Free Saints Among Us by Anne Marie Rodgers Page A

ask them to oversee the vendors.”
    “Oh well.” Ethel shrugged. “The good Lord will help us make this happen.”
    It sounded very much like what Alice had described her aunt saying at the board meeting. “I hope so.” Louise’s comment was heartfelt.
    “Thank you for your suggestions, Louise.” Ethel set down her pencil. “I’ll add them to my list of ideas to consider.”
    Louise raised one eyebrow. Ideas? As far as she was concerned, the things she had said were imperatives.
    “There’s more,” she said grimly, determined to give her aunt all the information she could. “Have you thought about how to measure and lay out the space for the booths? You really should measure the Assembly Room.”
    “Oh, I’ve decided not to use the Assembly Room,” Ethel said breezily. “I think that we’ll set up several large tents outside. We can make it a real community event, with face painting and party hats for the children, and hot apple cider’”
    “Outside? It is going to be
cold
in December!”
    “I beg your pardon?” Ethel said, raising her eyebrows.
    “I’m sorry,” Louise began. “I don’t mean to be rude. But I do not think you realize the scope’”
    “You can’t stand not to be in charge, Louise,” Ethel said. “I know you’d love to take over this crafts fair and show everyone how much better you could organize it.”
    The attack was so unfair that Louise did not even know how to respond. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. For the first time in quite a while, she felt the sting of tears behind her eyelids.
    “I want you to succeed and I’ve been worrying myself sleepless,” she said calmly. She said another prayer for patience before continuing. “I thought that I could give you some guidance since I have experience with this kind of endeavor. I was wrong. I apologize.” She turned and began striding for the door, grabbing her coat without a pause and sailing out onto the porch.
    “Louise?” She heard a tremble in her elderly aunt’s voice, but Louise didn’t trust herself to speak kindly, so she kept going down the steps and across the flagstones.

Chapter Six
    T  he walk back to the inn from the carriage house took less than a minute, not nearly long enough to calm down. Louise was still seething when she stepped through the kitchen door.
    Jane, at the sink, took one look at her face and picked up a platter full of brownies. She held them out to Louise. “Oh dear. It didn’t go well?”
    Louise did not respond. It was an indication to Jane of just how upset her eldest sister was. Louise took a brownie, then sank down into a chair at the table, miming banging her head against the wood.
    Alice was still at the table, gluing instructions for the Christmas Cocoa mix onto the holly leaves she had cut out. She rose and stood behind Louise. “Take a deep breath.” She placed a hand on her sister’s back and rubbed small circles. “Try to relax a bit. Then you can tell us all about it. Sharing a burden can lighten your load.”
    In this case, Louise wasn’t so sure about that. But she drew a napkin out of the holder near the center of the table and laid down her brownie. “Thank you,” she said, looking up as Jane set a glass of cold cider in front of her.
    “I would have made tea, but you already have steam coming out of your ears.”
    “Very funny.” But Louise was beginning to feel a little calmer.
    Alice pulled out a chair at the end of the table and sat, picking up the cider Jane also had poured for her. “So how bad was it?”
    Louise just shook her head. “I feel as if I’ve just returned from talking to a wall. Aunt Ethel seemed determined to ignore every sensible suggestion I made.”
    “Did she say she didn’t like your ideas?”
    “She never said that.” In all fairness, Louise could not say that Ethel had disliked the things she’d said. “But she resisted me every step of the way. And just as I finished, she got angry and accused me of wanting