, you're exactly right," Elizabeth agreed, as a sound that was half-relieved-laugh and half-still-regretful cry broke free from her lips.
"Yesterday's gone, but today's very much here for us to seize. Besides, if I cry, my tears will freeze over," she pointed out, trying to convince herself to think and act logically. Even as she said that, despite her best intentions NOT to cry, a tear had the audacity to escape from her right eye and started sledding down the slope of her cheek.
"Never mind that, Lizbeth. I'll always wipe them away, frozen or not," Nathan promised consolingly, doing just as he said. His left thumb easily made Elizabeth's tear do a disappearing act with a tender swipe, and she figured magicians could stand to learn a thing or two from him.
After giving her another sideways squeeze and a few moments to breathe and recover, he joked, "Now, as long as you're feeling up to it, I think our time has come for our world premiere as sticks of butter."
She nodded, eyes still a little watery but a sweet sunny smile surfacing.
Taking her smile as his cue, Nathan stood up. He gently took the blanket off her shoulders and folded it up, placing it on the wagon seat so that it would be ready for her when they were finished skating. He then prepared to exit the wagon. After just a moment, he had easily disembarked from its confines and hitched the horses to the schoolhouse's railing. He proceeded to extend his hand to Elizabeth so she could then smoothly descend from the wagon.
"You know, world premiere might be a stretch," Elizabeth pointed out as she gratefully took his hand, the coziest home for hers. "Considering that we're actually just in the little town of Hope Valley, and no one else is going to witness our premiere, since no other people are skating here today."
"You never know, someone else might show up to ice skate," Nathan noted in playful rebuttal. "Even if they don't, the wildlife around us are part of the world, and they will be our audience. And if we fall on the ice loud enough, well, people in town and even in surrounding towns might hear us and come running over...a memorable world premiere for sure."
A chuckling fit swiftly ambushed Elizabeth. When it receded just enough that she could properly talk, she told Nathan, a wee bit breathlessly, "Thank you for making me laugh so much. You have the best sense of humor, and you make life so much more fun."
"I consider it no less than my job as your boyfriend to fill your life with continual laughter," he winked at her. His smile reminded Elizabeth of Santa's sleigh, tilting upward toward the sky and bursting at the seams.
She could tell that her compliment had warmed his heart and lifted up his soul, and she made a mental note to continue to build him up with words of gratitude and admiration more frequently. He certainly deserved them.
After a moment, Nathan detached his hand from Elizabeth's so he could retrieve his skates, as well as her skates, from the back of the wagon. He tucked them under his left arm and then grabbed his saddlebag off Newton's back with his right, as he had an item in there that would come in handy for their skating adventure.
"Can't forget our skates," he noted, loosening his tuck on them so Elizabeth could take hers from underneath his arm. "As much as I'm anticipating our butter-like moves regardless of our footwear, skating in our boots would likely be far worse."
"Yes," Elizabeth giggled in acknowledgement as she intercepted her skates. Her eyes did a little cha-cha with Nathan's as she then stated boldly with a smidge of bashfulness, "And don't forget something else. Something also very important."
"What's that?" Nathan's tilting grin—the kind of grin that never failed to take Elizabeth's heart into its custody—became even more lopsided than usual as he looked at her with a frolicsome sort of curiosity.
"Taking my hand again," she pronounced pointedly. Her cheeks turned peppermint again, betraying her slight underlying shyness, even after nearly half a year of courting. Months ago, she had come to happy terms with the fact that he'd forever make her blush.
"Don't worry for a second, Mrs. Thornton," he grinned. "That's not something I could so easily forget. I was just about to reach for it." He promptly moved his saddlebag over to his left shoulder, on the same side as his skates, freeing up his right hand to take Elizabeth's.
"Very glad to hear that," she answered him with her own cheeky grin, as he enveloped her petite gloved hand with his much larger one, safely housing it in his. Though she would always look back at her past treatment of Nathan with regret, her quaky emotions from a few seconds ago now seemed like a distant memory thanks to him anchoring her and sharing his strength with her by way of his hand.
"Nathan," Elizabeth asked him thoughtfully as they made their way over to the frozen-over pond and fell into easy step with each other, "What does Allie want for Christmas?"
"Well, there is really only one thing that she wants," Nathan asserted, his voice soft. He paused for a few moments and then spoke again.
"With everything that happened with Dylan several months back...with him not wanting to see her when she went to visit him..." Nathan paused again, his eyes now becoming rife with precipitation.
Elizabeth squeezed his hand in compassion. She filled in the silence with the words Nathan couldn't speak due to the emotion that was suddenly overwhelming him.
"It's impossible to fathom a father not wanting to see his daughter, especially one so remarkable as Allie," she stated.
Nathan nodded, his teary eyes glimmering with gratitude to Elizabeth for becoming his voice for a moment.
She squeezed his hand again, offering him more support and trying to wordlessly let him know that he could take as much time as he needed before he spoke again.
Her squeeze seemed to empower him to find his voice, though, as he soon picked up where he had left off, saying, "The whole thing with Dylan has inspired her to do good this Christmas for other kids who don't have their biological parents in their lives. She's running a toy drive for orphans...going around to homes of Hope Valley residents and asking them to donate toys, and she asked Ned and Florence the other day if she could place a giant box in The Mercantile so people could drop off donations there, too, and they kindly agreed. She's taking her pain and turning it into a purpose, and I couldn't be prouder of her." Nathan's potential tears transformed into a mist that spread over his stunning lapis eyes and spoke of his deep love and affection for his daughter.
That mist was contagious, as it quickly came over Elizabeth's eyes as well.
"So the main thing Allie wants for Christmas is for her toy drive to be a success?" she deduced, voice a little unstable, rocked by Nathan's emotions she had so easily embraced as her own.
"Exactly. Allie and I reached out to Mrs. Lillian and Mr. Sam Tremblay, thinking she could donate the toys to their orphanage," Nathan continued to explain. "They let us know that the children at New Hope have enough toys as it is and are already getting a generous number of gifts for Christmas, but they know of another orphanage in a neighboring town that could really use the donations. So, they are kindly connecting us with them. Allie and I will probably end up taking a road trip there sometime shortly after Christmas to deliver the toys in person."
"That is so wonderful, Nathan! You really do have an absolutely remarkable daughter. You've raised her so well, to be so generous and self-sacrificing...she certainly takes after you. She's so fortunate to have you as her father. She's a great reminder to us all about the true meaning of Christmas. And Jack and I will most definitely donate to her toy drive," Elizabeth promised the admirable man next to her.
"Thank you, Lizbeth. You know, at this rate, we might be wiping tears off each other's cheeks," Nathan laughed as he tried not to cry, moved both by his daughter's actions and Elizabeth's heartfelt words to him.
"That's okay, Nathan...it just means we have big hearts."
Nathan nodded in quiet, thoughtful agreement as Elizabeth squeezed his hand again.
Far more than any packages with shiny ribbons and bows that she would receive this Christmas, from Nathan or anyone else, Elizabeth loved this: their deep sharing of their hearts, their being vulnerable with each other, their growing closer and more emotionally connected to one another. Breathing in the cool air which just last night was interwoven with snowflakes, she took a moment to thank God for the warmth of her and Nathan's hearts and the gift of their togetherness this Christmas. Such a priceless gift it was, one whose value could never be restricted to that of mere material goods.