How Four Hundred Dollars on a Lancaster Diner Table Changed One Christmas Eve

“The motor lodge two miles down Route 30 charges twenty-five dollars a night.”

“Sixty dollars gets you two nights,” Nathaniel said.

“Then what?”

“Then I find work,” Martha said.

She looked straight at him, her eyes steady despite the sleet collecting on her coat collar.

“I’m a master finish contractor, Mr.

Whitmore.

I don’t take room and board out of pity.”