Page 61 of A Forgotten Heart
“So what?” Eli said with a tilt of his chin.
She saw the uncertainty in Ben’s face.
What must their life have been like to never have celebrated something like Christmas?
Elsie’s pa hadn’t celebrated Christmas either after her mother died. At least, if he had, she didn’t remember it.
After the Westons had taken her in, Darcy had gone out of her way to make Christmas special. But Elsie had always known her place with them wasn’t guaranteed. Even at Christmas.
New purpose stirred excitement within Elsie. She looked down at Ben, including Eli in her statement too. “Well, it’s my first Christmas with the McGraws too. We can learn about McGraw traditions.”
Ben brightened.
“Come help me stabilize the tree, Eli?” Nick’s voice was muffled beneath the branches.
It wasn’t long before everyone was busy. Clare had returned from the barn and was helping Jo pop heaps of corn. It kept mysteriously disappearing from the table where Jo, Eli, and Ben strung it with needles and thread.
Nick had brought in a crate of dried cornhusks to make ornaments, and the cornhusks were now soaking in a large metal bowl at the end of the table. Tillie flitted around the room, unable to contain her excitement.
“Can you help me tie a knot?” Ben asked. Elsie obliged.
Nick stepped back from the fireplace, his eyes scanning the progress. “That looks good, David. I like the pine bough on the mantel.”
At Nick’s words, Elsie glanced across the room, and their gazes collided. She quickly looked down to where she was showing Tillie how to fold a wet cornhusk into a star.
“Remember last Christmas, Jo?” David asked.
Jo held up her hands in surrender, the needle she was threading popcorn with still between her thumb and index finger. “I didn’t know the barn cat would tip the tree over.”
Tillie started to laugh, the husk unfolding in her hand. “That was funny.”
David shook his head. “Pa was so mad.”
Tillie scrunched her nose up. “Pa doesn’t get so mad now that he’n Kaitlyn are married,” she proclaimed. She looked innocently up at Elsie. “Are you ever gonna get married?”
This time Elsie couldn’t chance catching Nick’s gaze. She kept her eyes on the cornhusk, guiding Tillie’s fingers where they needed to go. “I don’t know.”
Why was it Nick was her first thought at the girl’s innocent question? Arnold was the more likely candidate. Arnold, who she needed to write a return letter to.
Rebekah cleared her throat as she carried a bowl of freshly popped popcorn over to the table. “I remember when I was a kid, I loved helping my aunt make the best peppermint candy. We even put some on our tree.”
Ben’s eyes widened. “Can we do that?”
“Nope,” Jo inserted. “David would eat it all.”
“I would not.”
“I might,” Eli said.
A laugh burst out of Elsie.
She wrung out a soaking cornhusk and handed it to Tillie. Water droplets flew everywhere in the girl’s exuberance. Elsie stilled Tillie’s hands with a gentle touch. “I remember one of my first Christmases with the Westons. I missed my pa so much.”
That Christmas, she’d sat by the window, hoping her father would finally come. He never had.
She cleared the emotion from her throat and wrung out another cornhusk for herself. “It was the first time I met Merritt. She’d come home with my sister Darcy for the break. Darcy musthave noticed I was lonely, because she pulled me over to where she and Merritt had started making cornhusk dolls. Before long, they had me laughing and feeling at home.”
Tillie made the next fold Elsie showed her. “How come you’re not with your family now?”
