Page 49 of All I Want for Christmas

Good for her, Darcy thought, replacing the letter in the box with a shaking hand and setting the lid on top.

‘Yes, but I had just finished up,’ Darcy said, not even sure why she was covering for him. She owed him no loyalty. Clearly he didn’t know the meaning of the word. ‘Max kindly gave me some space to work here –’

The blonde looked back at her – and the wine glasses – with outright suspicion.

‘I can’t access the archives when the museum’s shut, you see. Security. Insurance...But I’m done for the day, so I’ll get out of your hair.’ Darcy tried to move naturally, but even breathing felt forced. Her upset was so fierce, the only way her body wanted to express it was in tears – but she wouldnotallow that to happen. She just had to get out of here. ‘These are ready to be sent back, Max,’ she said officiously, without looking at him.

Natalia watched her as she got up, smoothing her jeans and reaching for her bag; the model loosened a moment later, as if recognizing there was no threat here. She even almost smiled.

‘Nice meeting you, Natalia. Thanks, Max,’ Darcy said, still managing to avoid making eye contact as she headed for the door.

‘I’ll just see –’

She heard him start to follow her and she whirled round, holding up a hand, forced to make eye contact now. ‘No, no need,’ she said, her cold look stopping him in his tracks. ‘You’ve got company, Max – and I’ve stayed far too long as it is. I should have left long before now.’

Her eyes told him this had been a mistake. A grievous error. He had played her as one of the many, but it wouldn’t happen again.

‘I’ll see myself out.’

Chapter Ten

Otto sat behind his desk, staring back at her, his fingers interlaced in a steeple. ‘It’s going to be very difficult going back to Margit with this news, Darcy,’ he said with an unhappy look.

‘I know, and I’m sorry. I’m really doing everything I can to try to unearth a lead. I just needonethread to pick up. Once I get a name or find a clear photograph of this woman, I’ll be able to run with it.’

‘But there’s nothing of interestat allso far?’

She shook her head. ‘Trier was on the road straight after the war. He went to Paris, then down into Italy. I’ve been keeping an open mind whether the woman could have been a prostitute. We know he used their services, and it would fit his focus at that time, which was depicting peasant life and the working classes. It could be that he painted one of them and used his paid-for slots, so to speak, as sittings?’ She was reaching, she knew.

Otto frowned, thinking about it for a moment. ‘I don’t think I buy that hypothesis. If he wanted to paint a whore, why present her as a lady?’ He made a gesture with his hand. ‘Forgive the crude language, but you take my point.’

‘I do. And I agree,’ she sighed. It was exactly the point shehad made. ‘I’m just trying to keep an open mind and consider all possibilities.’

He looked out of the window, deep in thought. ‘Trier’s own personal interests always lay with the common man. He was a lifelong socialist. He didn’t move into society portraiture until Frederik Madsen became his patron in 1921 and painting the portraits of the great and the good became his bread and butter. But he never had any real love for it. He more or less stopped after their falling out in ’22.’

She bit her lip thoughtfully. ‘That’s what keeps niggling me...the portrait just doesn’t appear to be his typical society commission. There’s no interior backdrop, it’s not full length, she’s not formally attired...’

‘It could have been an early piece, before he found his feet with the style. It might even have been just a preliminary study. It might have been an exercise in finessing her hair or nose or attitude.’ He looked at her. ‘I assume you’ve gone through the list of his officially recognized works, to see if any of the women could be a match?’

Darcy stalled. It was such an obvious suggestion, and yet...

She looked down, feeling sheepish that she had jumped straight into researching Trier’s life before his actual work. ‘Not yet, no. I’ll get onto that straight away and cross-check his verified portraits to see if anything correlates.’ She sighed, sinking back in her chair. ‘I’m sorry, Otto...I should have done that first, as well as tightened the search frame from the outset...I’m an idiot.’

Otto watched her beat herself up. ‘Due diligence is never a bad thing, Darcy. And if the timings weren’t so tight, it wouldn’t ordinarily be an issue. But we’re a week down now with nothing to show for it, and Margit’s under a lot of pressure.’

‘I know. And I promise I’m going as fast as I can. I’m doing the full twelve hours every day in the archives – seven till seven. And I’m going to see if Viggo can tweak the arrangement we had this weekend so I can work longer then too.’

Otto frowned. ‘This weekend?’

‘Yes. He managed to secure a special arrangement for working out of office hours. It was unorthodox, but it worked pretty well.’

‘Unorthodox how?’

‘He arranged for some of the material – just a few boxes at a time – to be delivered to the house of one of the trustees, who lives along the same road as the gallery. It means there isn’t the same security concern of transporting stuff across the city, plus the trustee’s given a personal reassurance to the insurers about keeping eyes on the material at all times.’

‘Who is the trustee?’

She swallowed, not even wanting to say his name. She was doing her level best not to think of him at all. ‘Max Lorensen.’

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