Chantilly Dawns by Lissa Oliver

Author:Lissa Oliver [Oliver, Lissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maverick Publishing Ltd
Published: 2012-04-13T10:47:29+00:00

While it may have taken a virtual abduction to get him there, Marcel found the Louvre almost the perfect tonic, after all. The forty kilometre drive had been passed with unremarkable small talk, leaving the equine pressure cooker of Chantilly much further behind. The Louvre itself was a surreal new world. The public hostility of the previous week had subsided a little in ratio with the media coverage. Those that did quietly point and stare and scowl at him were too aware of their surroundings to snarl any verbal abuse, while the majority of people had better things to be looking at. Nevertheless, he noticed that Madeleine found it disquieting and, for her sake, he ignored it as though it really didn’t matter; until it really no longer did.

‘No art…,’ Madeleine pondered aloud as they stood in the foyer. ‘We may as well start at the beginning, then—literally.’

She led Marcel through to the galleries housing the ancient treasures of Egypt, Greece and Rome. ‘Now, come on!’ she insisted. ‘You can’t pretend none of this is interesting or impressive!’

Marcel smiled. ‘Impressive, I’ll give you that. The high streets must have been big back then.’

He was naturally drawn to the sculptures of animals, admiring the sleek beauty of the Egyptian cats and happy to linger in the brightly coloured Egyptian rooms, a personal favourite with Madeleine. The Greek horses disturbed him with their sinews stretched and their eyes wild, warning the viewer not to touch. First century puppies, bounding out of marble, looked as fresh and alive to him as the dogs at home, however. Their paws were raised playfully, and their ears licked and chewed by their companions in timeless puppy fashion.

There was something relaxing about wandering through a hushed environment. The ancient moments captured in stone and frozen in time enabled them both to simply stand still and observe. The museum at Newmarket had failed him in his need to step out of the world for a precious moment. There, the glass cases had imprisoned the cherished times but were unable to lock out the sorrow that invariably followed. Archer’s Derby prize had brought no warmth when the case alongside displayed his chilling silver pistol, and the solid history of Bahram’s Derby win was snatched coldly away from him as surely as the mounted hoof, devoid of life and respect. For Marcel, the dead within the Louvre continued to live, the past still rich in all its glory.

‘That’s ornate,’ Madeleine remarked, gazing at a silver plate, once buried beneath the eruption of Vesuvius. ‘I could see myself accepting something like that up on the dais on Arc day!’

‘This one looks like the Doncaster Cup,’ Marcel agreed, viewing a silver cup with ornate birds etched in high-relief.

‘Does it have storks on it, then?’

‘Can’t remember. But it’s ornate and crowded—figures bulging out of it all over the place.’

‘What are we to do with you, Marcel? Here we are in front of ancient treasures, and all you can see are prizes you’ve picked

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.