Overnight, the island had become a winter wonderland. The ground was piled deep with drifts, the trees were straight from fairy tales, and the snow was still falling in great fat flakes.

“Oh, no.” Christina hurried down to the kitchen, turned the heat up, and started boiling water for coffee. Usually falling snow lifted her spirits, but today Oscar was supposed to come to work.

Would Oscar Bittlesman actually come to the shop? Would he even be able to get to the wharf? She knew the DPW had probably plowed and sanded the roads, but the snow was falling fast. She didn’t think she’d have many customers today.

She checked her phone for missed messages. Nothing. She took her coffee and toast into the living room and sank onto the sofa to check out the weather on television. She could find the same information on her phone, but she liked to see the big picture on the big screen—was this a long lasting winter storm? They’d had several in the past few years.

And they had one now. Snow had fallen over the entire Northeast, shutting down the MBTA in Boston and turning the expressways into parking lots. The blizzard was barreling down from Canada, and it wasn’t going to stop any time soon. School was canceled all over Massachusetts, and in Nantucket.

Flicking off the television, she looked out her window at the street. It had been plowed, but her driveway was deep in drifts. The blanket of white was beautiful, but a giant hassle. Fortunately, she drove a four-wheel-drive Jeep that could roar down a sandy beach and would take on the snow easily.

But her shed would be cold.

She quickly showered and dressed for the day. As she slipped into her silk underwear and her fleece shirt, she wondered whether she should phone Oscar to tell him not to try to come in today. But that might insult him. She’d let him decide. She pulled on her fleece-lined boots and warmest gloves, shoved some extra gloves in her bag, and coated her mouth with lip balm. Mittens was still asleep in the middle of her bed.

“Tough life,” she said to the cat, who did not bother to open even one eye.

She dumped dry food in the cat bowl, pulled on her down coat, and set out into the snowy day.

She let her Jeep warm up as she scraped the windows free of snow and ice. By the time she got back into it, she was covered with snow herself. She put the car in reverse. It shuddered for a moment, then bucked like a horse and roared its way through the snow to the street.