A Crafty Christmas by Mollie Cox Bryan Page A

said as he set the filled juice glasses on the table in front of the boys.
    â€œI think I did okay,” Sam said. “I won’t know until Monday.”
    â€œI got a one hundred on my spelling test,” Ben said.
    â€œGood for you,” Annie said. She scooped the eggs onto plates for her boys and sat down at the breakfast table.
    After breakfast, Mike took the boys out and left Annie to work. When she went back to her computer, the screen with the cruise on it was still up. Before she got settled in to her writing she decided to give Vera a call. She knew it would be expensive, but she needed to talk with at least one of them. She really wanted to talk to Sheila, but she knew that she was in meetings off and on and had events planned. Better to call Vera.
    â€œHey, Annie,” Vera said.
    â€œHey, Vera. How’s it going?”
    â€œHonestly?” she said, and laughed.
    â€œWell, as honest as you can make it,” Annie said, smiling.
    â€œThe food is great. The scrapbooking is intense. We took a bit of a break from it today. We’re all at the pool. Well, everybody but Sheila. She’s at a meeting with David’s Designs.”
    â€œHow is she?”
    â€œShe still has a headache and not much of an appetite. I swear she had maybe two bites of toast this morning. Poor thing. We’re all worried about her, but we’re keeping an eye on her.”
    â€œHow did her meeting go yesterday?”
    â€œHonestly, I don’t know; she didn’t mention it at breakfast. We talked about the murder. She had a passenger list and was ready to go over it, but then Randy saw the ship’s security chief last night and he said they’d already looked through it.”
    â€œYep, I guess that would be the first thing a security team would do,” Annie said, more to herself than to Vera. “But what about this Harold Tuft? How does he fit in?”
    Vera explained to Annie everything she knew about Harold.
    â€œIt’s been awful,” she said with her voice lowered.
    â€œI keep looking at men and wondering if they are the one. Also, they say they’ve got the poison situation in hand. That it wasn’t food poisoning. But I don’t know what to believe. Eric says I’m paranoid. But I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t wait until we make land. The FBI is going to meet the ship at the next port. I’ll feel so much better then.”

Chapter 22
    â€œSo where are you headed now?” Beatrice asked Vera.
    â€œWe should reach Grand Caymen later tonight or tomorrow. Sheila will be leading a photo expedition. She was supposed to be doing that in Mexico, but with the storm and everything . . .” Vera said. “Oh, Mama, it’s just so beautiful looking out over the pool and in the distance is the sea, such a beautiful blue color.”
    â€œTry to stick together.”
    â€œWe’re all here now, except for Sheila. She has a meeting this morning, then is teaching a class. We’re all going to try to get there,” Vera said.
    â€œHow is Sheila?”
    â€œNot good, Mama,” Vera said in a hushed voice.
    â€œThat’s too bad. Call Elizabeth. She’s with Bill. She misses you,” Beatrice said, and hung up.
    Poor Sheila. But, Beatrice knew Sheila enough to know that it was hard to keep that woman down.
    Her timer went off and she walked into the kitchen, grabbed a pot holder, opened the oven door, and pulled out her poppy seed cake. Ohhh, it looked perfect—and smelled of sugar, cinnamon, and poppy seed. She sat it on the counter and glanced out the window. A fine snow was starting to fall and blanketed the grass.
    Beatrice’s phone rang. If that was Elsie again, she might scream. This Christmas bazaar should be an easy function to put together. Why was she making mountains out of molehills?
    â€œHey, Beatrice. I’m on break at the bakery and thought I’d check in with you. How are