Page 87 of Control's Undoing

She looked away from Colum, smiling, though only briefly.“They’re not that difficult to make.Nothing much to it.”

“Then it’s the skilled hands of the baker that deserve the credit.”

Mary sniffed again, a smile tugging her lips.“Well now, enough of that.Tell me, what would you be wanting Florence Balcombe’s things for?Draculafans?”There was clear disapproval in the final words.

Annie took the lead.“Actually, my client here,” she gestured at Xavier, “is an expert on Oscar Wilde.”

Mary nodded.“Sure they were childhood sweethearts, Florence and Oscar.”

“It’s shocking that more people haven’t asked if Florence was some sort of muse.She was loved by one great writer and married to another, after all,” Annie suggested.

“My husband, God rest him, had a bit of the artist’s soul, he did.He’s the Balcombe by birth, not me, but family stories should be protected.”Mary looked at the stack of boxes.“I tell you, I’m ashamed I am, that my boys don’t want these things.Telling me to keep them in the attic, that there’s no need to be cleaning everything out now.Well, thereisa need, and if they refuse to care about their family legacy, talking about how their flats are small and they travel too much for work… Well, then, I’ll be passing these things along to someone who will appreciate them.”

Xavier hid his surprise.The impression they’d had before arriving was of a lonely older woman who was heartbroken she had to part with these family mementos.

Instead, they were getting a pissed-off mom whose children refused to help her clean out the attic, saying, “Fine, if you don’t want it, I’m getting rid of it.”

“And you’re sure your sons won’t someday want to know about their ancestor Florence?”Xavier asked.

“If they do, you can sell it back to them,” Mary declared.“They both work for Google and have more money than sense, now that they’re moved to Dublin.Living by the Grand Canal…” Mary tsked and shook her head.

Colum froze, his expression flat, while his eyes were bright with emotion.

“How much would you like for them?”Annie said.“I know you were turned down by the auction houses, but we do think there’s value there.Colum is our local expert and between the two of us, we’ve come up with what I think is a fair price, but we’re open to negotiation.”

“No cost.It’s enough to be knowing someone cares and appreciates them.”Mary’s mouth twisted.“It’s hard thinking that Florence was so careful to save all these things, and here now she’s barely in the grave?—”

Hadn’t she died in 1937?Xavier caught Colum’s eye, making a subtle face, and the tense expression stamped on Colum’s features relaxed into amusement.

“—and her own people don’t care about it.”

“You’re right,” Annie declared.“That’s discouraging, but Xavier is interested, and Colum and I will help him preserve the items to museum standard.”

Annie finished up the business side of it as they drank second and third cups of tea, and Xavier ate two more scones.

Three hours later, they left with an aluminum-foil-covered pie pan of leftovers and all of Florence Balcombe’s papers.

When he found it,Xavier shot up from his seat, grabbed Annie, bent her back over his arm and kissed her senseless, then snatched Colum out of his chair, pinned him against the wall, and did the same to him.

“You found it?”Annie breathed, as Xavier came up for air.

He tried to step back, but Colum grabbed him, holding him there for a moment before letting him go.

“I found it,” Xavier said, though Colum was tempting him to ignore the discovery.

However, he blinked as if just processing what Annie had said and pushed past him, heading over to the table Xavier had been using as a desk.They’d split up the materials and each retreated to a different area to start working through the items.Xavier had declined to take a box and work through it methodically.Instead, he’d rifled through things, picking out the most likely items.

Annie had ranted for several minutes about that, and though he’d considered bending her over and taking his hand, or a nice thick book, to her ass, he’d decided to dive into reading.

Together, they clustered around Xavier’s table.He pushed through to take a seat, flipping the thin book closed so they could see the front.

Studies of a Sweltan

By Walter Pater

“Oscar was a devotee of Pater,” Xavier said.“But Pater never wrote a book calledStudies of a Sweltan.His most famous work wasStudies in the History of the Renaissance.”

“Wasn’t Pater an art critic?”Annie said with a raised brow.“I’m shocked you don’t have a rant about art critics.”

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