A Rather Lovely Inheritance Read Online Free PDF Page A

caterer? Everything’s faux French.”
    Timothy plunked himself down beside me on the sofa, set his coffee cup on the table, and said, “Well, Penny Nichols, you’re among only your friends now, so do tell. Are you about to hit the jackpot?”
    “I sincerely doubt it,” I said calmly, poking with a fork at my rather anemic salad Nicoise. “I never got the feeling that my elderly English relatives had piles of money to burn,” I explained. “Besides, there are other relatives I’ve never met who’ll be there. I’m terrified.”
    “It’ll be fun! You must memorize everything they say and come back and tell Papa,” Erik instructed. “Why, you should have seen my Aunt Agnes when she didn’t get her mother’s fur coat. My dear, she tore the sleeve off it rather than let her sister-in-law have it.” He tossed the remains of his sandwich to the side and said briskly, “All right, Penny dear.Tell us what you’ve found out about those wild and wonderful Borgias.”
    We gossiped about Lucrezia, exchanging what we’d heard, as if she were a living, contemporary movie star. I opened my portfolio and spread out all the sketches I’d made, and the notes on jewels and furniture and clothes and hair.
    “Of course, these are just preliminary,” I said.
    “Gor- jay -ous!”Timothy exclaimed at the sample swatches of velvet and gold braid I brought them. These are my happiest moments, when all my solitary work is presented to people who genuinely appreciate the details I’ve assembled. Tim, who builds all the props, will pass my notes on to the costumer and the wigmaker as well. He and Erik will scour a few Italian and Spanish flea markets before they return home. Then they’ll set to work in their shop, a warehouse in Brooklyn, with a fleet of carpenters sawing, glueing and hammering the set pieces. Fake authenticity is what we call it.
    On the Napoleon set, my real job was art forgery. I made copies of portraits and paintings that Napoleon and Josephine commissioned. Erik says this is good insurance for the future; I can always turn to crime for a living if we stop making these movies.
    “Nice work, Penny!” Erik said admiringly, studying a replica I’d sketched from a photograph of a fifteenth-century portrait engraving of Lucrezia Borgia.
    “I’ll try to get a look at an actual portrait or engraving. It’s hard to visualize her accurately when you’re working from photocopies and reproductions,” I told them.“I can’t always be sure which portraits are really her. And some are considered copies of lost originals.”
    “We’re nearly finished with Josephine , so don’t bother coming back to the set when you’re done in London,” Erik said. “Take some time off, then just focus on the Borgia stuff.”
    “What will you wear for the reading of the will?” Tim asked encouragingly.
    “My black silk suit. But I haven’t even packed my bags yet,” I admitted.
    They both tsk-tsked, shaking their heads, and Erik warned,“Don’t count on Sheri to get you to Nice in time for your flight. Go, baby, go.”

Part Two

Chapter Three
    E VERY NOW AND THEN LIFE GOES OUT OF ITS WAY TO REMIND ME why I have fallen out of love with the real world and stubbornly try to exist on my Parallel Planet. Mass transportation is an excellent example. The plane was full tonight, with seats crammed closer than humanly tolerable, and the moment we were airborne, the guy in front of me tipped his seat-back into my lap. I tried not to think about those blood clots you can get from travelling in such tight spots, the ones that later kill you. The lady in the window-seat next to me had hogged up the overhead compartment with tons of “carry-on” parcels that she tossed up there, crushing my raincoat in the process. At her feet she plunked down a blue canvas bag with airholes and outer pockets that held blankets and bottles. When she unzipped the bag, a monkey popped his head out, looking patient and resigned. Then he saw me. I