A Christmas Tree Mystery: Bunny Elder Series

By J.B. Hawker

Bunny's fans have been wondering what she's been up to since sailing off on a "happily-ever-after" honeymoon with the love of her life, Max. (Readers of The First Ladies Club series may have seen a few hints in Bunny's frequent cameo appearances.)

 

In this sweet holiday novella, we learn that not everything has been smooth sailing for Bunny. She approaches this Christmas with sadness. Will she be able to ever find joy again in the season?

 

Christmas can be a magical time. However, despite the music, decorations, gifts, and festivities, the Holiday Season can be a sad time of year for some people. This is the case for twice-widowed Bunny Elder Banks. Since the tragic death of her second husband, Max, Bunny has been unable to rise above her profound grief.

 

Hoping to experience a more spiritual holiday, Bunny retreats to her vacation cabin in the mountains of coastal Oregon, where she is jolted out of her doldrums by the mysterious arrival of a gaily decorated eight-foot tall Christmas tree.The tree arrives with no explanation or clue to who sent it. This extravagant anonymous gift becomes the catalyst to a magical holiday full of surprises.Her curiosity aroused, Bunny begins to reach out, renewing old friendships and making new ones.

 

When an injured dog appears on her doorstep one snowy night needing Bunny's help, she forgets to feel sorry for herself as she tries to discover who has abused this animal.

 

Join Bunny as she tries to solve these two mysteries and finds new joy in Christmas along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.B. Hawker
• Release date: Nov 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393853558

J.B. Hawker

Raised in the northern end of the Sacramento Valley in California, J.B.Hawker's early life was framed by mountain ranges. While her physical vistas were bounded on almost every side, her imagination was free to soar without limits. "I've made up stories my whole life," said Hawker when interviewed. "While other children might need a flashlight to read under the covers after bedtime, I simply made up my own stories, many of which lasted multiple nights, having intricate details and characters drawn both from my life and my imagination." After twenty years serving small churches from Alaska to South Dakota as a pastor's wife, she returned to her California roots to start over in mid-life as a single business woman and author. J.B. has published many articles on faith and ministry as well as programming materials for women's ministry. "Hollow" the first book in the Bunny Elder series and winner of the BRAG Medallion Award, was her first published fiction. J.B. has three grown sons. Her oldest, the father of her three beautiful granddaughters, lives in northern Italy, the setting of the second book in the series, "Vain Pursuits", featuring the on-going adventures of Bunny and Max. "Seadrift" takes Bunny to the Oregon coast where their story continues. "...and Something Blue" concludes this series with Bunny and her new husband sailing off to Australia and, as usual, drifting into a series of inadvertent adventures.  

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

BUNNY ELDER BANKS BLINKED her puffy, gritty eyelids, and squinted against the bright winter sunlight streaming into the loft from the floor-to-ceiling window in the great room below.

She yawned and stretched. Muscles still cramped from the long flight from her home in Houston complained at this rude awakening.

With a groan, she swung her feet out of bed and dug her bare toes into the nap of the fluffy lambskin rug, seeking warmth in the cold room.

Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she peered around the bright space and questioned her decision to buy this A-frame chalet in the woods near the small seaside town of Bannoch, Oregon. That uncurtained window wall lost much of its charm when letting harsh morning light disturb her sleep.

She ran her fingers through her fading dark blond curls and pushed herself out of bed, shivering.

A gust of wind swayed the firs and pine trees surrounding the cabin. Clumps of snow fell from the branches onto the still dark forest floor where they joined ragged drifts lurking in the shadows.

Looking at the dismal scene, Bunny frowned as she put on her robe and slippers.

She’d come here from her modern high-rise condo in Texas hoping an old-fashioned white Christmas would lift her out of the doldrums.

She needed inspiration to finish what her publisher hoped would be another bestselling thriller. In the past she’d scoffed at the idea of writer’s block, but this latest work wasn’t flowing like her others. The prospect of writing yet another thriller based on a true-life crime didn’t excite her. 

She was suffering from a lack of motivation. She wondered if she would feel more inspired if she really needed the royalties. Fortunately for Bunny, but unfortunately for her writing, money was no longer an issue.

When her second husband, Max, a successful businessman, had died, Bunny accepted an offer from his partners to buy her out. It was a shock to learn how much her share was worth. 

After spending most of her life pinching pennies, it was hard for Bunny to adjust to being embarrassingly well off. 

Max's death in a plane crash left Bunny devastated and no amount of money eased her pain. However, this windfall had enabled her to indulge a life-long dream of becoming a novelist.

After the fog of pain finally began to lift, she’d plunged into writing to fill her grief-shadowed days, never expecting anything to come of it. When her first book found a publisher, it seemed like a fluke. When it hit the best seller charts, she’d been stunned.

Bunny rode the momentum through several more popular novels, but lately the thrill had worn off. She wondered why she should keep slogging away at a life she no longer enjoyed.

Bunny’s roots were in the Northwest. She had moved to Texas after marrying Max because his business was there. She stayed in Houston after he died mostly from inertia.

Bunny married Max, the first time, as teenagers but they soon divorced. Years later Max and Bunny got back together not long after Bunny’s second husband, Eustace, died.

Bunny had been vulnerable and still off balance from Eustace’s murder when Max began to woo her. After a rocky time getting acquainted in middle-age, they had remarried.

Only a few short, delightful months passed before an airplane accident took Max away from Bunny, again.

Since his death, Bunny had kept herself busy writing and dabbling in Houston society's charitable projects, but busyness couldn’t fill the hole in her life.

Christmas was her most painful season.

Bunny usually spent the holiday with her sisters, Linda and Jean, and their growing families.

As this winter approached, Bunny knew she couldn’t face another get-together with all her sisters’ children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The happy family hubbub only highlighted her own loneliness.

Linda and Jean had never approved of Max. They thought Bunny was better off without him; a sentiment that even his death didn’t prevent them from expressing. They were less than supportive of their little sister’s continuing grief.

This year Bunny begged off the annual visit, telling her sisters that she was invited to share Christmas with friends in Bannoch, although that wasn’t entirely true.

If any of her friends had known Bunny was coming, they would have made room in their plans for her, she was pretty sure. However, her feeling of estrangement from the festive season made her reluctant to impose herself on her friends’ private family holiday traditions. She couldn't take a chance of feeling like an intruder with these dear old friends, too.

Bunny made up her mind. If she had to feel alone, she might as well be alone. She would get away from the Houston social life, her family celebrations, and all the usual holiday distractions. She would spend a private Christmas, all by herself, focusing on the true meaning of the day.

There was enough joy to be found in the historical and spiritual aspects being celebrated to make even a solitary Christmas merry. Wasn’t there?

Arriving at the cabin she’d been elated to find it just as she had imagined, with deep snow on the ground and sunshine sparkling in the crisp, cold mountain air.

Filled with enthusiasm, Bunny cut greenery from the trees on her land and hung a wreath on the door. 

Cedar boughs and sprigs of holly berries arranged in a vase on the fireplace mantle wafted the aroma of Christmas throughout the cabin.

Satisfied with her efforts and convinced that coming to the cabin was just what she needed, she'd slept soundly that first night.

Bunny managed to maintain an almost manic cheerfulness until the weather changed. 

Now, her upbeat mood seemed to be melting along with the snow. She’d even abandoned the idea of digging out the small chainsaw she kept in the storage shed to cut a little Christmas tree.

She had planned to decorate the tree with ornaments she'd make from pinecones and other natural materials found around her cabin.

With her emotions mirroring the dreary weather, she couldn't see the point of going to all that effort when there was no one to share it with. Christmas couldn't ever be the same without Max.

This morning, Bunny dressed in one of the new outdoorsy outfits she’d bought expressly for this trip, thinking the cheerful red sweater and dark green slacks would create a happy holiday mood.

Not finding much cheer in the clothes on this day, she was still grateful for their warmth as she poked up the fire in the great room.

She’d forgotten to arrange to have the pilot light lit in her furnace, so although she had electricity, she needed to keep the fireplace going.

The way she was feeling this morning, she didn't need to call someone to light the furnace for her, after all, because she probably wouldn’t be staying long.

While standing at the kitchen counter nibbling on a piece of toast and sipping coffee, Bunny admitted to herself that this trip had been another mistake.

She had planned to linger at least through New Year's Day to finish writing her book. Now she wasn't so sure. For months she had been toying with the idea of giving up the Houston condo and relocating to Bannoch, but this morning she was unsure of what to do. She felt edgy and off-kilter and slightly sick to her stomach. She