Canarino by Katherine Bucknell

Author:Katherine Bucknell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

CHAPTER 7

By 6 January, Epiphany, the frail creature who on New Year’s Day had boarded the New York plane from a wheelchair at Heathrow was traveling to Virginia in a limousine. She had selected a property from written descriptions and photographs. She didn’t intend to make a firm offer until she saw it with her own eyes, but, even so, she brought along an interior decorator, Joshua Dilman, in the car.

Slight, close-shaven, smelling freshly of grapefruit and juniper, Joshua knew just the sort of place Elizabeth was looking for, and he knew just what she wanted to do with it once she had found it. He remembered every piece Elizabeth had bought through Sotheby’s in the days when he had worked there, and he remembered most of the pieces she had considered and decided against. He also remembered pieces she had chosen elsewhere and countless decisions on wallpaper and fabric. He had never discarded the files he had assembled when he had assisted her, although he had had no reason to consult them for some time.

When he had left Sotheby’s four years ago to set up his own design business, he had found space in his new office for the two heavy boxes of files. He meant them to remind him that some clients were more trouble than they were worth. He used to bid for Elizabeth, ship things to her, pore over catalogues with her at the other end of the phone. Once she had asked for advice about a Christie’s auction, so he had agreed to go to an exhibition there for her; in the end, he bid on some items and dealt for her with Christie’s. Not long afterwards, she asked him to take her around the best New York art galleries. Then she invited him to London to do the galleries in the East End and in St James’s. They went to an antiques fair, drove around the countryside to estate sales, and, on his return, Joshua raced around New York finding Elizabeth bathroom fittings and kitchen utensils. There had been another trip to Italy to look at textiles. She paid his travel expenses, took him to superb restaurants, telephoned him at all hours of the day and night to get his advice on the smallest decision. He taught her everything he knew, and when he didn’t know what she wanted to know, he researched it and passed along what he found out. He didn’t charge her anything for his time; she had become too good a friend for that.

But he could remember the feeling, one day, of wondering when he was going to get another call from her. Somehow, at some point, she had no longer needed his help. And she had stopped calling. Joshua’s friends told him, Some people just use you and move on. He didn’t agree with them. He insisted to himself that hurt feelings were beside the point. She was busy; she lived three thousand miles away. But the remark stuck with him—like Elizabeth’s files.

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