‘It was modelling, not sculpture. Have you seen the bust?’
‘Yes, but not to any real advantage. I didn’t have time. Anyway, I thought they had put it on too high a shelf to show it off properly.’
‘Oh, that’s my aunt Opal. No artistic sense whatsoever. Perhaps she wanted it out of sight, out of mind. Still, it’s not a bad likeness, is it?’
‘From what I saw, I should call it an excellent likeness,’ said Laura. ‘What did you mean when you said old Mr van Zestien caught you picking his pocket?’
Florian laughed and grimaced.
‘He always keeps some of his best diamonds in the house. I’ve often thought of helping myself to a few, but always lacked the nerve. That business of Binnie entangling herself with that cad Bernardo, and the obvious good it was going to do them with the old man, made me see red, though, and I decided that if I couldn’t get my hooks on his dough in one way, I’d get it in another. I didn’t see why I shouldn’t help myself to some of what, after all, was my own.’
‘Oh, dear!’ said Laura; not that she felt any pity for Florian. ‘I’m afraid you’ve messed things up rather badly for yourself.’
‘Unfortunately you’re right. The old man caught me in the act, absolutely red-handed, and took the discovery in a very big way, so I made tracks for Grandma and the aunts and decided to remain away from Norfolk until the thing blew over and Granduncle’s natural affection for me reasserted itself.’
‘Well, that process seems well on the way. I understand now why he was so upset and ill. You let him down with a pretty heavy thud, didn’t you?’
Florian did not answer this. He said:
‘Once the bust and the picture were finished, I cut loose from the aunts. Now I think I shall hang on here for a bit and wait for Time, the great healer, to put in some really good work. Then I’ll do a prodigal son act, and go back (I hope) to the fatted calf and the welcome home.’
‘Who is this girl you took with you to look at the Eldon Hole?’ asked Gavin suddenly. Florian did not appear to be surprised by the question.
‘Oh, more or less the local beauty queen,’ he replied. ‘Name of Gertie Something-or-Other.’
‘A tart?’
‘Good heavens, no! Virtuous as they come, unfortunately. Her boy-friend kicked up rough, and so I’ve dropped her.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
No Stone Unturned
‘His relations will thank you for any such gratuitous attention: at least they will not blame you for any evil that will happen, whether they thank you or not for any good.’
« ^ »
Gavin returned to his job and Laura reported to Dame Beatrice, who communicated the news forthwith to Florian’s relatives.
‘So he isn’t dead,
‘Why did I ever think he might be dead?’ Laura enquired.
‘The indications seemed to you to point that way, child. They may soon do so again, for all I know. One thing seems to me sinister.’
‘Cheers! What would that be?’
‘His aunt Opal’s infatuation. It is abnormal, and, I think, unnatural.’
‘And somebody else may not like it. Well, that might be Ruby or it might be Binnen. I suppose, at a longish shot, it could even be Binnie.’
‘Then there is the bust. You said it had been placed on a high shelf.’
‘So high that I had to stand on tip-toe to get a squint at it before Professor Sweyn lifted it down. They can’t value it much to stick it almost out of sight.’
‘How was the room lighted?’
‘One window, and somebody had draped a black curtain over half of it.’
‘On a high shelf in a half-lighted room, in fact.’
‘The
‘Such is my impression. And she, you remember, wanted to turn her young courtier’s head to gold, with the Midas touch.’
‘What can we do about it?’
‘Until we are certain who the “queen” is, and whether, like the Queen in the poem, she expresses a wish which she has neither the means nor the intention of carrying out, or whether she has decided to allow the bust to take the place of the living being, there is very little we can do. It would be fantastic even to warn the young man.’
