Anne Perry - A Christmas Odyssey

BY ANNE PERRY
PUBLISHED BY THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP

The Sheen on the Silk

F EATURING W ILLIAM M ONK

The Face of a Stranger
A Dangerous Mourning
Defend and Betray
A Sudden, Fearful Death
The Sins of the Wolf
Cain His Brother
Weighed in the Balance
The Silent Cry
A Breach of Promise
The Twisted Root
Slaves of Obsession
Funeral in Blue
Death of a Stranger
The Shifting Tide
Dark Assassin
Execution Dock

F EATURING C HARLOTTE AND T HOMAS PITT

The Cater Street Hangman
Callander Square
Paragon Walk
Resurrection Row
Bluegate Fields
Rutland Place
Death in the Devils Acre
Cardington Crescent
Silence in Hanover Close
Bethlehem Road
Highgate Rise
Belgrave Square
Farriers Lane
The Hyde Park Headsman
Traitors Gate
Pentecost Alley
Ashworth Hall
Brunswick Gardens
Bedford Square
Half Moon Street
The Whitechapel Conspiracy
Southampton Row
Seven Dials
Long Spoon Lane
Buckingham Palace Gardens

T HE W ORLD W AR I N OVELS

No Graves As Yet
Shoulder the Sky
At Some Disputed Barricade
Angels in the Gloom
We Shall Not Sleep

T HE C HRISTMAS N OVELS

A Christmas Journey
A Christmas Visitor
A Christmas Guest
A Christmas Secret
A Christmas Beginning
A Christmas Grace
A Christmas Promise

A Christmas Odyssey is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2010 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.

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Perry, Anne.
A Christmas odyssey : a novel / Anne Perry.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52317-4
1. Fathers and sonsFiction. 2. PoliceEnglandLondonFiction. 3. MissingFiction. 4. Christmas stories. 5. London (England)Social conditions19th centuryFiction. I. Title.
PR6066.E693C4725 2010
823.914dc22 2010033239

www.ballantinebooks.com

246897531

v3.1

D edicated to all who look upward

H ENRY RATHBONE LEANED A LITTLE FARTHER forward in his armchair and regarded his visitor gravely. James Wentworth had an air of weariness in his face that made him look older than his sixty-odd years. There was something close to desperation in the way his hands fidgeted, clenching and unclenching on his knees.

What can I do? Henry asked gently.

Perhaps nothing, Wentworth answered. As he spoke, the logs in the fire settled deeper, sending up a shower of sparks. It was a bitter night, ten days before Christmas. Outside, the icy wind moaned in the eaves of this pleasant house on Primrose Hill. Beyond, the vast city of London prepared for holiday and feasting, carols, church bells, and parties. There was not long to wait now.

You say perhaps, Henry prompted him. So possibly there is something to be done. Let us at least try. He gave a brief smile. This is the season of hopesome believe, of miracles.

Do you? Wentworth asked. Would you pursue a miracle for me?

Henry looked at the weight of grief in his friends face. They had not met in more than a year, and it seemed that Wentworth had aged almost beyond recognition in that time.

Of course I would, Henry replied. I could not promise to catch it. I cannot even swear to you that I believe in such things.

Always honest, and so literal, Wentworth said with a ghost of amusement in his eyes.

Comes from being a mathematician, Henry answered. I cant help it. But I do believe there is more to be discovered or understood than the multitude of things that we now know all put together. We have barely tasted the realm of knowledge that lies waiting.

Wentworth nodded. I think that will suffice, he accepted. Do you remember my son, Lucien?

Of course. Henry remembered him vividly: a handsome young man, unusually charming. Far more than that, he was filled with an energy of mind and spirit, an insatiable hunger for life that made other people think of new horizons, even resurrect old dreams.

Pain filled Wentworths eyes again and he looked down, as if to keep some privacy, so as not to be so acutely readable.

About a year ago he began to frequent certain places in the West End where the entertainment was even more wild, self-indulgent than usual. There he met a young woman with whom he became obsessed. He gambled, he drank to excess, he tasted of many vices he had not even considered previously. There was an edge of violence and cruelty in his pursuits that was more than the normal indulgence of the stupidity of a young man, or the carelessness of those with no thought for consequences.

He stopped, but Henry had not interrupted him. The fire was burning low. He took two more logs from the basket and placed them on the embers, poking them to stir up the flames again.

Now he has disappeared. I have tried to look for him myself, Wentworth continued. But he evades me, going deeper into that world and the darkness of those who inhabit it. I I was angry in the beginning. It was such a waste of the talent and the promise he had. To begin with, when it was just overindulgence in drinking and gambling, I forgave him. I paid his debts and even saved him from prosecution. But then it grew far worse. He became violent. Had I gone on rescuing him, might I have given him to believe that there is no price to be paid for cruelty, or that self-destruction can be undone at a word, or a wish? His hands gripped each other, white-knuckled. Where does forgiveness eventually become a lie, no longer an issue of his healing but simply my refusal to face the truth?

I dont know, Henry said honestly. Perhaps we seldom do know, until we have passed the point. What would you like me to do?

Look for Lucien. If I go after him myself, I only drive him deeper into that terrible world. I am afraid that he will go beyond the place from where he could ever return, perhaps even to his death. He looked up, meeting Henrys eyes. I realize how much it is I ask of you, and that your chances of success may be slight. But he is my son. Nothing he does changes that. I deplore it, but I shall not cease loving him. Sometimes I wish I could; it would be so much easier.

Henry shook his head. Those of us who have loved dont need an explanation, and those of us who havent would not understand it. His smile was rueful, with a little self-mocking in it. I study science and logic, the beauty of mathematics. But without those things that are beyond explanation, such as courage, hope, and above all, love, there can be no joy. Im not even sure if there could be humor. And without laughter we lose proportion, perhaps in the end even humanity.