Hanging by a Thread by Monica Ferris Read Free Book Online Page B

Easter bunnies. Betsy envied Cross Stitch Comer in Chicago, a shop with enough floor space to have a big, year-round Christmas display. As it was, her customers who bought the big ones now would display them next Christmas.
    She studied her list of Christmas patterns in stock, her list of finished models, and her floor plan. She hadn’t owned Crewel World very long, and while she was more sophisticated than when she began, she was still feeling her way into the retail stitchery business. Learning on this job was a dangerous undertaking; if it weren’t for her other sources of income, Crewel World would have gone under months ago. And she knew she’d be much further along if she hadn’t also encumbered herself with ownership of the building her shop was in, with its own numerous demands.
    And weren’t so often sidetracked by crime.
    Interesting at this stage of her life—Betsy was in her middle fifties—to discover a heretofore latent talent for sleuthing. But once uncovered, it proved a powerful draw, eating up time she would otherwise have devoted to ordering stock, paying bills, record keeping, tax planning, salesmanship, and home improvement.
    And designing her displays.
    She looked over the assortment of patterns and models, and was satisfied with the plentitude and variety. Now, which was to go in the big front window to catch the eye of potential customers? She had already used a ruler to make a rectangle scaled to her window’s dimensions, and had cut some blue scrap paper into rough shapes scaled to represent the items she thought should go in the window—too many, of course.
    This scrap represented a spectacular, hand-painted needlepoint Christmas stocking, very eye-catching—but there was only the one, so if it sold at once, it would make a hole in the display. She put its paper shape aside. Maybe she should put up one of the knitted stockings instead? But which, the one knitted in bright Christmas colors? Or the one knitted in Scandinavian blue and white? Or the buff one knitted in fancy stitches, like an aran sweater? Not all three, that might make passersby think this was primarily a knitting supplies shop, which it wasn’t, and also wouldn’t leave room for the beautiful and complicated Teresa Wentzler Holly and Ivy sampler Sherry had begun for Betsy’s predecessor and only finished a week ago. Betsy also had a nice collection of counted cross-stitch stockings. Maybe her window could be all stockings, knit, cross-stitched and needlepointed. Yes!
    No. She’d already decided there must be a place for Just Nan’s Liberty Angel, the one done in red, white and blue with a star-spangled banner.
    There was the large and magnificent Marbek Nativity, but that would go in the back, on a low table against the wall, looking out through the opening between the tall set of box shelves that divided the counted cross-stitch area from the front of the shop. She would arrange one of the ceiling spots to shine directly on the big, glittery figures, so customers in front would feel as if they were looking into the Stable.
    She pulled her attention from the back of the shop to the window. She’d put some of those small, adorable, affordable needlepoint canvases of Santas and rocking horses and alphabet blocks that could be finished quickly even by beginning stitchers. And she’d better save a corner for an announcement of January classes that needlepoint and knitting customers should sign up for.
    And, of course, there were the fairy lights that would frame the window—she sketched some loops to indicate the space they’d take.
    Already the window was looking overcrowded. Hmmm, if she took out two of the inexpensive canvases, and moved this stocking over here, and then this counted piece could go ...
    Her sketching was interrupted by the Bing! of the front door. Betsy looked up to see Mrs. Chesterfield coming in, and went at once to greet her. Mrs. Chesterfield was a good customer, but she could not pick a skein of