The Way We Were_ A Novel - Marcia Willett [91]
‘No. I haven't been down to the village yet. Why?’
‘Have you read anything about this French art fraud trial or seen it on the news?’
A tiny silence. ‘Yes,’ said Julia, casually. ‘Yes, I think I have. Why?’
‘There's a photograph today showing some of the pieces involved. One of them looks like your little Merlin … Julia? Are you there?’
‘Yes,’ said Julia at last. ‘Yes, I'm here. What exactly are you saying, Aunt Em?’
‘This man, Stamper, used to sell valuable pieces to museums and art galleries. It seems that on several occasions, having made the transaction, he copied the piece and gave it to the unsuspecting curator, keeping the original hidden away in his own collection.’
‘But why?’ asked Julia, puzzled. ‘I can't see the point of that if it has to be hidden.’
‘The point is, if you are a true collector you don't care about that. You simply have the original piece to gloat over. Like a miser with his hoard of gold. One of the faked pieces looks identical to your little Merlin.’
‘What?’
‘Julia, where did the little Merlin come from? It was Tiggy's, wasn't it?’
‘Yes,’ said Julia reluctantly. ‘It was Tiggy's. But it can't be … this piece. You mean it's the original? How could it be?’ A terrible sense of dread filled her. ‘Why should Tiggy have had it?’
‘I spoke to her about it once. She said her father had a gallery full of stuff like it and that her grandmother had given it to her when she came down to the west. Have you got the bronze there, Julia?’
‘Yes. No.’ Julia stared vaguely round her. ‘I don't know.’
‘Listen carefully. This is important. When I saw the bronze it had a name carved on the side of the base in capital letters. Do you remember that?’
Julia shook her head. ‘No. No, I really can't remember much about it except that the children liked it. Oh God, Aunt Em, what are you actually telling me?’
‘I think that Tiggy was given the Merlin as a gift quite by chance. Neither she nor her grandmother had a clue about its value. My guess is that it was probably kept with other pieces well away from the public eye and that the owner had become almost complacent about its safety. Now this has all started up. Someone discovered that a piece that Stamper sold to the New York Arts Museum was a fake and now they are investigating him thoroughly. The Merlin is just one of several. Tristan Stamper is saying that he had no idea that The Child Merlin was a fake and denies ever having any other copy of it in his possession. Who is Tristan Stamper, Julia?’
‘He's Tiggy's father,’ whispered Julia. ‘Oh God, Aunt Em. I'd seen the trial in the paper but I was too frightened that someone might connect him to Zack to think about anything else.’
‘Is there any chance that a connection to Tiggy might be found? Didn't you tell me once that her father cast her off when she was still at school?’
‘That's right. All he did was pay the fees and she spent the holidays with us or with her granny. After she'd left school she never heard from him. He completely abandoned her, though that was her wish too, and once she knew she was having a baby she made me promise that nobody would know that he existed. He … he molested her, Aunt Em, and she didn't want him to have anything to do with her baby. She made me absolutely promise. What else could I do? I've often felt guilty that we've lied to Zack but how could anyone break such a promise? Pete agreed with me that we must honour Tiggy's wishes, though we've been terrified that Zack might decide to try to find his relations, but luckily he's never seemed the least bit interested. When her granny died Tiggy changed her name to Tom's and as far as I was concerned, that was that. Of course, I never gave the Merlin a thought. I don't even know where it is.’
‘You must find it. Hide it. I'll come over later.’
Julia put down the phone: her knees were trembling and her limbs were weighty. She sat down suddenly. This was the connection she'd missed in her anxiety for Zack: the little Merlin.
Em stood thinking; she took deep breaths to steady the uneven beating