Hilda brought Annabelle in as they finished. “If you’d like, I’ll take Annabelle upstairs and see if she might go down for a short nap before dinner. Or at least have some quiet time. She might be up late tonight, waiting for Santa.”

“I want Mommy to do it,” Annabelle said.

Kate smiled at her. “How about if I come up and help you pick out some books?”

“Okay,” Annabelle said quietly.

They trudged up the stairs, Annabelle clinging to Kate’s hand. Her poor baby was feeling the effects of all this stress. Kate pushed the door open and turned on the light. “Okay, sweetie, pick some books out for Miss Hilda to read, and I’ll come check on you in a bit.” Annabelle ran to her bookshelf and started pulling out books. As Kate turned, a bottle of cough medicine sitting on Annabelle’s dresser caught her eye. “Hilda, what is this doing here?”

Hilda looked at the bottle and then back at Kate, her eyes growing wide. “You gave her some this morning, remember?”

Kate could barely contain her anger. “I put it back in the medicine cabinet. I would never leave it here, where she could get to it.”

Hilda shrugged. “I know you wouldn’t leave it there deliberately. Maybe you meant to do it and got distracted?”

“And you didn’t see it before now and think maybe it should be removed from my daughter’s reach?”

Hilda stood with her mouth agape for a moment, her eyes moving to Annabelle, who was watching them from across the room. “I’m sorry, Kate. I didn’t notice it there. I would have certainly put it away if I’d seen it. I’ll take care of it now.”

Shaking her head, Kate picked up the bottle herself and took it to the bathroom, where she put it back on the top shelf. There was no way she would have forgotten to put medicine away. She felt the heat rush to her cheeks. She hadn’t forgotten it. Someone had put it there, either to put Annabelle in danger or to make her think she was losing it. Maybe Hilda. She could have wanted to get back at Kate for embarrassing her about the raw eggs. No, that was ridiculous, Hilda would never hurt Annabelle. Could Kate really be so distracted that she could have thought she’d put it away but forgotten?

Maybe Simon did it. He’d been making insinuations about her state of mind a lot lately. She’d watch him more carefully. She went back downstairs, trying to push away the cloud of worry descending upon her. She found Blaire in the kitchen, making tea for them. “My father is coming at five thirty, so we’ll have dinner around six or so. Hopefully Simon will be home soon.”

“Where is Simon?” Blaire asked. “Don’t most companies close, or at least close early, on Christmas Eve?”