On Jane went, sharing her secret. ‘I was sleeping down the children’s corridor and was woken suddenly in the middle of the night. My parents and Fergus’s had been to a party. I never liked staying here. This house frightened me as a child and when Fergus’s father came into my room, it terrified me.’
I felt a pang of guilt for drawing this out of her. But I now wanted to know more.
‘Poor you,’ I said. ‘What was he doing?’
‘It was an awful experience. I hid under the duvet as he made all sorts of noises, lifting a floorboard up.’
‘Didn’t he know you were in there?’
‘Too blotted to have a clue. He was an alcoholic, you know. The next day he treated me all normal. He never recalled a thing.’
Jane went on. ‘He was stuffing that,’ she pointed at the portrait, ‘necklace in and stamping down the board again.’
Wow. I had found a diamond for sure and it dawned on me that if Jane now knew what he was putting under the floorboard, she must have the necklace.
‘You’ve got the necklace?’
‘I came here to get my own back.’ Her voice was full of confidence again and I felt strangely flattered she’d told me the truth.
‘How did you know it would still be there?’
‘I was certain. I’ve never breathed a word about that night.’
‘So, it wasn’t stolen?’
‘As good as.’
‘But it wasn’t.’
‘Fergus doesn’t know that and don’t you go telling tales.’
‘It’s stealing.’
Crumbs, I’m an accessory-after-the-fact to a serious crime. What am I going to do?
‘Hush, girl. You don’t know the full story.’ Jane put her fingers to her lips at which point the bedroom door flew open. ‘Felicity! Susie was just leaving.’
‘I hope you had a good walk?’ I said.
Felicity’s hair needed a good brush.
‘Oh, we did, it was marvellous.’
I stepped out of the room, wondering why it had taken Jane so many years to return. And…I don’t want to believe it, but…did Jane use Felicity’s sob story as a way of securing her place on the course?
It’s not in my nature to snitch and if I told Zoe and Fergus about the necklace now, I would be doing just that. Jane’s right, I don’t know the full story…yet.
Louis was last through the music room door and I told him to tag his easel on the end of the semi-circle around the still life.
Where on earth am I going to drum up the energy to get through this?
‘Susie,’ said Rupert. ‘Why don’t I make some space and move my easel in front of the window there.’
‘No.’
‘That’s me told.’
‘Oh, sorry, but you’ll get in the way of the light falling on the objects. I want it very bright on one side.’
‘Miss, can we have music again?’
‘Do we have to?’ said Minty. ‘My ears are still ringing from last night.’
‘Me too,’ agreed Felicity.
‘Let’s not. We’ve got to get going. Secure your primed paper on your easel…’
‘I do hate primed paper,’ interrupted Giles.
‘Well, you have to use it today as the paint will dry quicker than on canvas.’
‘Why does that matter?’
‘So as tomorrow you can glaze on top of what you paint today.’
‘What’s that?’ said Rupert.
‘Tomorrow we’ll do what we do tomorrow, but today I’m going to teach you about a trick of the light. Please get out four tubes of paint: zinc white, titanium white, ivory black and sepia.’
‘Will this be a tonal painting?’ said Minty.
‘Yes, similar to the fountain you did yesterday. I’m going to show you a method I learnt at the Ruskin.’
‘You went to the Ruskin?’ Minty sounded full of surprise.
If you’ve been to the Slade or Ruskin, people always sound surprised. It’s an indirect compliment in a funny sort of way.
‘Didn’t you read the brochure?’ said Louis. ‘Susie’s talented, you know.’
I quickly moved on. ‘This method’s good but it’s by no means the only way.’ I smiled to show I meant it. ‘Great masters of chiaroscuro like Rembrandt and Goya stuck to it.’
‘Well, it must be the best then,’ said Giles.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Louis. ‘There are many other skilful ways to paint. Which is what Susie has been saying.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, Impressionism for example. Or Pointillism, since you ask.’
‘Why are you teaching us kiro scuro then, Miss?’
‘I’m just showing you an option. One that focuses on light.’
‘What?’ said Shane, staring blankly out of the window.
‘It’s the reflection of light that lets us see everything around us, and a trick of the light means what you are seeing is actually an effect caused by the way light falls. If you get to grips with this, you’ll be well on the way to understanding and working out how and why things appear as they do.’
‘Heavens above, Susie,’ said Rupert, ‘what do you mean?’
‘I mean, forget about the images of jugs and vases you already have in your mind. I want you to record the facts in front of you. Only the facts, as they exist. You probably think the jug is green and the vase is blue, but if you look hard you’ll realise you’ve jumped to a false conclusion. The evidence says differently.’
Just as Jane’s lips parted I said, ‘Look at the sides of the objects closest to the window – what colour are they?’
Shane squinted. ‘White, Miss.’
‘Exactly. The objects aren’t white in our mind, but here, in front of us, there’s no denying it. It’s very easy to take sight for granted but you must be led by your eyes not your mind.’
‘Beyond me,’ said Felicity. ‘But I’ll give it a go.’
‘To really stretch the point, we’re going to forget about colour today and concentrate on tone. It’s all about defining the light.’
Minty was nodding in my favour.
Here goes… ‘I want you to use sepia to knock in the tonal values on your canvas, always working from dark to light, leaving only the area of white on your canvas where the light is hitting your subject. You then build form on this underpainting. Once this is bone dry, i.e. tomorrow, you’ll mix the colours and brush them
