Cellini's Revenge by Wendy Bartlett

Author:Wendy Bartlett [Bartlett, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944907129
Publisher: Kensington Hill Books
Published: 2020-08-17T22:00:00+00:00

A TRIP TO THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

Catherine brought the cups back to the hotel for the night. She pulled the cups and lined them up in a row to study their astrological engravings.

Later, as Catherine snuggled down under her covers, she remembered how England had hardly felt like a place to study astronomy. The skies were always covered with clouds, and it was too cold to stand under the stars. Catherine remembered how, after prison, she continued her study of astronomy in Connecticut. It was a hobby she pursued alone, and her knowledge grew such that she was given the chance to periodically lecture to the local Brattleboro Senior Center and was asked later to lecture in the New Hampshire Senior Centers, too. She had been irritated at herself for infrequently checking her horoscope in the paper when she and David were together. She knew it was perfect nonsense, but it seemed to be an innocent enough habit that she secretly continued because it reminded her of David.

In the morning, a gentle knock at her door brought her breakfast: cold toast in a rack, one egg, over easy, jam and butter, and a pot of tea.

As she ate breakfast, she thought about how astrology had been David’s secret passion. His mother had raised him to believe in his identity as a Leo. He had brushed it off to Catherine, but every so often out it would come: “I have to be very careful about money this month and not sign contracts.” He had said that two months before they bought their house, but she knew from that gentle pause he made when the old man made his offer, that David was calculating that the month was new, and it was okay to sign contracts. Catherine disliked this powerful influence his mother’s astrological devilry had on him, but she could see it was like a religion, or an addiction, and that he was not giving it up any more than he would give up his mother. Catherine, though a Sagittarius, had a moon in Virgo–a perfectionist according to astrology. He had taken her birth date into consideration, he told her, before he had asked her to be his life partner.

Now, as she stared at the Sagittarius centaur and Latin inscription around the silver cup, she felt that he had treasured these cups for reasons beyond their monetary value. She read aloud each name: “Sagittarius, Pisces, Aries, Cancer, Leo, Libra.”

Why were the other six months left out? Why did he only have these months? Maybe the others had disappeared over the centuries or been melted down?

She caressed the cups as if they were David’s cheek, tucked them lovingly back into their new tissue paper, and closed the box. One day she would shine them back to sparkling. For now, they were dark and dreary-looking and needed intense rubbing with some delicate and special ingredient. Catherine wondered at their value. She would send Maureen on another search. Perhaps she could do some kind of research herself.

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