The Peacock Room by Anna Sayburn Lane

Author:Anna Sayburn Lane [Anna Sayburn Lane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anna Sayburn Lane
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 37

Barbara and Rose sat at a round table while Helen bought sandwiches and coffee at the cafeteria. The man from the reading room was just ahead of her in the queue.

‘Got to keep the caffeine levels up,’ he said, smiling. ‘Have you come far?’

‘London,’ said Helen. ‘It was an early start.’

‘Ouch. You deserve a double shot, then. It’s just a ten-minute bike ride for me.’ She glanced at his ankles and was pleased to see he’d removed the bicycle clips from his jeans.

‘Lucky you,’ she said. ‘It’s a lovely place to work.’

‘What are you working on, if you don’t mind me asking?’ he said. ‘I heard you mention Dickens.’ He hurried to explain. ‘I wasn’t eavesdropping. But he’s my specialist subject and I have this sort of internal alarm that goes off when anyone says his name.’

Helen laughed. ‘I understand. It was just a letter that mentioned someone going to see him. An art dealer. We’re looking at pre-Raphaelite artists and poets. Not really my area, but it’s linked to some work my colleague is doing about William Blake.’

‘Right. Everything’s connected, when you look hard enough. Dickens was involved with the pre-Raphaelites, too, so I know a bit about them.’ He paid for his coffee. ‘Do you mind if I join you?’

His name was Michael, he said, and he was a postgraduate student at Salford University, researching Dickens’s attitude to religion. Helen explained a little about their work, careful to avoid telling him anything that could betray Barbara’s big idea about Catherine Blake.

‘From what I know, Blake and his family were decidedly non-conformist,’ she said. ‘And he was angry about the hypocrisy of the established church. Like Dickens, I suppose.’

Michael nodded vigorously. ‘Yeah. He could be very critical of established religion.’

‘What about the Rossettis?’ asked Rose. ‘Barbara said they were Anglo-Catholic. But I thought Catholicism used to be banned or something?’

‘Not quite.’ Michael smiled at her. ‘Catholics were persecuted and discriminated against, but that started to ease in Victorian times. Do you know All Saints church? It’s fantastic, a very ornate Victorian Gothic building on Margaret Street in the West End of London. Dickens lived close by at one point. I think the Rossetti family was involved with All Saints.’

Rose looked it up on her phone. ‘Yep. The convent that Christina and Maria were involved with was attached to All Saints. All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor. The sisters attended the church.’ She looked excited. ‘Maybe we should go there when we get back to London.’

Barbara looked at her watch. ‘Maybe. But right now, we should get back to work. We’ve only got a few more hours before we need to leave for the train.’ She smiled at Michael. ‘Good luck with Dickens. Excuse us, please.’

They made their way back to the special collections room.

‘OK,’ said Barbara, after a few minutes. ‘This could be something.’ Her voice was brisk, but Helen could immediately hear the excitement in it.

She held up a letter.

‘From William Rossetti – that’s Gabriel and Christina’s brother – to Murray, January 1871.

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