Candy Cane Murder (Hannah Swensen #9.5)(100)

“This so-called baby of yours is a monster,” snapped Lucy.

“You should have seen the tantrum he had, right in the middle of town.”

“What do you expect?” asked Bill. “He’s almost two years old and they don’t call it the ‘terrible twos’ for nothing.”

Lucy suddenly felt very alone. He didn’t understand and she didn’t have the energy to make him. “I’m tired. I’m going to lie down for a bit,” she said.

“I was hoping you’d go to the lumber yard for me,” said Bill. “I don’t ask for much but I could use a little help now 334

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and then, you know. I’m beginning to think I’m a one-man show.”

Lucy’s chin dropped and she turned to face him. “Oneman show! Is that what you think?”

“Well, yeah,” said Bill, rising to his full height. “I don’t see you pitching in.”

Lucy stared at him, speechless. “Pitch in yourself,” she finally said and marched out of the nursery, across the hall and into the bedroom. She would have slammed the door but that would have wakened the baby.

She lay there, staring at the stained and cracked ceiling, and listened to Bill’s footsteps as they retreated down the hall to the front stairs. By the time he’d reached the bottom, she was sound asleep.

Two hours later she woke with a start, awakened by Toby’s cries. Just regular cries, she realized with relief, he wasn’t having another tantrum. She threw off the covers and shoved her swollen feet into her slippers and shuffled into his room.

He stopped crying when he saw her and she picked him up, nuzzling his damp head with her nose and getting a distinct whiff of ammonia. As she expected his overalls were soaked and all the bedding needed to be changed. She sighed and led him into the bathroom, where she set him on the potty.

“Are you up?” Bill’s voice echoed up the stairwell.

“Up and at ’em,” she yelled back.

“Someone named Sue called,” he said.

Lucy suddenly felt better.

“I got her number and said you’d call back.”

“Thanks,” said Lucy, pulling off Toby’s wet overalls, even his socks were soaked. She sighed. It would be a while before she could make that call.





Chapter


! Six #

“Idon’t think this is such a good idea, Lucy,” complained Bill. He was standing in front of the mirror in the bedroom and fiddling with a necktie. “I can’t believe I wore a tie every day back in the city. This thing is an instrument of torture.”

“You look very nice,” said Lucy, adjusting the tie and giving him a little kiss.

“I can’t really take the time,” he continued. “Why don’t you and Toby go and I’ll finish insulating the nursery?”

Lucy held his jacket for him. “Don’t be silly. It’s the last Sunday before Christmas and we haven’t been to church even once. It will give you some Christmas spirit.”

“I’ve got plenty of Christmas spirit,” said Bill, slipping his arms into the sleeves.

Lucy set her jaw in a stubborn expression. “Well, I want to hear the carols,” she said, pulling the jacket up over his shoulders and smoothing it out. “Do it for me.”

Bill rolled his eyes. “You are a stubborn woman, Lucy Stone.”

Lucy’s temper flared. “I don’t think …”

“But I love you anyway,” he said, silencing her with a kiss.

When they arrived at the little white Community Church with the tall steeple they found it was bursting at the seams 336

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but people cheerfully slid down the pews and squeezed together to make room for everyone. Lucy assumed the crowd was made of folks her mother called “Christmas and Easter Christians,” people who only came to church on holidays, a group which Lucy had to acknowledge she and Bill had joined. But a quick perusal of the bulletin revealed that the usual sermon would be replaced by the Sunday School’s annual pageant, a local tradition which brought entire families out in force. She nudged Bill, who was holding Toby in his lap, and pointed out the notation.

“It ought to be really cute,” she whispered.

“Hmph,” said Bill.

But even he was smiling when the children, dressed as shepherds, advanced down the aisle, some holding stuffed lambs and other animals, including a few neon colored Care Bears, and arranged themselves in a tableau vivant around the teenagers playing Mary and Joseph. Mary was keeping a nervous eye on baby Jesus, who was a real baby, and Joseph seemed ready to flee; Lucy wondered if they were presenting a more accurate version of the actual events than they knew.

The arrival of the youngest children, dressed as angels in white robes and homemade wings, with tinsel haloes, was greeted with coos from the congregation, and everyone joined in singing “Away in a Manger.” Then came the Three Wise Men, a trio of high school girls with fake beards, robes, and turbans made out of upholstery material (Lucy recognized the pattern as one her mother had chosen years ago for a slip cover) accompanied by the singing of “We Three Kings,”

which was followed by Lucy’s favorite, “Silent Night.” When it was over the entire congregation burst into applause. This was new to Lucy, and an indication that it had indeed been some time since she had been to church and things had changed while she’d been away.