44 Scotland Street (47 page)

Angus Lordie raised an eyebrow. “How so?” he asked. “What have intuitions to do with goodness?”

“Intuitions help us to know what is right and wrong,” said Domenica. “If your intuitions tell you that something is wrong, then it probably is. And once you start to use your moral faculties to work out why it’s wrong, you’ll see that the intuition was right in the first place.”

“Interesting,” said Angus Lordie. “But I suspect that the intuition is merely a form of existing knowledge. You know something already, and the intuition merely tells you that the knowledge is buried away in your mind.”

“But that’s exactly what an intuition is,” said Domenica. “That’s exactly why they’re so useful.”

Angus Lordie replaced the cap on the bottle of paint-stripper. “Enough of all this,” he said. “I propose that we go through to the drawing room and open a bottle of champagne. Leave the painting here, Matthew. It needs to dry a little. I’ll come back in a moment and fetch it.”

They followed their host back down the corridor and into the large, formally furnished drawing room. Angus Lordie busied himself with the opening of a bottle of champagne, which he took from a concealed fridge in a walnut cabinet. Then he poured a glass for each of them and they stood in the middle of the room, under the Murano chandelier, and raised their glasses to each other.

“To the successful sale of the Vettriano,” said Angus Lordie, chinking his glass against Matthew’s. “That is assuming that you will be selling it. Vettriano, of course, is not to everybody’s taste. But the point is there’s a strong market for them and it seems to be getting stronger.”

Matthew looked into his glass. He did not like to talk about financial matters, but he was very curious to know what value Angus Lordie might put on his painting. “You wouldn’t have any idea,” he began.

“Of what it’s worth?” said Angus Lordie.

“Yes.”

“Well,” said Angus Lordie. “Let’s think. I think that this is a very early Vettriano, but it’s an important one in terms of his development as a popular painter. It’s his beach period, I would have thought – with touches of his umbrella period. So that makes it very interesting. And the value would be … Let’s think. Perhaps, a hundred thousand. Something like that?”

Pat glanced at Matthew and noticed that his hands were shaking. She reached across and touched him gently on the shoulder. “Well done!” she whispered. “Well done!”

Matthew smiled back at her. He liked this girl, and he wondered if there was still a chance that she might like him too. Perhaps she had overcome her ridiculous attachment to that ghastly Bruce. Perhaps she would want somebody more settled, like me. That is what he thought, but he knew, even as he thought it, that he was hoping for too much. Nobody liked him in that way; they just didn’t.

Angus Lordie put down his glass. “I’ll go and fetch it,” he said. “The light is slightly better through here at this time of the evening. We can take a close look at it.”

He left them, and a short time later he returned, holding the painting out before him. He cleared his throat and started to say something, but no words came and they knew immediately that something was wrong.

Angus Lordie held the painting out to Matthew. “I’m terribly sorry,” he said. “The paint-stripper appears to have continued to act. The Vettriano seems to have gone.”

Matthew looked at the painting in dismay. The beach, the umbrella, the butler, the dancing couple – all had merged into a set of curiously-coloured streaks and puddles of paint. Matthew looked at Angus Lordie, and then he laughed. It was a laugh that surprised them all – except Pat. “I was never really too keen on Vettriano,” he said. “Don’t feel too bad about it.” With that comment, that simple forgiving comment, Pat realised the depth of Matthew’s goodness. She would not forget that.

Angus Lordie let out a sigh of relief. “That’s very good of you,” he said. “But I was thinking – you could still try to sell this as an abstract Vettriano. That’s what it’s become, you see. Vettriano put this paint on this canvas, and it certainly looks pretty abstract now.”

Matthew smiled. “Perhaps.”

Angus Lordie placed the abstract Vettriano down on a table and fetched another bottle of champagne from the fridge. Domenica, who had been silent since Angus Lordie had returned to the room with the news of the restoration mishap, now said: “Angus, you’ve been a rotten restorer, but you remain, in my view, a rather more competent poet. Cheer us all up with one of your impromptu pieces.”

“Something Chinese?” asked Angus Lordie. “Late Scottish-Tang?”

“No,” said Domenica. “Not that. Something else.”

“Why not?” he said. “How about this?”

He moved to the window and then turned to face his guests.

Together again
he began.

Here in this place,
Of angled streets and northern light,

Under this particular moon, with Scotland Quiet and sleeping behind and around us;
Of what may I speak but friendship,

And of our human wish for love – not just for me But for friends too, and those who are not my friends; So if you ask me, now, at this moment,

What is my wish: it is for love over Scotland, Like tears of rain – that is enough.

Scotland Street

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Stuff Happens

2. A Room with a Smell

3. We See a Bit More of Bruce

4. Fathers and Sons

5. Attributions and Provenances

6. Bruce Takes a Look at a Place

7. A Full Survey

8. Hypocrisy, Lies, Golf Clubs

9. SP

10. The Road from Arbroath

11. The Origins of Love and Hate

12. Chanterelles Trouvées

13. You Must Remember This / A Kiss Is Just a Kiss

14. The Smell of Cloves

15. 560 SEC

16. Irrational Beliefs and the Mind of the Child

17. An Educational Exchange

18. The Works of Melanie Klein

19. A Modest Gift

20. The Boys Discuss Art

21. A Daughter’s Dance Card

22. Bruce Comes Under Consideration

23. Goings-on in London

24. Unwelcome Thoughts

25. Dinner with Domenica

26. A Room, a Photograph, Love and Memory

27. The Electricity Factory

28. Thomas Is Electrocuted

29. Friendship

30. Things Happen at the Gallery

31. The Lothian and Borders Police Art Squad

32. Akrasia: The Essential Problem

33. Peploe?

34. On the Way to the Floatarium

35. Latte Interrupta

36. Bertie in Disgrace

37. At the Floatarium

38. Mother/Daughter Issues

39. The Facts of Life

40. In Nets of Golden Wires

41. Your Cupboard or Mine?

42. Gallery Matters

43. The Sort of People You See in Edinburgh Wine Bars

44. Tales of Tulliallan

45. More Tulliallan Tales

46. Humiliation and Embarrassment

47. Irene and Stuart: A Breakfast Conversazione

48. Plans for the Conservative Ball

49. Tombola Gifts

50. Bruce Prepares for the Ball

51. Velvety Shoes

52. Silk Organza

53. Bruce Fantasises

54. Supporting Walls

55. Discovered

56. At the Braid Hills Hotel

57. The Duke of Plaza-Toro

58. Catch 22

59. The Dashing White Sergeant

60. The Tombola

61. Bertie Begins Therapy

62. The Rucksack of Guilt

63. Irene Converses with Dr Hugo Fairbairn

64. Post-analysis Analysis

65. A Meeting in Valvona and Crolla

66. Mr Dalyell’s Question

67. Playing with Electricity

68. Boucle d’Or

69. The Turning to Dust of Human Beauty

70. An Evening with Bruce

71. At the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

72. Angus Lordie’s Difficult Task

73. A Dissident Free Presbyterian Fatwa

74. A Man’s Dressing-gown

75. News of a Loss

76. Remembrance of Things Past

77. Into Deep Morningside

78. Steps with Soul

79. A Meeting on the Stair