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.’‘Money,’ I said succinctly.She gave a short, humourless laugh.‘To a large extent, yes.’‘So that’s why you want the book.I expect it’s worth a small fortune if you know the right people.’‘No, no, it’s not that –’ She was interrupted by a knock at the door and got up to open it.‘Oh… it’s you.’ She sounded surprised.‘Thank you, how very kind…’‘It is no trouble,’ Idriss said, bringing the tea tray in.He looked across at me.‘I just wanted to be sure everything was all right.’I smiled at him, so tall and grave in his turban and robe.Under other circumstances I would have hugged him.It was probably just as well Anna was there.‘Everything is fine.’He set the tray down.‘Lipton’s, I’m afraid,’ he said to Anna, ‘though they’d probably have told you it was Twinings.’ He gave me a barely perceptible wink, then bowed and swept out of the room.Anna watched him go.‘Does he work here?’ she asked, puzzled.‘No,’ I said, grinning.‘He seems concerned about you.’‘He’s a very… good man.’‘Do be careful, Julia.You hear dreadful stories about women getting involved with Moroccans who are just after a British passport and their money.’‘It’s not always about money, Anna.’She gave me a quick, nervous smile.‘I know.Sorry.Look, let’s allow the tea to steep a little.I want to show you something.’She got up and crossed the room to where a smart Mulberry carry-on lay on a valise stand against the wall.After opening this, she unzipped an inner compartment and brought out a small parcel wrapped in white tissue paper that she laid upon the bed.‘When Alison told us about the mention of a Tree of Knowledge design in the book Michael gave you, I remembered the family heirloom my great-aunt left me along with the Suffolk house.She said that it had been commissioned for the church at Framlingham, St Michael’s, but that it was never finished and never used.Something about the Puritans not favouring figurative art or any kind of decoration that might distract attention during prayer.So I went up to fetch it…’She opened the tissue to reveal a long piece of white linen, yellowing from age, touched here and there with muted autumn colours.I could not speak.I reached across her and touched it reverently, unfolding the final part until Catherine’s Tree of Knowledge lay before us, ancient and incongruous against the bright synthetic of the hotel bedspread.Only part of the embroidery was completed – the intricate border of interwoven leaves and flowers, a rabbit, a couple of doves and an apple, all beautifully and realistically delineated, and above these the tree itself, wreathed in leaves, with the serpent winding down its trunk towards the figure of Eve, her long hair covering her slim white nakedness.Adam was outlined faintly on the other side of her, but his features were blank and blurred, and the rest remained unfinished.Even so, it was magnificent.I sank to my knees, overcome.‘The Countess of Salisbury’s altar frontal,’ I said at last.‘Is it? Are you sure?’I dug in my handbag and brought out Catherine’s book, turned to the sketch she had made and held it out alongside the cloth.Anna looked from one to the other, delighted.Her fingers traced the outline of Eve in Cat’s sketch, then on the fabric.‘Fantastic.How incredible: it really is, then.The Countess of Salisbury’s altar frontal.A genuine seventeenth-century tapestry.’‘It’s embroidery, not tapestry,’ I corrected her.‘And I can’t believe you flew to Morocco with such a valuable thing in your hand luggage!’She shrugged.‘I knew I had to persuade you to do something for me, and that it would be hard to do that with just a photo: besides, all this has come together through so many bizarre circumstances that I have to believe fate has a hand in it.’I looked at her.‘What is it you want me to do?’‘You have the book, and that’s the proof.’‘Proof?’‘Proof of provenance.For the V&A.It’s what Great-Aunt Sappho would have wanted.I have a friend who works in the Publications Department there, and she knows someone in Textiles; they’re very keen to see it.I was hoping you’d come with me to show them, and talk about it.’‘I thought you wanted to sell the book,’ I said slowly.‘Michael seemed desperate to get his hands on it.He searched my London flat, you know; then he followed me to Cornwall, telling me he’d given it to me in error, then chased me all the way to Morocco and left me a threatening message at my riad –’‘I didn’t know.I am sorry, Julia.’ She pursed her lips.‘How charming of him.Given to you in error.Like himself, no doubt.Michael is under the impression we’ll get a lot of money for the altar piece once we can prove what it is, and I haven’t disabused him of the idea.In fact, if it’s proved to be the real deal I’ve promised it to the V&A for free as long as they exhibit it with its full family history.Michael will be absolutely furious when he finds out.’ She giggled.It occurred to me suddenly that the balance of their relationship had suddenly shifted in her favour, and that she was enjoying every minute of her newfound power.Something else occurred to me then.I looked at her intently.‘Anna, I’ve always known your family were quite well off, but, well: the altar cloth, it was given to Lady William Cecil, the Countess of Salisbury…’She laughed.‘Lady William Cecil, née Howard.Mother’s a Howard, you see.’I gaped at her.‘You’re one of the Howard family? The Howard family, as in Catherine Howard and the Duke of Norfolk and all?’‘Yes, but it’s all a bit diluted now.Very grand in our time, but we don’t own half of East Anglia any more.All I inherited was Aunt Sappho’s Suffolk house, and some funds and the cottage.I do believe the family owned St Michael’s Mount for a short time before selling it in the Civil War.Pity: could quite fancy living on an island.’‘So you’re rich?’She shrugged uncomfortably at my crassness.‘Well, I wouldn’t go as far as that.Comfortable, maybe.’‘Then why is Michael always so desperate for money?’She gave me an embarrassed smile.‘It isn’t really done to talk about such things in our family.Rather vulgar, I think.Michael doesn’t know much about my assets.’He’d been married to an heiress and fretting all this time.I laughed out loud.‘He said you were short of cash.’Now it was Anna’s turn to laugh.‘Michael’s convinced having a baby will bleed us dry.’ She shrugged.‘I told him if he was that desperate he could sell the flat in Soho.He was very shocked: he didn’t even realize I knew about it.But I’ve known for years.I saw you together, going in, coming out, a dozen times.At the beginning it made me very miserable and a bit crazy: I used to follow him, spy on him, if you like.’I closed my eyes, appalled.‘And you never confronted him or me.’She shook her head.‘You could have left him, married someone else, someone worth having.’She went very still [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]