Anne Perry s Christmas Mysteries Page 0,44

visiting, but if he hasn't, I can tell you." She opened the sitting room door to show them a graceful room with a wide fireplace and bay window, and then closed the door again. "You'll be takin' all services reg'lar," she went on, walking quickly toward the kitchen. "An' you won't be wantin' the sexton, but if you do, he's first on the right on the Glebe Road. Grave digger's two down beyond."

"Thank you, Mrs. Wellbeloved." Dominic avoided meeting Clarice's eyes and answered with as straight a face as he could manage.

"I'll be in reg'lar for the heavy stuff, 'ceptin' Christmas Day, an' Boxin' Day, o' course," Mrs. Wellbeloved continued. "You'll have enough coal an' coke an' likely enough kindlin', but if you haven't you can go walk in the woods an' pick up plenty. Works best of all, if you dry it proper first. An' you'll walk Harry, too. I can't be doin' that."

"Harry?" Dominic asked, puzzled.

"Harry." She looked at him witheringly. "The dog! Didn't the vicar tell you about Harry? Retriever, he is. Good as gold, if you treat him right. An' Etta. But you don't need to do nothin' for her, 'cept scraps and stuff, an' milk. She'll fend for herself."

Clarice made a quick guess. "Etta's a cat?"

Mrs. Wellbeloved looked appeased for their ignorance. "Right good little mouser, she is. Plain as you like, but clever. Capture 'em all in the end." She said it with satisfaction, as if she identified with the animal and were in some oblique way describing herself as well.

Clarice could not help being amused. "I am sure we shall get along excellently. Thank you for showing us in. We shall have a cup of tea, and then unpack."

"There's everything you'll need for today," Mrs. Wellbeloved said, nodding. "Game pie in the pantry, an' plenty o' vegetables, such as there is this time o' year. You'll need onions. Vicar loved 'em. Hot onion soup best thing in the world for a cold, he said. Smells worse 'n whiskey, but at least you're sober." She gave Dominic a hard, level look.

He returned it unflinchingly, then slowly smiled.

Mrs. Wellbeloved grunted. A pink blush spread up her face, and she turned away. "Handsome is as handsome does," she muttered under her breath.

Clarice thanked her again and saw her to the door. She was ready to be alone in her new temporary home and take stock of things. But first she wanted a cup of tea. It had been a long journey, and it was close to the shortest day in the year. Storm clouds were looming up over the trees, and the light was fading.

The house was everything she could have hoped. It had charm and individuality. The furniture was all well used, but also well cared for. Nothing really matched, as if each piece had been gathered as opportunity arose, and yet nothing appeared to be out of place. Oak, mahogany, and walnut jostled together, and age had mellowed them all. Elizabethan carving did not clash with Georgian simplicity. Everything seemed to be useful, except for one small table with barley-twist legs, which was apparently there simply because it was liked.

The pictures on the walls were also obviously personal choices: a watercolor of Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast, rising out of the pale sands with the North Sea beyond; a Dutch scene of fishing boats; half a dozen pencil sketches of bare trees; more winter fields and trees in pen and ink. She found them remarkably restful; her eyes returned to them again and again. Upstairs she found another sketch, this time of the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey, bare columns and broken walls towering against the clouds.

"Look at this," she called to Dominic, who was carrying the last case up to the box room. "Isn't it lovely?"

He put the box away before coming to stand a little behind her, his arm around her shoulder. "Yes," he agreed, examining the picture carefully. "I like it very much." He peered at the signature. "It's his own! Did you see that?"

"His own?" she asked.

"The bishop told me he painted," he replied. "He didn't say how good he was, though. That has both power and grace to it. At least I think so. I'm looking forward to meeting him when he comes back."

She caught the edge of ruefulness in his voice. Those three weeks would go by too quickly, and then they would have to return to London, and the Reverend Spindlewood. Before that time he must somehow