“How, exactly, did the three of you know so much about the circumstances?” I asked.
“Annalise told us,” Henry said.
“She did, but that’s not how we learned about it all,” Tom said.
“Don’t tell them!” Henry warned.
“Tell us what?” Colin asked.
“Nothing, Papa, there’s nothing to tell,” Henry said.
“You forget, old chap, that I spent a good portion of my boyhood in this house. I know all about the servants’ passages and how useful they are for eavesdropping.”
“We never meant—” Henry started.
“It’s only that—” Richard continued.
“We ought not have done it,” Tom finished.
Colin laughed. “No, you ought not have.”
The door to the dining room opened and Davis stepped into the corridor. “Dinner is served, madam.” Henry raced in front of me toward the table, but I held him back, reminding him that little gentlemen would do well to take note of the order of precedence.
“I don’t like anything about being a little gentleman,” he muttered, no doubt thinking I couldn’t hear.
“Much of it is silly beyond measure, I agree,” I said. His eyes grew as wide as the full moon. “But one does have to go along with a certain amount of it. Your father will teach you the ins and outs, so you know what you can ignore. The order of precedence, unfortunately, is something one can’t ignore, no matter how ridiculous one believes it is.”
“Mama, I—”
“Oh, look!” Richard called, coming in behind Henry and me. “More crackers!”
Sure enough, there on the long table were three Christmas crackers, one on each of the boys’ plates.
“May we open them, Papa?” Tom asked, still on his father’s shoulders.
“You may,” Colin said, lowering the boy to the ground. “But take your seats first.”
“Why don’t you go first, Tom?” Henry looked at his brother.
“Thank you.” He lifted his cracker and held one end out to Henry. They pulled, sweets, a crown, and a motto spilling onto the table. Tom read the motto before reaching for the sweets. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
“A lovely sentiment for the season,” I said.
“Richard, you go next,” Henry said.
Tom helped pull the cracker. Richard gathered up his sweets and put them in his pocket before reading his motto. “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
“May I?” Henry asked, lifting his cracker from his plate. I nodded. He and Richard pulled it open. Henry carefully unfolded the paper crown, placed it on his head, and handed the motto to me. “You can read it, Mama.”
“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another.” I glanced up at Davis, who was standing against the wall. “Who delivered these crackers?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know, madam,” Davis said. “They were left in a parcel on the front stoop.”
“Then it could have been Father Christmas, couldn’t it, Davis?” Tom asked. “I’m certain it was. He knows we’re still in town.”
“I suppose, so, Master Tomaso,” Davis said.
“Settle down now, all of you,” Colin said. “I want my dinner.”
* * *
Later that evening, long after the boys had gone to bed, Colin and I were sitting in the library, talking about the crackers. “I truly thought they had to do with the case,” I said. “That perhaps Mr. Jones had made them in an effort to keep us from losing hope and giving up.”
“He is the sort who might do something that whimsical,” Colin said. “But if that were the case, why deliver them to the boys? For all he knew, they’d be opened in the nursery and we’d never hear anything about them.”
“And if they were from him, why deliver more after everything was done and dusted?” I asked. “Unless he had set their delivery in motion before he knew that we had found Annalise?”
“You know…” Colin picked up one of the mottos. “When I was a boy, William and I received mysterious crackers one year. They weren’t ordinary crackers—the mottos were handwritten. I never doubted for an instant that they came from anyone but Father Christmas. Thinking on it now, though…” He stood up, grabbed my hand, and led me upstairs, all the way to the nursery, but not through its door. Instead, he turned and followed the corridor to the left and knocked. Nanny opened her door without delay.
“It took you long enough, Master Nicholas,” she said.
“You only called me that when I’d done something wrong,” Colin said.
“I’m having grave doubts about your investigative skills.”
“You made the crackers, just as you did for William and me.”
She smiled. “I find that sometimes children require a bit of instruction before the holidays and I’ve always believed in the efficacy of a well-placed Bible verse. But now, it’s far too late for you to be up and about. Off to bed with you. Go!” She disappeared back into her room and closed the door.
“We mustn’t disobey Nanny,” Colin said, turning to me. “To bed, at once.”
I laughed, but let him guide me down the stairs and into our own room, where we found two more Christmas crackers, on our pillows. Together we pulled the one resting on my side.
“We’re adults, so we don’t have to wait for the sweets,” I said, opening one and handing it to my husband, who popped it in his mouth. I put the paper crown on my head and then read the motto. “Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”
We tugged on the second cracker. This time, Colin fed me a sweet and balanced the crown on his head. “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.” He touched my cheek. “It seems Nanny realizes I need no instruction, but only wanted to remind us both how much I adore you. My life would be nothing without you. Happy Christmas, Emily, my darling love.”
By the time we returned to Anglemore Park and the twenty-fifth had arrived, the boys were back to arguing, the dogs had tracked mud through the house, and the snow had turned to rain. Still, I cannot recall a more perfect Christmas in all my life.
Also by Tasha Alexander
And Only to Deceive
A Poisoned Season
A Fatal Waltz
Tears of Pearl
Dangerous to Know
A Crimson Warning
Death in the Floating City
Behind the Shattered Glass
The Counterfeit Heiress
The Adventuress
A Terrible Beauty
Death in St. Petersburg
Uneasy Lies the Crown
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
About the Author
TASHA ALEXANDER, the daughter of two philosophy professors, studied English Literature and Medieval History at the University of Notre Dame. She and her husband, novelist Andrew Grant, live on a ranch in southeastern Wyoming.
Visit her website at www.tashaalexander.com, or sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
St. Martin’s Press ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Also by Tasha Alexander
About
the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR. Copyright © 2019 by Tasha Alexander. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover photographs: El Vino’s, Fleet Street (oil on canvas), Barrow, Julian (1939-2013) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images; snow © MrVander/Shutterstock.com
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
ISBN 978-1-250-75125-6 (ebook)
First Edition: November 2019
eISBN 9781250751256
First eBook edition: September 2019
Upon the Midnight Clear Page 7
