A Magical Christmas (13 page)

“Hello?” Jon called, setting down the luggage he carried.

“There’s a bell on the counter,” Julie said, hurrying toward it. She rang the bell as the others at last broke from their sheep formation and moved about the room.

Ashley especially liked the room. She didn’t mind at all that they had come here—but then, Christie had told her, that was just because she was a little squirt and didn’t realize that their parents were destroying their lives as of yet. But Jordan hadn’t really fought coming here either. He had liked the idea of making a snowman, maybe having a few snowball fights, and he really liked horses. It might be a little boring sharing all that with his sisters, but then, once he got into it, Jordan would be okay.

Ashley especially liked the pictures on the walls. She moved about the room, looking at them. There was a really pretty picture of a sunset blazing over a rolling field with plenty of horses in it. That was her favorite. Then there were a bunch of people on horses riding with a bunch of dogs that looked like
beagles running around and barking all around them. There was a picture of a dour-looking man, and there was a picture of a man and a woman. It was a really beautiful picture. The man was dressed in some kind of a gray uniform with a plumed hat on his head. He had light, wavy hair that came all the way to the top of his shoulders, and a very nice-looking face. The woman at his side was very pretty as well. Her head was tilted—Ashley was going to have to get closer to see her face—but she had very long hair that was black and shiny and nice.

“Ash?” her mommy called a little worriedly. Ashley knew she was the youngest. Jordan said that was why Mommy was always worried about her, calling her name anytime she didn’t see Ashley standing right in front of her. But Ashley was getting big. First grade. That was certainly no baby.

“I’m right here, Mommy,” she said, coming back around one of the sofas so that her mother could see her.

“I wonder where—” her mother began.

But just then, a lady came into the room at last.

“Hello, welcome, I’m Clarissa Wainscott. I’m so very sorry to be late!” she said.

She was beautiful, and she certainly belonged in the house. She was wearing a long, full dress with some kind of a sweeping petticoat beneath it. It was a beautiful deep green color, and it moved with her
with every step she took. It fell a little bit off her shoulders, and it made her neck and face look especially pretty and slim. Her hair was dark, and swept up in a knot at the back of her head.

Ashley’s family was still for a moment—everybody was staring at the beautiful lady. Ashley hoped that Mommy didn’t mind the way that Daddy was staring at her, but then Mommy was staring as well.

“Uh—uh—” Daddy began.

Mommy jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, but men she stepped forward herself, offering the woman a hand. “Hello, I’m—”

“Julie Radcliff,” the woman said, taking Mommy’s hand, smiling. “Welcome to Oak River Plantation.”

“Thank you. This is my husband, Jon.”

“Jon, how do you do, welcome,” the woman said, taking Daddy’s hand as well.

“These are our children, Christie, Jordan, and Ashley,” Mommy said.

“Christie, Jordan, Ashley,” Clarissa Wainscott repeated. She smiled, her eyes lighting on Christie, Jordan, and then Ashley herself. Her smile was a really beautiful smile. “Welcome to all of you. I suppose it’s a bit different here from the usual vacation resort, but I hope you’ll have fun.”

“Can we ride the horses in the stables?” Jordan asked anxiously.

“Jordan, we’re not even officially checked in yet!” Mommy said.

“The horses were the lure to get him here,” Daddy admitted.

“It’s quite all right,” the lady said. “And of course you can ride the horses. Tomorrow,” she added, looking toward the windows. “When the sun has come up.” Her smile faded for a minute, but then she looked brightly at Jordan once again. “My husband isn’t here right now and he attends to the horses. Well, let’s see, shall we get you up to your rooms?”

“That would be lovely,” Mommy said. She still looked cold, and tired.

“Supper is a bit early here,” the lady said apologetically, leading the way out of the room. “Six precisely, but then you must help yourselves in the kitchen if you wish something later, and we’re well-stocked with drinks and the like in the library opposite this room. Again, help yourselves at any time. You must feel that it’s your home the entire time you’re here.”

“Thank you,” Mommy and Daddy both said.

“Come and settle in,” the lady said.

“Ash, come on!” Mommy called.

Hugging her teddy bear, Ashley started to follow
them all out of the parlor. She was the last to leave the room, and she paused, looking around again as she did so.

She liked the room. It was warm in a very special way. It was kind of like coming home. She didn’t just feel as if the fire had chased away the chill from outside, she felt as if the warmth had something that made everything inside all right as well.

But then…

Something was different in the room. She wasn’t sure what, but something was different from when she had first come into it.

Then she saw what it was.

The picture had changed.

Changed! As if…

She opened her mouth to call out to her mother, but then she fell silent.

It just looked like an ordinary picture now. If she tried to explain…

No one would believe her.

They would think that she was making it up. She was little—she had imaginary friends and had imaginary tea parties. Nobody ever believed her when she was just telling the truth.

She walked back toward the picture. Well, she was right.

She wondered if she should be afraid, but then
she decided that she wasn’t. The picture hadn’t done anything to her. She was just a little bit…

A little bit scared.

“Ash, Ashley, where are you?” Mommy called.

“I’m here; I’m coming!” she called back. She looked up at the picture. “I’m not going to be afraid, and I’m not going to tell on you. You’re going to be my special secret!” she said to the picture. She winked at it.

It winked back.

Now she was afraid. Just a little bit afraid. She turned and ran out of the room, and Mommy didn’t have to call her again.

T
hey were alone in their guest suite. Ashley still felt a little unnerved by what she’d seen in the painting. She knew now, of course, that she wasn’t going to say anything about it at all.

Not to anyone in her family.

“Well, guys, what do you think?” Daddy asked excitedly now that Mrs. Wainscott had left them and they were alone with just each other.

“think we’re in the boonies,” Jordan said.

“But they do have horses,” Ashley reminded her big brother hopefully.

“You’re too little for those horses,” Jordan told her impatiently.

“Am not!” Ashley protested.

“There’s nothing to do here, nothing,” Christie complained.

“You’d be happy with nothing if lover boy were here,” Jordan told her.

“Leave her alone, Jordan,” Mommy said.

Christie was staring hard at Jordan. “Well, not all of us have a way of making life all right no matter what!” she snapped.

“What does that mean?” Daddy demanded.

“Yeah, Christie, what does that mean?” Jordan repeated. Ashley thought he sounded just a little scared.

“It means everyone is overtired,” Mommy said. “We need to get some sleep.”

“Kids, find your places,” Daddy said.

Then Ashley knew that the two of them were going to go at it again.

Over their rooms.

“We can do this the way we did last night,” Mommy insisted. “Me with the girls—”

“We have three rooms,” Daddy cut in.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mommy said.

“Christ, there’s a damned couch in here!” Daddy muttered beneath his breath.

“It does so matter,” Jordan said. “You dragged me here; at least I can have my own room.”

“Ashley and I—” Mommy began.

Ashley quickly stepped up next to Christie, slipping her hand into her sister’s. “I want to be with Christie,” she said firmly. “I want to be with my sister.”

Mommy seemed stunned. Hurt. Good, Ashley
thought, then immediately was ashamed of herself. But Mommy never seemed to mind hurting Daddy these days, and even if Daddy had done something that hurt Mommy, he’d tried really, really hard to make up for it.

“The rooms all connect,” Jordan said, picking up his duffel bag. They were standing in the first bedroom—the master room, as the lady had called it. “And they’re just right. The middle has that thin little daybed—for me. The last room has the two beds, and it’s all frilly—for girls. This has got the fireplace, the little breakfast table, the brandy decanter, and all that stuff adults like. A parents’ room, a girls’ room, a maturing young male’s room. All right?”

Mommy and Daddy just stared at Jordan. Christie nudged Ashley. “Grab your stuff. Let’s go.”

Ashley grabbed her Cinderella backpack and sped after Christie.

The room was cute. It was a little bit frilly.

“Christie, look, both beds have sheets for roofs.”

“Canopies,” Christie told her.

“Canopies,” Ashley repeated. She dropped her stuff and lay down on the bed closest to the wall.

Christie didn’t say anything more. She had slunk down on her own bed. Ashley suddenly heard her sobbing softly. She waited a few minutes, then she leapt out of bed and came running around to her
sister. Christie could be mean sometimes. Not wanting to have anything to do with Ashley. And sometimes Ashley thought she was better off not to say anything. But right now she wanted to hug Christie and somehow make it better.

Christie didn’t push her little sister away. When she felt the small hand coming around her shoulder, she found that she smiled a little, sniffed, and felt better. Half laughing, she stared into Ashley’s green eyes.

“It’s going to be okay, Christie,” Ashley told her.

“There’s not even a phone up here.”

“I know. We can ride the horses into town and find a phone and I’ll keep watch for you.”

Christie laughed.

“I don’t think we’ll find a town.”

“We’re not far from D.C., Daddy says. There are lots and lots of towns around D.C. It’s our nation’s capital.”

Christie smiled again. Ashley was parroting what their father had been saying that day. Dad got all caught up in the patriotism thing every time the family came near Washington, D.C. He loved the monuments, the museums, everything about the capital. He tried to impart his enthusiasm to them—and admittedly, it was like casting seeds on rocks half the time.

She missed Jamie.

If Jamie were just with them, she could listen to whatever Dad had to say.

She choked back another sob.

“What if he forgets me?” she heard herself ask. It was pathetic. She was asking romantic advice from a six-year-old.

“How can he forget you?” Ashley asked, truly puzzled. “He knows you really well.”

“I’m not there. All kinds of other girls are there. What if he’s lonely and someone consoles him? Mom and Dad don’t understand just how great Jamie is, that there are dozens of girls out there just waiting for me to make a mistake.”

“What kind of a mistake?”

“Going away and leaving him alone.”

Ashley thought about that a minute. “I don’t think that matters.”

“How can you say that?”

Ashley shrugged. “Daddy goes away on business sometimes. I love him just the same. And I can’t wait for him to come home. Remember how special that used to be? Mommy would make cakes and things.”

“Yeah, I remember. Vaguely,” Christie agreed.
But Mommy doesn’t love Daddy anymore
, she thought—but she’d never say such a thing to Ashley. Yet, still, something about what her baby sister had said was true. She really did love Jamie
Rodriguez. It wasn’t a crush; it wasn’t puppy love. And Jamie loved her, too. If the way they felt was as good as she believed it was, then Ashley was right.

He wouldn’t forget her. He would miss her. And it would be very special when they saw one another again.

“Go get your nightie on, Ash,” she told her sister. “It’s late.”

Ashley obediently got off the bed and went to change. “Christie?” she asked her older sister.

“Yes?”

“They will let me ride a horse, won’t they?”

“I’m sure they will,” Christie said.

While her sister changed, Christie washed up.

The bathroom was strange, Christie thought. This magnificent old mansion was all fixed up, restored as good as new, but the bathrooms… well, they were small. The tubs were ancient, claw-footed things, the toilets seemed even older, the shower heads were all but archaic, and to get water into the sink, it was like working a pump.

Nothing was perfect, she reminded herself.

As if anything at all could be even halfway decent about this holiday!

When she came back into the bedroom, she told Ashley to brush her teeth. She lay down on her bed, dozing.

A few minutes later, she woke up to find that
Ashley, her little face a bit white, was standing at her side, teddy bear in her arms.

“Christie?”

“What is it?”

“Can I crawl in with you?”

Christie smiled. “What, Ash, you think it’s a haunted house because it’s so old?”

“It is a haunted house,” Ashley told her gravely.

Christie opened her mouth to tell her sister that haunted houses and ghosts didn’t really exist. Ah, well.

She could still remember what it was like to be so young.

“I don’t want to go to Mommy,” Ashley said in a very scared little voice.

Christie hid a wry smile. It would probably be just fine if Ashley did go in to Mom. It was unlikely she’d be interrupting anything these days.

But Ashley had come to her.

“Crawl in, Ash.”

Her sister crawled in. Christie slipped an arm around Ashley and lay awake and listened to the wind groaning.

Jordan, somewhat alone with both connecting doors closed, sat on the daybed. Sheets and pillows were piled neatly for his use at his side, but though
he was tired, he didn’t make the bed as yet. He wasn’t tired enough.