Page 38 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘Anyone who’s spent more than a few minutes in his company would be my guess. Now, I’m going for a lie-down before we have to suffer another evening with him,’ Dorothy said.

This made me smile, because despite the circumstances Dorothy had clearly been enjoying herself the previous evening.

‘I’ll walk with you,’ I said.

‘There’s no need; I’m more than capable.’

‘I know you are, but I am supposed to be your companion. I think it’s best if we keep to that as much as possible. I can’t be seen to be wandering about this house all alone all the time.’

‘That’s a fair point, but you’ll have Juliet shadowing your every move from now on.’

‘What do you think Sophie would say if she knew what Juliet intended to do? Surely she wouldn’t be happy with us,’ I said.

‘She wouldn’t be thrilled, no, but she adored her father and if there is a chance to get Leonard for his part in the whole awful situation, then I have no doubt she’d understand.’

I wasn’t convinced, but there was little I could do now anyway. It felt as if it was all rather out of my hands. I took Dorothy’s arm and we were about to leave when I stopped, looking down to the other end of the room where I noticed a door that sat between two bookcases.

‘Where does that door go?’ I asked, but Dorothy just shrugged.

‘Let’s find out then,’ I said.

Once out of the library, we found ourselves in a room that I hadn’t seen before. It was oval in shape and was dominated by a huge painting that hung in the middle, directly opposite a large window. The light flooded in and because the painting had a thick layer of lacquer covering it, the image depicted on it wasn’t immediately clear because of the glare.

‘Well, that’s interesting,’ Dorothy said, and it made me stop in my tracks beside her.

‘A Vanitas painting,’ I breathed. ‘A vanity still life.’

‘What is it? What do you see?’ Dorothy asked me. ‘It’s an eclectic mix, that’s for sure.’

‘Yes, a medley of items layered up and overlapping. You have a clock,’ I said, pointing as I spoke, ‘a watch, a just-extinguished candle and an hourglass. These are artefacts representing worldly wealth, combined with reminders of time and death in a mid-seventeenth-century, Dutch still-life tradition.’

‘I prefer my art clean-cut and easily understandable. If a piece takes too long to interpret I tend to lose interest, although it hasn’t always been that way. I think my patience and attention span is waning a bit as I get older. It’s the same with books. I balk at anything over four hundred and fifty pages. I’d likely be dead before I’d got to the end.’

‘I think after what you’ve been through, you’re incredibly patient,’ I said, my eyes not leaving the painting.

‘So what’s caught you about this piece particularly?’ Dorothy asked.

‘The trinkets and musical instruments, vases and shells you’d expect. Likewise, the bowl of fruit overflowing on the table with the red velvet curtain swathed across one corner, but that’s Leonard’s Martinware vase, there…’ I pointed ‘…hiding behind that lute – and look, there’s a glimpse of his motorbike too. This is either a modern painting, very well executed, or an original that Leonard has commissioned someone to add his own items to. God! That doesn’t bear thinking about.’

As I stared and took stock, Juliet appeared from a staircase in the corner that I had also failed to see.

‘How’s Leonard’s head?’ I asked her. ‘Have you heard anything?’

‘He’s having a lie-down, but he’s still moaning so I think he’ll be okay,’ Juliet said.

‘Shame,’ Dorothy said and Juliet giggled.

I needed to have words with Dorothy. She kept reminding me to keep my head down and not give myself away, but she wasn’t exactly following her own advice.

‘That’s horrible,’ Juliet said, turning to the painting.

‘An acquired taste, perhaps,’ I said.

‘Not one I’ll be acquiring, that’s for sure. Actually, it reminds me of those hidden object games I used to play on my laptop.’

‘I’m not familiar,’ I said.

‘Games where you have, like, a list of things to find and they’re cleverly hidden in among a load of other crap.’