Christmas On Snowbird Mountain

“Hi,” Susannah said.

The girl pointed to the cast that protruded from the left sleeve of Susannah’s sweater. “Did you hurt your arm?”

“I broke my wrist.”

“Does it hurt?” the child asked.

“Not so much now, but it did in the beginning. The doctor put this on to make it better.” The girl kept staring at it, seemingly fascinated. “Would you like to see?”

She nodded, and Susannah pushed up her sweater. The cast covered her hand, except for her fingers and thumb, and went up to just below her elbow.

“How come you don’t got any of your friends’ names on it?”

“Well, that’s a very good question. Do you think you could do it for me?”

Her eyes lit up. “Uh-huh. I even got a marker.” Hastily she took off her backpack and rummaged around until she came up with two. She slowly and carefully wrote the name Nia in black. Instead of dotting the i she drew a red heart.

“How beautiful,” Sussannah said. “Thank you.”

Nia looked quickly over her shoulder, as if realizing she’d strayed too far from the person who’d brought her. “I got to go.”

“Are you here with your mother?”

“My daddy. My mama’s dead.”

Dear Reader,

I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday. I’m so pleased this month to bring you my first Christmas book. I had great fun researching, particularly the customs and history of the Cherokee in western North Carolina. The mountains are spectacular, the people warm and generous.

My story is about Ryan Whitepath, a Cherokee and talented artist…and Susannah Pelton, a woman who has lost everyone she loves. I hope you’ll enjoy the Cherokee legends in this book, the language and the love story. I think Ryan’s “Nana” will tickle you, and his little daughter, Nia, will steal your heart.

Happy reading—and Merry Christmas!

Fay Robinson

P.S. Write me at fayrobinson@mindspring.com. To learn more about the research behind this book, please visit my Web site at www.fayrobinson.com. Or come chat with me at www.eHarlequin.com.

Christmas on Snowbird Mountain

Fay Robinson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my mother…who was fearless.

And for Sherry, Brenda, Jackie and all the other good sons and daughters taking care of elderly parents.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’d like to send my appreciation to the people of Graham County, North Carolina, the city of Robbinsville and the community of Snowbird for their hospitality and willingness to answer my questions. I also found the following works valuable in my research: Snowbird Cherokees: People of Persistence by Sharlotte Neely, The University of Georgia Press; Meditations with the Cherokee: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony by J. T. Garrett of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, Bear and Company; Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship by J. T. Garrett and Michael Tlanusta Garrett of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, Bear and Company; Another Country: Journeying Toward the Cherokee Mountains by Christopher Camuto, The University of Georgia Press; Aunt Mary Told Me a Story: A Collection of Cherokee Legends and Tales as told by Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey, edited and compiled by Mary Regina Ulmer Galloway, North Carolina Publications; Cherokee Plants: Their Uses—A 400 Year History by Paul B. Hamel and Mary U. Chiltoskey, Cherokee Publications; Cherokee Cooklore by Mary and Goingback Chiltoskey, Cherokee Publications; Walk in My Soul by Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ballantine Books; Beginning Cherokee by Ruth Bradley Holmes and Betty Sharp Smith, University of Oklahoma Press; Celebrate the Solstice: Honoring the Earth’s Seasonal Rhythms Through Festival and Ceremony by Richard Heinberg, Quest Books; The Winter Solstice: The Sacred Traditions of Christmas by John Matthews, Quest Books; The Encyclopedia of Mosaic Techniques by Emma Biggs, Running Press; Mosaics by Kaffe Fassett and Candace Bahouth, The Taunton Press; Working with Tile by Jim Barrett, Creative Homeowner; Decorating with Tile by Margaret Sabo Wills, Creative Homeowner and Setting Tile by Michael Byrne, The Taunton Press.

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 ONE

Fayetteville, West Virginia

Late October

SUSANNAH LOOKED DOWN into New River Gorge at the rapids nearly nine hundred feet below. Understanding why Native Americans had once called this the River of Death was easy. Even if you miraculously survived a fall here, you’d die on the boulders that dotted the banks, or face the possibility of being swept away in the cold, rushing water.

In the past twenty-three years, two men had drowned after jumps from the steel-spanned bridge where Susannah stood waiting to leap. A third had died when his pilot chute failed to open properly.

“Are you scared?” the older woman in front of her asked. Kay was her name. They’d met at last night’s party and agreed to give each other moral support. Like Susannah, Kay was a first-timer.

“I’m a little uneasy,” Susannah admitted, “but excited, too.”

As far as jumps went, this wasn’t one of the worst. Another plus was that it was legal—at least for the next six hours during the annual Bridge Day event. Many other BASE jumps from natural and man-made structures had been outlawed in the U.S. The acronym stood for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth. Bridges and cliffs were two of the most popular places for take-offs.

But Susannah accepted the fact that, sanctioned by the National Park Service or not, flinging her body off a fixed object and plummeting toward the earth at more than forty miles an hour was dangerous, much more so than skydiving, another sport she’d taken up in the past year. The low altitude left little room for the deployment of a reserve chute if her main one failed. Her canopy or lines could also become tangled in the structure.

Even now rescue workers, or “trolls” as they’d been nicknamed, were below on the bridge supports, dangling like spiders from rappelling ropes.

Susannah wasn’t worried so much about hitting a beam as she was overcoming the hazards of the landing. The designated area on the right shore was only a few meters wide, wooded and strewn with rocks.

She’d trained to land safely in wet places and water, her maneuvering skills were good and boats were positioned below to help if needed, but she remained a weak swimmer despite classes. A boat wasn’t much help if you couldn’t keep your head above water long enough for it to get to you.

The river was freezing and swollen from a week of hard rains, and setting down in it today was Susannah’s option of last resort.

But she had to go through with this regardless of the danger, or rather because of the danger. During the nine years she’d taken care of her sick mother, she’d forgotten what it meant to feel carefree or excited. She certainly hadn’t done anything adventurous.

“A good daughter.” That was what the nurses had called her. Reliable. Sensible. Responsible. She was all those things and proud of it.

Alzheimer’s, though, destroyed not only the patients but the people who loved them. That was what it had done to Susannah, devastated her emotionally. And now that her mother was gone, she felt a longing to be less reliable, less sensible and responsible. To be less everything, or at least different from the dull, unimaginative person she’d grown into.

She had the opportunity to live a different life and take chances—like with this jump—and she intended to do it.

If she chickened out, she might as well go back to the bleak existence she’d had until eighteen months ago, when her mother had died.

The new-and-improved Susannah wouldn’t lose her nerve. This person took risks. This person no longer had to worry about being suffocated by responsibility. Her new approach to life was simple: see everything, experience everything and never forget that each day might be her last.

She’d sold the house and quit her job as an office manager for a law firm in Waycross, Georgia. Anything that wouldn’t fit under the camper shell of her new pickup truck she’d given away or taken to the Salvation Army.

In no particular order, she’d committed her desires to paper. Her Life List, as she called it, was a blueprint for happiness and fulfillment.

While the items changed and the list continued to grow, so far she’d gone for a dip with dolphins, run a marathon, raised money to protect the endangered black rhino, belly danced, helped Habitat For Humanity build a house for a low-income family and visited the capitals of thirteen states. Thirty-seven more to go.

She’d confronted her fear of heights by taking skydiving lessons, and said goodbye to a lifetime of claustrophobia by going on a three-day caving trip with a group of experienced spelunkers.

Growing her short auburn hair to her waist would take more time; so far, it had only reached her chin. And some of the things she dreamed of accomplishing—like performing in a ballet and being the star of a movie—were perhaps a bit too ambitious, but she wasn’t discounting any possibility.

If she didn’t at least try, she’d certainly never eat real French onion soup in Paris or dance the tango in Brazil. She’d never have wild, uninhibited sex with a handsome stranger.

The line moved forward more quickly than Susannah expected, bringing her focus back to this item on her list. She was among three hundred people awarded slots to jump today. The weather was fair and no one had experienced any problems yet. Soon it would be Susannah’s turn.

Kay mumbled over her shoulder, “I don’t think I can do this.”

“If you don’t, you’ll lose your entry fee and the couple hundred more you spent on the adaptive rigging.”

“Money I can replace,” Kay told her. “My life I can’t.”

“Very true, and I don’t want to push you into doing this if you’re afraid, but you told me last night that you’ve been planning this for months and asked me to give you a nudge if you backed out. Didn’t you say you begged your family to let you come?”

“Yes.”

“If you don’t follow through, how would you face them?”

“I’d face them just fine. My husband would be relieved. He said I was crazy when I took up skydiving last year, but when I told him I wanted to try this—” she snorted “—he said I’d gone completely nuts. I’m beginning to believe he’s right.” Nervousness had her chewing her fingernails. “What insanity made you sign up?”

“I watched a TV program one night where BASE jumping was featured. The idea of it terrified me, so I knew I had to do it—you know, to prove I could.”

“You are insane.”

“Probably so, since I’m afraid of heights and I can’t swim.”

“But you skydive. How can you do that if you’re afraid of heights?”

“I don’t know. I just force myself. I figure going ahead while being scared is better than hiding from the fear.”

Kay looked over the side and grimaced. “Hiding is starting to sound pretty good to me right now. This seems a whole lot scarier than skydiving.”

“But that’s the whole point, to do something a little off-the-wall, even if it’s scary. If you weren’t here, what else would you be doing?”

“I’d probably be raking leaves or cleaning house.”

“I bet this’ll be more fun.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kay nodded, seemingly reassured, but when it came time for her to jump, she balked. “I can’t,” she said, scrambling down off the exit platform.

Some of the hundred thousand spectators around them began to boo.

“Come on,” Susannah urged. “You said you wanted to add adventure to your dull life. Here’s your chance.”

“I know, but I was wrong. The truth is, I love my life. I have a great husband and two kids who need me and think I’m perfect. So what if I’m nearly forty, overweight and the most exciting thing I do all week is laundry? I can live with that.” She squeezed Susannah’s arm. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I understand.” And she truly did. Kay had her family to think about. Susannah no longer had family, or anyone who mattered. She especially didn’t have anyone who thought her perfect.

She’d been the only child of elderly parents, now both dead along with both sets of her grandparents. Her friends had all drifted away when her mother’s Alzheimer’s worsened and her behavior had become more bizarre.

Even Andrew, the man she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with, had abandoned her when she needed him most. He’d been unable to cope with having his needs placed behind those of a sick person.

At twenty-eight, Susannah was alone in the world. If she died today, not a soul would care except this woman from Arkansas whose last name she didn’t even know.

The crowd started to chant, urging Susannah into action. “Jump…jump…jump.”

The official controlling the line gave her a hard look. “Are you going or not?”

“Yes, I’m going.”

She climbed the platform straddling the bridge rails and visualized what she had to do once she took off. By arching her body and pointing her hips at the horizon, she could stay upright until the wind turned her naturally into a face-to-earth position. Two seconds into the freefall, she’d reach to the small of her back and grab her pilot chute, tossing it toward the sky.

If everything went right, the chute would unfurl and she’d feel the reassuring tug upward, when the canopy fills. And if it didn’t, she’d be seven seconds away from death.

“Hey,” she called out to Kay. “What’s your last name?”

“Murphy. Yours?”

“Pelton.”

“I enjoyed meeting you, Kay Murphy.”

“Same here, Susannah Pelton. Have a great life.”

“I plan to.”

Susannah took a deep breath to shore up her resolve, and with three running steps, launched herself into the air.

Sitting Dog, North Carolina

One week later

THE ONLY SOUNDS in the forest were the faint chattering of the birds as they foraged for seeds and the crunch of Ryan Whitepath’s boots in the snow.

He could have driven the four miles to the school bus stop to get Nia, but he preferred the half-mile shortcut down the mountain, where he could free his mind from the projects he had to finish this week.

Work was going well. Professionally and financially he was successful. He had more commissions than he could handle and three upcoming gallery shows featuring his handcrafted tiles and display mosaics. But the obligations of his career were keeping him inside too much lately, and his personal life had gone to hell.

Disconnected was a good description of how he felt. His once-strong connection with the earth, which had always brought him peace and was the very foundation of his art, had experienced a short circuit over the past year. He needed to restore it before his creativity suffered.

He missed the feel of the wind on his face and the way it carried the faint smell of wood smoke on a brisk day. He missed witnessing the change of seasons up close, the brilliance of fall fading to the gray of winter, then the revival of color in the spring and summer.

All this land, as far as he could see across the Snowbird and Unicoi ranges, had once been the home of the Ani Yunwiya, the Principal People, but the nine hundred acres his family owned now had come to them only fifty years ago.

His father had taught him about the mountains as a boy, the places where the deer wallow and the wild boar root, where caves exist that can hide a man forever and wild berries grow in such abundance that you never have to worry about hunger.

Such secrets, gifts from parent to child for countless generations, were bonds to Elohi, Mother Earth, the Center. Ryan had neglected his obligation to pass along what he had learned to his daughter. Perhaps she felt disconnected, as well, and that was part of her problem.

She wouldn’t like that he hadn’t brought the truck, but maybe on the walk home they’d see wild turkeys or the pair of comical mink that had taken up residence near the stream, and it would make her smile. So little did these days.

The death of her mother from pancreatic cancer last March had been hard on the six-year-old, even though Nia had never lived with Carla nor visited her in London more than a handful of times.

Nia was experiencing what the therapist called Separation Anxiety Disorder. She’d lost one parent. Now she was afraid of losing the other.

Ryan had tried explaining about the eternity of the soul, that it’s alive before it goes into the body and remains alive after it leaves, but she was too young to fully understand. So he’d sent her to psychologists to help her deal with the grief. After three months of meetings with one and then four months with a second, he couldn’t see much progress. Nia remained confused and unhappy.

His vibrant, outgoing daughter was gone. In her place was a quiet child who cried for no reason and didn’t want to be alone, sleep or even go to school.

The doctor had suggested trying drug therapy after Christmas to control the anxiety attacks that had begun in the last month, but the thought frightened him. Nia was only a baby. Medications carried risks, especially in someone so young.

He didn’t know what to do. His grandmother counseled patience. She believed something besides Carla’s death was bothering Nia.

Nana Sipsey had taken of the sacred tobacco one night and had a vision: a redbird with a broken wing would heal his child’s heart and, in so doing, heal itself.

Ryan hadn’t voiced his skepticism, but it existed. His grandmother came from a long line of healers of the Ani Wodi, the Red Paint Clan. He trusted her knowledge of medicines for simple cures of headaches, colds and such.

Accepting prophecy was difficult for him, though, especially when something as important as the emotional stability of his daughter was at stake.

Ahead, John Taylor’s Trading Post came into view. The school bus pulled up outside just as Ryan left the woods.

This short stretch of road was the heart of Sitting Dog. A gas station-grocery store, an activities center and a volunteer fire station were the only buildings, but the eighty-four residents could find just about anything they needed, from tools to eggs, without driving the twenty miles to Robbinsville.

Their small community didn’t have a McDonald’s or a Blockbuster, but the store had videos for rent and its lunch counter served food that appealed to both Indians and whites.

A bank would be nice, but people who worked over on the reservation, Qualla Boundary, fifty miles to the northeast, took care of check cashing and deposits before driving home.

“Sa Sa,” he called out, and Nia turned. She’d gotten off the bus with two friends who lived nearby, Iva Williams and Mary Throwing Stick. “Hi, girls,” he said as he walked up. “How was school?”

Mary answered for them. “Buddy Henderson brought his tonsils in a jar and made Iva sick. It was so gross.”

“I didn’t puke, though,” Iva said proudly.

Ryan tried not to laugh, but it was impossible. “I’m glad to hear it.” He pulled Mary’s braid. “You didn’t puke on anybody, did you, Pretty Miss Mary?”

She giggled and wrinkled her nose. “Uh-uh.”

“Nia, how was your day?”

Nia shrugged and didn’t say anything. Ryan didn’t press. Simply getting her to go to school this morning had been a triumph. He was thankful she’d made it through the day without coming down with one of her stomachaches or headaches.

“How’s your dog?” Ryan asked Mary. “Did she have her puppies yet?”

“Six of them. All black. Can Nia come by for a minute and see them?”

“Maybe another day.” Darkness would fall soon and he still needed to recheck a couple of measurements at the activities center before the trek home. Workers were building an addition to use as a child care center and small library. Ryan had promised to complete a wall mosaic in time for the reopening, during the Christian holiday next month, and he was sorely behind. “I’ll bring Nia to visit this weekend, Mary. We have chores to do right now.”

“Can she come to my slumber party on Saturday? Iva’s coming. And Tracie. And Kimberly. And…” She rattled off the names of ten or more little girls in their class. They were going to make banana splits and play games, she added with excitement.

Nia didn’t jump in and beg to go, so Ryan hedged. “We’ll see. Her grandmother might have other plans for her. She can let you know tomorrow.”

The girls’ mothers arrived to drive them home, and Nia finally spoke, telling her friends goodbye.

Once they were alone, Ryan tried to talk to her about her reluctance to attend the sleep-over party. “Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

“You like Mary. And all your friends will be there. Don’t you want to go?”

“I want to stay home with you.”

Ryan didn’t push it. When she didn’t want to do something, no amount of cajoling would work. She was like her mother in that respect. In the few months he’d dated Carla, he’d learned two things: to let her have her way and to leave her alone when she curled up inside herself.

“I need to go into the center for a few minutes,” he told Nia. “Do you want to come with me or wait in John Taylor’s where it’s warmer? You can buy some paper to practice your writing.”

The buildings were adjacent. She’d be safe in the trading post among his neighbors. And it would be good for her to go in by herself.

“Can I go with you?” she asked.

“The heat’s turned down, since there aren’t any activities today. You’d be cold.”

She looked around. “Can’t I stay in the truck?”

“I came down the trail today.”

“We got to walk in the snow?”

“Walking is good for you, and the snow’s not deep. Besides, I told your grandmother and Nana Sipsey I’d see if I could find some possum wood grapes for a pie. You can help me pick them.”

“But…the dark might get us. Or we could get lost.”

“We’ll be home by nightfall.” His answer didn’t seem to reassure her. He knelt down. “Hey, I’d never let anything hurt you. I know every inch of these woods.”

“What if we meet a bear?”

“Mr. Bear is probably sleeping right now. He’s snoring in his cave.”

“But he could hear us and wake up.”

“I’ll wrestle him if he does.”

“He might bite you.”

“I’ll bite him back.”

She smiled a tiny bit. “Oh, Daddy.”

“Will you go into the store? Show Daddy what a big girl you are and buy the paper yourself.”

“I’m scared to.”

“Remember what Dr. Thompson said. When something scares you, ask yourself why. What do you think’s in there that can hurt you?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug.

“You’ve known John Taylor and his wife since you were a little baby, and you’ve been in the store hundreds of times. Nothing in there will hurt you.”

“You come, too.”

“You can do it by yourself.”

Her frightened little face almost made him cave in.

“Will you try, sweetheart?”

She nodded.

He walked her to the front door and gave her money, enough to buy some gum and a pad of paper.

“Stay inside. Don’t leave the building for any reason. I’ll come for you in a few minutes. I promise everything will be okay.”