Christmas at Archer Ranch (Wild West Frontier Brides Book 8) Read online

  Christmas at Archer Ranch

  Cindy Caldwell

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2017 by Cindy Caldwell

  All rights reserved.

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  Chapter 1

  The Archer family Christmas celebration was something that Sadie had been looking forward to for months—sometimes, almost as much as her impending motherhood. Her year in Tombstone had been the best of her life, and she marveled at how quickly she’d made such good friends.

  The crisp winter air tickled Sadie’s nose and she tucked her hands deeper into her fur muff. She hadn’t needed to use it since she’d come from Chicago almost a year prior and she fingered the soft fabric, shaking her head at how much her life had changed so quickly.

  The muff had been her mother’s, one of the few things Sadie had kept of hers after she’d died. Now, as her breath froze into mist as soon as it left her lungs and Archer Ranch loomed just ahead, she was glad she had. For more reasons than just to keep warm.

  She glanced quickly at her husband, Tripp, and wished her parents had had the opportunity to meet him, to see how kind and talented he was. They’d been married a bit over a year and it seemed to her like she’d known him forever—although they’d married when they’d barely met. Coming to Tombstone to be his bride was the best decision she’d ever made, and she had been surprised that she didn’t miss Chicago or the family bakery at all. It didn’t hurt that her sister and best friend, Clara, had landed in Tombstone as well. She was happier than she had been in her life, and she had even more to look forward to.

  She wrapped her coat more tightly around her belly, hoping that her baby was snug and warm. They’d be meeting him or her soon, and as Christmas was just a few days away, she wondered if she and Tripp would be parents for the holiday. If it would be her baby’s first. Her recent false alarm had her thinking the baby might arrive any day, but so far she was just waiting. Impatiently, at that.

  “You sure you’re up to this?” Tripp asked, throwing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close.

  His warmth spread through her, as always, and her heart melted at the concern in his voice.

  “Of course. I’ve heard about this Christmas tradition all year and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. As long as our young mister or miss doesn’t mind, I’m all for it,” she said as she rested the fur muff on her belly.

  Tripp shook his head. “I guess I know better by now than to try to stop you,” he said as he pulled their buggy up to the white adobe ranch house. “Just be careful, please. And let me know right away if anything is...well, if you...”

  Sadie smiled and rested her hand up to Tripp’s cheek. “I’ll be fine and yes, I’ll let you know immediately if anything happens. You just focus on what you and Gabriel need to do at the restaurant.”

  She turned as Tripp’s good friend—more like a brother—Hank Archer closed the tall, mahogany door behind him and blew into his hands as he reached up to help Sadie down from the buggy.

  “Hello, Sadie, Tripp,” he said as he gently helped her down. “Don’t you look beautiful, Sadie.”

  Sadie shook her head and laughed. “Of course, if whales are beautiful.” She turned back to Tripp and gave him her best smile. “Tell Tripp I’ll be fine. How hard can it be to make meat pies for Christmas? I do it every day at the restaurant.”

  Hank stole a look back at the house and leaned in toward Sadie. “You may have mastered meat pies, but you don’t know what you’re in for with Maria’s traditional tamale-making. All the girls complain about how much work it is and I make sure I keep a wide berth on this day every year. For decades,” he whispered conspiratorially as he winked at Tripp. “Tripp, I say you get out while you still can. In fact, maybe I’ll come with you.”

  Tripp tipped his hat up on his forehead and shook his head. “Your pa would have your hide. I’d have to help, too, if I didn’t have the restaurant to run. So good luck with that,” he said as he smiled at his wife.

  Hank sighed and nodded, holding his arm out for Sadie to help her up the brick stairs toward the house.

  “You’re right. Lucky you,” Hank said over his shoulder.

  Sadie always enjoyed when Hank and Tripp were together. Their familiar banter warmed her heart, and Tripp had mentioned many times how grateful he was to consider the Archer family his own, Beau and Katie Archer having taken him is as a young teenager. It was quite a family, and she tingled with excitement at being included for the first time in the Archer family’s long-standing Christmas tradition.

  “You boys don’t have it that bad, you know,” she said as she reached the porch and looked back toward Tripp.

  “I know. Luckiest man in the world.” Tripp winked at Hank. “Take good care of my girl, Hank. I’ll be back this evening. Unless, of course—”

  “I’ll be fine,” Sadie said once more as she swept up her skirts and Hank escorted her into the house, closing the door behind them.

  Chapter 2

  Maria brushed her hair back from her forehead with her wrist, certain that her attempts to avoid getting masa in her hair had failed but not wanting to add to it. Most of the girls had arrived, and tamale day was already in full swing.

  Christmas at Archer Ranch had evolved over the years, and grown with each and every new holiday. Now, a little less than a week away from the party Beau and Katie Archer had traditionally thrown for friends and family, everyone had come to help. Pepper, Tarragon, Sage and Clara all still lived on the ranch and had joined Maria in the kitchen before dawn, prepping ingredients for the tamales, and Meg, Rose, Saffron and Sadie were expected shortly and they’d begin the new addition to the feast, Sadie’s meat pies, soon.

  Maria stopped for a moment as the girls chattered at the big table in the corner, spreading out the corn husks in preparation for assembly. Her eyes misted at the scene and she was proud of all of these girls as she knew her best friend, their mother Katie, would be if she were still alive.

  “I miss you, Katie,” Maria said quietly under her breath and turned back to her task. As Maria shoved her hands back in the huge pots to knead the masa in preparation for spreading it on the corn husks, she hummed the song she had learned at her mother’s knee, and that she and her mother and grandmother had sung every year while making the traditional Christmas tamales. She and Katie had sung it together—for how many Christmases? It had to have been at least thirty, as she and Katie had become friends before Katie and Beau had even met.

  Her eyes lit up as Meg and Rose pushed through the swinging doors, rolling up their sleeves, and picked up the song Maria had been humming all morning. All the Archer girls were here now, and as they stopped what they were doing and sung together, the harmony of their voi
ces coursed through Maria’s veins and the memory overwhelmed her.

  As the girls held hands and the song ended, Maria opened her eyes as the last note hung in the air. Their father, Beau Archer, stood outside the kitchen door, hanging back out of sight, and Maria sighed as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning away and heading back into his study. She let him have his moment rather than call him into the room. It had been a struggle for everyone these past few years with Katie gone, and Christmas was always even a little bit more difficult as it had been Katie’s favorite time of year.

  “That was lovely, girls,” Maria said as she wiped her hands on her apron and hugged Meg and Rose. “Your mother would have been proud.”

  “I think she was proud. I mean, I think she heard us,” Pepper, the youngest, said as she flipped her braids back over her shoulder and reached for another corn husk.

  Rose, the oldest, rested her hand on Pepper’s shoulder and squeezed, dabbing at her eye with her handkerchief. “I’m sure she’s here with us, too, Pepper. The Archer family Christmas wouldn’t be the same if she weren’t.”

  “We can make this Christmas party the best ever,” Meg said. She handed a stack of corn husks to Saffron, who shared with her twin, Sage, as she usually did.

  “Of course. This will be the best ever, and we’ll be able to feed an army.” Sage crossed over to the big wood stove that had served the Archer family for many years. She lifted the lid of a huge pot and inhaled deeply over it. “Maria, this pork smells delicious. You’ve outdone yourself.”

  Maria’s face flushed at the compliment. Katie Archer had been a fabulous cook and Saffron was a close second, so her praise meant all the more. But this was a traditional family recipe from time immemorial, and she’d known that it was her best at her first taste.

  “Suzanne and Olivia made sure we had the best pick from the pork inventory, and I do think it turned out nicely,” she said humbly as she nudged Saffron to place the lid back on the steaming shredded pork in a deep, rich red sauce that she’d made from memory, hints of cinnamon and chili her secret weapon.

  “I could hear you out in the parlor,” Sadie said as she swept through the swinging doors, her very swollen belly preceding her by quite a bit. “That was lovely.” She greeted each girl as she reached for an apron from the hook on the wall. “Are you all going to sing at the party?”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Beau Archer said as he strode through the door and stood by the table, his son Hank following closely. “Your brother might be jealous.” He winked at Maria and sidled slowly toward the steaming pot of pork.

  “It’s not our fault he’s the only one who can’t carry a tune,” Meg said as she nudged her brother’s arm. “He doesn’t care, anyway, as long as there are enough tamales for him to have ten.”

  “Ten?” Maria said, her eyebrows raised. “With all the new miners in town, we’re going to need to make as many as we can. And Sadie’s meat pies will help. Nobody will go away hungry.”

  She stood with her back to the stove and crossed her arms as her employer and friend inched closer, whistling and looking up at the ceiling. “Beau Archer, there will be plenty at the party. But not if you start sampling now.”

  His face fell and Hank laughed. “Come on, Pa. Let’s head out to the stables and let the ladies do their work. Jeb McCandless should be here any minute to talk about those cattle and—well, if they won’t let us sample the goods, no point staying here.”

  “And don’t you forget it,” Hank’s wife, Clara, said as she walked with her husband into the dining room.

  “Just like a man not to want to help in the kitchen but looking forward to the results,” Pepper said with a smirk. “Present company excepted.” She nodded to Sadie, whose husband was the best chef in town and had learned from Katie herself, then gone to culinary school.

  “Nice of you to say, but I don’t think Tripp could make a tamale to save his life,” Sadie said as she gave up trying to tie the apron strings around her large waist and turned around for Meg to finish the task.

  Maria laughed as all eyes turned to Sadie, every last Archer girl’s mouth wide open as they stared at her.

  “Apparently, Sadie hasn’t learned that Tripp is actually the best at tamales. Better than anyone here, including myself. Took to it like a fish to water, right off the bat, when he arrived.”

  “Absolutely,” Saffron said. “He could do it with his eyes closed.”

  Sadie rested her hands on her very full hips and frowned. “Well, then, why isn’t he here? I could have covered the restaurant while he—”

  Maria grabbed Sadie’s hand and pulled her over to the table. “Because we wanted you here, not him.”

  “Yes, he makes it too much like work. You know he likes everything perfect.” Pepper crinkled her nose, and her sisters laughed at her very accurate description of the chef who now ran the best restaurant in town.

  “Besides, I want to hear all about how you’re feeling. Your false alarm scared everybody. Is the baby kicking a lot? Are you excited? He wouldn’t want to hear about all that, so good riddance.” Sage plopped down in the chair beside Sadie, her eyes bright.

  All the girls seemed to speak at once, and Maria couldn’t shake the thought that Katie should be here. Katie, who’d taken Tripp in when he’d had nowhere else to go and loved him like a son. She was having her first grandchild and wouldn’t be here to see it.

  She turned back to the stove and wiped at a tear, vowing to make this the best Archer Christmas ever. However it had happened, she’d dedicated her life to this family, to her friend, and although Katie had been taken from them much too early, she would carry on the traditions of this family. For Katie.

  Chapter 3

  The tamales steamed in large pots on the stove and Maria stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. The girls had chattered all morning as they’d finished the tamales, and Maria had put out bread, soup and cheese for all of them to eat before they turned their attention to making as many of Sadie’s meat pies as they could.

  She sat on the bench outside, oblivious to the clouds of mist that escaped her with each breath. She didn’t mind the cold and it might help her get through the rest of the day. There was still lots of work ahead to prepare for the annual party, and the crisp breeze, as it meandered through the small trees on the patio, refreshed her.

  “Maria? We’re ready.” Pepper’s voice carried through the open kitchen window, and Maria stood and sighed. All the girls still chattered about their husbands—Pepper, Tara and Sage, not yet married, listening with either wide eyes or disdain—and Maria squared her shoulders before she headed back in.

  It wasn’t often that she thought of what her own children might have been like, had she had any, and even less often that she allowed herself to think of Diego. She’d thought she’d have a life like Katie and Beau, with many children chattering and preparing for Christmas, making tamales and carefully placing the nativity scene in her own home.

  She shook her head as Pepper called again. “Coming, little one,” she said as she put those thoughts—of Diego, and the family she’d longed for—back in the memory box she held them in. Close to her heart, but seldom looked at these days. She’d made her choice, and the children inside this kitchen—adults now, yes, but still children of her heart—were what was most important. Especially now with Katie gone. She was all they had.

  She rubbed her back for a moment before she stepped inside, the ache that had once come infrequently more noticeable now. No matter. Christmas was coming and they had much to do.

  The girls buzzed in the kitchen as Sadie showed them how to make her meat pies.

  “Does it matter what size the circle of dough is?” Sage asked as she kneaded a small ball in her hands. Sage had somehow managed to elude the passion for cooking that her mother and her twin sister had and yawned.

  Saffron laughed and nudged her twin sister with her elbow. “Of course it does, silly. We need them to be t
he same size, just like empanadas,” she said as she glanced at Maria and nodded. “Isn’t that right, Maria?”

  Maria shrugged her shoulders and pointed at Sadie. “She’s the expert, but I would think so.”

  The long, pine table was covered in flour soon as each girl set to their tasks. Maria watched Sadie closely, and as time went on Sadie held her hands on her lower back. Marie scooted a chair behind her and gently reached for her elbow.

  “Sit, Sadie. It’s not good for you to be standing so long this close to when the baby’s coming.”

  “She’s right, Sadie,” Sage said, happily abandoning rolling out circles of dough. She crossed over to Sadie and brushed some stray blonde strands away from her face, wiping flour from her forehead. “Is this too much for you?”

  Sadie leaned back in her chair and smiled. “No, I’m fine. I haven’t had one single pain since you were at the house that night, Sage. I’m not sure this baby will ever come.”

  “That’s what they all say,” Maria said with a laugh. “Katie said it seven times, with each one of these children. The end is the hardest, when you know the baby’s coming but have to wait.”

  Sadie frowned. “I’m not sure it’s that. To be honest, before the false alarm I was thrilled. But those pains weren’t exactly pleasant, and since then I’ve been a little nervous.”

  Maria stood behind Sadie and rested her hands on her shoulders. “It’s natural to be nervous when you’ve never done something before. Katie was nervous every time, even though by number seven you’d think it would be simple.”

  “Easy? I’ve attended many births as the doctor’s assistant and it never seems easy,” Sage said as she shook her head.

  The room fell silent and all eyes glared at Sage. “What?” she said as she took a step back. She then looked at Sadie, who’d gone pale. “Oh, I’m sorry, Sadie. It’s easy. There’s nothing to it at all. Besides, when the baby decides it’s time to come, you won’t have much choice. You see—”