Upon a Midnight Clear. Gail Gaymer Martin
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Название: Upon a Midnight Clear

Автор: Gail Gaymer Martin

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Короткие любовные романы

Серия: Mills & Boon Love Inspired

isbn: 9781472021809

isbn:

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      “I was thinking about you,” David said.

      Protectively, Callie’s hand clutched her robe. “Me? Why?”

      He shook his head. “You’ll never know how much you mean to me, Callie. All you’ve done for us here. You’re like a breath of spring after a long winter.” A wry grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Pretty poetic for the middle of the night, huh?”

      She couldn’t speak. She struggled to keep her eyes from widening any more than they already had. “But that’s why you hired me. To help your daughter.”

      “But you’ve done more than that.” He reached across the table and laid his hand on hers. “You’ve helped me, too. I feel alive again, like a man released from prison, his life restored.”

      Callie looked at his hand pressing against the back of hers. Though her initial thought was to recoil, she enjoyed the warm pressure against her skin. She wanted to touch his unshaven cheeks with her palms. Everything in her cried out to tell him her own secret, but she pushed the urge deep inside her, praying this time the pangs would stay there.

      GAIL GAYMER MARTIN

      lives in Lathrup Village, Michigan, with her husband, Bob, a great supporter and proofreader. Raised in a Christian family, she wrote poetry and Nancy Drew type mysteries as a child, but only pursued publication after retiring from her career as a high school English teacher and later a professional licensed counselor. Those experiences help Gail portray real emotion in her stories. Her first novel was published in 1998.

      Besides writing novels, Gail is a freelance writer with many worship resource books in publication. She is presently an adjunct instructor of English at Detroit College of Business and is involved in various church programs. When she has time, Gail sings with her church choir and is a member of Detroit Lutheran Singers in metropolitan Detroit, and she and Bob love to travel. “God has blessed my life fully,” she says.

      Gail loves to hear from her readers. You may write to her at: P.O. Box 760063, Lathrup Village, MI, 48076-0063.

      Upon a Midnight Clear

      Gail Gaymer Martin

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

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      Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

      —Jeremiah 29:12-13

      Dedicated to my sister, Jan, who knows the sorrow of losing a child.

       And in loving memory of her infant daughters, Lisa Marie and Beth Ann, who live with Jesus.

      Thanks to my husband, Bob, for his devotion, support and hours of proofreading. To Flo Stano for her nursing expertise, and to the Bedford Chamber of Commerce for their invaluable information.

      Contents

      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

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter Nineteen

      Chapter Twenty

      Chapter Twenty-One

      Chapter Twenty-Two

      Chapter Twenty-Three

       Epilogue

       Letter to Reader

      Chapter One

      Callie Randolph scanned the employment ads of the Indianapolis News. Her eyes lit upon a Help Wanted entry: Special child, aged five, needs professional caregiver. Live-in. Good wage. Contact David Hamilton. 812 area code. Southern Indiana, she assumed. “Live-in,” she wanted. But a child?

      She raised her head from the ad and caught her mother, eyeing her.

      “You’ve been quiet since you got home,” Grace Randolph said, resting back in the kitchen chair. “Tell me about the funeral.”

      “It was nice, as funerals go. But sad, so close to the holidays.” Ethel’s death, coming as it did on the footsteps of Christmas, jolted Callie with the memories of a birth six Christmases earlier. Pushing away the invading thoughts, Callie shifted in her chair and focused on her mother. “More people than I would expect at the funeral for someone in her nineties, but I suppose most of the mourners were friends and business acquaintances of Ethel’s children. The family has a name in the community.”

      “Ah yes, when we’re old, people forget.”

      “No, it’s not that they forget. When we’re that old, many of our own friends and acquaintances have already died. Makes coming to a funeral difficult.” Callie hoped to lighten Grace’s negative mood. “It’ll feel strange not taking care of Ethel. She had the faith of a saint and a smile right to the end. Always had a kind СКАЧАТЬ