Read Online The Hardie Inheritance by Anne Melville - Free Book Online Page B

blink or fidget through a long exposure. Unlike débutantes. But you can see why I never feel I can simply arrive on someone’s doorstep with all this. What a cracking day I’ve got for it! I’ll get on with the exterior views straightaway.’
    â€˜Is there anything useful I could do to help?’
    He shook his head. ‘I’ve got everything I need, thank you.’
    Grace turned to leave, but felt a tug at her hand. Trish waslooking up at her. Her pale, oval face, lightly freckled beneath the eyes, was framed by the blonde hair which fell straight to her shoulders. Beneath its fringe, her blue eyes were appealing.
    â€˜Please may I make something with your clay again?’
    â€˜Certainly you may. Let’s go and find it.’
    The demure expression with which Trish had asked her question was banished by a grin of delight as she skipped happily into the stable yard.
    â€˜What do you want to make this time?’ asked Grace, digging into the old dustbin for a handful of clay.
    â€˜A house.’
    â€˜This house? Or your own house?’
    â€˜We haven’t got a house of our own. We live in a flat with no stairs and no garden. I want to do a make-believe house, with trees round it.’
    â€˜I’ll give you a board to build on. And –’ Grace hesitated before offering any kind of implement. She had made most of her own pottery tools out of wire, but small fingers might be cut by them. She looked instead for the shaped piece of bone which could be used as a knife and offered an old rolling pin as well.
    â€˜You can roll it out like pastry, and cut out walls or bricks. Do you think you might want to keep what you make this time? Because if so, I’ll show you what you have to do to the clay before you start.’
    â€˜No, thank you. I don’t like keeping things.’
    â€˜There you are, then. You won’t touch anything else, will you?’
    â€˜Trush Trist.’ They laughed companionably together. Then Grace left the young potter to her work and went to watch the photographer at his.
    â€˜I
could
be useful,’ she said to Ellis, realizing that he would need to make at least three journeys in order to move his equipment to each new position.
    â€˜But why should you? You have your own work.’
    â€˜I’m taking a day’s holiday. Acting the part of lady of the manor. A hostess.’
    As though the word ‘acting’ had put a new thought into his mind, Ellis looked up at her questioningly. ‘Hardie,’ he said. ‘Jay Hardie, the actor – is he any relation of yours?’
    â€˜My younger brother. Do you know him?’
    â€˜We have some friends in common.’ Ellis seemed to be regretting that he had asked the question as he busied himself with the camera. ‘Would you like to have a look?’ He held up the heavy black cloth so that she could put her eye to the viewfinder.
    â€˜How extraordinary!’ she exclaimed. ‘All the proportions look quite different.’
    â€˜It’s because you’re not seeing the usual amount of sky. I shall take more than one shot of each façade. One has to choose every time between good detail and a general balance. It’s something that I imagine you must be aware of whenever you choose a position for a new piece of sculpture: how much space it ought to have around it.’
    â€˜Sculpture!’ Grace laughed at the idea that her shapes could be dignified with such a professional word.
    â€˜That’s what it is, you know.’ Ellis took a last look through the viewfinder himself before lowering the cloth and starting the exposure. ‘Have you had any art education, Miss Hardie? Or any contact with artists?’
    â€˜Does it look like it?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Ellis, ‘it does. And that’s what makes it so extraordinary – that you should be creating work which is so much in tune with what’s coming out of the art