Page 26 of Fe
“Are you going to tell me why?”
“Yes, but not right now. Not here. Will you show me round?”Give me time to get my head together.
“Are you interested in Japanese ceramics?”
“Apparently, I am. Though not until I bought that globe.”
“You paid a lot of money.”
“You loved it. I liked what you said about it. I’d have paid more.”
Fen chewed his lip. “And do you love it now?”
“Every time I walk past it, I think of you. Imperfect perfection.” Ripley sucked in a breath. “That sounds patronising. I’m sorry. I mean, obviously I wish you didn’t have to walk with a crutch. I don’t mean—”
“I don’t mind being thought of as a piece of kintsugi. Broken but still useful.”
“I don’t see you as broken. You’re beautiful.”
He saw Fen’s Adam’s apple shift in his throat and the way his dark-lined eyes widened. The raw hope he saw there almost took Ripley out at the knees.
“That’s such a lovely thing to say,” Fen whispered. “I think maybe the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Now I feel like I have to ask you to keep your mouth shut in case you ruin the moment.” He took a deep breath. “Let me ruin it. Do you like penguins?”
“Yes.”
Fen beamed. “I just read a book calledThe Penguin Lessonsby Tom Mitchell. It’s really good. I’ll lend it to you.”
“Okay.”
“Great. The moment has passed, you can be horrible now.”
“Am I usually horrible?”
Fen shook his head.
They stared at each other for a long moment before Ripley took a breath.Don’t rush this.“Tell me about the exhibition.”
“The exhibition. Right. Well, we should start over there.”
Ripley followed him across the room.
“This piece is the oldest pottery in Japan and some of the oldest known to mankind. From the Jomon period. 10,000 years B.C. Jomon means rope-patterned.” Fen took a picture. “It’s hard to believe something has survived for so long. Isn’t it amazing?”
You’re amazing.
Fen kept walking. “Japan was isolated from the world until the 18thcentury. Once trading ports were opened, artists began to make pottery for Europe and North America. Their taste was for blue and white ceramics in particular. Like these.” Fen gestured to the ones on display, then glanced around, and said in a lower voice, “After World War II, no one wanted Japanese pottery. A man called Yanagi Soetsu started an arts and crafts movement like the one we had in the UK. He saved Japanese pottery with the Mingei theory—it meansarts of the people—and potters started up their wheels again.”
“How old is the globe I bought?”
“17thcentury. So don’t drop it.”
“I’d just have it mended.”
“With gold?”
“I was thinking of super glue.”
Fen laughed. Ripley liked making him laugh.
