Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

parked the car in the lot at the preschool, and they sat for a moment, absorbing the unnatural silence. There were no children playing in the smal yard.
    Kate squared her shoulders. “Do you want to wait out here?”
    For an answer, he got out of the car and went around to open her door. He wasn’t about to miss his opportunity to see more clearly what Kate’s life was al about.
    Gina Farley greeted them with obvious relief as they entered. Many of the children were sobbing and sniffling as if they’d been crying a long time.
    Some of the children stared silently at Kate and Matt with large, frightened eyes. Others hid their faces. In the room were several adults, many of whom Matt recognized and nodded to.
    There was tension and fear in the room, but Kate smiled at everyone and went directly to the children. “Hel o, everyone. I’m Kate Drake.” She sat down in the circle and looked at the little ones in invitation.
    Matt stood back and watched her. She looked utterly serene, a center of calm in the midst of a violent storm. Immediately the children were drawn to her, pushing and shoving to sit as close to her as they could get. She began talking to them, and a hush fel over the room so that only Kate’s magical voice could be heard, bringing a sense of peace and contentment.
    “So most of you had a bad dream last night?” Kate’s smile was a starburst, radiating light and warmth. “Dreams can be very frightening. Al of us have had them. Haley, would you tel us about your dream?” She asked the little girl who had been sobbing the hardest. “Dreams are like stories we make up in our imaginations. I make up stories and write them down for people to read. My stories can be very frightening sometimes. Was your dream scary, Haley?”
    It wasn’t so much her actual words that were magic as it was her voice. It became apparent to Matt that somehow Kate drew the intensity of the children’s emotions out of them. As the room grew calm, and the children quieter, the tension dropped dramatical y. It was only Matt who could see the effect on Kate. How draining it was to accept the backlash of emotion not only from the children but their parents as wel .
    Haley revealed her dream in halting sentences. A skeleton-like man in a long coat and old hat with glowing eyes and bony fingers came out of the fog. He burned the Christmas tree and stole the gifts, and he did something awful to the shepherd in the Christmas pageant. Matt stood up straight when the shepherd was mentioned. His brother, Danny, always played the shepherd in the Christmas pageant. His alarm grew as child after child revealed they’d had a similar dream.

    Kate didn’t seem the least bit alarmed. Her smile never wavered, and her voice continued to dispel the trauma the nightmares had caused. She told several Christmas stories and soon had the children laughing. As she stood up to leave, Matt saw her sway with weariness. Without a word, Matt waded through the children and slipped his arm around her. She leaned heavily into him as they spent the next ten minutes trying to leave graceful y.
    “You look a bit on the fierce and forbidding side,” she said once they were back in the car. “I’ve never quite seen that expression before.”
    “I was contemplating picking you up and carting you out of there.”
    Kate laughed softly. “That would have given everyone something to talk about, wouldn’t it?” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “Where are you taking me?”
    “To the Salt Bar and Gril . You need to eat. Danny’s been dating the waitress there, Trudy Garret, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time sampling the food. It’s not bad.” He glanced at her and noted that her hands were shaking. “You were using some sort of magic, weren’t you? With your voice, and it drained your strength.”
    “There’s always a cost to everything, Matthew.” She shrugged without looking at him, closing her eyes and leaning back against the leather seat.
    “I’m not certain I’l be able to eat, but I’l try.”
    “You’re already too thin, Katie.”
    She laughed. “A woman can never be too thin, Matthew, don’t you know that?”
    “That’s what women like to think, but men think differently.” He parked the car. “I don’t mind carrying you.”
    She opened her eyes then. “Don’t you have work to do?”
    “I am working. I’m courting you the old-fashioned way. Showing you what a great guy I am and impressing you.” He opened