The Pictures of Pavanne by Lan Wright

Author:Lan Wright [Wright, Lan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780257667003
Publisher: Jenkins
Published: 1968-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

XIII

Alicia Farway took breakfast alone in the private dining room of the hotel suite. Of Farway there was no sign even though it was after ten in the morning.

She ate sparingly and with little appetite; the toast was thin and dry, the coffee hot, black and unsweetened. Even the late appearance of Willem Magnus did little to disturb her introspection until—as he joined her at the table—he murmured a half-apologetic, "Good morning, Alicia."

"Oh, Willem!" She smiled at him sadly. "I'm sorry I left you in the lurch last night. It was unforgivable."

"Nonsense, nonsense! You did the right thing. Florian would have been more than an equal for Max, I'm afraid." He shrugged and shook his head. "I hate to think what might have happened if the situation had been allowed to develop any further."

"It takes two to make a quarrel, Willem. I don't think Florian would have allowed it to go too far."

"It doesn't take two when one of them is Max." Magnus looked puzzled. "That doesn't sound quite right, does it?"

She chuckled. "Thank you, Willem. That's what I needed."

"Then my day has begun well." He poured himself some coffee. "Did he bring you straight back to the hotel?"

She looked at him speculatively. "No, he didn't."

"Ah, then I ask no more questions."

"He was a perfect gentleman."

"Does that mean that he apologized after seducing you," came Farway's rasping voice as he limped into the room from his own part of the suite. "I was most surprised at the way in which you threw yourself at him, Alicia. Really, I wouldn't have believed it."

"Max, this is intolerable," Magnus protested.

Alicia laughed out loud, quite unperturbed. "Ignore it, Willem. He's merely trying out his claws for the day ahead."

Farway sulked and brooded; there was no sport for him if Alicia was in such a mood. He wondered just what she and that Florian fellow had been up to; and then he brushed the thought aside. Whatever else she might be, his stepmother did not take up with the first itinerant draftsman who happened along.

No, that wasn't fair, either. Florian was more than a draftsman, and Farway had to admit the evidence of his own eyes. In just under an hour the man had created a sketch of such warmth and detail that it had startled Farway as he looked at it for the first time. Then, too, he respected Magnus' judgment; he had read the admiration and surprise on the art dealer's face, and he had recognized the sincerity of the offer made to Florian that he should contact Magnus on his return to Earth.

Magnus didn't give his patronage to everyone.

And he had painted the Pictures! That was the surprising thing. He had stuck at it through long years away from his home world; he had looked on the magnificence of the Day of the Blue Sun, and he'd stayed to paint what he had seen.

Farway was intrigued. If possible he would have to see the Florian creation before the man left for Earth, and that would be in a couple of days.

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