Restoring Grace (66 page)

There was a silence; at last Allegra had the attention
that she wanted. Grace was feeling sick and
Ellie
supremely smug.

‘So, what happens next?' asked Nicholas. 'Do we
take the panels to Sotheby's?'

‘
The publicity will be enormous. Something like
this, hidden for centuries,' murmured Edward.

‘
And the more attention
they get, the more money
they'll make,' said Nicholas. 'We may need to
hire a PR
firm to make sure every reputable
museum and buyer in
the world knows they're on the market.'

‘
Who would you recommend?' asked Allegra. 'Ask
Erica. It's more her field than mine—'

‘
No,' said Grace loudly and firmly. 'I don't want any
publicity.'

‘
But you
have to have publicity – I mean, lost old
masters and publicity go
together,' explained Nicholas. 'You can't have one without the other.'

‘I'm afraid they're going to have to. I'm not
having the
place swarming with press and
photographers and all
that nonsense. I'm trying to get my life together.
I don't want any of that.'

‘I'd be there to support you,' said Flynn.

‘
I know, but
I'm still not having it. Can you imagine
it? The place full of people, the phone ringing all the time;
it
would be ghastly.'

‘
Oh, Grace!
You're such a wimp sometimes,' said
Allegra. 'Not to mention ungrateful.
I've gone to all this trouble to find out about those bloody panels, and now
you say you're not going to sell them.'

‘I didn't say that. I just said I wasn't going
to have a whole lot of publicity.'

‘
You won't be
able to avoid it,' said Nicholas. 'Not if
you do want to sell them.'

‘She doesn't have a choice about selling them.'
Allegra
snapped. 'She needs the money! How
else is she going
to pay for the dry rot?'

‘
I didn't
know you had to buy it, I thought it just came
with the territory,' said
Erica dryly.

Grace regarded her with more interest than she
had done previously; she had a sense of humour.

‘
Perhaps now would be the
time to tell people, darling,'
said Fl
^y
nn and then addressed the room. 'We're going to
get married. If Grace doesn't want to sell the panels she
doesn't have to. I'll pay for the dry rot.'

‘
You never
said anything about getting married!'
Allegra was furious.

‘No, you didn't,' said Grace, turning to Flynn,
her face a mixture of surprise and delight.

‘Didn't I? Sorry! I'm so forgetful. Grace, will
you marry me?’

Grace collapsed into
giggles. It was so ridiculous, being
proposed to in a room full of people
that included her ex-husband. Behind her laughter she felt giddy with
happiness.

‘Well?' demanded Flynn.

‘Ask me again later,' she said, teasing him,
her eyes
giving him his answer. 'I can't
think about that now. But
I'm definitely going to sell the panels. I'm
not having my - husband - paying for my dry rot.'

‘
Hm,' said
Edward. 'You didn't seem to mind me
paying to fix the roof.'

‘That was my divorce settlement. You weren't my
husband at the time.'

‘I see, a subtle but important difference.'

‘I don't suppose we could open the champagne,
could we?' said Erica. 'I've been staring at it for ages, and I am dying for a
drink.'

‘Yes of course,' said Grace. 'Where are my
manners? Flynn, be a love and—'

‘Of course, darling, on the small condition
that you answer my previous question in the affirmative.’

She flapped her hand at him merrily. 'I said
I'll speak to you later, but do open the champagne.'

‘OK,' said Flynn, putting a cloth round a
bottle and adjusting glasses. 'Just as long as we're definitely celebrating.'

‘
It
Seems
to
me there's
loads to celebrate
_
'
said Erica eager to get to the champagne.

‘
Oh, this
is so exciting,' said Demi, jumping up and down and clapping. Then she stopped.
'Will this mean you won't want me to live with you any more?'

‘Not at all, Demi!' said Grace. 'You can live
with us as long as you like.'

‘Until you go travelling, anyway,' said Flynn,
possibly
less enthusiastic than his fiancée
about this arrangement.

‘
She's
not going travelling! She's going straight to university!' snapped Hermia.

‘I wish you'd all concentrate!' said Allegra.
'Some valuable old masters have been discovered, and Grace is refusing all
publicity!'

‘And yet she does want to sell them,' agreed
Nicholas.
'There must be another way,' said
Ellie, handing round
glasses.

‘There is,' said Ran.

‘What?' demanded everyone.

‘Sell them to a private buyer.'

‘But how can you find a private buyer if Grace
doesn't want anyone to know they exist?' demanded Allegra.

‘Sorry to interrupt, everyone,' said Flynn.
'But could
we just have a small toast to
our engagement? I know it's
not important in the present scheme of
things, but I wouldn't like the moment to go unmarked.'

‘
Oh for goodness' sake,' hissed Allegra.

Grace caught sight of Ran
putting his arm round Ellie
again and wondered if they had an
announcement too, but decided it was too soon for them just yet.

‘
What is it
about men, having to do everything in
public?' asked Erica. 'Why can't
they even ask a woman to marry them while they're alone?'

‘You have to absolve
me
of that,' said Edward. 'I never
proposed to a woman in public. We were always entirely alone.'

‘What every time?' asked Grace.

‘Yes Cheeky!' He looked down at Grace, A
speculative
 
expression in his eyes. 'You really
have got extremely attractive lately. Why did I leave you, I wonder?'

‘You got bored, Edward.' She glanced at Ellie,
hoping
that Ran wouldn't turn out to be like
Edward. She
couldn't help feeling protective towards Ellie, and knew
that Ellie felt the same about her. Grace and Ellie's eyes met across the room,
both were rivalling the champagne
for
sparkle. Ellie gave Grace a happy, reassuring little nod,
and Grace
relaxed. Ellie had Ran well in hand.

Allegra, fed up with sentiment and lovers,
raised her
glass. 'OK, to the happy couple!
Hooray! Congratulations,
all that stuff. Now! Can we please get back to
the point!'

‘Which is?' asked Edward.

‘How are we—'

‘Is Grace,' corrected Flynn firmly.

‘
—going to
go about selling the panels, even to a private
buyer, if she doesn't want
anyone to know they exist!' Allegra took a big gulp of champagne, obviously
relieved to have finished her sentence at last.

There was a silence.

‘
Grace,
darling, I think you might have to put up with a
bit of publicity,' said Flynn. 'But I'll be there to protect you.'

‘
I don't think she should do anything she doesn't want
to,'
said Ellie. 'She's been through so much lately, and
she's taken me and Demi into her home. I think she should
just do
what she wants.'

‘Demi wasn't exactly homeless,' said Hermia.

‘
No, but
neither of you wanted her living with you.'
Ellie looked at both of Demi's parents, and was forced to
acknowledge that Edward was very attractive, if you
liked that sort of thing.

‘None of this is relevant,' said Nicholas. 'Do
you want
to sell the panels or not, Grace?
If you do, you have to cope
with what goes with becoming a millionaire
overnight.'

‘No, she doesn't,' said Ran. 'As I said, there
is another
way’

He had
spoken quietly, in his usual slightly drawling way, but he got the attention of
the room in an instant. 'What?' demanded at least three people at once. 'Don't
you lot listen? Sell them to a private buyer.’

‘Well,
that's obvious,' said Allegra. 'But how the hell
do
we find a private buyer?'

‘You can hardly advertise in the small ads,' agreed
Nicholas. 'Millionaire wanted to buy old masters, with a box number.'

‘
What you all seem to be overlooking,' went on
Ran
calmly, 'is the fact that I am a picture
conservator.’

‘
Oh, what's
that?' asked Erica.

‘He restores
pictures,' muttered Nicholas.

‘
But what's that got to do with anything?' said
Allegra.
'I'm in contact with private
collectors all the time, when
I'm not dealing with museums and art
galleries.’

‘So?'
prompted Ellie.

‘
So, I've been making a few enquiries, and I happen to
know a private collector who would be very happy to
buy these panels.'

‘That's fantastic!' said Grace.

‘
But I should
warn you that you won't get anything
like as much as if you had a big
auction, with buyers from all over the world with millions to spend.'

‘
I don't want
millions,' said Grace. 'Just enough to pay
to have the dry rot fixed.'
She frowned slightly. 'And to give some people a bit of money.'

‘I think he'd pay the basic two million,' said
Ran. 'But he won't go much above that.’

Grace suddenly felt faint. 'That would be more
than
enough for my needs,' she said weakly,
after a few
moments.

‘But, Grace, you could get so much more!'
insisted Allegra. 'Are you sure you want to throw away this opportunity to
become rich?'

‘
I'm already rich,' said Grace.
 
'I've got this lovely house
and a lovely,
lovely Irishman to live in it with.' She looked
at the
lovely Irishman and smiled.

‘Can you get in touch with this private buyer,
then?'
asked Nicholas, impatient with all
this sentiment.
'He's waiting to hear from me,' said Ran.

‘
I do think
you might have said something before,' Ellie
complained.

He sent her a lazy, loving, sensuous glance. 'I
didn't want to say anything to anyone until we were sure they
were by Coatbridge.' He was almost the only person
in
the room not jumping and down with excitement. 'I told
him it was definitely possible.' He looked at
Ellie.
'Practically certain, in
fact, and he's always very keen on
anything early English. I've done
quite a bit of work for
him. I didn't say
anything because I knew you'd all be
on me like a pack of jackals.'

‘Ring him up!' demanded Allegra, not pleased to
be likened to a jackal. 'And put us all out of our misery!'

‘
Are you
sure he'll pay two million?' said Grace, as Ran fished out his mobile phone and
began to search through
the phone book. 'It seems an awful lot of
money.'

‘
He said
he'd pay what a major auction house thought
was the lowest they'd get.'

‘Is that fair?' asked Edward.

‘
It is if
Grace wants to keep it all private. He'll also
pay for the restoration.
Now, if you'd all be quiet for a moment . .