Drawing the Line Read Online Free PDF Page A

always tomorrow,’ I said, catching crumbs from a slice of treacle tart, no more homemade, despite its quaintly printed label, than the Greenwich Dome. I hoped I sounded more optimistic than I felt. I needed quick sales to get my hands on the frontispiece.
    Today’s empty hours had given me rather too long to consider Griff’s theory that it was probably a forgery. I’d sneaked back for another look when I’d seen Copeland sidle off with his outdoors jacket on leavingMarcus in charge. He wasn’t keen on my having yet another look, but as I pointed out, I now owned at least the ink, if not the paper. The paper felt and smelt right, and the ink was the sort of colour that old ink goes. There was even one very neatly cut side, as if someone had sliced it from a book using a razor or craft-knife. I’d casually asked Marcus if he knew anything about its provenance, a word I’d never even heard of before I joined Griff. But now I knew a provenance was essential, for expensive pieces in general and pictures in particular. Even for butter dishes and marmalade. If the seller could tell you where something came from, and, better still, could show you paperwork to back his claims, then the less likely it was to be a piece meddled with by someone like Ralph Harper. The downside was that it was likely to be very much more expensive if it had spent its days in some gentleman’s residence, as Griff put it, than if it turned up dirty and unloved having done time at boot sales. Marcus had sworn he knew nothing about the page’s provenance. And I’d been inclined to believe him.
    All the same, I had to bring it home soon. ‘What do they say on the film, about tomorrow being another day?’
    Griff loved his old films. Pouring the remains of his tea into the aspidistra we kept handy, supposedly to dress the stall but really, I was sure, for Griff’s slops, he managed a smile. ‘They do indeed. Which is why you mustn’t even think of marking down those Worcester cups and saucers,’ he added in a stronger voice. ‘Now, you did a lovely job on that Rockingham plate, but it’s still a tad battered. You could drop that by twenty pounds for a quick sale.’
    ‘I might if there were any customers to sell to. Where is everyone?’
    ‘Some football match, I daresay.’
    And even if I sold the pretty plate, I still wouldn’t have enough to take home my treasure, not without leaving myself quite skint. I didn’t doubt that Marcus would keep his word, but I wouldn’t put it past Copeland to hand me back my cash with a smirk telling me he’d simply had to accept a much higher offer.
    ‘Go and do another circuit, child. Anyone happening to drift this way would think we were about to witness a public hanging. Weren’t you talking about having an evening out with that hirsute young man? Or has the financial deal compromised your relationship?’
    ‘You tell me.’ Despite myself, I must have sounded very short.
    Griff rearranged a couple of items and returned to his seat, hitching a tartan travelling rug round his knees and reaching for
Sanditon
. ‘I know it’s not Austen’s greatest, but I try to read all her
oeuvre
at least once a year. You should read her yourself, dear heart. Even though I can’t guarantee scenes where young men who should know better plunge into ornamental lakes.’ He paused for me to laugh at our memories of the TV
Pride and Prejudice
he’d shown me on video. To please him I did. Now why couldn’t I have a Colin Firth come dripping into my life? Because he was old enough to be my father, that was why. ‘Start with
Northanger Abbey
– that’s all about a young woman from a humble background becoming a heroine.’
    ‘Hmm. I’ll try it this evening.’ Yes, I’d be sitting cosily at home listening to the radio with Griff when I’drather be out in a loud bar with Marcus. Fed up as I was, however, I wouldn’t bite back at Griff. Anyone prepared to become mother, father, teacher and employer all rolled