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

marching across the icy cobbles toward a thin man with a lantern jaw who was busy mending a broken window, replacing the small pane of glass, smiling as he worked, as if he knew a secret joke.
    “Mister?” Minnie Maude jogged his elbow to attract his attention.
    He looked at her, still smiling.
    Gracie caught up and glanced at the window. The old pane he had removed had a neat hole in it, round as the moon.
    “Wot’s yer name?” Minnie Maude asked.
    “They call me Paper John. Why?”
    “Yer bin ’ere afore?” Minnie Maude watched him intently. “Like three days ago, mebbe? I’m lookin’ fer where me uncle Alf were. ’e ’ad a cart, but wif a donkey, not an ’orse.”
    “Why?” The man was still smiling. “Yer lorst ’im?”
    “I lorst Charlie, ’e’s the donkey,” Minnie Maude explained. “Uncle Alf’s dead.”
    The smile vanished. “Sorry ter ’ear that.”
    “’e’s a rag an’ bone man,” Minnie Maude went on. “Least ’e were.”
    “This is Jimmy Quick’s patch,” the man told her.
    “I know. Uncle Alf did it fer ’im that day.”
    “I remember. ’e stopped and spoke ter me.”
    Minnie Maude’s eyes opened wide, and she blinked to stop the tears. “Did ’e? Wot’d ’e say?”
    “’e were singin’ some daft song about Spillikins and Dinah an’ a cup o’ cold poison, an’ ’e taught me the words of it. Said ’e’d teach me the rest if I got ’im a drink at the Rat and Parrot. I went, but ’e never turned up. I reckoned as ’e di’n’t know the rest, but I s’pose ’e were dead, poor devil.”
    Minnie Maude gulped. “’e knew ’em. ’e usedter sing it all, an’ ’Ol’ Uncle Tom Cobley’ an’ all too,” she said.
    “Oh, I know that one.” He hummed a few bars, and then a few more.
    Gracie found her throat tight too, and was angry with herself for letting it get in the way of asking the right questions. “Did ’e say as ’e’d picked up anyfink special?” she interrupted.
    The man looked at her curiously. “Like wot?”
    “Like anyfink,” she said sharply. “Summink wot weren’t just rags an’ old clothes and bits o’ fur or lace, an’ ol’ shoes or bones and stuff.”
    “Jus’ things wot nobody wanted,” the man said gently. “Bit o’ china wot was nice, four cups an’ saucers, a teapot wi’ no lid. ’e must a just ’ad a fit, fallen off. Could ’appen ter anyone. ’e weren’t no chicken.”
    “Yeah. I’m sure,” Gracie replied, but she wouldn’t have been if she had not seen the blood and the scratches at the stable, and if Stan hadnot been so angry. It was the prickle of evil in the air, not the facts that she could make sense of to someone else. “’e were killed.”
    The man pursed his lips. “Well ’e were fine when I saw ’im, an’ ’e di’n’t say nuffink.” He hesitated for a moment. “’e were late, though, fer this end o’ the way. Jimmy Quick’s round ’ere a couple of hours sooner…at least.”
    “Yer sure?” Gracie asked, puzzled. She did not know if it meant anything, but they had so little to grasp on to that everything could matter.
    “Course I’m sure,” the man replied. “Mebbe ’e were lorst. ’e was goin’ that way.” He pointed. “Or ’e forgot summink an’ went back on ’isself, like.”
    Gracie thanked him, and she and Minnie Maude continued along the way that he had indicated.
    “Wot’s ’e mean?” Minnie Maude said with a frown.
    “I dunno,” Gracie admitted, but she was worried. It was beginning to sound wrong already.Why would anyone change the way he went to pick up old things that people put out, even good things? She tried to keep the anxiety out of her face, but when she glanced sideways at Minnie Maude, she saw the reflection of the same fear in her pinched expression, and the tightness of her shoulders under the shawl.
    A couple of hundred yards farther on they found a girl selling ham sandwiches. She looked tired and cold, and Gracie felt faintly guilty