Fern winced. ‘It came from a place of pain, that’s why. It was about losing Dad, something else taken away. It was about so much more than a missing quilt.’
Their dad had sat with his daughters every Sundaynight for movie night – pyjamas, popcorn and pillows, the three p’s he’d called it. One Sunday afternoon after he came home from a run and they’d been sitting with their mum in a circle, pulling together pieces of material for another project and talking about what to make next, he’d suggested they make a movie quilt for their movie nights. Daisy had said they’d never have it ready in three hours.They’d all laughed and said it wasn’t necessarily for that night. But they’d all fallen in love with the idea and so they’d made a start and in the weeks afterwards the sisters had committed their time to the task. They’d worked on it when they came home from school, they’d carried on at weekends, their dad supervising when Loretta was at the shop and laughing at his own inability to stitchanywhere near as well as his girls. But what he lacked in skill he made up for in enthusiasm. He’d had the idea to have each of their names embroidered onto a block in their favourite colour – lilac for Fern and her name stitched in white, emerald green for Ginny with her name stitched in gold, red for Daisy with her name stitched in bright yellow like the centre of the flower. Between them they’ddecided on the other blocks – some in solid colours, others with favourite patterns, and each of them had selected one that related to their favourite book. Loretta had ordered a lot of fabric into the shop to specifically make kids’ book-themed quilts and so they had their choice of material – Fern chose the one peppered with characters fromAlice in Wonderland, her favourite when she was reallylittle and before she moved on to more teenage reads, Ginny had opted for a Peter Rabbit design, the first book she’d been given as a gift one year and still treasured. Daisy had been a good reader from a very early age and although not quite up to speed reading the story herself had lovedCharlotte’s Weband so her choice of block was in a fabric covered with Wilbur and picket fences, spidershanging from their webs. Fern always insisted that block of the quilt was never near her when they sat in a row, all four of them, for movie night, as if the spiders might actually be real.
Their project was a success and by the end of it they had a quilt the size suited to fit over a double bed and plenty big enough to cover their laps as they sat in a row on the sofa to watch a movie. Fernwas much older than Daisy by then but none of them cared about age difference, Fern was always happy with a Disney movie, because it was about so much more than the film. They’d spend all of Sunday with their mother and she’d have Sunday nights to herself with a long, luxurious bubble bath while their dad took over with his daughters. The quilt had remained special to all three of the Chamberlainsisters. And when Daisy got into trouble one thing led to another and they never saw it again.
‘Grandad loved today,’ Fern smiled as they walked past Lantern Square to head for home. ‘And he’s going to love his Christmas quilt.’
Ginny couldn’t agree more but she was distracted when she spotted Lucas coming out of the post office. She upped her pace before her sister said hello to him, or worse,picked up on how uncomfortable Ginny felt around him.
Fern made an impromptu move, taking Ginny by surprise by linking her arm through Ginny’s. ‘This is nice, chatting properly.’ But she hadn’t finished. ‘And don’t think I didn’t spot Lucas. He’s so interested in you it’s not funny. He’s still single, by the way. You know, if you were wondering. It’s my big-sister duty to know these things. AndI’ve subtly been asking around town about the Abney boys.’
‘You’re shocking, you know that.’ But Ginny was grinning. She couldn’t deny it. Her feelings for Lucas Abney were still there and it would be easy to fall in love with him all over again.
The question was, did they really have a future together?
