Honoring Christmas by Linda Byler

Author:Linda Byler
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781680999396
Publisher: Good Books
Published: 2024-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

WINTER WAS IN THE SOUND OF THE WIND, IN the strength of the cold felt all the way to the bones, so building the new house on the tract of land beyond Bloody Run had to wait till spring.

Henry talked to Charles Rusk, and Charles suggested they could have the carriage house, which had not been in use for a few years. It was thrilling to tell Lila, who was coping with a lot of human beings in a small space with only colder weather arriving in the coming months.

She looked up from her embroidery, a detested task, but one she submitted to, Catherine’s instructions taken seriously.

Every respectable young lady embroidered pillowcases, tablecloths, and handkerchiefs, so when confronted with an escape route, she took it gladly. They scrubbed and sanded, polished and swept, until the stone carriage house, which consisted of two rooms, was a perfectly cozy dwelling for the two of them.

Lila was easy to teach, learning the reason for sanding floors, for polishing windows, how to wash bedsheets and clothes in steaming agate tubs of lye soap and water.

Charles provided castoff furniture from the cellar, moldy chairs and table, an extra sofa from a bedroom, and so they set up housekeeping by the hotel. Henry rose early each day and took up his duties, managing the stables. Lila was never happier than being outdoors, traipsing along the riverbank with a net, scooping up a half-frozen catfish or rock bass, cooking them whole over a blazing fire, with steamed pumpkin.

The grandparents mentioned Christmas that year, celebrating Christ’s birth, but Catherine drew her eyebrows into a straight line and said the children had never heard of Christmas until they went to school, and she’d told them it was only for rich people’s children. Christ meant nothing to poor folk.

Her father gazed levelly at his daughter, said, “Catherine.”

She shrugged her shoulders unapologetically.

Her mother felt her daughter’s suffering and understood her resistance to religion. At the same time, she couldn’t imagine letting Christmas pass with no celebration. She announced a few days later they would go to the butcher shop in Bloody Run and purchase a smoked ham, after which they would go to Gould’s Confectionery and buy sweets for the children. This was their custom and they planned to continue.

In secret, they bought gifts at Landon’s Mercantile—warm socks, scarves, flowered dress fabric, dolls, marbles, and a set of china dinnerware for Catherine.

On the thirteenth of December, the sky was the color of pewter, with a frosty wet air heralding a snowstorm from the northeast. Henry shivered as he stepped into the barn, thought it might be a humdinger the way the birds ate up everything he threw out for them. He’d counted fourteen cardinals, pecking at corn and the seeds from loosened hay.

Lila had seen a ghostly halo around the moon at night, a sure sign of snow, so she carried enough split firewood into the house to last a week. Henry laughed at her, but she said there was no harm in being prepared.

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