Kaki Warner by Miracle in New Hope Read Free Book Online Page A

a ravine, or into a creek. This is hard country. And it was turning cold that day. She wouldn’t have lasted more than a few hours dressed the way she was. At least, I hope not.” Doc drained his mug and set it aside. “It’s taken her poor mother a year to get color back in her cheeks. Wouldn’t leave her house for months. And now . . . ”
    He didn’t need to finish the sentence: And now Daniel had reopened that festering wound again.
Hell.
One more guilt weighting him down.
    Doc checked Daniel’s new bruises and put that stinking salve on the worst of his scrapes and cuts, then offered him a cot in the sickroom for the night.
    Daniel declined. He wanted to get home, even though leaving this late in the day meant he’d be traveling part of the way in the dark . . . or as dark as it got with a near-full moon reflecting off a snowy landscape.
    Besides, Merlin had probably broken out again and was even now stomping all over the porch and kicking at the door. However, not to appear inhospitable, he did stay long enough to enjoy a bowl of chili and accept the loan of snowshoes since his were too busted to use. Before he left, he asked the older man one last question, something he had been puzzling over while he ate but hadn’t mentioned because it sounded so . . . crazy.
    “Do you believe in ghosts, Doc?”
    The old man gave it some thought. “I’ve never seen one, but I can’t discount it.”
    “Not much of an answer.”
    Doc shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot of strange things over the years, son. Wondrous, sometimes frightening, often unfathomable things. And although I’ve got no proof of it, I do believe if the body is able and the heart wants something bad enough, it’ll convince itself it can happen.” He gave Daniel a speculative look. “Like you wanting to believe Hannah is still alive.”
    “Or Hannah
being
alive and wanting me to come find her.” Which made even less sense. If she wasn’t there, how had he seen her? Or talked to her? How could people communicate with only their thoughts?
    “Maybe so.” Doc smiled and patted his shoulder. “Some might call such a thing a miracle. This would certainly be the season for one, don’t you think?”
    ***
    “No good will come of this,” Tom said as he maneuvered their borrowed sleigh around a fallen branch that had broken under the weight of snow.
    Lacy looked over at him, saw the belligerent thrust of his chin and the worry in his dark brown eyes. This argument had run continuously from the moment she had announced that morning that she was going to Daniel Hobart’s place to find out why he was so insistent that Hannah was still alive. No doubt Tom was right. The man was probably insane. But she needed to be sure. She needed to stop wishing and praying for the impossible, before it consumed her, leaving behind a broken shell that would take her months to put back together.
    It had happened so many times over the last year. A thought, the mention of a blonde child who was about Hannah’s age, a stranger’s half-remembered recollection of a girl he had seen somewhere. Each time, she had been so sure she was finally close to finding her Hannah. And each time, the disappointment had ripped her open and left her bleeding in its wake.
    Tom snapped the reins. “The man’s confused. Doc said so himself.”
    “I know.” But there was something about Mr. Hobart. Something that seemed so sincere and honest. What if he truly did have news of Hannah?
    “You can’t keep doing this to yourself, Lacy. As hard as it is for you—for all of us—you have to let Hannah go.”
    “I know.” Poor Tom. He had been almost as devastated as she when Hannah went missing, and Harvey could still hardly speak his niece’s name without tearing up. “This will be the last time,” she assured her brother. “I promise.” She needed to look into Daniel Hobart’s eyes and ask him why he was so convinced her daughter was still alive. There had always been an odd