Tis The Season for Secrets (Village of Yule #2)

17. Juliet

T he next day, Juliet watched the sunset from her small kitchen and decided to take the opportunity to search the house while Diana worked on dinner with Beth. Will had left after breakfast to run some errands, which she hadn’t asked about; she wasn’t sure she wanted to know more about his guardian duties for fear of breaking yet another rule. Since she’d spent the day helping Beth wrap presents for her friends, this was her only chance to snoop before Will came back for dinner.

Her dad’s office on the second floor was locked. Luckily for her, he was a man of habit and kept the key above the family portrait on the wall opposite the stairs. Not that anyone would dare enter his office without his approval, and she’d never been so bold – until now.

In the grotesquely maroon office, her phone rang. Cursing herself for not silencing it, she answered before the sound made its way down the hall. The problem with big houses was that they loved to echo, and she’d barely managed to sneak past Beth and Diana on her way upstairs.

“Margot! Sorry, can I call you back? I’m in the middle of something,” she whispered, closing the door with a soft click. She pressed the phone to her ear with her shoulder, searching the papers on her father’s desk to no avail. Not that he would keep information about skeletons in the Frost family closet out in the open.

“No problem. I just wanted to check in. I just got in from seeing Harvey. We went ice skating and then to a Christmas market. Talked for hours– I think I might keep this one.” Margot’s smile could be heard in each word; Juliet didn’t think her friend had ever sounded so giddy, though it was difficult to concentrate while she was crawling on her hands and knees on the Persian rug that concealed the family safe.

“Got it!” she exclaimed, staring at the safe after flipping up the carpet.

“Are you alright?”

“I was looking for something. What were you saying?” It wouldn’t be long before she’d be called for dinner. She needed to hurry, but she didn’t know the safe’s password.

“Harvey mentioned Will is spending the holidays with your family. I didn’t believe him, but he was certain. Should I be worried this guy is a little obsessed with you?” Margot chuckled in disbelief.

If only she knew just how obsessed. “Dad invited him – business connections and stuff. He arrived a couple of hours before me. He was making cookies with Beth and Di when I arrived,” Juliet told her as she tried birthdays, anniversaries, and other important family dates. Nothing worked.

“I should’ve gone with you. Are you sure your dad isn’t trying to set you up again?”

Juliet snorted at the irony. Given her father’s history with guardians, if her father knew who Will really was, he’d make sure they never saw each other again. The thought caused a sudden ache in her chest.

“I can handle Will and my dad’s schemes,” she said. The last thing she needed was Margot turning up and complicating the matter further. “If you’d come, you wouldn’t have had your date with Harvey.”

Perhaps Dad used a date no one would know… It hit her like a bucket of cold water. The date he met Mom! She screwed up her face, trying to remember the date her mom’s letter had mentioned, then typed 22-12-95 .

The door on the safe clicked. Yes!

“Once I get through the season, I’ll come straight home, and you can tell me everything about Harvey.” She let out a sigh of relief as she pulled out the contents of the safe.

“I can’t wait to see you, but give Will a chance. He might just make the season more enjoyable. If he’s willing to spend the holidays with your family, he might be a keeper,” Margot pointed out.

Juliet barely heard her, too distracted by the file concealed within a manila envelope marked with the Christmas tree sigil that was becoming all too familiar.

“I really have to call you back,” she said hastily, and promised she’d call later before hanging up.

Inside the envelope, she found the original letter her grandfather had sent her mom. The letter in the chest must’ve been a copy her Nana Rose had made. What hadn’t been in the chest was her birth certificate. Juliet ran her fingers over her name and her mom’s signature. It was the closest she’d ever been to the woman who’d given her up.

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, not wanting to stain the official document. In the right-hand corner, a red stamp read Citizen in Banishment by order of the Council of Yule . This document and the banishment papers in the chest were the only evidence of what both worlds wanted to conceal. Seeing her father’s signature right by her mom’s was everything she needed to confront him, but today wasn’t the day. She wasn’t going to ruin the holidays for her sister.

She turned on the printer behind the desk, watching Yule’s golden seal shine through the back of the document as it copied.

“What are you doing in here?” Will snapped.

Juliet spun around to find him standing in the doorway. I should’ve locked the door behind me. She hurried over and pulled it closed before they were overheard.

Will stumbled on the overturned rug as he came towards her. He glared at it, then the documents on the floor by the open safe. “I guess that answers my question.”

“Did anyone see you come up here?” Juliet hissed, wanting to distract him, but the printer interrupted with a beep. She winced.

“No, I was on my way to my room when I heard someone walking around. I thought your dad had come home early.” Will reached around her and removed the evidence from the paper tray. “I see you’ve been doing your own research.”

“I had to find something concrete, and since you said I can’t reveal the stolen chest, I figured I can tell him that Nana Rose left me a letter about Yule and Mom, and I can use this birth certificate to confront him without using the chest. This way Dad can’t say Nana Rose or my mom are lying. My birth certificate with Yule’s official stamp can’t be refuted.” She removed the original and turned off the printer, careful not to leave any trace of her presence.

“Okay, you have your evidence. Now let’s get out of here before we’re found snooping,” Will said, pacing by the door. Juliet enjoyed seeing him unsettled – nervous, even. It made a change from her being the one driven up the wall.

“You can leave. I’ll be downstairs in a minute.” She carefully folded the photocopy into her back pocket before putting the documents back and sealing the safe, only to hesitate when she spotted a red envelope dated before her grandfather’s response to her mom.

“You shouldn’t take any originals in case your father checks when he gets home,” Will warned.

“I’ll return it before he comes back,” Juliet reasoned, but the way his eyes darted to the letter made her think that he didn’t want her reading it. Did Mom warn him to conceal certain letters? She didn’t care either way; she had to know what her mom had written to her grandfather before deciding to give her up for good.

Before Will could argue, they both froze at voices in the hallway.

“Did you hear something?” Diana’s voice was barely audible through the thick door. With Will distracted, Juliet slipped the red envelope into her back pocket.

“Maybe Dad came back early?” Beth suggested.

Their footsteps grew louder as Will and Juliet stared at each other in horror.

“Mr Frost?” Diana knocked on the door to the office. The doorknob turned.

Before Juliet could think, Will wrapped his arms around her.

“What are you—?” But she didn’t get to finish her sentence before the room around them melted away.