Yuletide Peril

The one-story, rambling elementary school, with a redbrick and stone exterior, was a relatively new structure. Janice halted the car beside a man who was sweeping the sidewalk in front of the school, and rolled down the car’s window.

“Are any of the school officials in today?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “The principal and the guidance counselor are here, and a secretary.”

“Good. Where should I park?”

He motioned to the front of the building. “Right here beside the school is okay,” he said. “There ain’t much traffic today.” With a chuckle, he added, “But wait ’til school starts—we’ll have plenty of cars around here then.”

“Thanks.”

The man waved a friendly hand and continued sweeping as she and Brooke got out of the car and entered the building through a set of double doors. They faced a long hallway with other corridors to the left and right. An arrow on the wall, labeled “Office,” pointed to the right.

“I’m scared,” Brooke said, her steps lagging.

Janice was uneasy about their situation, too, and she muttered, “‘God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power.’”

She straightened her back, took Brooke’s hand and headed resolutely toward the office. Her shaky self-assurance suffered an immediate setback when she turned the corner and narrowly missed colliding with the same man she’d bumped into at the convenience store earlier in the day.

Lance Gordon couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t be encountering this young woman twice in the same day! Normally, he wouldn’t have given the previous incident a second thought, but this woman’s long-lashed green eyes and stubborn chin had flashed frequently into his mind as he’d continued his daily schedule. Assuming that she was just a stranger passing through town, he was surprised at his low spirits when he thought he wouldn’t see her again.

“So we meet again,” he said, a wide grin spreading across his face.

“But at least this meeting wasn’t as dramatic as the one this morning,” Janice said, trying to match his light tone.

Lance glanced from Janice to Brooke, noticing the resemblance in their features.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

“I want to enroll my sister in school.”

Lance’s heart skipped a beat and he sensed a rush of pleasure to know that meeting this woman hadn’t been transitory. His eagerness to get acquainted with her surprised him.

“The guidance counselor is the one to see, but she’s busy with another family right now,” he said. “Come into my office. I’ll take down some of your personal information, and she’ll schedule your classes later on in the week.”

He motioned them to the door tagged with a principal’s sign.

“You’re the principal?” Janice asked as she walked through the door he held open for them. He seemed very young to be the administrator of a school.

“Yes. I’m Lance Gordon.”

“My name is Janice Reid, and this is my sister, Brooke. She’ll be entering the sixth grade.”

Janice apparently wasn’t married since she had the same name as her sister, Lance thought as he pulled out two chairs from a conference table in his office. And what difference does that make? he demanded of his inner self, looking surreptitiously at her left hand, which didn’t have a ring of any kind. After Brooke and Janice were seated, he took a chair opposite them and picked up a yellow pad that was on the table.

“Are you living in Stanton or in the rural area of the county?”

“Does it matter?”

He looked at her questioningly. “Not at all, as far as attending school here. We serve the whole county, but I wanted to know if she’d travel by bus.”

“I don’t know. When I bumped into you this morning, literally speaking, that was the first time I’d ever set foot in Stanton. I don’t know anything about the area.”

“Where are you going to live?”

“I don’t know that, either,” she said, with a glance at Brooke.

Momentarily, Lance wondered if he had a homeless family on his hands. But, with the spirit of independence that hovered around Janice Reid like an aura, she didn’t resemble any homeless person he’d ever known. Besides, both Janice and her sister were well-dressed, and if he remembered correctly, the sedan she’d been driving this morning was only two or three years old.

A slight tap on the door interrupted them, and a child peeped into the room. “I wanted to see if you were busy, Uncle Lance. I guess you are.”

“Come on in, Taylor,” he said, “and meet a new student, who’ll be in your grade this term.”

The sandy-haired girl with blue eyes stepped to her uncle’s side.

“Brooke, this is my niece, Taylor Mallory. She’s entering the sixth grade, too. Brooke Reid and her sister Janice are moving to Stanton. How about giving Brooke a tour of the building while her sister and I complete her enrollment?”

Taylor clapped her hands, and it was evident that she was an enthusiastic child, a perfect foil for Brooke’s quiet, meek nature. “That will be big fun. Come on, Brooke. This is a great school, but we’re going to have a tough teacher.”

Taylor’s chattering continued as the two children left. Janice was pleased to have the opportunity to talk without Brooke in the room.

“Why are you reluctant to tell me where you’re living?” Lance asked, interrupting her musings.

“I don’t know where I’ll live,” she said. “And if I tell you where I thought I’d be living, you’ll laugh.”

“Try me,” he said, a compelling expression in his piercing blue eyes.

“I’ve inherited the Reid property on the outskirts of town. I’d intended to live there until I saw it for the first time today.”

Instead of being amused, Lance was momentarily appalled that Janice was related to the local—and infamous—Reid family. He could understand why Janice was disappointed about the house’s condition, because after John Reid’s death, the house had deteriorated rapidly. It seemed strange that no one had informed Janice about the condition of her property.

“So you’re John Reid’s niece?”

“Yes, but it was a surprise when he remembered me in his will. My father is the black sheep of the family, and he’s had nothing to do with the Reids for years. I haven’t seen any of them since I was a child.”

John Reid was a respectable member of the community, but most of the Reid family did have a poor reputation. John had prospered, but Lance supposed that his long illness had depleted his finances. Janice’s inheritance probably wasn’t a large one.

“I couldn’t inherit until I was twenty-one,” Janice continued. “I’ve only had a car for a few weeks, so I hadn’t looked over my legacy until an hour ago. As you can imagine, I had quite a surprise.”

“When I was a child, it was a nice house, but I don’t suppose it’s fit to live in now.”

“I’m not giving up on that idea until I see the inside of the place. I had an appointment to see Mr. Santrock, the lawyer, this morning, but he won’t be in his office today. His secretary wouldn’t let me have the key to the house.”

“But I…” Lance started and paused. On his way to work this morning, he’d seen Santrock walking along Main Street. But perhaps he shouldn’t tell Janice—the lawyer may have had a good reason for not keeping the appointment. Maybe something unexpected had come up after he’d seen him.

Janice looked at him curiously, but when he didn’t continue, she said, “I’ve quit my job, and I intend to live somewhere in Stanton. What do you need to know about Brooke? I’ll have her school records transferred as soon as we go back home.”

“Her age?” Lance asked