Charlie looked tenderly at his lovely fiancéée, barely noticing the dress and entranced by the joyous smile on her face. "My dear, it will do very well. Shall I help you?"
Rebecca laughed and held her gentleman at arms length. "I am supposed to be getting dressed, Charlie. If you help me, we will miss Christmas morning and church. Then we will have both Em and Mrs. Williams calling for our heads."
"Oh, Lord. One of them I can handle; both of them would be far too much, even for me."
Charlie left the room as Lizbet entered to lace Rebecca into her dress. He collected a now dry and dressed Em and headed out of the door. "Well, little one, shall we go and admire Father Christmas’ handiwork?"
Charlie and Em met General Sheridan on the stairs. "Good morning, Sir."
"Good morning, Redmond. Merry Christmas. And Merry Christmas to you, Miss Emily." Sheridan had found out about the child’s relationship with Charlie from Polk. "I can smell the coffee from here, so I assume your Sarah has breakfast ready."
"Yes, Sir. She has become accustomed to my early hours. I think we may see more than just the usual early birds at the breakfast table this morning."
The three of them proceeded downstairs. As they passed by the tree, with the presents spread out beneath it, Em got upset.
"Papa! Pwesents!"
"Breakfast first, Em."
Em looked to her Papa, back to the tree and back to her Papa. "Pwease?" Sheridan muffled a snort behind the disguise of coughing as Charlie was confronted with the pouty lower lip.
Charlie reached into his pocket and pulled out a small package. "See this package? Father Christmas gave it to me, and told me that it was the first thing you should open, but that you had to have your breakfast first. Now, you know you have to do what Father Christmas asked."
Em sighed and laid her head on Charlie's shoulder. "Yes, Papa. Em good."
"Well done, Redmond. I have always found bribery to be very effective."
Charlie smiled. "I have always believed that reason and negotiation are far superior to force, Sir."
The three proceeded to the dining room, where, as had become their habit, Charlie settled into his chair with Em on his knee. Two dishes were set before him, one with his breakfast, the other with Em’s cereal. Sheridan eyed Charlie as he finished tying Em’s bib around her neck and silently handed him an extra napkin. . "You may find this useful. If I had known about this meal-time practice, I would have had a bib made for you, as well."
"Yes, well, my batman has been very…… tolerant of the situation."
Dr. Walker swept into the room, giving Em a peck on the head before taking her seat. "Good morning everyone." She glanced around the room. "Where is Rebecca this morning, Charlie? She is not ill is she?"
"Not at all. We had a little…… adventure this morning with Em that delayed her dressing. I expect her any moment."
"I will not even bother to ask." Elizabeth chuckled as she placed her napkin in her lap and poured a cup of coffee.
Em took the opportunity to take her spoon and dig it into her cereal bowl, gathering a large clump, which was immediately offered to Charlie. "Papa eat."
"That is Em’s. Papa will eat his own breakfast." Charlie took a forkful of eggs. "Ready?" The child nodded and together the two of them took their first bite of breakfast.
"Good morning everyone and Merry Christmas." Rebecca smiled broadly as she came into the room, first giving Em a kiss then placing a kiss on the top of Charlie's head before taking her seat at the opposite end of the table. "Where are Colonel Polk and Mr. Whitman this morning?"
"Right here, ma’am." The two gentlemen entered and both immediately went for the coffee pot. Evidently, there had been some private celebrating the night before.
Charlie looked to Sheridan with a grin and winked. "Say, Richard?"
Richard looked at Charlie with bleary and slightly bloodshot eyes. Cautiously, he responded. "Yes, Charlie?"
"I noticed that some of the men were a little ragged on the mounted lance exercises. They need a bit more instruction before we assemble the honor guard to escort the General to church. Do you think you can handle it? A brisk ride will do you good."
Richard simply looked at Charlie, his mouth hanging open a little as he cradled his coffee cup in both hands. "Um, Charlie, could you……" Richard simply could not go on; he needed his coffee.
"Could I what, Richard?"
Elizabeth did a fine job of hiding the grin on her face; then she cleared her throat and attempted to help her friend out of his mess. "Ah, Charlie, Richard is looking a tad under the weather to me and as your regimental physician, I must ask you to rethink that request."
"Bless you, woman," Richard whispered, but everyone at the table heard it and simply roared with laughter. Even Sheridan was enjoying the teasing this morning.
More people joined the breakfast table. Jeremiah was particularly excited, trying very hard to act like an adult and hoping so much that he had been given the fishing gear he wanted. Duncan had addicted him to that particular, manly sport.
Rebecca watched as everyone enjoyed his or her breakfast. As soon as she was finished, she retrieved Em from Charlie's lap so he could at least drink his coffee in peace.
"Mama?"
"Oh, your Mama is laying down, little one."
"Mama sick?"
Rebecca's heart went out to this child. She was old enough to know something was wrong, but not old enough to know how serious the situation was.
"Yes, sweetheart, I am afraid so. But we are doing everything we can to make your Mama better."
Em wrapped her arms around Rebecca's neck. "Em love Mamma ‘‘Becca."
"Mamma ‘‘Becca loves Em, too." She gave the baby a kiss and looked to the table, which had suddenly grown very quiet after watching the interaction between them. "Shall we adjourn to the tree and see what Father Christmas has left for us?"
Jeremiah leapt from his chair, almost overturning it. Fortunately, Whitman was right beside him and caught it before it crashed to the floor.
Whitman quickly excused himself and ran lightly up the steps. He tapped on Constance’s door. "My dear, I thought you might like to see your daughter have her first real Christmas. May I carry you down?
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Whitman. I do believe I feel strong enough to join the festivities, if only for a little while"
Whitman, who was a bear of a man, let the frail woman arrange her robe, then simply lifted her in his arms, carried her downstairs and settled her in a comfortable chair near the fire.
Laughing and chatting, the rest of the company rose from the table and proceeded to the main hall of the house. There, Lizbet, Reg, and Beulah had been busy, lighting all of the tiny candles carefully tied to the branches of the tree. It looked like a fairy tree, all sparkles and shining little lights. Jeremiah immediately plunged into the packages under the tree, sorting through the ribbon wrapped packages for one with his name on it. His mother reminded him of his manners.
"Jeremiah, as the youngest of us, other than little Em, could you do the honors and hand out the gifts?"
"Papa!" Em squealed and clapped her hands, reaching for Charlie as soon as he took his place between Rebecca and Constance.
Without breaking his conversation with Sheridan over the horse stock the cavalry was getting for the spring campaign, Charlie took the child into his arms and settled her on his lap.
While her Papa was preoccupied, Em took her chance and started rummaging through his pockets.
"Were you looking for this, little one?" Charlie pulled the small package out of his pocket.
"Pwease, Papa? Em good."
"Here you are, then." Em carefully opened the small package, a packet of horehound drops and benne seed candies the little girl loved.
She happily placed a piece of the candy in her mouth and then gave Charlie a kiss on the cheek. "Mmm, good."
Jeremiah handed out the gifts, chafing under the need to wait before he could open the good-sized box bearing his name that rattled when he shook it. All of the gifts were distributed. Charlie had his blue shirt that Rebecca had made, Em had a new hand carved rocking horse and a new doll, as well as a new dress, and all of the others in the circle of friends had at least one or two small presents in their hands. Jeremiah was engrossed in examining all of the little bits and pieces of fishing tackle the rattling box contained. Charlie, checking his watch, told Rebecca her gift would be delivered at precisely nine o’clock. Em looked around and noticed that only one person had no gifts; General Sheridan was sitting with empty hands.