Anne Perry's Christmas Vigil by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

whirling like the wind.
    Minnie Maude waited, staring at her.
    â€œMagic don’t ’ave rules,” Gracie explained. “An’bad people can do it as well as good. It in’t always nice. Wot God does is always nice, even if it don’t look much like it at the time.”
    â€œÂ â€™Ow d’yer know?” Minnie Maude asked reasonably.
    Gracie was not going to be careful this time. “I dunno,” she admitted. “I jus’ know.”
    â€œIs it an ’oly casket?” Minnie Maude asked her.
    â€œWot would an ’oly casket be doin’ out in the street fer a rag an’ bone man ter pick up?” Gracie tried to put the conversation back into some kind of reality.
    â€œJesus were born in a stable,” Minnie Maude pointed out. “Like wot we’re in.”
    â€œThis is a dovecote,” Gracie replied.
    â€œIt’s a stable downstairs, cos Charlie lived in it.” Minnie Maude sniffed.
    Gracie felt an overwhelming helplessness. She longed to be able to comfort Minnie Maude, but did not know how to. “Yer right,” she agreed, avoiding Minnie Maude’s eyes. “I forgot that.”
    â€œMebbe 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.
    â€œWe gotta get it back,” Minnie Maude said, moving a little closer to Gracie. “Mebbe Christmas won’t ’appen if we don’t—”
    â€œCourse it’ll ’appen!” Gracie said instantly, her voice sharp, too positive.
    â€œWill 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.
    â€œYeah,” 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.”
    â€œIf they’re real bad, they might ’urt Charlie,” Minnie Maude said with a wobble in her voice.
    â€œWot 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?”
    â€œNuffink,” Minnie Maude answered straightaway. “They come after ’im an’ took it.”
    â€œThen 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