A Christmas Charade by Karla Hocker

Author:Karla Hocker [Hocker, Karla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626815759
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2014-12-16T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

After taking leave of Stenton, Elizabeth continued her tour of exploration in a halfhearted fashion. Preoccupied with the wager and even more so with the eventual outcome, she peeked into one or two of the chambers on the unused second floor. The shrouded furniture, the faded drapes on windows and beds were not enticing, and she quickly returned to the first floor.

When she discovered Stenton’s niece and nephew in the west wing, she was quite content to visit awhile. Grace and Adam were with their nurse Mrs. Gertrud Schwerdtfeger. Schwerdtfeger! Impossible to remember; difficult to pronounce. No wonder the good woman was called by her first rather than her family name as was her right.

Soon, Elizabeth was helping the children place a quantity of slim white candles in silver holders which had a clip attached to the base. She learned that the candles were destined for the Christmas tree, a beautiful fir Grace and Adam would fetch with their uncle the following day.

Nurse Gertrud, her knitting needles clicking away with alarming speed, shook her head. “I feel snow in my bones. A storm. I will not be surprised if we cannot push the door open in the morning.”

“Oh, no!” Grace looked at the old woman imploringly. “Dear Nurse Trudy, for once your bones must be wrong!”

“I want it to snow,” said Adam. “But Mr. Ponsonby said it doesn’t on the coast.”

“It does.” Elizabeth wriggled a candle into one of the narrow holders. “But usually not until later in the season.”

“There will be snow for Christmas,” Nurse Gertrud said firmly. “Eine weisse Weihnachten.”

Neither of the children argued, but Grace said, “Uncle Clive promised we’d have a Christmas tree—two trees—and a yule log. And he promised to take us to fetch them. He’ll think of something if it snows.”

Adam nodded, then started to tell Elizabeth that in Germany the Christkindl, accompanied by its helper Knecht Ruprecht, came to every house late on Christmas Eve. The Christkindl lit the candles while Knecht Ruprecht placed a toy from his pack beneath the tree for boys and girls who had been good throughout the year.

“And they’ll come here, too,” the boy concluded. “Because we’ll have the Christmas tree, and the candles must be lit.”

Elizabeth’s eyes twinkled. “Will the Christkindl and its helper overlook a toppled suit of armor and still leave a toy?”

“Oh, yes!” said Grace. “ ’Cause that was an accident. They wouldn’t expect us to know how to walk in all that clanking chain.”

“It wasn’t chain,” Adam protested, and immediately a lively squabble erupted between the siblings.

Exchanging a smile with the nurse, Elizabeth left the children’s quarters. But as soon as the high, excited voices faded behind the closed door, she wished she had stayed. At least, the twins had kept her from thinking about the interview with their uncle. About the wager.

And the disconcerting questions he had asked about her visit to the landing stage. He suspected her of something. That she was a member of the smugglers gang? That she arranged the sale of their goods? Ridiculous.

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