Change of Season by Anna Jacob

Author:Anna Jacob [Anna Jacob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749025168
Publisher: Allison and Busby
Published: 2019-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

Rosalind sat down at the back of the auction tent and tried to look as if she were studying the catalogue. Not that she was here to bid for anything. But she had to see what sort of person bought her picture and what price it fetched.

Harry mounted the dais, ready to get things rolling. She gave a nod of satisfaction at the turnout, then smiled at the plump, bald man who had come to sit beside her, saying something that made him smile, too. After Harry had introduced him, he tapped a hammer to quieten people down and the auction started.

It was an hour before Rosalind’s embroidery came up for sale, and she was delighted to hear the woman behind her whisper, ‘Wish I could afford that one. It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? Bound to go for tons of money.’

‘Mmm. Must be an heirloom piece. Don’t know how anyone can bear to part with it.’

‘Doesn’t say so in the catalogue. Says it’s a modern piece in the Jacobean style of raised stumpwork.’

‘Let’s start the bidding at a hundred pounds,’ the auctioneer called.

Rosalind gasped aloud. Start at a hundred! Did he expect it to go higher, then?

But no one bid, so the amount went down to seventy pounds, then fifty. She could feel her face going red. Perhaps Paul was right. Perhaps people didn’t like that sort of old-fashioned stuff nowadays.

Then someone raised a hand and the auctioneer pointed a finger towards him. ‘Thirty pounds I’m bid. I’ll take it in tens from now on.’

Only a few seconds later, he pointed again, ‘Forty, lady in the blue coat.’

From then on the bidding climbed steadily and Rosalind sat there in a state of shock.

‘A hundred pounds.’

‘Hundred and seventy … three hundred … five …’

‘Six hundred and fifty. Any advance on six hundred and fifty?’ The auctioneer looked round, gavel raised. ‘No more bids? Right then, going once, going twice, sold to the gentleman in the fawn jacket. Now the next item is …’

Rosalind got up and stumbled out of the tent, avoiding people, slipping between the big auction tent and the smaller grey tent next to it, desperate for a moment to herself. Six hundred and fifty pounds! And several people had wanted to buy her picture! Joy filled her and pride, too. If someone had paid all that for her embroidery, it wasn’t worthless. Or amateur.

‘You all right?’

She looked up with a smile. ‘Jonathon. Yes, I’m fine. Just a big overwhelmed. Did you see how much my picture fetched?’

‘I did indeed. Congratulations.’

Without knowing quite how she got there, she found herself in his arms, hugging him, letting him hug her. When he bent his head, she kissed him back because it seemed the natural thing to do.

Jenny, who had followed her mother outside to congratulate her, stopped in shock at the sight of the entwined figures then tiptoed away. That was no kiss of friendship, that was the kiss of a man and woman who really fancied one another – or loved one another.

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