[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.In one corner a woman was typing at a computer on a large, book-covered desk; in another, a few seats were arranged around a coffee table as for a meeting; in the third stood another writing station, and in the fourth a spiral stair led up into the tower.Sophie Warrender introduced her secretary working at the desk.‘Do you want to finish up now, Rhonda? I think we’ve broken the back of it.Thank you so much for coming in today.’Rhonda nodded and asked if they wanted coffee, but Brock said not and Sophie took him over to sit at the low table.The door closed behind her secretary, and she began, in a low, confidential voice.‘Marion began working for me almost a year ago, Chief Inspector, helping me with the research for my current book.I write biographies, of nineteenth-century figures.’‘Of course,’ Brock said, ‘How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear.I enjoyed it very much.If I’d known I was going to meet you I’d have brought it for you to sign.’She was pleased, looked shrewdly at him, reassessing him.‘That’s kind of you.Of course, I’d be delighted to sign it.Perhaps we’ll have another opportunity.And I take it as a real compliment that you enjoyed the book.In a way we do similar things, don’t you think? Trying to tease out the hidden motives and misdirections of the people we study.But I think my task is simpler, working on dead subjects.The living are much more elusive.But since you’ve read the book you’ll understand when I tell you that we’ve been in Corsica for the past four weeks.’‘Ah.’ Brock remembered part of the Lear biography dealing with his painting expedition to the Mediterranean island.‘When I was doing the research for that book I retraced his steps on Corsica, and it was during those visits that Douglas, my husband, and I found the house that we bought and now have as a holiday retreat.We went over there to get out of the way of the decorators, and didn’t keep up with the English news.That’s why I had no idea about this tragedy until this morning.I was appalled when Rhonda told me—she just assumed that I knew.’‘So Marion was working for you as well as studying for her doctorate?’‘Yes.The job with me was part time, casual.She could fit it in around her other commitments.’‘Her tutor, Dr da Silva, didn’t mention that.’‘No, well, he probably didn’t know.Marion was on a scholarship of some kind, and there were restrictions on how much paid work she could do, so she just didn’t tell them at the university.In fact the research for me did help her own studies, because we were both examining the same group of people, the Pre-Raphaelites—that’s why I picked her in the first place.’She hesitated, and Brock waited, letting her tell her story at her own pace.She was frowning, pursing her lips, and he sensed some inner debate going on.‘I suppose other people have described Marion to you?’‘To some extent, but we’d like to understand her better.We haven’t found anyone that she really confided in.’‘No, I’m not altogether surprised.That was my impression of her, a lone.well not wolf, perhaps.A lone tigress, maybe.She was a very spirited girl, very fervent and single-minded about her work and ideas.Sometimes, when she was talking about the people she was studying, the dead painters and poets and their spouses and lovers, I used to feel that they were her real friends, the ones she felt closest to, who interested her so much more than the living people she had to put up with.‘I can’t say I blame her, really—they were fascinating characters, and their lives were all tangled up in such passionate and complicated ways.I’m working on a biography of Jane Burden, the wife of William Morris, the socialist poet and creator of all those wonderful fabrics and wallpapers and pieces of furniture you can see in the V & A.But she was also the very striking model for Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was infatuated with her and was her lover for years, while his friend William looked helplessly on.’‘And Dante’s wife was Lizzie Siddal, the model for the drowned Ophelia, who looked remarkably like Marion,’ Brock said.‘Yes.You have been doing your homework.I’m impressed.I had no idea the Metropolitan Police were so well read.’ She gave a little frown and said, ‘Sorry, that sounds patronising, doesn’t it? I didn’t mean it.’‘Well, Victorian biographies probably don’t figure high on the reading lists of the Met, though when I think of some of the stuff we have to read I’d say it’s a great pity.’ Brock was trying to recall Kathy’s report.‘We got the impression that Dr da Silva felt Marion’s interest in these people had a morbid element to it.’‘He may be right.That’s really what I wanted to speak to you about.Can I ask.Rhonda showed me a report in the Guardian this morning, that there’s a rumour she died of arsenic poisoning.Is that true?’Brock frowned.‘We haven’t officially released that information, but yes, it does seem to be the case.Is that significant?’‘Well, it’s an extraordinary coincidence.You see, in recent months Marion became increasingly interested—I would say almost obsessed—with arsenic poisoning.I found myself trying to deflect her with other topics that I wanted researched, but she was quite stubborn.Once she got her teeth into an idea, she just wouldn’t let it go.’‘How was it relevant to Jane Burden and the Pre-Raphaelites?’ Brock asked.‘Arsenic certainly had a big influence on the life of Jane’s husband, William Morris.His father established what was then the biggest arsenic mining company in the world, near Tavistock in Devon, which created the fortune that Morris inherited and which allowed him to finance his other projects.Arsenic also cropped up in several coincidental ways in their story—it was used in dyes and paints, in medicines and make-up.They treated syphilis with it and used it in all sorts of patent medicines.All this was well known.It was just a fact of life in Victorian England.But Marion seemed to want to make more of it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

listy-do-eda.opx.pl