Christmas Spirit
Chelsea Caldwell drove through the fog-shrouded darkness, her hands gripping the steering wheel of her Honda as she leaned forward and struggled to focus on the road.
"Relax," she whispered to herself. "Tensing up isn't going to help."
She should have put her foot down. This wasn't an emergency trip. Aunt Sophie didn't need Christmas decorations tonight. Tomorrow morning would have been a better time to drive over to the craft shop on Tilghman Island.
But her aunt had been anxious to get a head start on the season. And Chelsea had forgotten how fogs could roll in from the Chesapeake Bay—or from the creeks and rivers that crisscrossed this part of Maryland's Eastern Shore.
That was proof of how much her life had changed in the past few months. She'd been living in Baltimore, well on her way to establishing herself as a sought-after local artist whose paintings were described as "haunting."
Now she was back in Jenkins Cove, the town where she'd spent her summers at the House of the Seven Gables, Aunt Sophie's sprawling Victorian bed-and-breakfast right on the town harbor.
Her aunt was getting on in years and could no longer run the B & B by herself. Chelse ... read full excerpt from: Christmas Spirit ebook
