A Christmas Message by Anne Perry

Author:Anne Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

They slept deeply for what remained of the night, then after a light breakfast they set out in the dawn. There was a brief discussion as to whether Vespasia could manage a horse herself. She gave the impertinent man a look that should have frozen the sweat on his skin, and was permitted a gentle mare, which she accepted with more grace than she felt. She had ridden since she was a child, and very well.

They left the huge estate and rode out along a worn and level track that nevertheless quickly disappeared into sand and loose shale. The air was cold and smelled of stone and dust, with a faint aroma of bitter herbs. It was exhilarating, as if it held a promise of something utterly new. Vespasia breathed in deeply, and felt herself smiling. She ought to have been exhausted still, but instead she was excited.

The dawn was pale in the east, giving enough light so no animal stumbled, but it was a delicate light, all bleached colors almost without substance. A slight wind stirred, shifting the dust between the stones, too soft to make any noise.

Then suddenly the sun rose above the horizon, brilliant, a white fire in the sky that painted the landscape with borrowed colors, purples and peaches and gold. Shadows were dark, umber, almost black. There was an illusion that one could see for miles, every rise and fall of the land, every buttress of rock or ancient, gnarled remnant of a tree.

The day took its own shape again. The air of new birth was swallowed up in the journey.

They began to talk. There was no longer any spell to be broken by conversation.

“Now there is daylight and we can see.” Haroun was the first to speak. He was riding beside Narraway and Vespasia, and ahead of Benedict. “Are we then equal, or does this star within give you power still?” He was smiling to rob the remark of offense, but there was curiosity in his voice.

Narraway chose to play it lightly. “I’m afraid not. We are still dependent on your grace to get us to Jerusalem. We owe you both our means of transport and our guidance. Away from the railway tracks we are blind.”

“But safe,” Haroun pointed out. “Your Watcher no longer knows where he can find you, nor could he vanquish you even if he did. Is that not better?”

“Certainly,” Narraway agreed. “Anything we could accomplish in Jerusalem is pointless, if we do not get there.”

Now Haroun’s smile showed his white teeth. “And you trust me to get you there! You are a man of great faith.”

Narraway was not a man to trust in faith at all, and Vespasia knew that. He was a man of deep knowledge and skill, adept at meticulous planning, and a great judge of men and their motives. He could hardly have led an organization like Special Branch, defending the country from its secret enemies within and without, were he to rely on faith of any sort.

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