Lady Be Good by Pamela Hamilton

Author:Pamela Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 2021-01-16T08:09:46+00:00

11.

IN THE PINK

“The definition of Hale is strong and healthy, alive and kicking, in the pink,” Dorothy said. She closed the dictionary and set it on the desk. “I think you live up to your name quite nicely.”

Gardner looked up from his notebook and blew her a kiss. “So do you, sweetheart.”

Rain pounded on the windows, and thick fog enveloped their rustic cabin, Aguiden Lodge, nestled in the wooded landscape of Kineo, Maine, on Moosehead Lake, thus named for the shape of land that jutted up from the fickle waters. Dorothy could attest to its likeness, having seen a moose on a leisurely walk. She looked up from the dirt path and right into its eyes as it stared her down, prompting her to sprint away, thinking not that she had escaped an attack, but how the obituary would read. It would be such an inelegant end, a moose mauling! The headline would be worse than the death.

Gardner let out a deep sigh and continued writing furiously, trying to make headway on his book.

“Art simply refuses to be rushed, whether it’s painting or prose,” he said with evident frustration.

“Take your time, darling. You’re the only person who can write it, and it will ensure the craft endures for centuries. It was your fate to become the artist that single-handedly revived fresco painting in America. Even the newspapers say so,” she said. “Speaking of, I asked Danny to pick up a copy of the New York Times tomorrow when he’s buying supplies. It’s the only thing I can’t live without. Except you.”

The very thought that he discovered the secrets of fresco painting purely by chance imbued her with a strange glee, for it was unquestionably one of those signs that you were headed in the direction you ought to go. One day when he was walking along the river Seine, rain started to pour, so he ducked into an old bookshop for cover. Waiting for the storm to pass, he lingered by the window and perused the books stacked high on a worn wooden table. He plucked one from the pile, brushed off the dust, and stared in rapturous disbelief. To his astonishment, it was The Craftsman’s Handbook by Cennino Cennini, a rare, out-of-print copy that held the answers to questions he had been asking artists for years.

Dorothy watched as he wrote with speed, and realized he probably didn’t notice he was on the last pages of the notebook. We must have more, she thought, opening the table drawer. It was jammed. Pulling harder, it gave way to reveal letters scattered about, and the disorder bothered her.

Gardner looked up to ponder the perfect word for a particular sentence as though it were written on the wood-paneled wall. He stared for several maddening minutes, then heard the sound of papers shuffling.

“You should read some of those letters, sweetheart. You’ll see what you’ve gotten yourself into with the lot of us as your family.”

She hummed the melody of Pachelbel’s Canon as she sifted

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