Irene Brand_Yuletide_01 Read Online Free Page B

thwarted, however, when her supervisor called, “Here’s a letter for you—came in today’s mail.”
    Janice took the letter, thinking it must be a card from one of the employees who’d missed last night’s party. She stuck the envelope in the pocket of her jeans and waved a general goodbye to her co-workers as she hurried out of the store.
    Janice made her first stop at a garage, and she sat in the car while the mechanic attached a trailer hitch to her car. Fidgeting over this inactivity, Janice remembered the letter in her pocket.
    The wrinkled envelope had no return address, and the postmark was smudged. Letters containing hazardous materialscame to mind. She’d heard warnings on television about opening an envelope or package if it looked suspicious. She discounted the idea that an insignificant person like herself would be targeted for a terrorist’s attack, but she decided to be cautious. She stepped outside the car, held the envelope at arm’s length, and opened it with a nail file. No white substance was evident, and she concluded that the message was harmless.
    Unfolding the single sheet of paper, she read it and stared in horror at the words.
    If you know what’s good for you, stay away from Stanton.
    Stunned by the message, Janice staggered to the car, her rapid pulse thudding in her forehead. Slumping in the seat, fearful images built in her mind and her stomach quivered with terror. What kind of prank was this? What difference could it make to anyone if she moved to Stanton?
    After the first wave of fear, anger replaced Janice’s distress and she rationalized the situation. This letter had probably been sent by her father’s relatives still living in the Stanton area. Was this their way of telling her they were angry because the Reid property had passed to her?
    Janice’s stubborn streak was stronger than her fear. She set her jaw and muttered, “They can like it or lump it! I’m moving to Stanton.”
    Her face flushed when the man working on her car said, “What did you say, ma’am?”
    She admitted she was talking to herself, but her embarrassment passed when the mechanic said, “My old daddy talked to himself, too—said he liked to talk to a smart man once in a while.”
    The man’s remark amused her and eased the tension, but the note was unsettling. She fretted about it as she drove toward the Valley of Hope to say goodbye to Miss Caroline. When she turned the curve, and had a bird’s-eye view of the place that had once been her home, Janice paused briefly to survey the area with nostalgia. She had found the first security she’d ever known at VOH, and it was wrenching to leave it all behind. She couldn’t use Miss Caroline as her security blanket forever, but she would always be grateful for the care she’d received at VOH.
    After she’d lost her fiancé in a coal mine accident, Caroline Renault had established the facility forty years ago in northeastern West Virginia. In anticipation of their marriage, her fiancé had named Miss Caroline the beneficiary of his life insurance. She’d added the insurance money to her own fortune and had started VOH with two buildings and a few children. Gas wells on the property provided an income that had helped VOH become self-supporting. Several of Miss Caroline’s family and friends had also contributed liberally to the growth of the facility.
    Through the years VOH had increased to twenty brick buildings, comprising well-equipped elementary and secondary schools. Residents lived in a family atmosphere in several dormitories with adult supervisors. The majority of the teachers lived off-campus.
    Janice had enjoyed the independence she’d had during the three years she’d been away from VOH. But as she slowly approached the buildings, she thought of the time she’d come here as a scared and rebellious teenager. She shuddered to think where she might be today if she hadn’t been sent to VOH.
    Although her mentor had just turned seventy,