“The dog looks for you,” the minister complained to Alinor as she went past him. “He sits in the church porch and looks for you.”

“He does not harm, he’s a good dog, my brother’s dog.”

“People remark it,” he said.

“It means nothing,” Alinor said quickly. “Just a dog missing his master.”

“It’s ungodly how he attends to you,” the man complained.

“I’ll leave him at home next Sunday. I apologize. He’s pining for my brother.”

“Is Edward still in London?” the minister asked.

“Yes, sir,” she said, glad to change from the dangerous topic of a loyal animal, a familiar.

“He wanted to be with his old regiment in these important times, I suppose?”

“That was his plan.”

“Godly work,” he said. “Witness to the end of days.”

“Yes,” Alinor said. “He’s very devout. Praise the Lord.”

She curtseyed to him and then went to the squire’s household. Alinor curtseyed to Sir William and to Walter and then kissed Rob. “Happy Christmas,” she whispered to him.

“You’d better come back to the Priory,” Mrs. Wheatley invited her. “We’re going to be having a good dinner: Christmas or no Christmas.”

“Do come,” Rob supplemented.

“I’d better not,” Alinor said. “My brother wouldn’t like it. And Alys has to keep the ferry.”

“Just come for dinner,” Rob urged her. “I’ll come back with you and work the ferry on the evening tide.”

“Do let’s,” said Alys.

“Oh, very well,” Alinor said. “But we have to get back to the ferry for high tide this afternoon. You know that Christmas is not a holiday anymore.”

“It is at the Priory,” Rob whispered to her. “We keep to the old ways. You should see what Mrs. Wheatley has been cooking!”

Alinor took his arm and they walked side by side after the Peachey household towards the big house, Red trotting behind them, his tail waving like a standard.

“This’ll be my one and only Christmas at the Priory,” Rob reminded her. “Next year, I’ll be at Chichester.”

“And I’ll be married,” Alys chimed in from her mother’s other side.

Alinor, happy to be between her two children, hugged Rob’s arm, took Alys’s hand, and wondered where she would be next year, and if she would be walking to church with James carrying their child.

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS, DECEMBER 1648

James spent his Christmas at The Hague with the advisors to the Prince of Wales, trying to convince them that they should not rely upon the king making an escape to avoid a trial.

“Why not? It is his wish,” one of the lords said impatiently to James. There were ten of them seated around a big wooden table. Too many, James thought: ten men who would pass on every word of this conversation to their wives, their servants, their mistresses, and their children. They had once ruled a country—they could not resist demonstrating their importance.

One of them leaned forward. “Once His Majesty believed our enemies might be brought to an agreement. Now we know they are completely false, so he is ready to leave. You have delivered our instructions? Our men are all working together, preparing escape?”