A Very Selwick Christmas Read Online Free PDF

he were running away from her.

Chapter Three
    I saw three ships come sailing in,
    On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day,
    I saw three ships come sailing in,
    On Christmas Day in the morning.
    And what was in those ships all three?
    -- “I Saw Three Ships”
    The air was cooler in the hallway, away from the pressing heat of too many people, too many candles, and too much hot food all crammed into the same space. Funny, how even a room the size of a village green could feel crammed with enough people stuffed into it.
    That wasn"t it, though, was it? It wasn"t the number of people or the smell of the food or the glare of the candles. It was the expression on Amy"s face when she had made that comment about being stranded in England. Richard couldn"t remember the exact phrasing of it, but the meaning had been clear enough.
    It was maddening to know what she wanted and to be incapable of doing anything at all about it.
    Only that wasn"t quite honest, was it? He could do something about it. That was the worst of it. In the back of his mind lurked the niggling possibility that if Amy really wanted to go back to France, it could be arranged. The only person who knew of her complicity in his escape was the Assistant to the Minister of Police, and he had since been retired to a private institution on the outskirts of Paris—for a rest, as the official report went. Absolutely barking barmy, was the way Richard"s source had put it. With Delaroche out of the way, Amy"s path would be clear.
    Or it would have been, if she hadn"t married him. Marriage to the former Purple Gentian was a sure way to blight the career of a budding spy.
    Even so, she might manage it. Her brother was well-liked in Bonaparte"s court, her cousin received without a qualm. There were few people in Paris who would recognize her. She could pose as a cousin, a maid, anything she liked, rather than staying in rural seclusion in Sussex, yoked to a useless former member of His Majesty"s secret service, with nothing better to do than tell over the tales of his aging exploits by the crackle of the winter fire.
    Richard"s head thudded painfully.
    It took him a moment to realize the noise wasn"t entirely coming from inside his own skull.
    Heavy footfalls reverberated along the marble passageway behind him as a very large object propelled itself down the hallway with a vigor that made the statues shake in their niches.
    “I say! Hold up a moment!” Richard"s one-time best friend came skidding to a halt beside Richard.
    Not one-time. Long-time. He and Miles had been inseparable from Eton on, until Miles had had the temerity to marry Richard"s sister. Yet another upheaval in a year of upheavals.

    It had been pointed out to Richard, forcibly and repeatedly, by the various females in his family, that the choice had not been entirely Miles". Henrietta had had a hand in it, too.
    But it had still felt like a betrayal. A betrayal of whom, of what, and of why was not something that Richard felt like examining too closely. He had clung stubbornly to the mantra that Miles Should Have Known Better.
    “Known better than whom?” his mother had said, with a pointed look at him.
    That just made it worse. Just which one of them was her actual offspring? Miles might have been practically part of the family, but he was only so because Richard had brought him home, like a stray dog found begging at the kitchen door. He was supposed to be Richard"s dog—well, friend.
    At the moment, he looked more like a kicked dog, gearing up to dodge another blow. As he trotted along beside, Richard could see Miles watching him warily, gearing up for yet another rebuff. He had been administering a lot of those recently, hadn"t he?
    “Don"t look like that,” said Richard irritably. He hadn"t meant to say it irritably. It was just that everything seemed to come out that way these days. “I"m not going to bite.”
    “A fine way you have of showing it,” Miles said, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated way,