Bibliotheca Classica by Simon Brett

Author:Simon Brett [Brett, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789542295
Publisher: Head of Zeus

7

I WAS rather annoyed to receive an email from the University of Hong Kong. They expressed no interest in publishing my work on the Pre-Raphaelites. This is obviously very short-sighted of them. Some people are incapable of seeing a gift horse without immediately checking its mouth. It’s their loss. I will have to call in a favour from some former colleague at another university.

I strongly believe in the importance of trust within a marriage. Harriett knows the password to my computer and is entirely at liberty to access its contents whenever she wishes to. This is, so far as I know, a freedom of which she has not taken advantage.

The arrangement is, of course, reciprocal. I know the password to Harriett’s laptop. (It proves, rather engagingly, to be ‘Derrick.’) I very rarely switch the machine on and, once inside, would never dream of reading her emails or—heaven forbid—her novel (still, if the names of the files are to be believed, lamentably entitled Honesty Leaves ). But it does occasionally happen that, when Harriett has gone to Kew or on some other mission for me, I need to check on the research she has been doing for one of my projects.

It was while I was looking up just such a detail on her laptop that I found she had a directory named ‘ Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary ’ (I might have known she would not call it by its proper name). Since it was an investigation on which I had given her so much help, I felt entirely within my rights to open it.

The list of documents within the directory suggested that Harriett had definitely continued her research on what she had rather lazily referred to as ‘The Lemprière Case.’ Most of the contents appeared to be scans of originals sent to her by the assiduous Joe Buckman, usually with rather coyly joshing covering notes.

I checked through the material and found only three items of interest which I had not already seen. The first was a letter prefaced by this from Joe: Amazingly, Harriett, I have found a solicitor in Dorking whose archives go right back to when Gerard Buckman ran the practice. I haven’t had time to go through the stuff in detail—oh, the frustrations of having a day job!—but this one, from Benjamin Buckman to his brother, is very interesting. X J

I assume ‘X J’ is some sort of casual pleasantry used in the world of computer addicts. But I did read the letter with great interest.

Scatterdown House

Godalming

County of Surrey

3rd Day of March in the Year of Our Lord 1855

My dear Brother,

This communication comes to you from a married man, and a considerable landowner. It is being composed at my desk in the library of Scatterdown House, whence I look out over the sylvan charms of my new domain. And I am writing to thank you for your part in helping me to attain this good fortune. Thank you particularly for your support on the day of the wedding, when I had more cause than ever to thank the Lord for his bountiful blessings.

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