Angus Lordie interrupted her thoughts. “We should do something about the picture now,” he said. “Let’s go into my studio and get to work.”
They followed him from the drawing room, down a book-lined corridor, and into a large room, two floors high, with large skylights set into the ceiling. Matthew, who had been clutching the painting, now handed it over to Angus Lordie and watched anxiously as their host laid it down on a table and reached for a large, opaque bottle. He placed the bottle beside him and then raised his glass of whisky to Matthew.
“Paint-stripper,” he said. “In the bottle that is – not the glass! Hah!”
Matthew said nothing, but narrowed his eyes as Angus Lordie took the top off the bottle and sprinkled a viscous liquid across the painting. Then he rubbed this gently with a cloth.
“Draw near and see,” said Angus Lordie. “We’ll give this a moment to act, and then I’ll give it a wipe. All should be revealed.”
Slowly the surface of the painting began to blister and bubble. The shore of Iona disappeared, and then the coast of Mull. Next went the sea; those blue waves which had rather impressed Matthew became grey and then brown.
“Now a gentle wipe,” said Angus Lordie. “That’ll get rid of all this superfluous paint. Here we go.”
They were all huddled over the painting now. Pat noticed that Matthew looked pale, and that his breathing was shallow. Domenica, catching Pat’s eye, gave her a conspiratorial nod. And Angus Lordie, absorbed in his task, looked only at the surface of the painting, which was now changing colour markedly.
“Now then,” Angus Lordie said, dabbing at a section of the painting. “Gently does it. Gently.”
“An umbrella,” whispered Domenica. “Look. An umbrella.”
“Yes!” said Angus Lordie, triumphantly. “Yes! And look what we have here. A beach. Yes! And do we have people in evening suits dancing under that umbrella, which is being held up, is it not, by a butler? Yes we do! We do!”
Angus Lordie straightened up. “Yes!” he shouted. “Exactly as I had suspected! A Vettriano!”
110. Gain, Loss, Friendship, Love
Matthew was quietly pleased. He had lost a Peploe (which he had never really had, anyway) but he had gained a Vettriano (which he had never known he had). After the initial shock of the discovery, he turned to Angus Lordie and embraced him warmly. “I’m so glad that you offered to do this,” he said. “I would never have imagined it. A Vettriano!”
Angus Lordie smiled, wiping his hands on a piece of cloth. “I was alerted by the shape of the umbrella,” he said. “I just had a feeling that it was our friend Mr Vettriano underneath. I don’t know why, but I had this feeling.”
“Never underestimate the power of intuitions,” said Domenica. “They are a very useful guide. They can show us the way to all sorts of things – including the way to being good.”
Angus Lordie raised an eyebrow. “How so?” he asked. “What have intuitions to do with goodness?”
“Intuitions help us to know what is right and wrong,” said Domenica. “If your intuitions tell you that something is wrong, then it probably is. And once you start to use your moral faculties to work out why it’s wrong, you’ll see that the intuition was right in the first place.”
“Interesting,” said Angus Lordie. “But I suspect that the intuition is merely a form of existing knowledge. You know something already, and the intuition merely tells you that the knowledge is buried away in your mind.”
“But that’s exactly what an intuition is,” said Domenica. “That’s exactly why they’re so useful.”
Angus Lordie replaced the cap on the bottle of paint-stripper. “Enough of all this,” he said. “I propose that we go through to the drawing room and open a bottle of champagne. Leave the painting here, Matthew. It needs to dry a little. I’ll come back in a moment and fetch it.”
They followed their host back down the corridor and into the large, formally furnished drawing room. Angus Lordie busied himself with the opening of a bottle of champagne, which he took from a concealed fridge in a walnut cabinet. Then he poured a glass for each of them and they stood in the middle of the room, under the Murano chandelier, and raised their glasses to each other.
“To the successful sale of the Vettriano,” said Angus Lordie, chinking his glass against Matthew’s. “That is assuming that you will be selling it. Vettriano, of course, is not to everybody’s taste. But the point is there’s a strong market for them and it seems to be getting stronger.”
Matthew looked into his glass. He did not like to talk about financial matters, but he was very curious to know what value Angus Lordie might put on his painting. “You wouldn’t have any idea,” he began.
“Of what it’s worth?” said Angus Lordie.
“Yes.”
“Well,” said Angus Lordie. “Let’s think. I think that this is a very early Vettriano, but it’s an important one in terms of his development as a popular painter. It’s his beach period, I would have thought – with touches of his umbrella period. So that makes it very interesting. And the value would be … Let’s think. Perhaps, a hundred thousand. Something like that?”
Pat glanced at Matthew and noticed that his hands were shaking. She reached across and touched him gently on the shoulder. “Well done!” she whispered. “Well done!”
Matthew smiled back at her. He liked this girl, and he wondered if there was still a chance that she might like him too. Perhaps she had overcome her ridiculous attachment to that ghastly Bruce. Perhaps she would want somebody more settled, like me. That is what he thought, but he knew, even as he thought it, that he was hoping for too much. Nobody liked him in that way; they just didn’t.
Angus Lordie put down his glass. “I’ll go and fetch it,” he said. “The light is slightly better through here at this time of the evening. We can take a close look at it.”
He left them, and a short time later he returned, holding the painting out before him. He cleared his throat and started to say something, but no words came and they knew immediately that something was wrong.
Angus Lordie held the painting out to Matthew. “I’m terribly sorry,” he said. “The paint-stripper appears to have continued to act. The Vettriano seems to have gone.”
Matthew looked at the painting in dismay. The beach, the umbrella, the butler, the dancing couple – all had merged into a set of curiously-coloured streaks and puddles of paint. Matthew looked at Angus Lordie, and then he laughed. It was a laugh that surprised them all – except Pat. “I was never really too keen on Vettriano,” he said. “Don’t feel too bad about it.” With that comment, that simple forgiving comment, Pat realised the depth of Matthew’s goodness. She would not forget that.
Angus Lordie let out a sigh of relief. “That’s very good of you,” he said. “But I was thinking – you could still try to sell this as an abstract Vettriano. That’s what it’s become, you see. Vettriano put this paint on this canvas, and it certainly looks pretty abstract now.”
Matthew smiled. “Perhaps.”
Angus Lordie placed the abstract Vettriano down on a table and fetched another bottle of champagne from the fridge. Domenica, who had been silent since Angus Lordie had returned to the room with the news of the restoration mishap, now said: “Angus, you’ve been a rotten restorer, but you remain, in my view, a rather more competent poet. Cheer us all up with one of your impromptu pieces.”
“Something Chinese?” asked Angus Lordie. “Late Scottish-Tang?”
“No,” said Domenica. “Not that. Something else.”
“Why not?” he said. “How about this?”
He moved to the window and then turned to face his guests.
Together again he began.
Here in this place,
Of angled streets and northern light,
Under this particular moon, with Scotland
Quiet and sleeping behind and around us;
Of what may I speak but friendship,
And of our human wish for love – not just for me
But for friends too, and those who are not my friends;
So if you ask me, now, at this moment,
What is my wish: it is for love over Scotland,
Like tears of rain – that is enough.
PEPLOE: Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935), Edinburgh-born artist much influenced by French Impressionist painters such as Cézanne. In his later years, his still-life works brought him recognition as a colourist.
JAMIE SEXT: James VI of Scotland, James I of England (1566–1625), son of Mary Queen of Scots. Became the infant king of Scotland on the forced abdication of his mother in 1567. When Elizabeth of England died in 1603, he became King of England, being the great-grandson of James IV's English wife, Margaret Tudor.
MALCOLM RIFKIND & LORD JAMES: Sir Malcolm Rifkind (born 1946) is a prominent Conservative politician, living in Edinburgh, who served as Foreign Secretary in the government of Margaret Thatcher, later to become Secretary of State for Scotland. Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, after serving in the same government as a Member of Parliament at Westminster, is now a member of the devolved Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
TAM DALYELL: Labour Party politician (born 1932) who was MP for West Lothian for more than 20 years before becoming MP for Linlithgow.
WEST LOTHIAN QUESTION: Raised by Tam Dalyell, an opponent of devolution for Scotland, over the issue of whether Scottish members of the Westminster parliament, after devolution, would vote on matters solely affecting England.
GRIEVE: Christopher Murray Grieve, better known as the Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid.
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
44 SCOTLAND STREET
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the huge international phenomenon, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, and The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe, and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana and at Edinburgh University. He lives in Scotland.
BOOKS BY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
IN THE NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY SERIES
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
Tears of the Giraffe
Morality for Beautiful Girls
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
The Full Cupboard of Life
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
IN THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB SERIES
The Sunday Philosophy Club
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
IN THE PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS SERIES
Portuguese Irregular Verbs
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa
44 Scotland Street
PRAISE FOR
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
“Utterly enchanting.… It is impossible to come away from an Alexander McCall Smith ‘mystery’ novel without a smile on the lips and warm fuzzies in the heart.”
— Chicago Sun-Times
“McCall Smith’s generous writing and dry humor, his gentleness and humanity, and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characters without caricature or condescension have endeared his books … to readers.”
—The New York Times
“Pure joy.… The voice, the setting, the stories, the mysteries of human nature.… [McCall Smith’s] writing is accessible and the prose is beautiful.”
—Amy Tan
“Mr. Smith, a fine writer, paints his hometown of Edinburgh as indelibly as he captures the sunniness of Africa. We can almost feel the mists as we tread the cobblestones.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Alexander McCall Smith has become one of those commodities, like oil or chocolate or money, where the supply is never sufficient to the demand.… [He] is prolific and habit-forming.”
—The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“[McCall Smith] captures the cold, foggy, history-drenched atmosphere of Edinburgh … with a Jane Austen–like attention to detail.”
—USA Today
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 2005
Copyright © 2005 by Alexander McCall Smith
Illustrations copyright © 2005 by Iain McIntosh
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by
Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Originally published in Great Britain by Polygon, an imprint
of Birlinn Ltd., Edinburgh, in 2005.
This book is excerpted from a series that originally appeared in the Scotsman newspaper.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948–
44 Scotland Street / Alexander McCall Smith; illustrations by
Iain McIntosh.
p. cm.
1. Young women—Fiction. 2. Art galleries, Commercial—Employees—Fiction. 3. Edinburgh (Scotland)—Fiction.
4. Apartment houses—Fiction. 5. Roommates—Fiction. I. Title: Forty-four Scotland Street. II. McIntosh, Iain, ill. III. Title.
PR6063.C326A613 2005
823'.914 dc22 2005043627
www.anchorbooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-27679-7
v3.0_r1
THE 44 SCOTLAND STREET SERIES
“Will make you feel as though you live in Edinburgh.…
Long live the folks on Scotland Street.”
—The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
44 SCOTLAND STREET
All of Alexander McCall Smith’s trademark warmth and wit come into play in this novel chronicling the lives of the residents of a converted Georgian town house in Edinburgh. Complete with colorful characters, love triangles, and even a mysterious art caper, this is an unforgettable portrait of Edinburgh society.
Volume 1
ESPRESSO TALES
The eccentric residents of 44 Scotland Street are back. From the talented six-year-old Bertie, who is forced to arrive in pink overalls for his first day of class, to the self-absorbed Bruce, who contemplates a change of career in between admiring glances in the mirror, there is much in store as fall settles on Edinburgh.
Volume 2
LOVE OVER SCOTLAND
From conducting perilous anthropological studies of pirate households to being inadvertently left behind on a school trip to Paris, the wonderful misadventures of the residents of 44 Scotland Street will charm and delight.
Volume 3
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BERTIE
Pat is forced to deal with the reappearance of Bruce, which has her heart skipping—and not in the most pleasant way. Angus Lordie’s dog, Cyril, has been taken away by the authorities, accused of being a serial biter, and Bertie, the beleaguered Italian-speaking prodigy and saxophonist, now has a little brother, Ulysses, who he hopes will distract his mother, Irene.
Volume 4
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF SCONES
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones finds Bertie still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the cub scouts. Matthew is rising to the challenge of married life, while Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual, and Cyril succumbs to the kind of romantic temptation that no dog can resist, creating a small problem, or rather six of them, for his friend and owner, Angus Lordie.
Volume 5
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SEVEN
Bertie is—finally!—about to turn seven. But one afternoon he mislays his meddling mother, Irene, and learns a valuable lesson. Angus and Domenica contemplate whether to give in to romance on holiday in Italy, and even usually down-to-earth Big Lou is overheard discussing cosmetic surgery.
Volume 6
BERTIE PLAYS THE BLUES
New parents Matthew and Elspeth must muddle through
the difficulties of raising their triplets—there’s normal sleep deprivation, and then there’s trying to tell the children apart from one another. Angus and Domenica are newly engaged, and now they must negotiate the complex merger of two households. And in Bertie’s family, there’s a shift in power as his father, Stuart, starts to stand up to overbearing mother, Irene—and then there’s Bertie, who has been thinking that he might want to start over with a new family and so puts himself up for adoption on eBay. With his signature charm and gentle wit, Alexander McCall Smith vividly portrays the lives of Edinburgh’s most unique and beloved characters.
Volume 7
44 Scotland Street Page 35