Lakeshore Christmas
Also by SUSAN WIGGS Contemporary Romances HOME BEFORE DARK THE OCEAN BETWEEN US SUMMER BY THE SEA TABLE FOR FIVE LAKESIDE COTTAGE JUST BREATHE The Lakeshore Chronicles SUMMER AT WILLOW LAKE THE WINTER LODGE DOCKSIDE SNOWFALL AT WILLOW LAKE FIRESIDE LAKESHORE CHRISTMAS Historical Romances THE LIGHTKEEPER THE DRIFTER The Tudor Rose Trilogy AT THE KING’S COMMAND THE MAIDEN’S HAND AT THE QUEEN’S SUMMONS Chicago Fire Trilogy THE HOSTAGE THE MISTRESS THE FIREBRAND Calhoun Chronicles THE CHARM SCHOOL THE HORSEMASTER’S DAUGHTER HALFWAY TO HEAVEN ENCHANTED AFTERNOON A SUMMER AFFAIR ® To the many librarians I know— including John, Kristin, Nancy, Charlotte, Wendy, Cindy, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Suzanne, Melanie, Shelley, Stephani, Deborah, Cathie— and to the many more I’ve never met... You have no idea how much you enrich people’s lives. Or maybe you do. I hope you do. Thank you. Part One Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. —Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846—1916), American essayist 1 The boy came to the edge of town at twilight, at the close of a winter day. Although the snows had not yet begun, the air was brutally cold, having leached the life from the f ields and forests, turning everything to shades of brown and buff. The road narrowed to one lane and passed through a covered bridge on ancient river stone pilings. Through the years, the structure had weathered and been replaced, plank by plank, yet it never really changed. The tumbled rocks and sere vegetation along the riverbanks were rimed by a delicate breath of frost, and the trees in the surrounding orchards and woods had long since dropped their leaves.
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