Thomas Kinkade is America's most collected living artist, whose paintings bring hope and joy to millions. He is a best-selling author and has illustrated such books as A Child's Christmas at St. Nicholas Circle by Douglas Kaine McKelvey.

The Girls of Lighthouse Lane #4

HarperCollins Publishers

Chapter One

Saturday night, October 21, 1905

Amanda Morgan paused on the path outside the Hallorans' barn. She smoothed the long skirt of her new burgundy wool dress from the Montgomery Ward catalog and wondered if the boy who stared at her in church would be at the barn dance tonight. No, he didn't even live in Cape Light .... But maybe.... No, of course not .... The thought of seeing him, maybe even talking to him, made Amanda jittery.

It would be better, and lots more relaxing, if he wasn't here. Anyway, her father didn't approve of courtship at her age. And more than anything, she wanted to be the perfect model of a minister's daughter and make him proud.

Amanda adjusted her heavy wool shawl so that the pretty crocheted edging at the neckline of her dress would show. She bit her lips and pinched her cheeks to give them color-tricks that her friend Lizabeth had taught her. But Amanda's cheeks were already flushed with excitement. Even from outside, Amanda could hear the toe-tapping music and the fiddler calling, "Swing in the center, then break that pair; lady goes on and gent stays there. . .

The last barn dance in Cape Light had been ages ago, after the barn raising for a just-married couple on William McKinley Road. Amanda had been only eleven then. The boys she knew from school had piled up at the refreshment table, competing to see who could eat the most. Not that she'd cared; it had been fun to skip around with her girlfriends and dance the Virginia reel with Father. But now she was thirteen and everything was different.

Amanda scanned the crowd as she entered. No, she didn't see him-and, in spite of herself, she felt a stab of disappointment.

He had started coming to Father's church a month ago and then he showed up every Sunday. He was startlingly handsome, with sun-streaked brown hair and the warmest dark eyes. He looked older-muscular and manly-at least sixteen! When their eyes first met, Amanda was surprised by the jolt of electricity. She blushed and quickly lowered her head in prayer. She would never boldly look at him, but Sunday after Sunday, she could feel him staring. It raised prickles along the back of her neck.

He always came alone. Someone said he was a deckhand at the Cape Light docks, but lived in the neighboring town of Cranberry. There was a fine house of worship in Cranberry, so why was he coming to her father's church?

"Amanda, over here!" her best friend Kat called. Kat's cousin Lizabeth stood next to her and waved. Amanda hung her shawl on a coat rack and headed toward her friends, past the long table groaning with potato salad, fried fish, fried chicken, cole slaw, baked beans, and a whole ham. The little kids were jostling each other to get to Mrs. White's famous lemon meringue pie.

"Allemande left and allemande right," the fiddler called. Amanda made her way around the lively dancers. There was Father swinging a thrilled, laughing Hannah off her feet. Amanda was happy to see Father giving his full attention to her six-year-old sister; Hannah needed it so much. At least tonight I don't have to take care of her, Amanda thought. I'm free as a bird! She immediately felt guilty. It's not as if I'm kept in a cage, she told herself ...