An Anne Perry Christmas_ Two Holiday Novels - Anne Perry [41]
His eyebrows rose in question. “Do you not trust her to keep the same silence for others that she wishes kept for herself?”
Again Vespasia felt the heat burn up her cheeks. “I'm not sure,” she confessed. “Mrs. Naylor deserves that silence, and Gwendolen needs it. There is no oath to bind her for that.”
He put his hand over hers for an instant, then offered her his arm.
“Shall we go in to dinner?”
The meal was rich and excellent. After the main courses were finished, and long before anyone could think of the ladies withdrawing, Omegus rose to his feet, and the talk ceased.
“My friends, we are met together this Christmas Eve in order to keep an oath that we made less than a month ago. We promised them that if Isobel Alvie were to travel to Scotland and find Gwendolen's mother, Mrs. Naylor, and give her Gwendolen's last letter, and should Mrs. Naylor be willing, accompany her back here, then we would wipe from our memory all knowledge of her remarks to Gwendolen on the night of her death. Her part of that oath has been fulfilled.”
“You expect us to take her word for that?” Fenton Twyford asked, his face twisted in sarcasm.
“Mrs. Naylor is here,” Omegus answered him. “If you have doubts of Isobel, or of me, then you may ask her.” He indicated Mrs. Naylor where she sat calm and dignified at the table.
Fenton Twyford turned to her, met an icy stare, and changed his mind. Then he became aware of his impertinence and blushed.
The flicker of a smile crossed Omegus's face. “It is now up to us to keep our part. Any man or woman who breaks it will cease to be known by the rest of us. We will not speak to them again, invite them to any event public or private, or in any way acknowledge their presence. They will have chosen to be a person whose honor is worthless. I cannot imagine anyone wishes to be such a… a creature. Mrs. Naylor has promised to be bound by the same code.” He turned to her.
“I have,” she said clearly. “And I wish to add to that what Mr. Jones does not know. Mrs. Alvie's part in my daughter's death was smaller than you or she are aware. It was simply the last straw added to a weight Gwendolen was already bearing, placed there by others, of which Mrs. Alvie had only a slight knowledge. I have no intention of telling you what burdens those were. It is better buried with her. Sufficient to say that it would be unjust for Mrs. Alvie to suffer more blame than she has—and which she has washed away by her acts toward me. It is over.”
Isobel turned to her, her eyes wide, her lips parted in astonishment and dawning anger. “You mean they were going to punish me—and I was only partly guilty?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Naylor agreed.
Isobel swung around to stare at Lady Warburton. “You would have ruined me, driven me into a wilderness from which I would never recover! And I wasn't even guilty! Not entirely…”
Lady Warburton quaked. “I didn't know!” she protested. “I thought you were!”
“You thought so yourself!” Blanche Twyford added. “You didn't deny it!”
“Yes, I did!” Isobel spat at her. “You gave no mercy!”
“That is true,” Omegus cut across her, his voice clear and insistent, undeniable. “And mercy, the gift to forgive, to wash away from the memory as if it had not happened, to accept the gift of God which is love and hope, courage to begin again in the faith that redemption is come into the world, is the meaning of Christmas. That is why we are met here today. It is why we deck the halls with holly, why the bells will ring tonight from village to village across the land until the earth and the sky are filled with their sound.” He turned to Isobel, waiting for her answer, not in words on her lips, but in her eyes.
She hesitated only a moment. “Of course,” she answered softly. “I have made my journey and arrived at Christmas, perhaps only at this moment. I shall be grateful all my life that you offered it to me, and to Vespasia for coming with me, when she had no need. How could I accept it for myself, and deny it to another?”
“It is everyone's journey,” Omegus said with a smile of utter sweetness. “No man