The Twilight Before Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

again.
    Kate frowned as she rubbed her sister’s shoulders. She could feel the waves of distress pouring off of Abigail. “It’s all right now, honey. You’re home, and you’re safe.” At once a soothing tranquillity swept into the room, a sense of peace. The wicks on the unlit candles on the mantel leapt to life with bright orange-red flames. Joley’s voice poured into the room, uplifting and melodic, bringing with it a sense of home and Christmas cheer. Kate leaned into her sister. “Abigail, your talent is a tremendous gift, and you have always used it for good. This was a distortion of your talent, not something any of us could have foreseen. Let it go. Just breathe and let it go.”
    Abbey managed a small smile, the sobs fading at the sound of her sister’s voice. Kate the peacemaker. Most thought she prevented fights and solved problems, but in truth, she had a magic about her, a tranquillity and inner peace she shared with others just by the way she spoke. “I wish I had your gift, Kate,” Abbey said. She pressed her hand to her cheek. “I didn’t mind everyone’s finding out about Sylvia—she likes to think she can get any man—but poor little Letty, pregnant and loving her stupid unfaithful husband so much. That was heartbreaking. And at Christmas too. What possessed me to be so careless? I’m so ashamed of myself.”
    “What exactly did you say, Abbey?” Kate asked.
    Abbey looked confused. “Everyone had put in a variety of ideas for acting out the play we do every year and someone asked if they really liked the old script and should we keep it as a tradition or should we modernize it. I think I said, now would be a good time to tell the truth if you want to make any major changes. I meant with the script, not in people’s lives.” She rubbed her temples. “I haven’t made a mistake like that since I was a teenager. I’m so careful to avoid the word truth.” She scrubbed her hand over her face a second time, trying to erase the sting of Sylvia’s hand. “You know if I use that word everyone in the immediate vicinity tells the truth about everything.”
    “It worries me that we all felt the same disturbance,” Kate said. “Hannah saw a dark shadow in the mosaic. You said something you would never have normally said, and a crack opened up nearly at my feet and ran all the way up the embankment.”
    Hannah gasped. “You didn’t tell me that. Kate, it could have been an attack on you. You’re the most… ” She broke off, looking at Abbey.
    Kate lifted her chin. “I’m the most what?”
    Hannah shrugged. “You’re the best of us. You don’t have a mean bone in your body. You just don’t, Katie. I’m sorry, I know you hate our saying that, but you don’t even know how to dislike someone. You’re just so… ”
    “Dont say perfect,” Kate warned. “I’m not perfect. And I think that’s why Matthew’s brothers always laugh at me. They think I want to be perfect and fall short.”
    Hannah and Abbey exchanged a long, worried look. “I think we should call the others,” Hannah said. “Sarah will want to know about this. She must have felt the earthquake too. We can ask her if anything strange happened to her. And we should call Joley, Libby, and Elle. Something’s wrong, Kate, I just feel it. It’s as if the earthquake unleashed a malicious force. I’m afraid it could be directed at you.”
    Kate took a long sip of tea. The taste was as soothing as the aroma. “Go ahead, it can’t hurt to see what the others have to say. I’m not going to worry about it. I didn’t feel a direct threat. I’m not calling Sarah though. She and Damon are probably twined around one another. You can feel the heat right through the telephone line.”
    “I can go to the captain’s walk and signal her,” Hannah said wickedly. “Their bedroom window faces us, and for some utterly mysterious reason the curtain keeps opening in that particular room.”
    “Hannah!” Kate tried not to laugh.