“I will,” she assured him as they drew up in front of the door. It opened and Joshua came down the step and across the grass to the trap to assist her. “I shall have the best Christmas of my life,” she went on, still speaking to Zachary. “I am beginning to understand what it truly means.”
“Welcome home, Mama-in-law,” Joshua said with surprise lifting his eyebrows. He gave her his arm and she alighted.
“Thank you, Joshua.” She smiled at him. “Happy Christmas, my dear. I have wonderful things to tell you, brave and beautiful things, when I can think how to find words for them. About hope and honor, and what love really means. Your aunt Maude was a very wonderful woman. She has given me the greatest gift of all—an understanding of Christmas itself.”
“Yes, I see that,” Joshua said with sudden conviction. “It is perfectly plain. Happy Christmas, Mama-in-law.”
To all those who are still
hoping and still learning
BY ANNE PERRY
(published by The Random House Publishing Group)
FEATURING WILLIAM MONK
The Face of a Stranger
The Silent Cry
A Dangerous Mourning
A Breach of Promise
Defend and Betray
The Twisted Root
A Sudden, Fearful Death
Slaves of Obsession
The Sins of the Wolf
Funeral in Blue
Cain His Brother
Death of a Stranger
Weighed in the Balance
The Shifting Tide
FEATURING CHARLOTTE AND THOMAS PITT
The Cater Street Hangman
Farriers’ Lane
Callander Square
The Hyde Park Headsman
Paragon Walk
Traitors Gate
Resurrection Row
Pentecost Alley
Bluegate Fields
Ashworth Hall
Rutland Place
Brunswick Gardens
Death in the Devil’s Acre
Bedford Square
Cardington Crescent
Half Moon Street
Silence in Hanover Close
The Whitechapel Conspiracy
Bethlehem Road
Southampton Row
Highgate Rise
Seven Dials
Belgrave Square
Long Spoon Lane
THE WORLD WAR I NOVELS
No Graves As Yet
Angels in the Gloom
Shoulder the Sky
THE CHRISTMAS NOVELS
A Christmas Journey
A Christmas Guest
A Christmas Visitor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANNE PERRY is the bestselling author of No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, and Angels in the Gloom; two earlier holiday novels, A Christmas Journey and A Christmas Visitor; and two acclaimed series set in Victorian England. Her most recent William Monk novels are Death of a Stranger and The Shifting Tide. The popular novels featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt include Southampton Row, Seven Dials, and Long Spoon Lane. Her short story “Heroes” won an Edgar Award. Anne Perry lives in Scotland. Visit her website at www.anneperry.net.
A Christmas Guest is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2005 by Anne Perry
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perry, Anne.
A Christmas guest : a novel / Anne Perry.
p. cm.
1. Women detectives—France—Loire River Valley—Fiction. 2. Loire River Valley (France)—Fiction. 3. British—France—Fiction. 4. Grandmothers—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6066.E693C468 2005
813′.54—dc22
2005046476
www.ballantinebooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-345-48600-4
v3.0_r1