A Trick of the Light by Ali Carter (surface ebook reader txt) 📕

‘Whooooa, hang on a minute,’ said Rupert. ‘You’re going a bit fast.’

‘Very fast,’ said Giles.

‘Yes, Susie,’ said Felicity. ‘Any chance you could explain it a little more clearly? You are an awfully good tutor but that sounded terribly difficult.’

‘I think it’s safe to say,’ grumbled Jane, ‘we were all lost in your explanation.’

‘Why don’t you show us how it’s done?’ suggested Lianne.

Louis offered me his easel and paper and set another up for himself. I shifted forward so everyone could watch me and work behind – no time left this morning for a full demonstration.

‘Do you all understand what I mean when I say white is warm when sunlight hits it?’

‘Not much of that here,’ said Jane.

‘As a matter of fact, natural light is sunlight.’

‘Well, I didn’t understand what you meant.’

‘No, I don’t think I did either,’ said Felicity.

Louis gave me a sympathetic smile and I moved towards the high table, hoping if I pointed at what I meant, it would make things clearer.

‘The sides of the objects closest to the window have most light on them. Here. The sides of the objects furthest from the window have the least light. Here. Zinc white is warm and titanium white is cold. So, when you are painting the lightest side of the jug and the vase you will use zinc white because natural light is warm.’

‘What about the shadow?’ said Felicity.

‘We’ll get to the shadow, but for the time being these dark sides of the objects are not hit by sunlight and are therefore cold, so when mixing their tone you’ll use titanium white.’

‘I’m going to write this down,’ said Lianne.

‘That’s a terribly good idea,’ said Felicity, reaching for her sketchpad.

‘It’s ridiculously confusing,’ said Jane.

Louis stepped forward and squeezed my shoulder.

Jane tut-tutted. I sighed. I wanted to scream: ‘Listen carefully and concentrate.’

Oh dear, have I lost them? I’m a sucker for a thorough understanding. I really relish getting to the root of a problem. I like things to be proven before I buy into the result, and there are few things I enjoy more than studying life. Whether that be tricks of the light or tricky characters.

I tried to calm Jane. ‘I’ll talk you through the mixes and the easiest way to go about that is to work from dark to light. The further away from the sunlight the colder the tone. The blackest black, ivory black, is used for where light never goes.’

‘There,’ said Felicity, pointing to the correct place at last.

‘Yes, and as the shadow extends it gets lighter. This cast shadow is a mixture of ivory black, zinc white and a hint of sepia.’

Lianne caught my eye. ‘How do you spell that last one?’

‘Any way you want,’ said Shane

I laughed; fundamentally he’s right. ‘S E P I A.’

‘And where’s the name from, Susie?’ asked Rupert.

‘Originally, the ink came from the sac of a cuttlefish – sepia in Greek.’

‘Yuck,’ said Lianne.

‘Oooh,’ said Felicity.

‘Hang on a minute,’ snapped Jane. ‘You are going to show us how it’s done, aren’t you?’

‘I’m just about to.’

I’m exhausted. It’s partly my fault for undertaking such an ambitious lesson but I so want to open everyone’s eyes. Finally the questions have stopped and hard work has started so I’m going to leave them to it and grab five minutes alone in my room.

I face-planted my pillow. Blast Jane, she’s testing my morals and it’s wearing me out. I was in a similar circumstance only last week. One where I didn’t know the full story. I’d gone on a blind date for dinner in Brighton, and across the restaurant I’d seen a friend, Ross. He was with a woman who was not his wife. I went straight up to say hello. They had menus in front of them, their food hadn’t come yet, but I noticed the cutlery was ruffled on his left and her right. Drawing a swift but unfounded conclusion, I was pretty sure this pair had been holding hands. His reluctance to chat suggested it too.

It was upsetting to see a friend possibly cheating on his wife but it would have been presumptuous of me to tell her, Mary, without knowing the truth. She would have been terribly upset and where was the happiness in that? Instead, I rang Ross at work and put him under pressure to do the right thing. He insisted his relationship with the stranger was platonic and this I wanted to believe. However, I left him in no doubt how upset I was to come across him in a situation like this and hung up, leaving him to sort it out.

Right now, face down on my bed, I’m reminding myself: it’s better to encourage the person in the wrong to do the right thing than go behind their back. My conundrum with Jane is: she’s convinced she deserves the diamonds and I just don’t know where that’s coming from. Pure greed…or something else?

I went back to the music room and wrapped up the class.

‘It’s lunchtime.’

‘Finally,’ said Shane. ‘I’m starving.’

‘I’ll race you to the dining room,’ said Giles.

‘First, you must clear up, clean your brushes, stack the easels, carry your paintings down to the basement and then you can go to lunch.’

‘Oh, Miss. Really.’

‘How did I do today?’ said Rupert, showing me his picture.

‘Very good,’ I lied. ‘There’s certainly enough to go on tomorrow.’

‘Where in the basement are we going?’ said Felicity.

‘The drying room so your pictures can dry.’

‘Of course, how clever.’

Zoe and Fergus were already in the dining room when we arrived, piling shepherd’s pie onto plates and putting them round the table. I made sure I sat a long way away from Jane. I couldn’t bear to be near her right now.

‘Can I have a small one, please?’ said Minty.

Zoe spooned a final portion onto a plate and sat down.

‘What are we doing this afternoon, Miss?’

‘Drawing from paintings in the house.’

‘Like copying?’

‘It’s called an equivalent not a copy.’

‘Right you are then.’

Louis gave me a cheeky wink.

‘Which paintings?’ said Felicity.

‘You can