Chapter Forty-Two

Sophie stood in the darkness of the lodge's basement, holding the lantern high so her father could see.

“This is one of them, for sure. Bring the light a little closer.”

She did as she was told. The neat handwriting on the side of the box said “X-Mas Ornaments.” She held her breath so she wouldn’t sneeze as her father took a rag out of his pocket and brushed off a thick layer of dust. Then he picked up a corner of the box, testing its weight, before hefting it into his arms. “Light the stairs for me.”

He didn’t need to ask. Sophie was already moving toward the wooden staircase that led up to the ground-level storage area behind the lounge. She lit his way up from the basement and stood looking around while he decided on a place to put the box. In the lounge proper she could hear the workers hammering and calling to each other as they re-hung old pictures and deer heads, and as they nailed loose ceiling molding into place.

Sophie set down her lantern and approached the box. “Let’s see what’s in it.” She pulled on the cardboard flaps. “Garland!” She pulled out a long rope of fake pine needles. “And there’s bows, too.”

“We’ll need a lot more than that,” Robert said. “Let’s go see what else is down there.”

They found more boxes of garland and bows, as well as wreaths, wooden nutcracker dolls, and Christmas tree ornaments. When they had all the boxes out of the basement and collected in one place, Robert went for the hand truck. While he was gone, Sophie dug through them, smiling with excitement at some finds and wrinkling her nose at others. Then her father returned and they began wheeling boxes into the lounge.

By now the workers were finished and awaiting payment. After telling Sophie in no uncertain terms that she was not to climb any of the ladders while he was gone, Robert went into the office to get the money he had taken from the safe that morning to pay his handymen.

In the meantime, Sophie began dragging garland out of boxes and placing it around the room, laying it neatly on the floor so they could more easily hang it when they were ready. Father had told the workers to add some small nails along the ceiling molding for hanging the decorations, but in the weak light from the windows and what few working light bulbs they had managed to find after searching the empty rooms, she couldn’t tell if the nails were really there. Well, they would soon find out.

She was looking forward to the store employee Christmas party, even though the only guest she considered a friend was Mateo, and he was likely to bring his parents. Back home in Kentucky, there were parties and dancing every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In between, there had been caroling and tree decorating get-togethers with her friends, in addition to the excited anticipation they all felt as they speculated about what gifts they would receive.

Sophie caught herself sighing and brought herself back to the moment. She would have a good time at this party, no matter what. All the shop employees would be there – Robert was closing the store for the occasion. Best of all, she would show off her new culinary skills by making cookies for their guests to eat. Sophie had never been allowed to cook in Kentucky and saw little reason to. But she was starting to find that she enjoyed the process of finding recipes in her grandmother’s books, mixing ingredients, timing everything just so, and then pulling delicious meals or treats out of the oven. She felt a real sense of accomplishment when she tried a new dish on Dad and got his compliments, or made a cake for her father to take to the store in the morning, only to find nothing but crumbs remaining by the time she got out of school. Maybe her father would let her have a career as a cook. That wouldn’t require she spend eight more years in school, would it?

Her father came back into the room and saw what she was doing. “Good idea,” he said of the garland. “When you’re done with that, count how many bows we have.”

Sophie did as she was told and only realized her mistake when her father handed her a pencil and piece of paper. “The room measures sixty feet on one side and sixty-five on the other. Calculate the perimeter, then divide it by the number of bows. That way we’ll know how far apart to hang them.”

Leave it to her dad to take something fun and turn it into a boring math equation. But there was no point in arguing, so she sat on one of the sofas and started working her sums. When she finished, she handed him the results.

Robert looked her numbers over carefully. “Very good.” He pulled a tape measure out of his pocket. “You get some bows and I’ll start measuring where they need to go.”

After they finished penciling Xs where the bows needed to go, it was time to hang everything. This took over an hour and Sophie became impatient long before it was done, but she had to admit it looked good when they were finished.

“Hungry?” her father asked. “We should have some lunch and then we can go pick out a tree.”

Sophie beamed. This was more like it. They would ride their horses into the woods and pick out the very best pine they could find. Whether her father intended to cut it down himself remained to be seen, but after everything she had learned about him recently, she was beginning to think that not much would surprise her. He might know how to grow wings and fly, for all she knew. The book Mateo had borrowed for her was teaching her a lot, even though it still left a lot of unanswered questions. The hard part now was keeping her mouth shut when she yearned to ask her father about the time he was shot in San Eusebio, or how he kept the relief missions organized while still finding time to negotiate treaties. But most of all, she wanted to know what he had done to anger Will Channing. This was something her book didn’t explain. Yet. And if this book didn’t say, she would just have to tell Mateo to find her another one.

“Grilled cheese sandwich sound good?”

Sophie had let her thoughts run away with her. She nodded. A sandwich would be great. And then they would saddle the horses and go get a tree. She peeked out a window as they headed through the lodge toward their apartment. The sky was blue and there was only a light dusting of snow on the ground. It was a beautiful day to go riding.