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father,” the smile vanished from her face, “Eathen might have accepted her. But she don’t.” Her thin shoulders slumped with defeat. “I’ll come to visit her as often as I can, but, I want your promise, you’ll never let her come to me.”
    “ I give you my word, Charlotte.” John put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her head against his chest in a brief effort to shield her from the unfairness of her world. “The only way I would ever allow her to come to Montana, is if Eathen himself sent for her.”
    “ Then she’ll never come, John.” Charlotte leaned into his embrace, grateful to have her burden lifted even for a moment. “As far as Eathen’s concerned, when we buried her mother, we might just as well have buried Tia right along with her.”
    ***
    All through dinner, Charlotte kept thinking of her impending trip home. How could she spend Christmas in a house without Jessie? It just wouldn’t be the same. She put a hand over her glass of sherry as John lifted the decanter.
    “ Are you all right, Charlotte?” Martha dabbed each corner of her mouth with a linen napkin. “You’ve been very quiet this evening.”
    “ Martha, I’m fine. Just a little preoccupied’s all.”
    Martha glanced at her husband, noting a slight stain of juice from the ham on his white silk shirt. She dipped one end of her napkin into her glass of water and dabbed at the stain. Satisfied the shirt would be all right until it could be laundered, she went back to eating her dinner. “After dinner, I’m going to get everything ready to trim the tree.” She scooped up a forkful of cabbage, eyeing Charlotte as she placed the food into her mouth. “If you want you can help me.”
    “ Yes, I can do that.” Charlotte pushed her food around on her plate then pushed her plate away altogether.
    Placing his knife and fork across the top of his plate, John wiped his mouth then dropped his napkin on the silver-rimed white china. “If you ladies will excuse me, I have some work I need to finish before it gets too late.” With a sheepish grin, he moved the fastener on his black tailored pants to a looser, more comfortable, position and picked up his cup of coffee to take it with him to the den.
    “ Let’s go into the parlor, Charlotte. I want to get started on those decorations.” Martha stood, waiting for Charlotte to push back her chair.
    With a resigned sigh, Charlotte followed her sister from the room.
    “ I wish you would change your mind about leaving.” Martha removed a length of mauve velveteen ribbon from a box she had sitting on the couch. “In two days, it will be Christmas. I would think you would want to be here for your grandchild’s first Christmas, for goodness sake.”
    “ I don’t mean to be insensitive, Martha.” Charlotte picked up the other end of the ribbon, holding it in her hands as Martha unraveled it to its fullest length. “It’s just that Jessie always loved the holidays so much. I don’t think I’d be fit company, knowin’ she’ll never be here to enjoy them again.”
    Martha turned the delicate-hued strand in the opposite direction of its natural flat lay, giving it a spiraled appearance. “Did you ever stop to think that this year she will be celebrating the true meaning of Christmas? This isn’t simply a day to receive presents.” She kept twisting the material until she had reached the end, averting her eyes from all the recently delivered parcels stacked in a neat pile beside the couch. “It’s the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ,” she declared, her voice becoming stronger with her heart-felt convictions. “Jessie will be with the Holy Family and all the angels in heaven.”
    “ Martha, you don’t know how much I wanted to believe that the smile I saw on her face was real and not just my imagination.” A surge of pure joy shot through her body, making her tremble with its power. “You believe she’s in heaven too, don’t you?” Charlotte hugged her sister close