Anne Perry s Christmas Mysteries Page 0,59

on the boots, wrapped herself around in her cloak, and set out, her mind so filled with pity she scarcely noticed either the cold or the way the deep snow dragged at her feet.

***

"Heart attack I expect, poor man," Dr. Fitzpatrick told her, coming back up the steps and closing the cellar door behind him. The cat and dog had come upstairs again, persuaded with some difficulty, and were now sitting side by side in front of the kitchen stove. "Only comfort is he probably felt very little," Fitzpatrick went on. He was a fussy man with a large mustache. "Are you all right, Mrs. Corde? Horrible experience for you. What on earth were you doing down there?"

She had already explained to him, or she thought she had. Perhaps she had been more incoherent than she supposed. "I went to fill the coke scuttle, and the cat came, too, and then I couldn't find her."

He nodded. "Smelled something, I suppose. Or perhaps just after the mice." He held up his coal-smeared hands.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized quickly. "Please come into the kitchen and wash, and perhaps you'd like a cup of tea?" She glanced down at his trouser legs, sodden where the snow on them had melted in the warmth of the house, then her own heavy, wet skirts.

"Yes," he said with alacrity. "Thank you."

She busied herself with water in the kettle, warming the teapot, fetching milk from a very chilly pantry, and offering him a slice of cake, which he made an excuse for accepting as well.

"I'll take care of the arrangements," he said with his mouth full. "I daresay they won't be able to hold a funeral for a few days, considering the weather and what the bishop might care to do, but I'll have the body removed and all the appropriate registrations dealt with. You don't need to concern yourself, Mrs. Corde. I will take care of it all. And I would be obliged if you would speak of this to no one yet. There is a proper order of things, which we must observe."

"Thank you." She felt relieved, but more than a little sad. It was a lonely and undignified way to go. Not that she supposed he was more than briefly aware of it. He had lived well, very well, and in the end that was all that mattered. "Thank you," she repeated. "No doubt my husband will be in touch with the bishop. He may...he may wish us to remain a little longer." She realized as she said the words how much she hoped that he would-a lot longer, perhaps always.

It was ten minutes later with the doctor on his second cup of tea when Dominic came in, slamming the front door behind him and striding down the hall, shedding snow everywhere. "Clarice!" he called urgently, fear edging his voice sharply. "Clarice!"

She came to the door immediately and almost ran into him. His coat was wet, his face whipped red by the cold, his eyes frightened. As soon as he saw her he was flooded with relief. "Someone told me you sent for the doctor urgently. What is it? Were they wrong?"

She could not help smiling. It was wonderful, and still faintly surprising to her, that he should care so intensely. "I'm perfectly well," she said, almost all the shiver gone out of her voice. "I went for coke in the cellar and the cat got into another cellar beyond. I found the vicar's body. The poor man must have gone down there and had a heart attack. I felt the doctor was the best person to inform." She met his eyes, looking to see if he understood what she had done.

He was momentarily shocked. "Dead? The Reverend Wynter? You mean he has been down there all the time?"

"Yes. Don't look like that," she added gently. She touched his hand. "There was nothing we could have done for him."

The doctor drank the last of his tea and came into the hall.

"Fitzpatrick," he said, introducing himself. "You must be the Reverend Corde. Sad thing to happen. So sorry your poor wife had to be the one to find him." He shook his head. "But I'll take care of all the details. Perhaps you'd just give me a hand to carry the poor old man up the steps, then I can fetch the blacksmith's cart and have him taken away. My trap is rather too small, you know."

"Yes, of course," Dominic replied quickly, beginning to take