Lucky's Grove by H R Wakefield

Christmas at Abingdale Hall. The great house decked in festive greenery, servants bustling, family gathering from across the country. And in the entrance hall, a magnificent Scots Pine—ten feet of perfect symmetry, branches heavy with the promise of celebration.

But the tree came from Lucky's Grove.

The estate manager is new. He doesn't know the local warnings. He doesn't know that some groves have been sacred since before Christianity reached these shores. He doesn't know that when you take a tree from such a place, something comes with it.

The guests arrive. The children play in the snow. The fires are lit, the table laid. Everything proceeds as it should. Almost.

There are accidents. Small things at first. A workman injured. Strange dreams that leave everyone unsettled at breakfast. A boy builds a snowman with a wolf's head and cannot explain why.

The gods of Lucky's Grove are patient. They have waited centuries. They can wait until Christmas Day.

*Publication Details*

"Lucky's Grove" by H. Russell Wakefield was first published in The Clock Strikes Twelve (Herbert Jenkins, 1940), later expanded by Arkham House in 1946.

*Author Biography*

Herbert Russell Wakefield (1888–1964) was an English writer whose atmospheric ghost stories earned him comparison to M. R. James. His fiction insisted on the reality of the supernatural, presenting hauntings with clinical precision and iron control over dread.

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