Lost Innocence (50 page)

Keeping her back turned and hands busy with Jasper’s insatiable appetite for tummy rubs, Alicia waited in silence till she could bear it no more.

‘OK, I’m a big girl,’ she said, going to stand in the arch between the two spaces, ‘you can give it to me straight. They’re really amateur, aren’t they? Or maybe even that’s flattering myself.’

Cameron’s attention was focused on the ballerina as he regarded it from all angles, a deep furrow between his eyebrows, a loose fist in front of his mouth.

‘I know they’re not really your thing,’ she gabbled on, ‘but some people have liked them. Actually, I’ve sold quite a few…Well, four, but I only started…’

‘This skirt is made entirely of steel,’ he said, as though not quite believing it. ‘It’s so fine…I thought it was fabric when I first saw it. You have all the folds, the shadows, the movement… And her stance is almost fluid. This position is called arabesque?’

Alicia nodded.

He went on absorbing every detail, from the carefully shaped fronds of the dancer’s hair, to the willowy grace of her neck, to the leaf-like form of her bodice, right down to the sharply pointed tips of her toes. ‘This is so exquisitely executed,’ he said finally, ‘that whether or not it’s a piece you’d want to own, you could never tire of looking at it.’

‘Which means you don’t like it, but…’

His hand went up. ‘Will you please stop trying to put words in my mouth,’ he barked.

Alicia looked down at Jasper and pulled a naughty face.

‘You’ve chosen an unusual medium,’ Cameron went on, moving along to
Snail Mail
. ‘I’m enjoying the wit as well as the
tendresse.
This works,’ he said with feeling, as he smoothed his fingers over the snail’s steel shell. ‘A Fibonacci sequence.’

Impressed that he knew that, until she remembered who
he was, she found herself daring to hope that her little show wasn’t an all-out flop.

Pointing back to the alligator, he said, ‘Putting him in shoes made of the same skin is an effective statement. The scales are very lifelike, so’s his expression.’ Taking a moment to assess his judgement, he said, ‘I get the feeling you’re more comfortable with steel than with bronze, which isn’t to say that Darcie’s head doesn’t work, because it’s actually probably one of the more saleable pieces.’

Holding her breath now, Alicia continued to watch him, and felt so much elation struggling to rise up inside her that it was hard to keep it down. It wasn’t only, she realised, that he was seeming to like her work, it was also the wonderful feeling she was experiencing of being an artist for a few minutes, a woman even, a person other than a grieving widow, or an anxious mother.

‘Do you know what I think?’ he said, standing back to get an overall view. ‘I think if you were to reproduce the steel sculptures at ten times the size they are now, turning them into installation art, you could find a lot of interest coming your way from the billionaire set. They’re perfect garden or entry-hall pieces for large homes, which doesn’t mean they won’t sell as they are now, because I think they will, but I’m getting the sense that they need to be bigger.’ He glanced at her and grimaced when he saw her look of shock. ‘Not what you wanted to hear?’ he said.

‘No, yes, I mean, I’ve always wanted to do something huge,’ she admitted, ‘but I’ve never had the courage, or the space.’

Turning back to
Wedding Night
, he said, ‘The embrace here draws you around the figures, and around again, kind of like a waltz, so it would have to be displayed on a three-sixty or you’d lose the flow. At ten times the size, it might even make you dance.’

Alicia was smiling as her heart tripped with so much pleasure that she was close to dancing anyway. It was Craig’s favourite, and she’d modelled it on the way he used to embrace her. ‘I don’t think I’ll hang up my welding torch just yet,’ she murmured to Jasper.

Clearly delighted to be spoken to, Jasper leaned against her and nudged her with his head.

‘Stop flirting,’ Cameron scolded.

‘I can’t help it, he’s irresistible,’ she apologised.

Laughing, he returned to his perusal of her works, starting at the beginning again and taking another ten excruciating minutes to reach the end. ‘OK,’ he said finally, ruffling Jasper’s ears as the dog came to stand next to him. ‘I confess you’ve surprised me, Alicia. I really wasn’t expecting to be this impressed, which probably isn’t very flattering, but I’m afraid I’m far more frequently disappointed by what I see than I am the reverse. I’m not going to try telling you that what you’ve created is perfect, but I think that’s because you’re not giving them full expression. You could do that by letting rip with the size. Just go for it. A ten-foot alligator in matching shoes in the garden at a cost of a hundred thousand pounds or more could be just what Mr and Mrs Moscow are looking for. A ballerina of that subtlety and beauty will be a must for anyone with a discerning eye and unlimited budget. However, as I said, the sculptures also work very well as they are, and you could probably sell them for upwards of three thousand pounds a piece, but I’d love to see the drama and power you could get into them if you magnified their size.’

Too overwhelmed to say very much, Alicia threw out her hands in an apologetic sort of delight. ‘This is where I work,’ she told him, ‘or in the space at home, which isn’t much bigger.’

‘That’s fine. There’ll be plenty of barns, or established workshops, around that you could rent at a reasonable price, and once you start selling the smaller pieces you’ll have the funds to do it.’

Feeling like a child who’d been visited by three Santas in one go, only to find they’d forgotten to leave gifts, she said, ‘And therein lies the rub, selling anything, when I can’t open the shop yet, and getting noticed on the Internet is like asking a grain of sand to make itself stand out on a mile-long beach.’

‘Ah, but if the grain of sand is displayed in the right window, to the right sort of clientele,’ he countered, ‘it’ll
stand a much greater chance of achieving its allotted fifteen minutes. And so we come to my idea for your shop. Now I’ve seen your work I have no problem at all about putting this to you: why don’t you let me exhibit these pieces in my gallery in London until you can open for business? I have staff running it six days a week with access to collectors and dealers all over the world, so if nothing else, you’ll certainly get noticed. Meanwhile, you and I will go on a double hunt around Somerset, you for local talent assisted by me, me for the right house assisted by you, and with any luck we’ll both end up with what we’re looking for at the end of the day. Or summer. Or year, however long it takes.’

Alicia was sure there must have been stars in her eyes as she looked at him, or bats in her belfry, because this was simply too good to be true. As far as she could make out she had everything to gain and nothing to lose, so why wouldn’t she take him up on the offer? ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this,’ she said in the end. ‘You hardly know me, and it’s not as though I have an exceptional talent …’

‘As a matter of fact, I think you do,’ he interrupted. ‘And as for knowing you, let’s just say if you’ve got the thumbs up from Jasper, which you seem to have, then you’ve got it from me.’

Laughing, and refraining from pointing out that this was the first time the dog had ever clapped eyes on her, she said, ‘So I guess I should take a look at your property details to get that part of the show on the road. But first I need to know your budget, so we don’t waste any time.’

‘Not a penny over a million,’ he told her.

Trying not to reel, she said, ‘Are we looking for a stately home?’

He chuckled. ‘I’d need considerably more than a million for that,’ he replied, going to fish in his bag for the brochures. ‘What I’d like is something with character, but not too old; elegant in an understated way, with a huge sitting room and fireplace – a must for the girls – a kitchen/dining room, we’re not too big on formal, and at least four bedrooms so we can all have one each when they come to stay. Oh yes, and a minimum of three bathrooms.’

‘Tennis courts? Swimming pool?’

‘If we can squeeze them into the price,’ he answered seriously. ‘And it must have a view.’

‘I see,’ she said dubiously. ‘I’m starting to think you might have the easier task, but I’m definitely up for the challenge,’ and suddenly realising she was on the brink of crying with pure relief that something seemed to be going right for once, she stooped quickly to Jasper to bury her face in his fur.

To Robert’s surprise, and delight, Annabelle had sought him out this morning, asking if she could take him up on the offer he’d made yesterday, which she’d turned down, to drive her into the old town of Antibes for lunch. He had no idea what had happened to change her mind, nor did he much care, he was simply glad that she had, and after informing Sabrina that she’d need to make his excuses to the rest of the party again today, he went to make sure that his car was brought round to the front of the house by midday.

Now, as he and Annabelle journeyed along the Cap, with the stunning blue Mediterranean sparkling like polished diamonds alongside them, their progress was made tediously slow thanks to all the tourist traffic. However, since he was amongst their number he couldn’t really complain, unlike Annabelle, who grumbled ceaselessly the entire way round to the port, and she was still going strong when they finally sat down outside a red-painted café in the heart of the old town.

After deciding on one of her favourites, moules marinière with
frites
, Annabelle smiled charmingly at the extremely attractive young waiter and asked for a beer.

‘Make that two
panachés
,’ Robert said to the waiter who, to his relief, seemed not to notice Annabelle’s interest.

‘But I don’t want shandy,’ Annabelle protested.

Robert nodded to the young man, confirming the order, and said, ‘When the food comes I’ll order a pichet of rosé wine, and you can have some of that.’

Appearing satisfied with the compromise, she looked around the square, taking in the centuries-old buildings with their various-coloured shutters and ground-floor shops
which included fashion boutiques, jewellery stores and typical Provençal marts. Her survey complete, she promptly launched into another negative diatribe about sailing, France, stuck-up people, her life in general and her mother in particular.

Robert said very little, merely listened, or nodded, or asked a question in the appropriate places. The food and wine arrived. She ate everything, and tried to talk him into ordering another pichet when theirs was empty. He refused and suggested they take a walk along the ramparts, and maybe drop into the Picasso museum to have a look round. Though she screwed up her nose as though unable to think of anything more boring, she ended up agreeing to go, making it sound as though it was only as a favour to him, certainly not something she’d ever consider were something more exciting on offer.

By the time they returned to the villa in the late afternoon Annabelle had long since run out of complaints, and was now chattering on and even laughing about a holiday they’d had five years ago in Spain when she was ten. Though he was impressed by her memory, he was sure she had a few facts wrong, and they fell into a good-natured tussle about who was right, and who was making things up to suit themselves.

Since the others were still on the yacht, Robert and Annabelle were the only ones for tea, which they took in the summer house, down by the beach. Still Annabelle ran on with whatever came to mind, but as repetitive and, it had to be said, boring, as she was, Robert couldn’t help being amused by how adept she was at keeping up the flow. He guessed this was probably the first time in far too long that she’d had the undivided attention of an adult, and though he’d have liked to try and draw her on more serious matters, he didn’t even attempt it. It was doing her the world of good to let go the way she had today, and hopefully it was helping her to rebuild her confidence in him in a way that might, eventually, enable him to broach the subject of Nathan and the upcoming trial.

Then suddenly, to his surprise, she said, ‘I know you’re making friends with me because you want me to drop the charges against Nat, but I can’t. It wouldn’t be right. When
someone commits a crime they should pay, and so I’m going to make sure he does or he might think he can get away with doing it to someone else.’

‘I’m sorry, Alicia,’ Rachel declared hotly, ‘I’m not arguing about this. You are going to let me pay for those sculptures to be transported to London, and that’s final.’

‘But you …’ Alicia began.

‘Mum!’ Darcie protested. ‘You can’t pass on this just because we don’t have the ready cash. And if they’re going to sell the way he seems to think, you can always pay Rachel back.’

‘Yes, but what I…’

‘Will you please stop with the buts,’ Rachel interrupted. ‘I’ve made my decision, so now all we have to do, Darcie, is find a company to transport them. It’ll have to be someone bonded, now we know they’re valuable.’

‘Nat can pack them up,’ Darcie decided. ‘He knows how, because he did it when we moved them here. What does bonded mean?’

‘Insurance. Actually, I’m rather tempted to buy one myself. Not that I didn’t want to before, but why pay a few hundred quid when you can pay a few thousand, is what I say. There you are,’ she said to Alicia, ‘you have your first sale, so you can already pay me back and you haven’t even borrowed it yet, so stop complaining.’

Laughing helplessly, Alicia said, ‘I wasn’t objecting, you just wouldn’t let me get a word in. I’m happy to take a loan to get them to London, but I’m drawing the line at charging you for a…’

‘Here she goes again,’ Rachel said to Darcie. ‘Shall we go outside and continue this or she’ll just end up getting on my nerves, trying to give me a piece of art for nothing when I want to pay a small fortune.’

As Darcie linked Rachel’s arm and walked her out to the garden, Alicia turned to Nat, who’d said nothing since she’d told them about Cameron’s reaction to her work. ‘You’re very quiet,’ she ventured, hoping the last few frivolous moments hadn’t made his problems seem any less important to them all.