title: The Merry Christmas Murders: a collection of extremely strange, short stories
author:  Louise Ann Barton 
description: Louise Ann Barton is a master storyteller from a family of Cherokee master storytellers, an author, a poet, and a lecturer. She has an MA in business education, a minor in law, and a Master Gardeners Certification. She has authored both Web and newspaper articles, novels, short stories, flash fiction, poetry, childrens stories, and plays, edits musical CD inserts, and is a ghostwriter. After a lifetime as a New Yorker, this great grandmother retired to the New Jersey Pine Barrens with her faithful, feline companion.
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  ![Christmas_Knot_400x600](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  ![Christmas_Knot_100x150](../images/00002.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  THE CHRISTMAS KNOT
  
  
  
  
  
  A Slightly Gothic Regency Mystery Romance Novella
  
  
  
  
  
  BARBARA MONAJEM
  
  
  ![Christmas_Knot_100x150](../images/00002.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  The Christmas Knot © 2015 by Barbara Monajem
  
  
  
  
  
  All Rights Reserved.
  
  
  ![Christmas_Knot_100x150](../images/00002.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  CHAPTER ONE
  
  
  
  
  
  _Wanted: respectable, fearless widow to serve as governess to two children in
  remote Lancashire location. Spartan conditions, haunted house, fair pay.
  Inquire at the Duck’s Head, Rawden._
  
  
  
  
  
  As the stagecoach neared Rawden, Edwina White withdrew the advertisement from
  the agony column of _The Times_ and perused it again. Not that she needed
  to—she already knew it by heart.
  
  
  
  
  
  In her mind, she put check marks against the requirements, as she’d done many
  times before.
  
  
  
  
  
  Widow—yes.
  
  
  
  
  
  Fearless―no, not precisely. Desperate was a better word for it, but
  desperation breeds cou