"Done!" I exclaimed, dropping the paintbrush onto the worktop and backing away with my hands up.

"Finally. That was a little too much of a close call for me." Alec laughed.

"Hey, I still have a few hours to spare!"

"It's Christmas Eve, Syb. You're lucky you were even allowed to come here this morning."

"It took a lot of begging. And I mean, a lot."

Alec laughed and shook his head, pushing himself off the door frame to get a look at the now completed sign. He had done nothing but stand in the corner and watch me panic since I arrived at the workshop two hours before, although I would have refused his help. I watched him stare down at the sign and chew on the inside of his cheek, something he always did when thinking. He nodded his head and smiled, a clear sign that he approved of my work.

I didn't think I would be able to get the thing done in time since I still had some staining to do and the day before Alex had been pretty adamant that Barbara wouldn't let me go down to the Thompson farm. She had been forced to relent after I got on my hands and knees, literally, and begged her with a promise that I would be back in a few hours. Jonathan also joined in and eventually she had given me three hours to complete the sign before I had to be back. Two hours later, and it was ready to go.

I knew I had Alec to thank for the sign being completed in time. If he hadn't finished chiselling the letters for me, it never would have been finished and I'd be handing over an unfinished Christmas present which didn't feel fair. Neither of us had mentioned what he had done and I didn't want to mention it unless he did, but Alec appeared to be rather humble about the whole thing. I wanted to ask him why he did it, but maybe it really was as simple as him wanting to help.

Eva's comment made it impossible for me to believe that Alec's motives were purely about our friendship.

"Are you just about done in here?" Mr Thompson asked, appearing at the doorway of the workshop.

"Yes, officially finished," I said.

"It looks good." Mr Thompson smiled. "Come on, I'll give you a ride back. Alec, are you coming?"

"Yes! You can use the dust sheet to cover the sign if you don't want Mr Goodwin to see it."

"Probably for the best." I laughed. "Jonathan had been trying to guess what it is for two weeks; he has yet to be successful."

"He's always been impatient. When we were growing up, he used to find his Christmas presents and shake them to try and figure out what they were. Once, he broke something."

"Do you have any other stories about Jonathan when he was younger?"

Mr Thompson nodded. "I have plenty."

With a laugh, I grabbed the dust sheet Alec and pointed to and draped it over the sign but I had to be extra careful with the work I had done that morning so I didn't end up ruining the whole thing. Once it had been covered, I followed Alec and Mr Thompson to the tractor outside which had a wicker basket sitting in the wagon. I'm sure I saw the basket move, but I didn't say anything as I slid the sign into the back and then scrambled onto it with Alec following me.

We settled into the wagon and soon we were trundling off down the path. Like most days over the past few weeks, dark clouds lingered in the sky and a biting wind that darted around us and caused goosebumps to form up under my coat. There had been no sign of snow, but an awful lot of rain that made it almost impossible to walk anywhere without getting covered in mud. I would go off to complete my morning chores and end up with mud splattered up my slacks. Barbara had accepted that I would be spending the next few months covered in mud.

The basket in the wagon with Alec and me moved more than once during the journey but I put it down to the movement of the wagon rather than anything else. That thought quickly dissipated from my mind when it continued to rock even after we had stopped moving. It looked like it had a mind of its own or that it was alive.

"You know the basket is moving, right?" I said to Alec when I climbed off the back of the wagon.

"Yes, I do."

"Do I want to ask why?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Alec grinned and shuffled off the back of the wagon, slipping a little on the mud and I had to fight back a snarky comment. Mr Thompson climbed off the front of the tractor and walked around to the wagon where he grabbed the basket and fought to keep it steady. If there was something inside the basket, it really didn't want to be in there much longer and the entire basket started to rattle in Mr Thompson's arms.

When I entered the house, I made a quick dash upstairs to deposit the sign under my bed so that Jonathan wouldn't see it. He tried to take a peek under the dust sheet before I managed to dodge past him and, thankfully, Mr Thompson and Alec acted as a distraction and I could slip past without him seeing something he shouldn't have. Once it had been hidden, I returned to the living room where the basket had been placed on the sofa and continued to move. Jonathan looked up at me when he heard me coming down the stairs and Alec continued to grin like he knew something I didn't.

"We know Christmas isn't until tomorrow, but we decided it would be better to do this today rather than tomorrow," Jonathan said. "This isn't a present from us, but one from Mr Thompson and Alec."

"Alright," I said, a little unsure about what was happening.

"Come and sit down next to the basket and we'll show you just what it is."

I frowned and walked around the sofa to take a seat next to the basket that continued to move and even made the occasional noise. There was definitely something alive in the basket and it really wanted to get out. Jonathan nodded and gestured to the basket which I took as a sign that I could open it and find out what had been so desperate to escape.

Opening up the top of the basket, a small black and white face appeared, climbing up at the side and trying to find a way out. Words failed me and I reached in and grabbed the puppy, lifting it out of the basket and sitting it on my lap where it sniffed and moved around to try and get a better understanding of its surroundings. I had never seen anything so small in my life.

"Rabbit had puppies a few weeks ago and Jonathan said that he wanted to make your first Christmas away from home and your parents special. What's more special than a puppy?" Mr Thompson said.

"It's a girl, by the way," Alec said. He walked around the back of the sofa and leaned over to give the puppy a scratch behind the ears.

"And she's all mine?"

Jonathan nodded. "All yours. You can name her and we've agreed that she can sleep on your bed if she wants to."

"That also means it is your responsibility to ensure she is housetrained and doesn't end up chewing apart my furniture." Barbara gave me a pointed look.

"I will, I promise." I smiled and turned to Mr Thompson. "Thank you so much. This is probably the best Christmas present I've ever been given."

"You're welcome, Sybil. Every farm needs a sheepdog and I'm sure you'll take excellent care of the puppy.

"What are you going to call her?" Alec asked. She can't be referred to as 'Puppy' for her entire life."

"I think we need to uphold tradition." Alec frowned at me. "Goose. We can name her Goose."

"Goose, the daughter of Rabbit. I love it."

"I get the feeling we might regret this decision," Mr Thompson said.

Jonathan laughed and walked towards me, moving the basket and placing it on the floor so he could sit down. He reached over and started to scratch Goose behind the ears, smiling at the sight of the puppy as she started to climb towards him in her quest to smell everything she possibly could and learn more about her new surroundings. The feeling of her walking across my legs tickled and I had to fight back a laugh.

Mr Thompson and Alec left not long after with a promise that they would bring over some of Rabbit's toys so that Goose had something to play and chew that wasn't the furniture. Before they left, I could have sworn I saw Alec stop to place something under our Christmas tree which we had set up in front of the window. I tried not to think anything of it and decided that he probably dropped something that he had to pick up rather than believing that he had got me something for Christmas, other than a puppy.

I sat there with Goose on my lap, her nose moving constantly and her eyes darting around at any sudden movement. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think that I would get a dog let alone a puppy and one that would be my own. Nothing would make up for me being away from home, but a puppy certainly made it one of the best Christmases I would have ever had and I looked forward to watching her grow and to her help out with my farm chores.

"She is a sweet thing," Barbara said, but she made no attempt to fuss her.

"I'll keep her out of trouble, I promise," I said.

"We know you will. One of the reasons we agreed to let Mr Thompson give you the puppy was to give you something to put your energy into once the work on the farm is done. None of us knows how long this war will go on for and we didn't want you to sit idle."

"Mum's reaction will be interesting. She always said that we would never have a pet because of how much mess they created and she didn't trust me enough to look after it."

"Well, this is your chance to prove her wrong. You can make Goose the best-behaved sheepdog in the area. It'll be hard work, mind."

"I know it will and I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

Barbara smiled and then headed off to the kitchen to prepare some sandwiches for lunch. I knew taking care of Goose on my own was going to be hard, but I was more than willing to accept the challenge. Goose would give me a distraction from the war unfolding on the Continent and my worry about both Mum and Dad. She would be something I could focus on rather than war or being away from home and walking her would allow me more opportunities to go into the village on my own.

I spent the rest of the day with Goose sitting on my lap. She continued to sniff around for about an hour before all that sniffing got the better of her and she curled up on my lap to go to sleep. Jonathan found the whole thing to be rather funny and decided that Mr Thompson giving me Goose must have been destiny since she seemed so comfortable around me and had already decided that I was a good place to sleep.

That night, we attended a midnight Christmas service at the church to mark the celebration. I had to leave Goose asleep in the wicker basket that she had arrived in, part of me felt like a mother abandoning their child, but she seemed happy to just sleep. When we bowed our hair in private prayer during the service, I made sure to mention the safety of Dad whilst he was at sea and Mum since she would be spending the holiday season alone and I wanted her to be happy.

When we got back from church, I climbed into bed with Goose settled in the basket since we thought she would be too small to sit on my bed. I ended up falling asleep with a smile on my face.

~~~

A/N - New Chapter is here! I haven't written any new ones offline yet, been planning my route a little so I know this might be a long one xD

Questions! Do you think it was Alec's idea to give Sybil the puppy? Thoughts on the name?

Comment below!

First Published - August 25th, 2021