Read Online A Hundred Thousand Dragons by Dolores Gordon-Smith - Free Book Online Page B

Is this a lamp?’
    â€˜It looks like a Roman lamp. It’s probably about two thousand years old, maybe more.’
    Ashley hastily replaced it on the shelf and continued to look round the room, pausing before the fireplace. A striking coloured print of an ancient temple carved out of red stone bathed in brilliant sunlight hung over the mantelpiece. ‘ Petra – The Treasury by David Roberts, ’ he read. ‘Is that the place in the poem? You know, The rose-red city of Petra, half as old as time? I like the way the sun brings out the colours in the rock.’ Jack seemed oddly reluctant to comment. ‘Haldean?’
    â€˜It’s not bad,’ he said eventually.
    Ashley looked at him in mild surprise. In his experience, Haldean could usually talk the hind leg off a donkey about art. ‘What’s the matter?’
    Jack made an obvious effort. ‘Nothing.’ He took a deep breath. ‘It’s a good picture but it’s not the most dramatic angle. If I was painting it, I’d show how it looks when you first see it. There’s a narrow passage through a cleft in the rocks that must run for a mile or more before opening out in front of the building in the picture. It’s a stunning sight.’
    Ashley’s surprise increased. ‘Have you been there?’
    â€˜I was there in the war,’ said Jack. ‘I was stationed at Ismailia on the Suez Canal. Most people know the poem about the rose-red city,’ he said, turning away and idly flicking his finger along the spines of the books, ‘but there’s just about every shade of red except rose. Rose makes it sound pretty. It’s not. It’s a harsh, twisted sort of landscape.’
    Ashley could virtually hear the full stop at the end of the sentence.
    â€˜D’you know,’ continued Jack, ‘Vaughan must have damn nearly everything ever written about the archaeology of Arabia.’ He took a book from the shelf. ‘Vaughan wrote this. An account of the excavations in Petra in 1897-98, with some notes on the origins of the Nabateans . Published by Wheeler and Street, 1900. I think Mr Vaughan might be a better archaeologist than Lady Stuckley gave him credit for.’
    â€˜Perhaps,’ said Ashley. ‘I’m surprised you’ve never mentioned you’ve been there.’
    â€˜It was a very brief visit.’ Jack replaced the book back on the shelf.
    Ashley waited for a moment, shrugged and wandered round the room once more, stopping in front of an unframed, mounted watercolour propped up on a raised reading-stand. It showed an ancient temple, its white stone dazzling in the sun, set against a background of towering red cliffs. On either side of the temple, stretching out in two curved arms, more buildings were carved out of the rock. ‘Is this Petra?’
    Jack picked up the picture and frowned. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said after a little while. ‘I don’t recognize it.’
    â€˜It’s an original,’ said Ashley. ‘Who painted it?’
    Jack read the signature on the bottom. ‘Someone signing themselves I.E. Simes, R.A. R.A. means Royal Academy, I suppose.’
    The door opened and Vaughan came into the room. He stopped as he saw the painting in Jack’s hands. ‘Good morning, gentlemen.’
    â€˜Good morning, sir,’ replied Jack. He replaced the picture on the stand. ‘We were trying to place the temple in this picture.’
    Vaughan gave a short laugh. ‘I’d like to know, too. I hope to find out shortly. I’m sorry to keep you waiting but I was down at the boathouse. Now that spring’s well and truly here, I wanted to get a couple of the boats caulked and varnished, but it’s a messy job. I had to change before I came into the house. Do take a seat, gentlemen.’
    â€˜Thank you, sir,’ said Ashley, sitting down.
    Vaughan took a silver cigarette box from the mantelpiece,