Blood on the Water

by Anne Perry

  Wilbraham lunged forward, knocking Monk aside, but he did not stop and strike at him with the knife in his hand. Instead he ran onward toward Hester, knife blade gleaming for an instant in the sun.

  A gunshot rang out.

  Wilbraham froze.

  Monk turned to see Ossett standing with a pistol raised in his hands, pointing toward Monk’s chest. He had his back to the sun and the burnished river mud of slack tide. Wilbraham was balanced on the edge of the shingle, yards from Hester.

  There was no sound but the faint ripple of the water.

  Wilbraham took a step toward Hester, the knife blade raised again.

  “Take him,” he said to his father. “I’ll take her.”

  Very steadily, Ossett raised the barrel of the pistol as if it were of immense weight, and moved his aim from Monk to Wilbraham.

  Wilbraham stood smiling. He barely had time to register surprise when the bullet hit him between the eyes. He crumpled into the slick, shining mud, which almost immediately, as if it had been waiting for him, began to suck him down.

  Monk lurched forward and struck the gun from Ossett’s hands. Then he hesitated, filled with a scorching pity, not knowing what to do. How could he attack a man in such agony?

  Hester was running toward him, tears of relief streaming down her face.

  Ossett shook his head. “You don’t need to shackle me. I have a debt to pay. I shall not evade it. I have lied to myself far too long. It is the end.” He began to walk blindly up the shingle toward the edge of the road.

  Monk stood on the shore in the waning light and held Hester so close, at any other time he might have feared hurting her. Now, at this moment, nothing could be close enough.

  To Victoria Zackheim,

  for her unfailing friendship.

  By Anne Perry

  FEATURING WILLIAM MONK

  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

  A Sunless Sea

  Blind Justice

  Blood on the Water

  FEATURING CHARLOTTE AND THOMAS PITT

  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

  Midnight at Marble Arch

  Death on Blackheath

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ANNE PERRY is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including Blind Justice and A Sunless Sea, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including Death on Blackheath and Midnight at Marble Arch. She is also the author of five World War I novels, as well as twelve Christmas novels, including the upcoming A New York Christmas. She lives in Scotland.

  WWW.ANNEPERRY.CO.UK