Page 2 of A Bright Winter Season

“What a great haul.” Samantha downed the rest of her hot cocoa. “Those little berries are the cutest.”

“They’re antiques,” Hazel said. “They’re probably hand-painted. We’ll have to make sure to take very good care of them.”

“Don’t worry, I will. My breaking things days are over.”

“You seem to have forgotten about that mug you broke last week.”

Samantha pretended to be offended. “Can I help it that my elbow has a will of its own? That mug had no business resting on the edge of the counter like that.”

Hazel chuckled. “Fair enough. I probably would have knocked it over too—if I’d been dancing around the kitchen like a pirate.”

Samantha bowed. “Well, sounds like it’s time for me to make my exit. My cocoa is all gone, and I’m getting accused of breaking things.”

Hazel shook her head and kissed Samantha on the cheek. “Oh, shush. You go have fun finishing your homework.”

“I’ll try.” The pre-teen grinned. “See you later.”

“See you later, honey! Call me if you need help with anything.”

“I will!”

Samantha scampered up the stairs, and Hazel paused to look at the falling snow again. She smiled as she decided to light a fire in the fireplace—she loved the smell of woodsmoke and the cheerful warmth of a crackling fire. In a few minutes, she’dgotten a respectable fire going in the fireplace, and she went into the kitchen to make herself a glass of mulled wine.

She heated up some red wine, mixing in spices that soon made the kitchen smell incredible. When it was ready, she poured it into a glass mug, and then she plopped a couple of orange slices inside it. She took a deep breath of the warm aroma, smiling because it always made her think of Christmas.

When she’d been a little girl, she’d smelled the mulled wine that her parents and grandparents had drunk and wanted to be able to drink it. Being finally allowed to drink mulled wine at Christmastime had been one of her favorite parts of growing up. The beverage tasted every bit as delicious as she’d always imagined it would.

She carried her steaming mug back into the living room and curled up on the couch in front of the fire. She closed her eyes, smelling the rich scent of the fire mingling with the aroma of her drink and listening to the sound of the fireplace crackling and popping. Outside, the wind made soft whooshing sounds, and although she couldn’t hear the snow falling, it seemed to add a sense of hushed tranquility to her surroundings.

She let out a long, contented sigh and wiggled a soft blanket onto her lap. Her eyes traced over the familiar corners of the cozy room, and she smiled as she thought about all of the cheerful Christmas decorations that she and Samantha were about to fill it with. Some of them were homemade and they’d had them for years, and others were new, like the ones they’d just bought on their day out.

It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas,she thought, taking a sip of her warm, soothing drink.I feel so fortunate indeed.

She closed her eyes, listening to the sound of a car passing on the road, playing Christmas carols on the radio. She leaned her head back and let herself relax as she took a moment to herself before the rest of her festive day.

Jacob Dorsey stepped back from the staircase he’d been working on and nodded in satisfaction. He was in the furnished basement of Cedric Turner, the owner of the local general store, Turner’s Hardware. Cedric had been a kind of mentor to Jacob all his life, always encouraging him in his craft as a handyman, and it meant a great deal to him to do a good job on the project that Cedric had given him.

I couldn’t have done it any better,he thought with a smile.Those new rungs and railing look stellar.

Cedric has commissioned him to rebuild and stain the staircase in his basement, since he and his wife had already renovated the rest of the basement and were planning on having their children and grandchildren stay in the guest rooms downstairs that Christmas. Jacob had carefully turned a plain, rickety old staircase into a beautiful new one that had curved railings and was stained a lovely dark mahogany color.

Since he didn’t want to step on the staircase while it was still drying, he left the basement through the old cellar doors and made his way through the snow to the front of Cedric’s big old house. The Turners lived in a home that had once been considered a mansion in Rosewood Beach, and they’d kept it in fantastic condition. The big old house was as sturdy as it was charming—especially now that it had a brand-new staircase in the basement.

He knocked on the front door, and a few moments later it was opened by Cedric’s smiling wife, Janet.

“Coming in the long way, huh?” she teased as Jacob came back inside, stomping the snow carefully off his boots on the doormat.

“Yup.” He grinned at her. Janet was kind, and the way her curly gray hair tumbled around her shoulders reminded him of his grandmother. “It’s all done. Wait until it’s all dry, and then you two can go downstairs and take a look at it. It turned out really well.”

“I’m sure it’s beautiful. Thank you so much for staying this late to finish it.”

Cedric walked into the front entryway, a big smile visible underneath his handlebar mustache. “You finished it, eh, son?”

Jacob accepted the bear-sized handshake that Cedric offered him. “I did. It’s a beauty.”

“Can’t wait to look at it. And here, before I forget—” Cedric reached into his pocket and pulled out a check, folded in half. “I added a little Christmas bonus in there. You’ve done such a great job on so many projects in this house over the years, I wanted to throw in a little something extra.”

“Oh, thank you, Cedric.” Jacob smiled fondly at the older man, still having to resist his old habit of calling him “sir.” “I appreciate that.”

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