Anne Perry - A Christmas Guest

Bedelia would be provided for, waited on, but starved of friendship or admiration. No one would care how beautiful she had been, or how clever. She would be alone, a woman unloved.

At a glance, that was a gentler punishment than trial, and possibly the gallows, or possibly a verdict of innocence. But it would be more certain, and far, far longer. She would taste it for the rest of her life.

But the others would be happy, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Grandmama stopped shaking and sat still, slowly beginning to smile, even if there was sadness in it, and pity.

In the morning Zachary drove her back through the deepening snow to St. Mary in the Marsh. He did not speak much, but she felt a great certainty that he had at last realized that Agnes was not a paler, second-best version of Bedelia, but a kinder if less brave person, a gentler, more generous one, who might now, at last, find the courage to be the best. And she had always truly loved him.

“Thank you, Mrs. Ellison,” he said as the trap rounded the last corner through the dazzling snow and she saw Joshua and Caroline’s house blazing with lights.

“I hope you will be happy,” she replied, meaning it far more than the simple words could convey.

“I … I understand why you and Maude were such good friends,” he said earnestly. “Even in so short a time. You are like her. You have such courage to tell the truth, however difficult, and such joy for life. I am amazed at your compassion for even the weakest of us. I imagine you will have a wonderful Christmas, because you will make it so. But I wish it for you just the same.”

“I will,” she assured him as they drew up in front of the door. It opened and Joshua came down the step and across the grass to the trap to assist her. “I shall have the best Christmas of my life,” she went on, still speaking to Zachary. “I am beginning to understand what it truly means.”

“Welcome home, Mama-in-law,” Joshua said with surprise lifting his eyebrows. He gave her his arm and she alighted.

“Thank you, Joshua.” She smiled at him. “Happy Christmas, my dear. I have wonderful things to tell you, brave and beautiful things, when I can think how to find words for them. About hope and honor, and what love really means. Your aunt Maude was a very wonderful woman. She has given me the greatest gift of all—an understanding of Christmas itself.”

“Yes, I see that,” Joshua said with sudden conviction. “It is perfectly plain. Happy Christmas, Mama-in-law.”

To all those who are still

hoping and still learning

BY ANNE PERRY

(published by The Random House Publishing Group)

FEATURING WILLIAM MONK

The Face of a Stranger

The Silent Cry

A Dangerous Mourning

A Breach of Promise

Defend and Betray

The Twisted Root

A Sudden, Fearful Death

Slaves of Obsession

The Sins of the Wolf

Funeral in Blue

Cain His Brother

Death of a Stranger

Weighed in the Balance

The Shifting Tide

FEATURING CHARLOTTE AND THOMAS PITT

The Cater Street Hangman

Farriers’ Lane

Callander Square

The Hyde Park Headsman

Paragon Walk

Traitors Gate

Resurrection Row

Pentecost Alley

Bluegate Fields

Ashworth Hall

Rutland Place

Brunswick Gardens

Death in the Devil’s Acre

Bedford Square

Cardington Crescent

Half Moon Street

Silence in Hanover Close

The Whitechapel Conspiracy

Bethlehem Road

Southampton Row

Highgate Rise

Seven Dials

Belgrave Square

Long Spoon Lane

THE WORLD WAR I NOVELS

No Graves As Yet

Angels in the Gloom

Shoulder the Sky

THE CHRISTMAS NOVELS

A Christmas Journey

A Christmas Guest

A Christmas Visitor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANNE PERRY is the bestselling author of No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, and Angels in the Gloom ; two earlier holiday novels, A Christmas Journey and A Christmas Visitor ; and two acclaimed series set in Victorian England. Her most recent William Monk novels are Death of a Stranger and The Shifting Tide . The popular novels featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt include Southampton Row, Seven Dials, and Long Spoon Lane . Her short story “Heroes” won an Edgar Award. Anne Perry lives in Scotland. Visit her website at www.anneperry.net.

A Christmas Guest is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2005 by Anne Perry

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Perry, Anne.

A Christmas guest : a novel / Anne Perry.

p. cm.

1. Women detectives—France—Loire River Valley—Fiction. 2. Loire River Valley (France)—Fiction. 3. British—France—Fiction. 4. Grandmothers—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6066.E693C468 2005

813′.54—dc22

2005046476

www.ballantinebooks.com

eISBN: 978-0-345-48600-4

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