The Yeare's Midnight (13 page)

‘Twice
or
thrice
I
lov’d
yee
/
Before
I
knew
thy
face
or
name.’
In
‘Air
and
Angels’
Donne
speculated
that
human
souls
exist
together
as
angels
before
their
physical
conception.
The
death
of
the
body
returns
the
soul
to
its
original
angelic
state.
The
cycle
is
inspirational
to
Frayne:
beauty
returning
to
beauty
through
the
ugliness
of
existence.

Lucy
Harrington
may
now
be
an
angel
again.
The
Providence
of
her
name
had
detonated
an
explosion
of
terrible
possibilities
in
Crowan
Frayne’s
mind.
He
had
researched
extensively,
sifting
through
his
books
and
his
own
copious
notes
on
John
Donne.
He
marvelled
at
his
own
intellectual
arrogance:
the
extraordi
nary
yoking
of
opposites.
Perhaps
Stussman
would
understand.
He
wondered
if
she
could,
truly.
Her
breathtakingly
original
study
of
Donne
had
filled
Frayne
with
hope
and
purpose
but
he
doubted
whether
even
she
could
anticipate
his
conceit.
Stuss
man
was
a
technician
of
language;
a
surgeon,
brilliant
but
pitiless.

He
now
had
a
selection
of
names
to
choose
from.
He
expected 
that
Stussman
would
soon
develop
a
similar
list.
However,
the
identification
of
the
coterie
was
merely
a
preliminary,
like
the
smoke
that,
when
viewed
from
a
distance,
puffs
silently
from
a
starting
pistol
before
the
explosion
cracks
out
and
the
race
begins.

Elizabeth
Drury
would
become
an
angel.
The
name
itself
was
the
broken-hearted
soul
of
pity.
A
tragic
acquaintance
of
Donne:
the
fifteen-year-old
daughter
of
a
patron,
she
had
died
prema
turely
of
some
unknown
disease.
Now
Crowan
Frayne
would
give
the
name
a
new
significance:
extol
it
beyond
even
Donne’s
own
achievement
in
‘The
Anniversairie’.

He
had
started
searching
for
an
Elizabeth
Drury
even
before
he
had
visited
Lucy
Harrington.
The
strongest
arguments
are
fully
constructed
and
sounded
before
they
are
articulated.
There
were
ten
‘
Drurys
’
in
the
telephone
book,
none
with
the
initial
‘
E’
.
He
toyed
with
the
idea
of
calling
each
and
asking
for
Elizabeth
on
the
off
chance
that
there
might
be
a
wife
or
a
daughter.
That
struck
him
as
clumsy:
they
had
to
be
a
more
efficient
way.
He
then
went
to
his
computer
and
downloaded
a
UK
people-finder
program
available
on
the
Internet.
He
entered
‘Elizabeth
Drury
’
and
New
Bolden
as
the
search
parameters.
His
search
provided
no
results.
If
there
was
an
Elizabeth
Drury
in
the
area,
she
was
almost
certainly
ex-directory.
He
would
need
to
be
more
resourceful.

The
New
Bolden
town
library
is
an
impressive
building
on
three
storeys.
It
was
built
in
the
mid-eighties
after
a
series
of
cash
donations
from
some
of
the
computer
and
logistics
companies
that
had
relocated
to
the
town
from
London.
In
the
front
lobby
is
a
grey
plaque
that
was
unveiled
by
a
minor
member
of
the
royal
family
when
the
library
first
opened.
The
library
is
modern
and
extremely
well
stocked.
Crowan
Frayne
is
a
regular
visitor.
He
does
not
hold
a
library
card,
preferring
to
steal
the
books
that
excite
his
curiosity.
He
tends
to
work
in
the
Reference
Room:
a
quiet
annexe
on
the
second
floor
away
from
the
rustling
carrier
bags
of
pensioners,
the
raking
coughs
of
the
unemployed 
and
the
grim
squadron
of
wailing
babies
that
often
make
Frayne
want
to
rip
his
own
stomach
out
with
the
carpet
knife
he
always
carries
with
him.

He
uses
the
library’s
large
resource
of
literary
criticisms
and
certain
history
books
of
the
Renaissance.
It
was
here
on
an
opaque,
foggy
morning
that
he
discovered
Reconstructing Donne
by
Dr
Heather
Stussman
of
the
University
of
Wisconsin.
There
was
a
striking
picture
of
Stussman
on
the
inside
back
cover.
Intrigued,
he
dug
out
back
copies
of
the
TLS
and
the
Literary Review
and
finally
unearthed
a
critical
review
of
the
book.
It
was
spiteful
and,
in
Frayne’s
view,
idiotic.
The
author,
Professor
Arthur
Spink
of
Exeter
University,
subsequently
received
a
human
stool
in
the
post:
carefully
wrapped
in
tinfoil
inside
a
Tupperware
container
tied
with
a
silk
bow.
The
accompanying
note
simply
said
‘
Cunt’.
However,
Spink
’
s
review
had
provided
him
with
one
piece
of
useful
information:
Stussman
was
a
visiting
Fellow
at
Southwell
College,
Cambridge
for
the
current
academic
year.
Frayne
had
been
shocked
by
the
discovery.
Cambridge
was
only
twenty
miles
away.

It
was
while
Frayne
was
searching
for
other
publications
by
Heather
Stussman
that
he
chanced
upon
Dr
Elizabeth
Drury.
The
library
had
recently
installed
a
state-of-the-art
computer
system
that
enabled
the
user
to
search
for
books
across
a
network
that
linked
all
the
libraries
in
the
area
–
including
the
University
Library
in
Cambridge,
one
of
the
few
copyright
libraries
in
Britain.
Using
this
system,
Frayne
had
learned
the
title
of
Stussman’s
doctoral
thesis
and
obtained
copies
of
two
academic
articles
she
had
written
when
she’d
still
been
in
America.

After
a
productive
session
at
the
computer,
he
was
struck
by
an
idea.
He
returned
to
the
first
page
of
the
‘bookfinder’
pro
gramme
and
clicked
twice
on
the
‘Master
Name’
box.
The
likeness
of
a
typewriter
keyboard
appeared
on
the
screen.
Using
his
mouse
to
guide
the
screen
arrow
he
clicked
in
the
name
‘Elizabeth
Drury’
and
tapped
the
return
key.
The
screen
blanked
for
a
second
before
a
white
dialogue
box
containing
the
follow
ing
text
appeared: