A Christmas Promise by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

secret things. We could look there. If ’e got ’ome wif it, ’e’d a put it there.”
    Gracie thought it unlikely that poor Alf hadever reached his home, but it would be silly not to at least try. There might be something else that would give them a clue.
    Minnie Maude stood up and went back to the ladder.
    Gracie’s stomach clenched at the thought of going down it again. It would be even worse than going up. She watched Minnie Maude’s hands on the uprights. She was holding on, but her knuckles were not white. She moved as easily as if it were a perfectly ordinary staircase. Gracie would have to do the same. If Minnie Maude knew she was afraid, how could the little girl have any confidence in her? How could she feel any better, and believe Gracie could fight real evil, if she couldn’t even go backward down a rickety ladder?
    “Are yer comin’?” Minnie Maude called from the stable floor.
    There was a flurry of wings, and another pigeon landed and strutted across the floor, looking at Gracie curiously.
    “Yeah,” Gracie answered, and gritted her teeth. Tucking her skirt up, she went down the steps with barely a hesitation.
    “This way,” Minnie Maude said, and started across the floor, kicking the straw out of the way with her scuffed boots. There was a half archway leading into another room where bales of straw were stacked on one side, and harnesses hung on hooks on the wall on the other side.
    “They’re extra,” Minnie Maude said, swallowing back a sudden rush of tears. “Yer always need extra pieces, in case summink gets broke. Charlie’ll ’ave the real harness on ’im.”
    Gracie looked at the worn leather, the old brasses polished thin, the rings, buckles, and bits, and felt the overwhelming loss wash over her. These were like the clothes of a person who was missing, maybe even hurt or dead. She stared at the objects, trying to think of something to say, and she noticed the scars on the whitewash of the wall. It looked as if somebody had banged againstit, and then drawn something sharp for a couple of inches, digging into the stone. The white of the lime covering it was cut through and flaking.
    She turned slowly. Minnie Maude was staring at it too.
    Gracie’s eyes went to the floor. It was flat cement, uneven, half-covered now with loose pieces of hay from the bales. There were more scuff marks, scratches, and brown stains, as if something wet had been spilled, and then stood in. Whatever it was had been smeared. Perhaps someone had slipped.
    “Gracie…,” Minnie Maude whispered, putting out her hand. “Summink bad ’appened ’ere.”
    She was cold when Gracie touched her. Gracie meant to hold Minnie Maude’s hand gently, but found she was gripping, squashing Minnie Maude’s thin little fingers. It did not even occur to her to lie. This was not the time or the place for it.
    “I know.” She thought of telling her that itmight not have been Charlie’s blood, but it didn’t need saying. Somebody had been hurt here.
    “Gold’s precious,” Minnie Maude went on. “Lot o’ money. But it must a bin more ’n that, eh?”
    “Yeah,” Gracie agreed. “Summink inside it.”
    “A present for God?”
    “Mebbe.”
    “Wot d’yer give God, then? In’t ’e already got everyfink’?” Minnie Maude asked.
    Gracie shook her head. “I dunno. Mebbe it in’t fer ’im.”
    Minnie Maude’s eyes widened. “I never thought o’ that. Wot d’yer think it could be?”
    “It must be summink very precious,” Gracie replied. “And I think we gotta find it.”
    “Yeah.” Minnie Maude nodded vigorously. “We ’ave.”
    Minnie Maude turned toward the door just as it flew open and Stan strode in, broad, bowlegged, his face twisted with anger.
    “Wot yer doin’ in ’ere, missie?” he demanded of Minnie Maude. Then, swinging around to Gracie, he said, “An’ you don’t belong ’ere neither! Leave! Out of ’ere!” He waved his arms as though to force them out.
    Minnie Maude stood as