Page 45 of Architect's Christmas Nanny

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Jillian told her.

“It was a long time ago,” Susan said gently. “And I have plenty around here to keep me busy.”

“You had more than we ever suspected,” Amanda said, with a smile and a wink for Susan.

“What does that mean?” Jillian asked, intrigued.

“Our Mrs. Grentz was a teacher at the elementary school for years,” Amanda said. “And that whole time, none of us knew that she was secretly writing mystery novels.”

“Oh, you make it sound so interesting,” Susan said, waving the other woman’s remarks away.

“Itwasinteresting,” Amanda said. “And it took two of our own little girls to finally solve the real-life mystery of who V.C. Fountain was.”

“Two big girls,” Josie piped up. “Maddy and Emily are teenagers.”

“Two big girls,” Amanda amended. “But they were only twelve when they cracked the case.”

“Wait. V.C. Fountain?” Jillian echoed. “You’re V.C. Fountain?”

Susan nodded, looking a little embarrassed.

“You wroteThe Killer and the Cowboy?” Jillian asked. “AndDeath and the Doctor?”

“Murder and the Mayor,too,” Amanda put in. “That’s the new one.”

“That’s incredible,” Jillian said. “Those books are so good. And you were teaching at the same time?”

“Not everyone goes about a writing career in a conventional way,” Susan said modestly. “You don’t have to be young or live in a New York City apartment. In fact, I think living out in the real world helped me to have more to say in my writing.”

“I just don’t know how you found the time,” Amanda said, shaking her head.

“I mostly wrote during my summer and winter breaks,” Susan said, shrugging.

Josie asked politely how Susan came up with her ideas, and while the unassuming author engaged the little girl in a conversation, Jillian found herself feeling more relaxed and hopeful than she had in a long time.

15

JILLIAN

Jillian found herself back at the cottage later that afternoon, alone. Josie had gone to her cousin’s house to make cookies, and Brad was helping his dad with something over at the big house.

She grabbed a book from her room and padded down to the living room to curl up in one of the big chairs and read, just like she used to do back at the penthouse. But as she settled into the chair, she found her eyes drawn away from her book again and again, and over to the window, where snow flurries drifted down and the bright sunlight of the afternoon ended at the impenetrable trees.

She and Josie had written lots of stories together over the years. Most of them were about ordinary kids doing the kinds of things Josie wished she could do, like going to space camp, or going back in time to see dinosaurs.

But the story forming in Jillian’s mind now was a story Josie might read when she was a teenager. There was something about the unspoiled beauty of the woods andthe scent of the Christmas tree combining that made her think of adventure, magic, and maybe even an element of romance, all happening in an enchanted forest.

When she closed her eyes, she could see the ghostly figures of the deer last night—so beautiful that they almost hadn’t seemed real.

Before she knew what she was doing, she had abandoned the book she was reading on the coffee table and was jogging up the stairs to grab the brand-new journal she had bought to surprise Josie on Christmas.

She won’t mind having one less present,Jillian said to herself as she grabbed a pen from her bag.Besides, I can always buy another one for her in town tomorrow.

Those were her last thoughts about the outside world before she lost herself in the story that was brewing in her mind. Jillian knew every story needed a structure, but the beginning was flowing out of her as if it had been boiling over in her mind for years. Letting it out made her feel like a bear emerging from her cave, standing and taking a delicious stretch after hibernating all winter.

Her only frustration was that her hand couldn’t move across the page as fast as the words filled her mind, and she had to breathe slowly to calm herself and hope that the feeling stayed with her until she had it all committed to paper.

An hour later,Jillian sighed in relief and blinked her way back into reality.

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