Dorchester Terrace (48 page)
Read Dorchester Terrace Online
Authors: Anne Perry
The first man gaped, then turned very slowly to Narraway.
Narraway looked at him, his eyebrows slightly raised.
“Quite right, Ponsonby,” he said. “He is precisely who he says he is, and the facts are as he states. Be a good chap and get everyone out of here while we have someone clear this up, will you?”
When they were gone, too numb with shock to argue, Narraway closed the door.
“Well done, Pitt,” he said quietly. “It’ll hurt like hell. You’ll dream about it as long as you live, but that’s the price of leadership, making the gray decisions. Black-and-white ones are easy; any fool can deal with those. You’ll have to live with it, but if you hadn’t done it, you would have had to live with every grief that followed because of it.” He smiled very slightly. “I always knew you’d do it.”
“No, you didn’t,” Pitt replied, his voice hoarse.
Narraway shrugged. “I believed it more than you did. That’s good enough.” Then he smiled and held out his hand.
Pitt took it, and held it, hard.
“Thank you.” Simple words, but he had never meant them more.
To Donald Maass
and Lisa Rector-Maass
for their friendship and
help over the years
Y
A
NNE
P
ERRY
(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
Acceptable Loss
F
EATURING
C
HARLOTTE AND
T
HOMAS
P
ITT
The Cater Street Hangman
Callander Square
Paragon Walk
Resurrection Row
Bluegate Fields
Rutland Place
Death in the Devil’s Acre
Cardington Crescent
Silence in Hanover Close
Bethlehem Road
Farriers’ Lane
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
Treason at Lisson Grove
Dorchester Terrace
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
A Christmas Homecoming
T
HE
W
ORLD
W
AR
I N
OVELS
No Graves As Yet
Shoulder the Sky
Angels in the Gloom
At Some Disputed Barricade
We Shall Not Sleep
A
NNE
P
ERRY
is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, most recently
Dorchester Terrace
and
Treason at Lisson Grove
, and the William Monk novels, including
Acceptable Loss
and
Execution Dock
. She is also the author of the World War I novels
No Graves As Yet
,
Shoulder the Sky
,
Angels in the Gloom
,
At Some Disputed Barricade
, and
We Shall Not Sleep
, as well as ten Christmas novels, most recently
A Christmas Homecoming
. Her stand-alone novel
The Sheen on the Silk
, set in the Byzantine Empire, was a
New York Times
bestseller. Anne Perry lives in Scotland.