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be?"
    Clara smiled. "That's a question almost all the Assignments ask, but none quite as soon as this." She adjusted her seat and then appeared to settle in to relate the beginnings of Renaissance. "Way back, when this area was being settled by religiously persecuted immigrants from England, a newly married couple, Michiah and Rachel Biddle, made their home here. They built a cabin just beyond the glen. Shortly after that, Rachel gave birth to a son, Emanuel." A warm glow lit Clara's eyes when she spoke the name. "When Rachel became ill and almost died, a distraught Michiah came to the hilltop to pray for her life. While there, he noticed a glowing mist gathering in the glen and ventured into it. When he came out, his wife was well, and he related to his young son the peace and the love he'd found there. After both his parents passed away, the teenaged Emanuel, despondent and determined to find this place his father had told him of, sat on the hilltop for weeks, waiting for the mist to appear. When it did, he walked into it, and no one from the outside ever saw him again. Since that time, Emanuel has lived within the mist and helped heal tortured souls."
    Carrie had seen the village Elder, a man named Emanuel, pass by the house earlier and Clara had told her who he was. "Then the man I saw today is his ancestor."
    Clara shook her head and smiled. "No, my dear. That is Emanuel."
    "But that can't be," Carrie protested, her eyes wide. "That would make him—"
    "As old as time," Clara said. Her blue eyes twinkled. "But then, time is relative, isn't it, my dear?"
    "And the Camerons' cabin?" she asked. Even as she asked, she was certain that the very idea that this might be the same cabin that the Biddles had built was too far-fetched.
    "Michiah's and Rachel's cabin," Clara said softly. "The Gateway to the village. Steve and Meghan are the Gate Keepers, and Irma is a Guide. They help the needy find their way here."
    Carrie was stunned. But even before she could ask more about the cabin, another question tumbled into her mind. "What if I hadn't found the library when I did?"
    Clara smiled, but said nothing.
    Then Carrie recalled the glowing path of light that seemed to guide her to the front door of the library and the inexplicable pull she'd felt urging her along the path. "I was guided there, wasn't I?"
    Clara nodded. "By Emanuel."
    "But why? And what if I'd refused to come?"
    Clara smiled knowingly. "Over the years, I have learned not to question Emanuel's wisdom. You'll find he doesn't take no for an answer often, and this was one time he would have firmly stood his ground. The need he felt in you was much too urgent."

 
     
    Chapter 3
     
     
    Christmas Eve, the Gateway Cabin …
     
    Dr. Frank Donovan pulled his snow-covered car in beside the cabin that was the home of his two best friends, Dr. Steve Cameron and his wife, Meghan. For a long time, Frank sat in the car staring at the cabin that Steve had renovated to meet the needs of his family. A new bedroom had been added for their daughter, Faith; another small room could be converted to a nursery for future Camerons; and the living room had been enlarged to include an expansive bay window. Normally, the window abounded in green plants that Meghan nurtured like a second child, but today a massive, twinkling Christmas tree engulfed the entire space and spilled a rainbow of colored lights over the snow outside.
    How he envied the Camerons. They had everything he'd ever wanted and almost had, until—
    He forced the thought from his mind. Thinking about it only dredged up the guilt, and that depressed him. If he sank any deeper into that black abyss, he was afraid he'd never claw his way out. To rid him of the guilt was, after all, why Frank found himself sitting in his car outside the Camerons' cabin in a blizzard on Christmas Eve.
    Steve had told him about the cabin and its special qualities, and a mysterious place that lay in the woods beyond the cabin; a place, Steve had