I awoke the next morning to Goose whining from her basket.

Early morning sunlight streamed in through the window and I stifled a yawn, rolling onto my side and staring at the wicker basket in the corner of my room. Goose's head popped up over the edge of the basket and she whined again, clearly unhappy about still being in the basket and wanting to explore a little more. I stretched my arms out behind me and kicked the blanket off my legs, cringing back from the cold air the second it hit my bare legs.

Goose watched me scramble off the bed and grab some clothes from my dresser. Back home, Mum always required that we look our best on Christmas day and, despite being away from home, I ended up grabbing my best dress and a pair of wool stockings. I changed quickly, welcoming the warmth that came from the stockings. Good whined again.

"Alright, alright," I said. I shook my head and ran a brush through my hair, tying a ribbon in my hair. "Come on then you."

I bent down and scooped Goose out of the basket, holding her in my arms and leaving my bedroom. Noise travelled up the stairs from the kitchen as I made my way down them, Goose scrambling to get out of my arms so she could go on a sniff around the house and no doubt find a place to go to the bathroom. Jonathan appeared from behind a wall with a large grin on his face and a paper hat jammed onto his head at a lopsided angle.

"Merry Christmas!" he exclaimed. "Where's my present?"

"Leave the girl alone, she only just got up," Barabara said.

"Where is it?"

"Still upstairs," I said. "This one wanted to be let out of her basket and I only have one pair of hands."

"Take her outside so she can do her business and then we get to breakfast and presents. I don't want to be spending my Christmas morning cleaning up dog mess."

"Right. On it."

Goose looked at me and I walked over to the front door, stopping long enough to slip my feet into a pair of wellington boots. I stepped outside the door and put Goose on the grass just outside the door. She sniffed around a little before pausing and going about her usual doggy business on a small patch of grass not far from the door but just far enough that Barbara wouldn't complain. Once finished I carried her back inside.

I kicked the wellingtons off and left them by the front door, walking over to a small blanket we had put out the night before. Goose immediately started to sniff everything she could get to from that blanket and even tipped off the edge of it so she could venture a little further around the room. Her adventure came to an abrupt halt when Barbara put a small bowl of food in front of her. Food mattered more than an adventure.

Before I could go back upstairs and fetch the sign, we settled down to a breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. It wasn't all that different from a usual breakfast, except for Jonathan demanding that I pull a Christmas cracker with him so I could wear one of the paper hats so he wouldn't feel left out. The hat kept slipping over my eyes so I couldn't see, but I left it.

Once we finished breakfast, I darted upstairs to get the sign from under my bed. I ended up lying flat on my stomach, crawling beneath the bed frame to uncover the frame that I had pushed too far underneath. When I managed to get a hold of it, I wriggled backwards and returned downstairs where Jonathan looked expectantly at the dust sheet that covered the sign.

"You can wait," Barabara said upon seeing Jonathan's eagerness to find out what I had been working on.

Jonathan huffed and I couldn't help but notice that he looked like a child. "Fine."

"Honestly, you're like a child."

"Well, it is Christmas." He winked at me before going over to the Christmas tree and pulling out a small, book-like present wrapped in brown paper and tied with a piece of string. "This is for you."

I accepted the present and untied the string and then pulled it apart to reveal a small book. "Is this a dictionary?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows out of confusion. Jonathan had already given me one.

"Yes. It's your very own dictionary!" Barbara tapped him around the back of the head. "Alright, that isn't your real present. The dictionary is mine, I spilt tea all over my other one and needed to replace it. Your actual present is further back."

Jonathan grinned and then stood up, walking around the back of the Christmas tree to grab a bigger present also wrapped with brown paper and tied up with string. It looked too heavy to lift so he slid it along the floor and placed it in front of me. He had a smile on his face and when he sat back down, his leg bounced up and down excitedly. Whatever it may have been, Jonathan looked pleased with himself.

I leant forward and tugged on the string until the knots came undone and I could untangle it. Once the string had been untangled, I let it drop to the floor since most of it was tucked under the box and I didn't want to risk lifting it and end up hurting myself. The paper fell away from the box and ended up revealing a cardboard box. I frowned and started to open the box, the edges having been tucked together to stop it from unravelling.

Lifting up the lid, I peered inside to be greeted by a collection of tools stacked on top of one another. They certainly weren't new, with paint and small dents in the metal on the hammer and the screwdrivers. Although I wanted to find out what else had been put in it, I didn't want to go rooting through a box of potentially sharp objects and end up hurting myself again. The cut on my hand had almost healed and I had no intention of reopening it or doing myself another injury.

"It's your own set of tools! They're not new, but it means you won't be waiting around for me to finish using them and you can just take whatever you need from your own set. You should have everything you need in the box," Jonathan said.

"Thank you! This is great," I said.

"We thought so." Jonathan smiled.

"I suppose you can have this now." I smiled and grabbed the sign, sliding it over to him but making sure the dust sheet didn't fall off.

Jonathan grinned at me and quickly pulled the dust sheet off the sign, exposing the lettering. I watched him run his fingers over the letters, his eyes wide. "Did you make this?"

I nodded. "It was Alec's idea. He said you didn't have a sign for the farm so I thought I'd make one for you. I cut my hand chiselling out the letters and then Alec finished it for me but everything else I did."

"Wow," Barbara said, "it's gorgeous."

"I thought after three years, the farm could do with a new sign."

I watched Jonathan place the sign down on the sofa beside him before getting up and making the short walk across the room to the other chair where I sat. He sat down beside me and pulled me into a hug, squeezing me until I didn't think I could breathe. When he let go and turned to me, I could have sworn I saw tears in his eyes but he quickly blinked them away.

When I started the sign, I never thought it would have that sort of effect on Jonathan and Barbara. I had done it because I didn't have any other ideas for what I could do and Alec had presented one that felt half decent. If I had known it would be such a meaningful thing for them, I would have put more time into it rather than end up rushing the end because I had run out of time.

Still, I had been apprehensive about the reaction to the sign since I started it because I didn't want them to think I didn't care. I had always found gifts for my family difficult so presents for two people I had only known for a few months were impossible to figure out. If it hadn't been for Alec, I never would have been able to come up with something that worked. I would have to find a way to repay him, not only for helping me come up with the idea but also for helping me to finish on time.

"I need to get on with lunch. Why don't you two take the sign out and put it in place? We can show it off," Barbara said.

"Excellent idea. Go on you, go and get some shoes on." Jonathan nudged me in the side. "You're not taking my wellingtons again."

"They're just more convenient" Jonathan raised an eyebrow at me. "Alright, fine."

"Hang on, there's something else under here." Jonathan crawled under the tree and emerged with a small package in his hand. "It's for you."

I accepted the package. "Hm, odd."

"You can open it later, go and get your shoes on."

I nodded before leaving the living room and taking the package upstairs. After leaving the package on my dresser to open later, I slipped on a pair of boots and headed back downstairs where Jonathan stood by the door with the sign in hand. Together, we left the house and headed down the tracks towards the fence that marked the boundary for the Goodwin land.

The ground, soaked with rainwater from the past few days, was almost impossible to walk on and I slipped and slid the whole way down the track. I had to be extra careful not to fall over so I didn't ruin my dress and on several different occasions, Jonathan had to grab my arm to stop me from falling over. He seemed to be enjoying the whole thing and found walking across the mud a lot easier in the wellingtons he refused to let me borrow.

When we reached the fence line, Jonathan pulled a wooden mallet out from his belt, although I didn't remember seeing it before, and stood in front of the fence. I held onto the sign, out of the way of Jonathan and his mallet, and watched as he whacked the sign with the mallet hard enough for it to sink into the earth next to the fence. Once it had been buried deep enough, he stepped back.

"I think it looks great," Jonathan said, tucking the mallet back into his belt.

"Me too."

"You did a good job on this one and I'm sure Father would agree with me if he were to see it." Jonathan grabbed his arm over my shoulders and pulled me into a sideways hug. "You did good, kiddo. The farm's finally starting to come back to life and it's all because of you."

"It's been a team effort, I think."

I looked away so he wouldn't see me blush. I didn't like the idea of taking all the credit for the difference in the farm, especially since it had been all of us and not just me. We had all done our part to get the farm up to working order in just a few months and even the house looked brand new compared to the gloomy house that I had seen when I first arrived.

"If you want to be modest about it." Jonathan laughed. "Come on, let's get back to the house. I'm starving."

"We had breakfast an hour ago."

"Exactly, and an hour is a long time."

Jonathan laughed once more and removed his arm from around my shoulder. Together, we started back up the track and towards the farmhouse for Christmas lunch. Before the sign faded out of sight, Jonathan glanced back and I could see the slight trace of a smile on his mouth at even the distant sight of the sign.

I had a lot to thank Alec for. 

~~~

A/N - We're back with Chapter Twenty-Five! I still don't know how long this is going to be xD

Questions! Who do you think left the present for Sybil?

Let me know!

First Published - September 1st, 2021