A Christmas Promise by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online

she agreed, avoiding Minnie Maude’s eyes. “I forgot that.”
    “Mebbe it’s a present?” Minnie Maude went on. “Mr. Balthasar’s a wise man. Yer said so. It could a got stole, an’ that’s why ’e knows about it. ’e said it were bad, I mean real bad. Ter steal from God, in’t that about as bad as yer can be?”
    Her logic was faultless. Gracie felt a chill run through her, as if some inner part of her had been touched by ice. She hugged her arms closer around her, and the pigeons cooing seemed louder, as though the birds too were afraid.
    “We gotta get it back,” Minnie Maude said, moving a little closer to Gracie. “Mebbe Christmas won’t ’appen if we don’t—”
    “Course it’ll ’appen!” Gracie said instantly, her voice sharp, too positive.
    “Will it?” Minnie Maude whispered. “Yer sure? Even if it were stole by someone wicked? I mean not just bad, but terrible … like …the devil?”
    Gracie had no opinion on that. It was something she had not even thought of. It was a child’s imagination, and she was old enough to face thereal problems in the world, like cold and hunger, illness, and how to pay for things. She had grown out of fairies and goblins a long time ago, about the time when she’d left the country and had come to live in London. But Minnie Maude was years younger, a child still. Her neck was so pale and slender it was surprising it could hold her head up, and not all her teeth were fully grown in. She believed in magic, good and bad, and in miracles. It would be like breaking a dream to tell her differently.
    “Yeah,” Gracie answered, her fingers crossed under the hay, where Minnie Maude couldn’t see them. “But if ’ooever took it is real bad, then we gotta be careful. We gotta think ’ard before we do anyfink daft.”
    “If they’re real bad, they might ’urt Charlie,” Minnie Maude said with a wobble in her voice.
    “Wot for? A sick donkey in’t no use. Bad in’t the same as stupid.” Gracie said it with far more conviction than she felt. She had to add somethingelse quickly, before Minnie Maude had time to argue. “If Uncle Alf took the box wot’s a casket, Mr. Balthasar said, then wot did ’e do with it?”
    “Nuffink,” Minnie Maude answered straightaway. “They come after ’im an’ took it.”
    “Then why’d they kill ’im?” Gracie said reasonably. “An’ why take Charlie and the cart? That’s stupid. Then they got a dead body, an’ a donkey an’ a cart wot’s stole. Fer what?” She shook her head with increasing conviction. “They di’n’t find the gold box, or they’d a left the cart. They took Charlie cos they ’ad ter take the cart an’ they couldn’t pull it without ’im.”
    “Why’d they kill Uncle Alf? ’e should a jus’ give it back ter ’em.”
    “I dunno. Mebbe they di’n’t mean ter,” Gracie suggested. “Mebbe ’e argued wif ’em, cos ’e wanted ter keep it.”
    Minnie Maude shook her head. “’e weren’t like that. Less, o’ course, ’e knew as they were wicked?” Minnie Maude blinked. “D’yer reckon as’e knew? ’e were wise. ’e knew when people told the truth an’ when they was lyin’, even strangers. An’ ’e could tell the time, an’ wot the weather were gonna do.”
    Gracie had no idea. She tried to visualize Uncle Alf from what Minnie Maude had told her, and all she could see was a man with white hair and blue eyes who liked to make children laugh, who did a favor for Jimmy Quick, and who kept his donkey in a warm stable that smelled of hay—and pigeons. What kind of person understood evil? Good people? Wise people? People who had faced it and come out hurt but had ultimately survived?
    “Mebbe,” she said at length. “If ’e ’ad it, an’ ’e knew wot it were, then wot’d ’e do wif it?”
    Minnie Maude thought about it for so long that Gracie had just about decided she was not going to answer, when finally she did. “’e ’ad a special place where ’e put