A Trick of the Light

by Ali Carter

‘Blast,’ said Rupert. ‘So it does. I really felt I was going places today.’

  ‘Susie,’ said Zoe, ‘is there anything you can do about this?’

  I was glad to have an answer. ‘It’ll be easy to finish them when you get home, you just have to glaze over the tones.’

  ‘How?’ snapped Jane.

  ‘Mix up two colours, green and blue, add a fair amount of medium to them and brush them lightly over the objects.’

  ‘Will that work?’ asked Giles.

  ‘It should do.’

  ‘Should do or will do?’ said Jane.

  ‘It will work as long as you keep your paint thin. You have to allow the tones we painted today to come through your greens and blues.’

  ‘I’m definitely going to try it,’ said Rupert.

  ‘Does anyone want more shepherd’s pie?’ said Zoe.

  ‘Depends what’s for pudding,’ piped up Giles.

  Mhàiri stepped in to clear. Zoe looked at her. ‘I think…it’s blackberry crumble with custard?’

  Mhàiri nodded.

  ‘Help yourself from the hotplate,’ said Zoe and everyone, apart from Minty, got up.

  ‘Zoe,’ said Jane, ‘I do hope you won’t mind having my pictures wrapped and sent south? I can’t think how I’ll manage them on the plane.’

  The cheek.

  ‘Hmmm,’ mumbled Fergus. I think he was embarrassed they hadn’t thought about this before.

  ‘You could,’ I said, ‘fit them in your suitcase. They should be dry.’

  ‘That’s what I’m going to do,’ said Rupert.

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that. I shall go right now and give it a try.’ Jane got up and left the room.

  ‘Would anyone like seconds?’ said Zoe, and when Felicity joined a long line of takers I realised it was my moment to rush upstairs and have a bit more time alone with Jane.

  Knock, knock …

  ‘Come in.’

  ‘Hi, Jane.’

  ‘Susie, I don’t want you bothering me again.’

  I watched as she folded some clothes into her suitcase. The very one Mhàiri had found the necklace in. Jolly lucky for Jane Mhàiri hadn’t recognised it from the portrait above. Although, even if she had put two and two together she’d never say she found a necklace in Jane’s bag. Mhàiri’s words ‘I’ll watch your back if you watch mine’ gave me reassurance her relationship with Fergus and Zoe wasn’t close. It’s not like she’d confided in them about Jane having been here before. Hang on a minute…

  ‘Jane,’ I said. ‘If your parents were friends of Fergus’s parents, you must have come to stay once he was born?’

  ‘Were is the key word there.’

  ‘Did they fall out?’

  ‘Don’t you ever learn?’ She stopped packing and turned her slitty little eyes towards me. ‘Stop right now, poking your nose into my business.’

  Eeeee, eeeee, eeeee, came the loud call of a raven. It was outside the window, sitting on the sill frantically flapping its wings. Jane got up and banged the glass.

  ‘If you want a mystery to solve, young lady, off you go and work out what these blasted birds are doing here.’

  ‘Fine.’

  I walked straight out of her room adamant I’m going to get to the bottom of everything odd going on here.

  Although Zoe referred to the library early on as ‘a snug’ it will take a lot of renovation before Auchen Laggan Tosh gets anywhere close to cosy. However, for this afternoon’s drawing from paintings the Muchtons have attempted to brighten the place up. Fires are crackling, chandeliers alight and Haggis is padding around, making people feel at home.

  Rupert and Minty are drawing George III’s coronation round the back of the main staircase. Lianne is in the library studying Thomas Warrender’s trompe l’oeil and Giles has disregarded my instruction for the afternoon. I’ve just stumbled across him in the hall. He’s got his watercolours out and is tackling the cupola, à la Gavin Hamilton.

  ‘Didn’t want to draw?’ I said sarcastically.

  ‘No, not on my last afternoon. We have rather a good painting collection of our own at home. I can draw from that any time.’

  ‘I get your point. Would you like any help?’

  ‘Do you think this is bad?’

  ‘No, it looks a good start. I was just offering.’

  ‘Thank you but no thank you,’ he smiled.

  I found Felicity in the drawing room sitting by the fire, under Ramsay’s portrait of the 1st Earl’s wife.

  ‘Great choice. How are you getting on?’

  ‘I,’ her voice cracked. ‘I,’ she stopped again. I looked at her picture; most of it had been rubbed out.

  ‘Felicity, you mustn’t worry, anything good is hard work. You’ve come on such a lot this week.’

  ‘But it’s so difficult. I simply don’t know where to begin.’

  ‘Think of it like this.’ I crouched down beside her. ‘Fifty per cent is studying the painting, the tone, the brush strokes, the detail, and fifty per cent is drawing something that looks like what you have chosen.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  I changed tack. ‘I bet you’ve never looked at the same painting for more than an hour?’

  Her head shook.

  ‘You’ll be looking at this picture for at least an hour and a half.’

  ‘So I will,’ she giggled. I’d unwittingly cheered her up.

  ‘When you look at the same painting for a long time it’s very interesting how you begin to see it differently. All the intricacies start to etch themselves in your memory and the longer you look the firmer the image will stick in your mind. This helps enormously when it comes to drawing.’

  ‘But where do I start?’ She gazed at the portrait.

  ‘First, draw a vertical rectangle inside the edges of your paper, roughly the same dimensions as the painting.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Come.’ I beckoned her up. ‘Stand directly in front of the picture, and hold your pencil out horizontally at arm’s length. Now close one eye.’

  ‘Which eye?’

  ‘Keep your dominant eye open. Line up the end of your pencil with the bottom left-hand corner of the picture. Measure the width of the painting and mark it on your pencil with your thumb. This gives you the starting scale.’

  Felicity’s arm was wavering. I raised my hand to keep it steady.

  ‘You can relax a bit.’ I pushed at her elbow. ‘It must be straight but it doesn’t have to be rigid.’

  ‘Susie, I’m terribly sorry but I don’t understand.’

  I let go of her arm and it dropped to her side.

  ‘Oh Felicity.’ I gave a sympathetic sigh. ‘Would you like me to show you?’

  ‘Yes, that would be best. I’m sorry I’m so thick.’

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ I smiled. ‘Now you hold the pad up and I’ll draw.’

  This was fun and worked rather well. Felicity at least looked as if she understood, her head nodding throughout my explanation. ‘The width of the picture is two thirds the length of my pencil. So, keeping my thumb in place I’m now turning the pencil vertically, and counting how many times the width fits into the height. It will be a bit distorted because you’re looking up at it but you can make allowances for that.’

  ‘That is clever.’

  ‘Yes, and now we know the height is two times the width we can draw a proportionally accurate rectangle on the paper.’

  ‘Goodie. It’s much clearer now. But why didn’t you just draw a rectangle?’

  ‘You mean without measuring?’

  She nodded. Harrumph, nothing I’d said had gone in. I’m going to have to try to put it another way…

  ‘If you mimic the proportions of the painting you can then, using your pencil, measure where objects are within the frame. Mark them off with your thumb and translate them onto your paper. This will give you a proportionally accurate drawing.’

  ‘I get it,’ Felicity smiled. ‘May I use your rectangle?’

  ‘Yes.
’ I agreed because although it would be good practice for her to draw her own, there’s enough to contend with right now.

  When I said I was going to leave, she begged me to stay.

  ‘Just for a teeny-weeny bit? Help me with the next step?’

  ‘Well this first step is very similar to the one we used when drawing the cows. Look at the portrait and choose your favourite thing.’

  ‘Her pearl choker.’

  ‘Good. Now stand still in front of the painting with your arm out again and re-find the width on your pencil with your thumb. Using this length, measure as accurately as possible the position of the choker in relation to the outside edges of the painting, and when you have, make a mark in the right position within your rectangle.’

  Much to my surprise Felicity demonstrated she had understood exactly what I was saying. Wow.

  ‘Next?’ she smiled.

  ‘Using the pearl choker as your anchor, look really hard at the painting and see what and where things intercept it. Then draw them on your paper. After this look what and where things intercept these things and so on until you reach the edges of the painting. Got it? I think you’ll be all right on your own now, don’t you?’

  ‘I do hope so.’

  ‘Well, if you’re really desperate shout and I’ll come back, but for the time being I must go and find Jane, Shane and Louis.’

  Jane and Shane were upstairs arguing on the landing.

  ‘You haven’t started yet?’ I said, full of disappointment.

  ‘No Miss, she’s refusing to let me in her room and I want to draw that portrait.’

  ‘You can’t invade our personal space,’ said Jane.

  Shane stood his ground wearing a grin on his face.

  ‘Maybe you could work together in your room, Jane?’

  I was trying to resolve things but she wouldn’t budge.

  ‘You’re going to let him sit amongst Felicity’s and my things?’

  ‘Only if you’re in there too.’

  ‘No, and he doesn’t have to draw in there.’

  ‘I don’t have to, you’re right,’ said Shane rather maturely for him, I thought. ‘But I’d like to.’

  ‘Please,’ I added.

  ‘Please,’ said Shane and miraculously Jane stepped away from the door.

  ‘You’ll leave the door open, won’t you?’ I asked.

  ‘No reason not to.’

  I turned to Jane. ‘Would you like me to find you a painting to draw?’

  ‘I’m perfectly capable of doing that and as a matter of fact I’ve already decided. I’m going to tuck myself away down the children’s corridor.’

  ‘Really?’ I think she must have an ulterior motive. Why would she ever want to hang about down there?

  ‘Yes, do you have a problem with that?’

  ‘No, not at all. But let me get you a chair from my room.’

  I went down the corridor one step ahead of her and as soon as I was in my room she stepped in after me and slammed the door.

  ‘Susie, I have to talk to you. This can’t wait any longer.’ Her breath was short, her tone direct.

  ‘Of course,’ I gently rested my bottom on the window ledge, hoping to appear calmer than I felt inside.

  ‘My husband Neville is seventeen years older than me; work that out and you’ll realise he’s a pensioner. He’s set to be pushed out of his job sooner rather than later. Our eldest daughter is desperate for a baby and unable to afford private IVF and our youngest daughter wants to be a vet but can’t afford tuition fees.’

  Jane fell silent and as her shoulders slumped the pomp, pride and self-importance she’d carried about with her all week drained out. Standing with her back to the door, so wretched, she looked like she’d lost a stone on the spot.

  ‘I’m very sorry to hear all you’re going through.’

  I stood up and took a step towards her.

  ‘I’m not looking for your sympathy.’ She flapped her hand and I sat back down. ‘What I need is your understanding.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘That yellow diamond necklace is worth about three hundred thousand pounds.’

  ‘Jane,’ I said, shocked by the huge sum. ‘I have a tiny diamond. Here.’ I took it out of my jewellery case and without even looking closely she grunted and dropped it into her top pocket. ‘I found it under the floorboard but I want rid of it. It’s not my role to give it to the Muchtons. That’s for you to…’

  ‘Let me explain the calculation. Then hopefully, finally, you’ll understand.’ Jane held out her hand and ticked the separate elements off her fingers. Fore finger: ‘Five years’ tuition fees, that’s forty-six thousand pounds, assuming annual fees don’t increase, though they’re bound to, so, accounting for that and living expenses, which we’ll be covering too so that our daughter can study hard, I’ll have to put aside one hundred thousand for her.’ Middle finger: ‘Twenty-five thousand for our eldest. IVF hasn’t worked on the NHS so she must now go private. It’s five thousand pounds a pop and with a twenty-nine per cent success rate it could take several goes.’ Ring finger: ‘Not to mention the likelihood of Neville being made redundant.’ Jane wrapped her other fist round her little finger and her eyes shut.

  ‘Jane, I’m worried about you.’

  I felt a great need to put a hand on her shoulder but I didn’t dare.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said, brushing away my concern.

  ‘Are you sure? Please sit on the bed if you’d like.’

  ‘I’m fine.’ She pulled a handkerchief out of her sleeve and blew her nose with great effect.

  ‘I completely understand your situation.’

  ‘Do you? Do you really, Miss Mahl? No. I don’t think you do.’

  This woman was something else.

  She continued: ‘I’ve waited years, literally years, for this opportunity. I swore to myself I wouldn’t do anything until I needed the money. But that didn’t stop me keeping a close eye on life up here.’ Jane shoved the handkerchief back up her sleeve. ‘Now I desperately need the money. So when the painting residency was advertised I made damn sure I got on it. The half-wit Felicity’s sob story was a great help with that.’

  Blimey, my sympathy buckled just like that, and Jane’s threat, ‘There’s much good to come from this and if you blow my cover, don’t underestimate what I’ll do’, had no effect.

  I accused her again of stealing the necklace. ‘Don’t you feel it’s wrong to do this?’

  ‘Before you got involved there was no right or wrong dilemma.’

  ‘So you agree it’s wrong to take it?’

  She condescended to provide an explanation. ‘The Muchtons got the insurance money from the necklace, Fergus said so himself. Other than sentimental value, which I think we can overlook in these circumstances, my taking the necklace won’t leave anyone out of pocket. The fact it might be wrong is a minor consequence in a much larger philanthropic picture.’

  ‘But Fergus would be thrilled to have it back in the family.’

  ‘We can’t always have what we want. You’d do well to remember ignorance is bliss. My family need the money much more than the Muchtons need their necklace.’

  It was then I clicked: if the necklace is returned to Fergus, he’d have to declare it to his insurance company – pay them back what they’d paid out. The Muchtons simply don’t have enough cash in their pocket to keep this necklace in the family.

  I’m ready to give up, surrender, leave Jane to it. Follow her instruction: keep things simple, remain quiet, not say a thing. Maybe then I’d get rid of this horrible feeling inside me.

  My fail-safe mantra in life when up against a moral problem is simple: answer yes or no. Everything, no matter what, no matter how complex, can be stripped back and there’s your answer, yes or no. There is right and wrong, good and bad. Stealing is wrong.

  But here, with Jane, I’m in a terrible muddle. Her daughters would benefit enormously from the sale of the necklace.

  Is stealing for the g
reater good so bad?

  I looked at her sympathetically. But there was no need, her fearful strength of character was in command. ‘Please. Leave me be. There’s far more wrapped up in this than you will ever know. If I were you I’d get your little snout out of other people’s business.’

  I caught myself before any more words came out of my mouth. I’d forgotten there might be more to Jane’s revenge. Her mission goes back a whole generation, to the day she was frightened as a little girl. My conscience has spoken: it’s time for me to butt out.

  I picked up the bedroom chair and carried it into the corridor. Jane settled herself down in front of the Annunciation, and when I asked if she’d like any guidance she said, ‘Leave me alone now, Susie, off you go back downstairs.’

  Louis. Oh Louis. Where is Louis?…Finally, I found him sitting at the dining room table with Zoe.

  ‘Susie, I do hope you don’t mind me pinching him,’ she said all giddy. ‘We’re going through photographs and he’s just so much quicker on the computer than I am.’

  Louis grinned; he knew exactly what I was thinking: you’re the same age, for goodness sake.

  ‘Not at all,’ I said.

  ‘I thought it would be wise to get his advice on photographs while I still have him here. But I do want to get together, Susie, you, Fergus and I, to discuss how it’s gone.’

  ‘Very good idea.’

  ‘How’s the drawing from painting going anyway?’

  ‘Everyone’s begun so here’s hoping they stick at it.’

  ‘Can you spare some time and join us?’

  ‘I’d love to.’ Literally. I was longing to see some of Louis’ work.

  ‘Here. Pull up a pew.’ Zoe moved her chair closer to Louis. ‘You’ll have a good idea of what sells the course.’

  I sat down, pleased to be a part of it.

  ‘We’ve downloaded all the photographs from his camera…’

  ‘Transferred,’ said Louis, ‘not downloaded. That really would have taken you over your internet allowance.’

  I felt bad; perhaps Zoe didn’t know much about computers.

  ‘Well, whatever he’s done,’ she said, ‘we’re looking at the pictures, narrowing down a selection.’

  Louis started the slideshow and it became clear he’d spent yesterday afternoon retracing our steps from the entire week. Photographs of the river, the Highland cows, the loch on the hill, the garden, the back drive, the front drive…