One Charmed Christmas Read online

  “I do. And I’m sorry he’s not here. But he wanted you to go have fun so let’s try to have some fun. Let’s make some nice memories, you and me. What do you say?”

  Sierra pursed her lips and sighed. “I say you’re right. Let’s go look at windmills.”

  A large group of people had opted for touring the windmills and were gathered around a woman in dark slacks and a bright red windbreaker, huddled inside their own jackets and trying to ignore the drizzle and wind. Sophie caught sight of Dr. Rudy and his daughter, who were standing with Denise and Catherine and the same short guy she’d seen sitting with them the night before. Catherine was wearing jeans, tennis shoes and a bright red coat with a hood that made her easy to spot while her friend Denise was looking stylish in a black raincoat, cinched tightly to show off her skinny waist, worn over leopard-print leggings and knee-high boots. When Sophie was old she wanted to be Denise.

  “Welcome to Kinderdijk,” their tour guide said to everyone. “We are the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. We are below sea level so we have claimed this land from the sea. To do that you must build a dike around the water. Then the water is pumped out, leaving us land to work. This land is called a polder.”

  “Interesting,” Sierra murmured.

  Sophie didn’t care about the whys and hows. She just wanted to see inside a windmill.

  “You may be wondering why this name,” said their tour guide. “I will tell you. This means ‘children dike.’ And that is because of the baby that was found back in 1421. During the Saint Elizabeth’s flood the Grote Hollandse Waard flooded,” she continued with a sweep of her hand. “When the storm subsided, a villager went to the dike between these two areas to see what could be salvaged and in the distance he saw a wooden cradle floating on the water. As he came nearer he saw a cat was on it, trying to keep its balance by jumping back and forth. This was making the cradle rock. When he got closer he saw there was a baby inside. The cat had kept it safe. That story has been published in English as The Cat and the Cradle. Now, come with me and I will show you our windmills.”

  The group fell in line, like so many ducklings. There were sure a lot of them. “Let’s move closer,” Sophie said to her sister, then took Sierra’s hand and swam up toward the front of the line in the hopes of latching on to the good doctor.

  “Hi, everyone,” she said brightly to the group. “Did you all sleep well last night?”

  “Like a rock,” said Denise.

  The man next to her said, “Me, too. Call me Rocky.”

  “Rocky,” Sophie repeated.

  “Actually, my name’s Charlie,” he said. “I have a sick obsession with word play. And you, oh flower of youth, are...?”

  “Sophie,” she said with a smile. “And this is my sister, Sierra,” she added, pulling Sierra closer.

  “Names as lovely as the women who bear them,” Charlie said. He reminded Sophie a little of one of her uncles, good-natured and full of flattery. Wouldn’t he like to get together with Catherine?

  “Are you feeling better?” Catherine asked her.

  She wished it had been Dr. Rudy asking, but she smiled and said that she was. “The fresh air did the trick. Thanks to your advice,” she said to him.

  “Good,” he said. “It’s no fun to be sick when you’re traveling.”

  “No, it isn’t. And I do want to travel more,” Sophie said. “You like to travel, don’t you, Doctor?”

  “Please call me Rudy,” he said. A good beginning.

  “Rudy,” she said, and smiled at him.

  “Yes, I do. You always meet the nicest people,” he added, and smiled. At Catherine.

  Athena frowned. So did Sophie. This was going to be an uphill battle.

  Following their tour guide, they strolled along a paved walk, picturesque with plots of green and ancient windmills laid out between canals, reeds of some sort clinging to the banks. “I grew up swimming in this canal,” said their tour guide. “In winter we skated on it.”

  “Like Hans Brinker,” murmured Catherine.

  “Ah, yes,” said Rudy.

  Who the heck was Hans Brinker?

  “Here in Kinderdijk the Lek and Noord rivers meet,” their guide continued. “Our battle with the sea became more and more of a problem as time went on, and in the thirteenth century canals were dug to get rid of the excess water. After a few centuries a new way was thought of to keep the polders dry. Our fathers decided to build a series of windmills to pump water into a reservoir. The water could be let out into the river through locks whenever the river level was low enough. This way we kept our land for farming. We will be going into a windmill now so you can see how the families lived.”

  Finally. “Going inside a windmill,” Sophie said eagerly to her sister. “How many people ever get to say they did that?”

  Sierra smiled. This was a genuine, happy one, and Sophie hoped she’d see more of those as the trip went on.

  The windmill looked massive until you got inside it. “The family who lived in this had thirteen children,” said their tour guide.

  “Childbirth thirteen times?” Sophie said weakly. “That poor woman.”

  “Because of the high fatality rate of children, a miller needed a large family to make sure there would be enough labor to work the mill and the surrounding farms,” the guide continued.

  “Think of having fifteen people squished together inside this living space,” Sierra said, looking around.

  It was, indeed, small, and everything was set up around the giant wheel at the center that turned the windmill blades. The ground floor had a kitchen of sorts with a small, white enamel stove. Shelves held pots and bowls. A tiny bed that looked more like a train berth was tucked into a cupboard on one wall, with a curtain hung for privacy. A small table sat by a window and it held an old-fashioned sewing machine. Sophie wondered how people managed to live together in such a small space as she walked around with the rest of the tour group.

  “I feel like a sardine looking for a place to lie down in the can,” she said to her sister.

  “I think I’d get claustrophobia,” said Sierra.

  Sophie eyed the steep stairs with their narrow treads that led to the next level. “I wonder if those fatalities she mentioned were from kids falling down the stairs.”

  More people were coming in and Sophie caught sight of a couple of the college students. The next wave. Was Trevor March with them? Not that it mattered.

  She heard Rudy’s laugh coming down from the next level up and turned to see the newcomer, Charlie, climbing upstairs, right behind Denise. The good doctor and Catherine had to already be up there. She who hesitated was lost. Sophie hurried to join them.

  “You’re wasting your time,” her sister said behind her.

  “I’m just going up to see what the next level looks like.”

  A frail-looking grandma type wearing a long coat and snow boots was coming down the stairs as Sophie was about to go up, so Sophie waited. The woman was almost down when she lost her footing. Sophie saw it and rushed to steady her.

  “Thank you,” the woman said, looking at her like she was a superhero. “I’d have hated to fall and break something, especially at the beginning of my cruise.”

  “You sure would,” Sophie said in agreement as she helped the woman down. “Enjoy the rest of the cruise,” she said in farewell, and hurried up the stairs to the next level, where she found Rudy and company.

  It looked as cramped as the ground-floor level, with more beds stuffed into cupboards.

  “Can you imagine living such a simple life?” Catherine said to Sophie as she came to stand next to her.

  She would have stood on the other side of Rudy, but his daughter was firmly in place there.

  “A little too simple for me,” Sophie said. Where were the closets? Where did people put their clothes? “And I tho
ught my apartment was small. Yikes.”

  “Well, a person doesn’t need a lot to be happy,” Catherine said.

  “Do you really believe that?” Athena asked, sounding almost skeptical.

  “Yes, I do. It’s not about what you have but who you’re with.”

  Sierra had joined them in time to hear that and the smile she’d been wearing vanished like a leaf on the wind. If only Mark would check in. Then maybe her sister could enjoy herself.

  “I’ll second that,” Charlie said, grinning at Denise. “Who you’re with makes all the difference.”

  “Yes, it does,” Sophie said to Sierra. “Come on, let’s take a selfie for Mom.”

  Sierra went along with the picture taking, then eventually followed Sophie to the top level of the windmill. Here they could see the wheel that turned the blades close-up. It was an enormous, impressive thing, moving slowly, a reminder that once upon a time life moved at a slower pace.

  Sophie was disappointed that no one from their party had joined her other than her sister.

  “Catherine’s nervous about the stairs,” Sierra reported. “She decided she’d gone far enough.”

  “She missed out,” Sophie said. “This is the most impressive part of the windmill.”

  But when it came time to go back down she found herself wishing she hadn’t climbed to the top level. Those stairs were sooo steep, and the treads way too narrow. A person could fall, break a leg. Or a back.

  “Why did they have to make these so steep?” she said to her sister, who was going down in front of her. “They’re a regular accident trap.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll cushion your fall.”

  “Who’s gonna cushion yours?” Sophie retorted.

  She made it to the last set of stairs just fine, though. Okay, no problemo. Sierra was already on the ground level.

  And there went Rudy and Catherine out the door. How was it they always managed to get so far ahead of her? Sophie picked up her pace.

  And missed a step.

  Suddenly it was anything but quiet inside the windmill.

  7

  Down the stairs Sophie went, like a puppet cut loose from its strings. Thump, thump, screech, screech. She sent two women scuttling for safety before she hit the floor and bounced over onto her side. There she lay like a landed fish with a sprained fin. A sea of concerned faces suddenly loomed over her—the two women who’d dodged a collision, the tour guide, her sister, several of the German students.

  This was embarrassing. And painful. Her ankle, which she’d twisted on the way down, was screaming at her. Look what you did to me! Had she broken it? What if she’d broken it? Would she have to go to a hospital? Where was Dr. Rudy when you needed him?

  “Are you all right?” asked Sierra.

  “Can you move?” the tour guide asked, probably worried about lawsuits.

  “Let me see,” said a male voice. It wasn’t Rudy’s. Instead, here was Trevor March, pushing through the crowd and bending next to her. “Where does it hurt?”

  “My ankle,” she whimpered. “I think I broke it.”

  “Maybe not.” He unzipped her ankle boot and removed it and started feeling around.

  “Ow!” she protested.

  “I bet she broke it,” said a brown-haired girl, one of the students. She looked dispassionately at Sophie, as if studying an interesting specimen. “She won’t be able to do anything now.”

  Trevor shook his head. “I don’t think anything’s broken,” he said to Sophie.

  She frowned at him. “How can you know?”

  “I took a first aid course in college. Here, people,” he said, “let’s give her some room.”

  Several people took a step back. With the show over, the college kids drifted away, all except for the one girl, who was taking a rather ghoulish interest in Sophie’s injury.

  “Let’s see if you can stand up.” Trevor took one of Sophie’s hands and pulled her to her feet.

  She winced at the thought of him pulling up her dead weight. It probably felt like pulling up a baby elephant.

  “I don’t think you should put any weight on that foot,” he said, handing her back her boot. Then, before she could protest, he scooped her up into his arms.

  “She can probably walk just fine,” said the girl, contradicting herself.

  “You can’t carry me all the way back to the ship,” Sophie protested. “I can hop back. My sister will help me.”

  “It’s a long way to hop,” he said, and started for the door. “Go ahead, put your arms around my neck.”

  She did need to hang on so she did. And really, it was a long way to hop. But darn, she felt so stupid. Where was Dr. Rudy? She needed a diagnosis.

  “I’ll go find Rudy,” Sierra said, as if reading her mind.

  Trevor didn’t wait. He started off down the path toward where the ship was docked.

  “You’re going to get a hernia,” the girl called after him.

  “She’s right,” Sophie fretted.

  “Don’t listen to Harriet. What does she know?”

  “Everybody knows you can get hernias from lifting heavy things.”

  “You’re not heavy, so don’t worry about it.”

  “I’m sorry you’re having to carry me all this way,” Sophie said. Although it didn’t seem to be fazing him. The man wasn’t even winded.

  “I’m not,” he replied, and smiled.

  He had an awfully nice smile. She caught a whiff of his aftershave, something satisfyingly spicy. She could feel the hardness of his chest against her. Okay, maybe she wasn’t so sorry, either.

  If only she hadn’t made such a public spectacle of herself.

  “That was so embarrassing.” She would now be pointed out on the ship as the klutz who fell down the stairs in the mill.

  “Those stairs were tricky. I bet you’re not the first person who’s fallen on them.”

  “I wish that made me feel better.”

  “I’ve got something in my room that will make you feel better.”

  “Ice?”

  “I can get that, too,” he said.

  They were met with plenty of concerned staff as they came up the gangplank and someone was dispatched immediately to fetch ice for Sophie’s ankle, while another staff member put in a call for the doctor in port to come to the ship. Yet another staff member accompanied Trevor and Sophie down the hall, then used Sophie’s key card and opened the door so Trevor could take her into the room. He barely had her settled before a steward appeared with ice in a plastic bag wrapped in a towel, along with reassurances that the doctor had been summoned.

  Trevor slipped pillows under her foot and then laid the ice on it. “You need to elevate it. Do you have any ibuprofen?”

  Of course she did because you never knew. “There’s a bottle in the bathroom.”

  He nodded, found the bottle and shook out a pill, then brought it to her, along with a glass of water.

  “I don’t do this all the time,” she said.

  “What, climb around on steep stairs in windmills?”

  “Fall.” The little old lady she’d helped had been a warning from the travel fairies. Too bad she hadn’t paid attention to that warning and watched where she was going.

  “It happens,” he said just as Sierra arrived with Rudy, and Catherine, Athena close behind.

  Even Denise and Charlie had come, and squeezed in the room behind the others. Standing all clumped together they looked like carolers getting ready to serenade her. Instead of carols, they offered commiseration.

  “You poor kid,” Denise said.

  “I’m so sorry,” Catherine added.

  This was seriously embarrassing. “Thank you,” Sophie murmured. “I feel like an idiot.” This was why she needed to marry a doctor. Things happened. To her. A lot.

 
“It’s always the pride that hurts the worst,” Denise said.

  That was for sure.

  “Those stairs were treacherous,” Catherine said.

  Athena said nothing. Why was she there, anyway?

  “Let’s see what we have here,” Rudy said. He sat down on the bed and examined Sophie’s wounded ankle. “Not too much swelling. No deformity. Nothing appears to be broken, but let’s keep an eye on it. For the meantime, keep on doing what you’re doing, Sophie—ice and elevate. Do you have some ibuprofen?”

  “Already gave her one,” said Trevor, and Rudy nodded his approval.

  The shore doctor finally arrived, along with Elsa the cruise director, who was looking concerned. He, too, examined the foot and came to the same conclusion. “Only a mild sprain,” the doctor assured Sophie.

  Mild? It didn’t feel mild.

  “You don’t have much swelling,” he continued. “I am sure you’ll be fine in a few days.”

  “But what if I’m not?” she fretted.

  “Don’t worry,” Elsa said to her. “We have doctors in every port, and if you need something done we will make sure to get you to a hospital.”

  “Hospital?” Sophie echoed weakly.

  “In case they need to cut off your foot,” Trevor teased, then slipped out of the room before she could inform him that he was not funny.

  “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Rudy said, patting her shoulder. “Stay off your foot the rest of the day. Ice every couple of hours for twenty minutes, no longer. Keep taking the ibuprofen.” Another pat on the arm and then he was off the bed, and saying to the others, “Let’s let her get some rest, shall we?”

  Everyone trooped out of the room, and Sophie noticed as Rudy left he put a guiding hand to Catherine’s back. Great. Sophie was down for the rest of the day and Catherine had Rudy all to herself.

  The other doctor left her with a bandage to wrap her ankle once she was up and around and then he, too, was gone, leaving her and her sister alone in the room.

  “I’m glad it’s only a sprain,” Sierra said, perching on the other side of the bed.