Knit in Comfort by Isabel Sharpe Read Free Book Online Page B

They’d have been talking about—” Vera caught Megan’s look. “Something local.”
    â€œWhat?” Elizabeth looked eagerly between them, puppy hoping for a treat.
    â€œWe had a minor celebrity event. The news wires picked it up.” Megan spread jam on her last bite of biscuit, not sure why she was bothering to protect David except that the ugliness had touched them all. “Go on, Elizabeth.”
    â€œOh, so, well, then the next day, after all those signs pointing to Comfort, there came my dream about my babcia —my grandmother. I still didn’t put it together until I had a fight with my boyfriend, and I was so upset and thinking if I didn’t get out of the city, I’d totally lose it. It was like…” She beckoned with her hand, coaxing out the analogy. “Like being in ajar filled with stones that some giant was shaking, you know?”
    â€œWell sure. I feel that way at least once a week. No offense to your children, Megan, they’re fine children.”
    â€œYes, they are.” Megan finished her breakfast and took her plate back to the sink. Without the full measure of her quiet alone time the day already felt long.
    â€œI knew I had to leave New York. I just didn’t know where to go.”
    â€œYou don’t have family?” Vera asked.
    â€œNone I’m close to.”
    â€œSo you came here.”
    â€œYes.” Elizabeth laughed uncomfortably. “Pretty wacked-out reason, huh?”
    â€œNo. Your grandmother meant you to come here. She’s a wise woman.” Vera held up a wise-woman finger. “This town does give comfort. And peace. Otherwise I couldn’t have survived the death of my husband. Forty-six years we were married. Without him I’m like a sailboat with half an oar.”
    â€œSailboats have sails, not oars.” Megan’s youngest, Jeffrey, from the hall outside the kitchen where he’d probably been eavesdropping for some time. He loved curling up small and silent—under a desk, on a closet floor—so no one knew he was there.
    â€œI know boats that have both, young man.”
    â€œJeffrey, come in and say hello to Elizabeth and have some breakfast.”
    â€œYes, Mom. Okay, Mom. Hi Elizabeth.” He dragged himself in, skinny legs emerging like knobbly sticks from his short pajamas. Megan ruffled his hair, bent to kiss his sleep-smelling skin, feeling love so deep she wanted to pull him back inside her body.
    â€œThis town will help calm you down, point you in the right direction. Make you feel God is on your side after all,” Vera continued.
    â€œThat’s exactly what I’m looking for.” Elizabeth turned her delighted smile on Jeffrey. “Hi there. Did you sleep well?”
    â€œYes. You have weird dreams.”
    â€œDon’t you?”
    â€œSure. Sometimes. Can I ask you a question?”
    â€œO-kay.” She grinned and touched his chin.
    â€œIf people were jelly beans, how many would you eat?”
    â€œJeffrey, that is not a question for guests.”
    â€œSorry, Mom.” He took his place at the table, next to Elizabeth, clearly not sorry at all. “I just think it’s interesting. I’d make the good people into bad flavors so no one would touch them.”
    â€œOur family has been in Comfort for centuries,” Vera went on, oblivious to interruptions. “In fact, my grandmother was best friends with one of the Vanderbilts, who used to summer in North Carolina. The town has everything you could want.”
    â€œThen why do you go to Hendersonville so often?” Jeffrey pushed a small truck around his place mat, using the border for a highway.
    â€œIt’s a beautiful place for a child to grow up. It’s safe…”
    â€œWhat about the time Dad broke his leg?” Jeffrey ran his truck into the napkin holder and made an exploding sound.
    â€œYou said the rocks he was climbing were