Grand Prize: $100 Amazon Gift Certificate!
Please join Christian Indie Novelists in the celebration of our Savior’s birth. We have a progressive Christmas story hop to share with you, as well as a post about favorite Christmas songs. Each author is having a drawing at their blog and there is an overall Grand Prize.
Here’s what you need to do to enter:
1. Go to each blog in the order that is listed below.
2. Read the section of the story posted. Then follow the link to the next blog where the next section of the story is posted.
3. At each blog, click on the Rafflecopter link to be entered in the Grand Prize drawing ($100 Amazon Gift Card), and leave a comment on the blog to be entered in each author’s individual drawing. Your comments can be about the story. Or you can tell us your favorite Christmas song, movie or book. Be sure to tweet and like us on Facebook to be entered multiple times.
My drawing —
Comment on this blog for a chance to win a digital copy of OUT OF THE WILDERNESS, my inspirational romantic adventure novel, as well as a small (3.5 x 5.5 inches) moleskin notebook with a hand-embroidered cover created by Bonnie Paper Works (Etsy).
Be sure to click here for your chance at the $100 gift card! And join the other blogs for more individual prizes!!
Follow blogs in the order listed below:
Gloria Harchar
Emerald Barnes
Bonnie Blythe
Anita K Greene (you are here!)
Marian Merritt
Rich Bullock
Dawn Turner
A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER : PART 4
Pre-dawn light glowed on the horizon. Meredith checked her watch and stepped away from the window. Time to go.
Hurrying out to her car, she climbed in before a case of nerves caused her to chicken out. She refused to spend another sleepless night wondering why Garth had come back. The scars on his face and his slight limp were evidence that the rumor of a medical discharge was true. But that had happened several months ago. Why show up here now?
The sun was cresting the horizon as she turned her car onto the farm’s driveway. The run-down house loomed ahead with no vehicle in sight. Had he left as quietly as he’d arrived? Last night, she and the children were so caught up in the fun of caroling for someone new in town that she hadn’t questioned the empty parking spot.
Parking her car, Meredith took a deep breath and got out. She climbed the steps and raised her hand to knock. Her knuckles never connected with the wood.
The door opened and a hand shot out, clamped around her forearm and yanked.
“Aahh. Hey!” She stumbled forward and fell to her knees. The door closed behind her with a thump. Her heart thudded against her ribs. In the gloom of the interior, the shadow of a man loomed above her. “Let go of me.” She surged to her feet. Free hand clenched in a fist, she swung at her assailant. A strong hand captured it and held on.
“Merrie, stop.”
Meredith froze. No one called her that name. No one except Garth. And it was his voice that said it now. She tugged against his hold. “You frightened me.” The low light deepened the grooves that slashed across his cheek. He was dressed like a one-man militia.
“You shouldn’t be here.” He glanced out the window then pulled her deeper into the room.
“I had to find out why you decided to come home.” She refused to be cowed by his glare. “For so long I’ve wanted to see you.” Her whispered admission hung in the air between them.
He let go as though scalded. “So now you’ve seen me. It isn’t the face you remember, is it?” He turned away and fiddled with a piece of gear attached to his vest.
The harsh words hit her like a sucker punch. “Is it your scars? Is that why you didn’t come home? You didn’t want me to see you?”
His head came up but he wasn’t looking at her. She glanced toward the window and caught a glimpse of a person in the field before she was shoved against the wall with Garth pressed close against her. “You do exactly what I tell you to do and we may get out of here alive.”
Meredith closed her eyes, desperate to sort out what was happening. She’d known him as a military man, but that knowledge had never prepared her for the hard-shelled warrior pinning her to the wall. Fear warred with the love that had never died for this man standing so close, but still miles away.
“Come on.” Grasping her shoulder, Garth shoved her toward the back of the house. “I want you out of the way.”
“Who is that man out there, Garth, and don’t tell me ‘nobody’.”
His face was set in a hard ruthless mask and, for one moment, Meredith wished she’d stayed home.
“Someone I’ve been expecting.” He pushed her toward the small pantry.
Meredith dragged her feet and grabbed the doorjamb. “You can’t just stuff me away.”
“I can and will. You’ll be safer in here.”
She clung to his arm. “I’m not letting go until you tell me what’s going on.”
His gaze traveled over her face. He lifted her hand and rested it against his cheek. “The man out there did this to me.”
She trembled. Beneath her palm the smooth scar tissue moved with each word he spoke.
“It’s time he paid for what he did.”
Tears pooled in her eyes making it hard to see clearly. “Revenge, Garth? Is that what this is?”
His lips pulled back in a snarl. “Justice. I may be scarred, but what he did left others dead.” He stroked his fingertips across the inside of her wrist.
He moved so quickly, she didn’t have time to react. One moment she stood before him, trying to understand this man she had loved for so long, and the next moment, she was inside a tiny room, the door closed and locked.
For Part 5 and the conclusion of A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER, visit:
Marian Merritt
Rich Bullock
Dawn Turner
Don’t forget to leave a comment below and click on this Rafflecopter link to enter the drawing for the $100 Amazon Gift Certificate!
If you are enjoying the hop, be sure to follow us on The Christian Indie Novelists Blog Hop Site!
Anita K Greene 
It’s been so much fun doing this hop with you! 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Emerald. And I feel the same. Thank you for your patience with all my questions!
It’s fine! I’m always here to help. 🙂
I am adding some really great authors because of this blog-hop!!! I wonder if any of them would be interested in being on an internet radio program to promote their work??
Thank you, ckwebb73. We had a fun putting this together. I’d love more information about the internet radio program and what that would entail. If you could email me through my contact page that would be wonderful. I’ll also let the other authors know about your offer. Thank you so much for participating in the blog hop!
wow! this was my favorite excerpt so far. This is a great story. Thanks for an afternoon’s diversion.
Kathleen, I’m so glad you’re enjoying our story. We had fun writing it and seeing where the next author went with what we’d written. Merry Christmas!
The story gets more intense. It’s fun meeting new authors. Thanks for doing this.
Kayeleen, Thank you for stopping by and reading our story. I had no idea who the characters were or what the other authors would write. But when Meredith and Garth appeared in my in-box, much to my surprise, I had no trouble ‘hearing’ their voices and recording this portion of their story. Wishing you a Merry Christmas.
Why can’t people ever just listen to what’s going on and do what they’re told in a life or death situation? lol…I’ve never been in that situation so I’d probably be the same, haha. Thanks for number 4 =)
LOL In real life, I’d probably be the ‘good girl’ and do what I’m told. That’s why it’s so much fun to write about spunky women who don’t always follow orders. Thank you, Heather, for joining in on the blog hop fun. Merry Christmas.
Thanks for the wonderful story. I truly enjoy it!
Nadine, I’m so glad you’re enjoying our story. Merry Christmas!
Nadine, You are the winner of my drawing for the Feather Notebook. Please contact me so we can arrange getting it to you! Thanks so much.
Great story!
Pam,
Thank you for joining in on the fun! Merry Christmas.
It’s a great story. Not at all what i expected for the hop.
Carolyn
Writing only a portion of a story was a good way to jump out of my comfort zone. I’m glad you enjoyed it, Carolyn. Merry Christmas!