Christmas in the City - Jill Barnett Page 0,77

his gloves and opened the door. He gave her a smile she felt to her very toes. Edward Lowell was dangerous to know. "Thank you for your time, Idalie."

"Goodbye, Edward." she stood with her hand on the edge of the door and watched him jump into his carriage. "Have a Merry Christmas."

Edward was not a cook. He could scramble an egg if forced to. He could brew a mean cup of coffee, and he had learned lately how to make tea in a miniature teapot. He could ride a horse, jump any fence, could hit a home run with baseball bat. and draw schematics to perfection, plans down the merest centimeter, and Edward Lowell could build buildings that looked so tall they 'scraped the sky.' But apparently he could not follow a simple recipe for cinnamon buns.

He held the hot bun pan out for Penny to see and said, "They look like pancakes."

"That's wrong, Uncle Eddie...very, very wrong," Penny said seriously, eyeing the flat buns with the too dark edges as if they were insects.

Edward tossed them in the kitchen bin and surveyed the kitchen. There appeared to be more flour on the floor and counters, on his knitted vest and shirt sleeves--even though they were rolled up--and in Penny's hair than was left in the flour sack. "Here." He shoved a plate of cookies down the dusty wooden counter. "Have a cookie."

"You bought these."

"Yes, I did, so they're safe to eat."

Penny laughed and bit the head off a gingerbread man.

He glanced out through the angled conservatory glass across the kitchen to the weather outside. Snow covered everything in thick white fluffs. It was dry snow. the best snow to play in."

"Let's get you cleaned up and we'll go to the park. I think I have a sled just waiting for a rider.

Penny looked at him with a scrunched up face. "I think you are the one who needs cleaning, Uncle Eddie. You're a mess!"

Out of the mouths of babes, he thought.

Half an hour later they were in the park, moving toward a section of various sized sledding hills covered with very few trees and enough hoopdee-dos to make for a great downhill ride.

"Let's go, my lucky Penny." He waved a hand. "There are hills awaiting you. He grabbed her hand and they trudged up the hill, until finally he just picked her up and pulled the red sled along with his free hand. the higher they got the tighter she held onto his neck. "You mother and I spent many winters sliding down hills like this.

She eyed the hills skeptically.

"I taught her to sled when she was about your age, and before long she would beat me down to the bottom every time. I won't let anything happen to you, and if you don't like it, we will do something else, okay?"

She nodded and then settled in front of him, sitting between his legs and gripping his pants in her small, mittened fists. He slid his arm around her, bringing her close and against his chest. "Are you ready?"

She nodded, but moved her hands from his legs and covered her eyes with them instead. "Go Uncle Eddie!"

And he pushed off.

Chapter 9

It was Thursday, her light day, but Christmas was less than a week away, so there was no such thing as light. The store was crowded and busy and ultimately exhausting. Idalie had voluntarily come in early to help with the other sales people, but they all felt as if they needed two sets of hands and feet with all the rush.

Now her day was done and she thought she would leave the crowds of shoppers behind her. Except the sidewalks were thick with people, and snowdrifts, and the street was crowded with vehicles. But the winter market was close by, so she stopped to get a pineapple and some oranges, a few yams and a small ham, and was now cutting through the park where the snow promised less crowds and she might not have to wait too long catch a trolley to the El, then home, where she would put her feet into the softest slippers, rest them on a footrest sip a cup of tea.

All the doll clothes had sold, so her bank account was nicely funded. She still hadn't cashed the settlement bank draft. She didn't want the money. Somehow, if she cashed the check, she felt as if she would break all ties with Edward Lowell, and some part of her didn't want that.