A Christmas Promise - Anne Perry [40]
Could that really be what Balthasar had wanted all the time—the gold casket, and the poisonous dreams inside it?
Balthasar looked at Stan as if he had oozed up out of the gutter. “I will give the opium back to those who gave it to you,” he replied icily. “To save your life—not because you deserve it, but it is still a life. I will tell them it was not your fault, you are incompetent, not dishonest. You would be well advised not to seek them out again. In fact, it would be to your advantage if they did not remember your name, or the place where you live.”
Stan stood with his mouth open, halfway between a gape and a sneer.
“As for the casket,” Balthasar continued, “I shall give that to Gracie and Minnie Maude. I think they have earned it, and its owner no longer has any use for it.” He glanced down at the toff, his face gaunt, oddly vacant now, as if his tortured spirit had left it behind.
“If you go immediately,” Balthasar went on, still speaking to Stan, “you may not be found to blame for this, and the police do not need to know that you were here. Nor do the gentlemen who deal in opium.”
“’ow do I know I can trust yer?” Stan asked, but the belligerence was gone from his face and he spoke quietly, as though he would have liked an answer he could cling on to, one to save his pride.
“You don’t,” Balthasar said simply. “But when the police do not trouble you, and you never see or hear from the opium dealers again, you will know then.”
Stan gave him the casket.
Balthasar opened it very carefully, but there was no secret catch to it, no needles to prick or poison. Inside was a fine silk bag full of powder, which he took. He put it into the pocket on the inside of his coat. Then he examined the box carefully, blew away any suggestion of powder or dust from every part of it, and wiped it with his handkerchief. He held it out to Gracie.
“I know that all you wanted was to save Minnie Maude, but I think you have earned this. You and Minnie Maude will decide what is best to do with it. But it is very precious. Do not show it to people or they may take it, although it has nothing inside it now.”
Gracie reached out slowly, afraid to touch it, afraid even more to hold it in her hands.
“Take it,” he repeated.
She shook her head, putting the tip of one finger gently on the shining surface. It was smooth, and not really cold. “It shouldn’t be fer me,” she said huskily.
“What would you like to do with it?” he asked.
“When I first ’eard about it, I thought it were a present—cos it’s Christmas. Yer know—like wot the Wise Men brought for Jesus.”
“Gold for the king, because He is king of all of us,” he agreed. “Frankincense because He is priest, and myrrh because He is the sacrifice that redeems all of us from the death of the soul. Is that what you would like to do with it?”
She nodded. “Yeah. But I don’t know ’ow. An’ it’s empty.”
“Christ will know what it cost you to get it,” he told her. “And it doesn’t matter a great deal where you go. Christmas is everywhere. But I do know of a place where some people are holding a very special Christmas Eve party, with a nativity scene. I can’t take you, because I have to get rid of this poison, back to the people who own it, before they find Stan and take their price in his blood. But I can show you the direction to go.”
“Wot’s that wot you said?”
“A nativity scene? It is people creating a little play, like the first Christmas all over again. It’s very special, very holy. Come.” He looked at Minnie Maude. “Are you able to come too? It has to be done tonight, because this is Christmas Eve. This is the night when it happened in the beginning and created a whole new age, an age of hope, and a new kind of love.”
Minnie Maude nodded slowly, gripping on to Gracie’s hand.
“Can you walk a little?” Balthasar asked anxiously. “I can get you a hansom cab to ride in, but you will still have to walk at the far end.”
“I in’t got no money fer