“The pond is frozen!”Caithren’s middle son cried, having burst back into the house with his cousins.“It’s so cold out there now!Can we go ice skating?”
“Now?It’s nearly bedtime!”Hard put to keep from laughing, Cait emerged from the kitchen.“I think not.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Did you ask anyone to pack your skates, Adam?”
“Oh.”He looked so crestfallen, one might think his dog had died.“I didn’t.”
“Well, I didn’t tell anyone to pack your skates, either.So it seems there will be no ice skating, aye?”
“Oh, yes, there will be.”
Everyone turned to look at Ford.
“I was going to save this surprise for Christmas Eve, but…” Leaving that sentence unfinished, he bolted up the stairs and out of sight.
“Aunty Violet, what did Uncle Ford mean?”Pol asked.
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” she said blithely.
Too blithely.Cait suspected Violet knew exactly what Ford was up to.
They all held their collective breaths until he returned, carrying a huge basket filled with what looked to be oddly shaped gifts, all wrapped in bright-colored fabrics and tied with ribbons in every color of the rainbow.Violet’s handiwork, if Cait didn’t miss her guess.
“They’re various different sizes.”Ford set the basket in the middle of the drawing room and stepped back.“I suggest you each unwrap one and then swap to find a set that fits.”
The cousins all converged in a rush.In no time, the floor was littered with scraps of fabric and ribbons, and they were all admiring their new skates and handing the larger pairs to the men.
“How do they work?”Cait asked, bemused.“These don’t look like the skates we have at home.And why does each pair come with a key?What is that for?”
“The key is used to tighten the clamps, which attach the skate firmly to your shoes,” Ford explained.“I think the clamps will work better than straps alone.At least, I hope they will.”
“A brilliant invention, don’t you think?”Behind their lenses, Violet’s brown eyes danced.“As brilliant as the spectacles he made for me so many years ago!”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to patent this,” Ford said with a half-groan.
Cait laughed, remembering when Ford had designed a new watch, and Violet had patented it before they’d even wed.
“No, darling,” Violet said indulgently.“This time I’ll leave that up to you.”
“Which means it will never be patented,” Kendra predicted.“Od’s fish, I cannot remember ever being so tired.Thanks to smelly cheese, I missed my nap.I’m going to bed.”
“I want to skate!”her daughter Diana protested.
“Tomorrow,” Trick told her, already following his wife.“I’m off to bed, too.”
“Good night,” Violet called after them.
“But I want to skate!”
“Think, Diana.”Her older sister Elspeth shook her head.“Use your brain.Do you really believe our parents will allow us to skate now, in the dark, at the pond out of view of the house?Let’s go to our bedchamber and tell ghost stories.”
The girls’ “bedchamber” consisted of pallets on the floor of Violet’s library.“Good idea!”Rebecca said.“Jewel, will you come, too?”
“For a while.”Jewel rose and followed her younger cousins from the drawing room, appearing rather listless.
Cait frowned, wondering if something was bothering her niece.Jewel was usually much more lively.
