Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

Author:Erin A. Craig [Craig, Erin A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780593306741
Google: U6AFEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0593306740
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2021-07-26T23:00:00+00:00

“What day is it?” Merry asked, looking up from her basket of mending.

We were situated around the fireplace, our sewing projects covering our laps as a fierce wind blew outside, howling over the valley.

I stabbed my needle into the wool that Whitaker had brought from the city. I’d finished making the dress weeks before but was already forced to add pin tucks to the bodice. It hung large around my thinning frame, gaping and catching. Our larder was still full, but I knew it wouldn’t always be and had taken to cutting my share of meals by half. I was always hungry but couldn’t bear the thought that my sisters might be. “Sunday, I think.”

“No, what day?”

I thought back.

Rebecca had married Simon on Tuesday.

“The wedding was on the eighteenth,” I remembered, and counted from there. “So today is—”

A sharp knock on the front door broke our conversation. I glanced at the grandfather clock, worry edging into my chest. It was just after four, but twilight already blanketed the Falls. With the weather as fickle as it had been, it was rare to receive visitors so late in the day.

I set aside my sewing and approached the door. “Who’s there?” I could make out a large silhouette framed in the window of the door, but Mama’s eyelet curtains obscured all features.

“Gran Fowler.”

I frowned. The Fowlers lived clear across the valley, their ranch pressed as close to the western border as the pines would allow.

“I know it’s awful late, but Alice wanted to make sure you all got one.”

With a twinge of reservation, I removed the iron bolt and opened the door, peering into the inky light.

“A Christmas blessing,” he said, holding out a wrapped bundle.

He seemed just as reluctant to cross our threshold as I was to invite him in.

“Christmas! Today is Christmas?” Sadie’s surprise behind me echoed my own. How had we forgotten Christmas?

This was usually my favorite time of year—we decorated the house with swags of pine boughs and holly berries. Mama made a punch with cinnamon tea and oranges and cloves, and we’d stay up late as Papa read the story of the first Christmas from our family Bible. There was popping corn and sleigh rides, a dance held in the Gathering House, caroling and ghost stories told in giddy whispers around a single tapered flame.

But with Mama and Papa gone, I’d forgotten about the holiday entirely, and it seemed most of the town had as well. Cheer and merriment were hard commodities to come by in the Falls these days.

“Not just yet. It’s the twenty-third today.”

“Tomorrow is Christmas Eve,” Merry whispered, and she cast a sharp glance at the calendar as though it had betrayed her. “Christmas Eve and we’ve done nothing to prepare.”

Sadie dropped her embroidery sampler. “What does that mean? No Christmas? We have to have Christmas!” Her eyes shifted toward an empty corner of the room. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything, Abigail!”

“Of course we will,” I said, skirting over the mention of her imaginary friend.

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