Brilliance

by Rosalind Laker

  He shook his head. ‘As soon as we get to town you must make your own arrangements from there. I don’t intend to be arrested for abduction or to be accused of any other crime that your family might fling at me.’

  ‘Whatever do you mean?’

  He glanced cynically at her. ‘How old are you? Eighteen?’ He could tell by her silence that he had guessed correctly. ‘You’re not wearing a wedding ring and so that means you are still under parental control. You are elegantly clothed, well spoken and – as I know from your attendance at the performance last night – you are normally chaperoned. I also saw some of your contemporaries and none was short of a franc or two. I thought at first that you and your amorous beau had made some botch up of a plan to elope, but now your talk of staying on with me has made it clear that it must have been another reason altogether to made you take flight in such a ham-fisted way.’

  She frowned at his bluntness. ‘That was because I had to leave home on an instant decision, but I could never tell you why. As for being accused of kidnapping me or anything else, you need not fear that! My stepmother will go to any lengths to save a scandal. Although she will probably set a horde of private detectives in search of me, only one other person will be informed that I have gone.’

  ‘Who’s that? Your father?’

  ‘No, he died last year. It was somebody I was going to marry in six days’ time.’

  ‘So it was just a lovers’ tiff.’ He shook his head dismissively. ‘The sooner you return home the better. You and he will have forgotten all about it tomorrow.’

  ‘Never!’ she declared so fiercely that he looked at her again.

  ‘Was it that bad?’ he asked more sympathetically, seeing how white-faced she had become on recalling whatever it was that had happened.

  ‘Worse than anything you could imagine. It has split us apart for ever.’

  There was silence between them for a while. She was in too much anguish to speak any more, an image of the two in the summerhouse all too vivid in her mind. There should have been balm in the peace of the sunny morning and the vistas of ripening corn and flower-sprinkled meadows spreading out on either side of the dusty road, but torment continued to tear at her. Another half an hour had passed when Daniel broke into her thoughts.

  ‘Have you any other relative or a friend who would give you a roof over your head for the time being?’

  ‘No,’ she answered bleakly. ‘This is something I have to do on my own without involving anybody else.’

  ‘Did you leave any clues as to your intention to find me?’

  ‘No. That’s why I retrieved my bicycle from the bushes. If it had been found it could have set someone on my trail.’

  ‘In that case you shouldn’t have anything to worry about for the time being. I assume by your offer to pay for yourself that you’re financially secure for the foreseeable future. Am I right?’

  ‘Yes. Eventually I’ll settle somewhere far from Paris and take an apartment.’ She turned eyes full of appeal on him as she voiced her plan for the immediate future. ‘If you’ll agree to my travelling with you I could take the place of any hired assistant. Nobody would see me. I’d be out of sight behind the screen. I’m sure I could soon learn how to do all those sound effects and, if there should be a piano, I could play appropriate music for the sequences.’

  He raised a thoughtful eyebrow. Background music would be a novelty. Perhaps as audiences arrived for a performance and when they left again. The idea appealed to his sense of showmanship. He had been hampered at times by taking on local, muddle-headed assistants, whom he hastily trained, and she should be better than any of them, but on the down side of the idea he did not want to be encumbered by a pursued girl who could only bring trouble in her wake.

  ‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘You could be recognized by chance at any time and anywhere. You’ll take off on your bicycle as soon as we reach town.’

  She was not going to give up. ‘But I could wear a hat-veil by day and a mask for the shows! I’ve made them often enough for parties. Then if I happened to be glimpsed in the shadows by the audience it would only add to the magical atmosphere created by your magic lantern. If you’ll agree to my idea I’m willing to buy one of those folding screens normally used against draughts, which would keep me out of sight at a piano. Naturally I wouldn’t expect any wages.’

  He cast a deep frown at her. ‘I’d pay you what I normally pay an assistant.’

  She caught her breath. ‘Then you’ll let me stay on with you?’

  ‘I was simply pointing out that I would always deal fairly with anyone I engaged to work for me, however temporary the employment!’

  He looked grim. Wisely she did not pursue her plea, but sat in a high state of hope for the rest of the journey. He could feel it emanating from her like an electric current. It would be entirely against his better judgment if he let her remain with him, but the veil and a mask would hide her identity just until she was safe from pursuit.

  When they reached the first town along his route it was already astir. Shops were opening, streets being swept and waiters in long white aprons were setting out tables and chairs under faded striped awnings. Daniel stopped only to buy a local newspaper, which he scanned through until finding what he had been looking for on an inside page. It was an advance notice of his forthcoming show in the next town together with complimentary quotes from various reviews, plus his usual advert for a temporary assistant.

  When they arrived later in the morning Lisette was interested to see that the venue for his show was a large room above one of the cafes, which was rented out for private parties and other functions. It had its own side entrance and a brightly coloured poster for the show was already pasted up on the wall beside it. Behind the building was a stable into which Daniel, after making himself known to the proprietor, settled Prince. Then he turned to Lisette.

  ‘I’m here for a week, but it’s time for a parting of the ways. I advise you to take your bicycle on to a train to the destination of your choice, but,’ he cautioned, ‘wherever you go don’t think you can sweep into the best hotels, because if the search for you extends widely those are the first places where private detectives would expect to find you.’

  Angry colour gushed into her face. So he thought he could cast her off! She would do the casting off when the time came! A new determination had risen in her since leaving the château, a resolve to make things go her way, and this lanternist should be the first to learn of it! ‘I’m not going anywhere until I travel on again with you! I’ve told you that I’ll work and,’ she added fiercely as if playing a trump card, almost stamping her foot, ‘you promised me the same wage as any other assistant! If you are a gentleman you can’t go back on your word!’

  He stared at her incredulously, throwing up his hands in exasperation. ‘I didn’t promise you anything!’ Then his eyes began to dance as his sense of humour overcame him and he threw back his head in a great bellow of laughter, showing a mouthful of white teeth. There was no malice in his laughter, only a highly amused appreciation of her incongruous demand for a worker’s rights. She was taken aback by his mirth, but was not in the least offended, realizing what had caused it. She might have smiled if there had been any smiles left in her, but in her current state of distress her face remained stark as if set in a mould she could not break.

  ‘In that case,’ he said, still grinning at her, ‘you had better look for accommodation for yourself and get whatever you need to make a mask.’ He took a piece of paper from his pocket on which were two addresses with street directions. ‘The cafe proprietor has written these down. So inquire at one or other of these places. Neither is what you are used to, and you’ll probably look down your nose at them, but I’ve been assured that both are clean and respectable.’

  She took the slip of paper from him, realizing that although he had given her a last chance to travel on without him he had been fully prepared since their arrival in town to let her stay, even to gaining addresses for
her. ‘Shall I take a second room for you, Mr Shaw?’

  ‘No, I’m having a garret room above the cafe. Later I’ll need to instruct you on how to handle all the sound effects. I’m going now to check that posters have been put up and to distribute leaflets. Come back here when you’ve secured a roof over your head for a week’s duration.’

  ‘What about the folding screen to stand by the piano?’

  He shook his head. ‘Let’s take one step at a time. I have to find out first if you can carry out the tasks for which I am to pay you.’

  There was still amusement in his voice, but she pretended not to notice and took her valise which he had unloaded for her. With her head high, she set off.

  The first address was in a long row of tall houses that opened straight from the narrow street. Not liking the location, she went on to the next address to find it even less inviting, but this time the house had window boxes full of red geraniums that gave it a cheerful look. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

  A dark-haired woman, neatly dressed and in her early thirties, opened the door and looked Lisette up and down.

  ‘Yes?’ she queried suspiciously before Lisette could speak.

  ‘Madame Brousais? I need a room for a week. I’m with the magic lantern show that’s come to town.’

  Immediately the woman relaxed and moved aside for Lisette to enter. ‘Oh, you’re an artiste as stage folk like to call themselves. That explains it! Your clothes are so fine that for a moment I thought you were one of those charity ladies from the church and they can be a pest. Not that any of them are ever as elegant as you. Follow me.’

  The hall was narrow, but tidy, and there was a vase of fresh flowers on a ledge. Madame Brousais led the way up a narrow staircase. As Lisette followed she realized from what the woman had said that she was more conspicuous than she wished to be in her Paris clothes. That needed to be changed without delay. She had learned to embroider and sew at school, but since leaving there everything in her wardrobe had come from haute couture houses. In any case she would have no spare time to make anything for herself now.

  ‘Could you recommend a local seamstress?’ she asked. ‘I need a new dress or two.’

  The woman looked back over her shoulder as they continued mounting the stairs. ‘There’s Madame Monclar two doors away. She’s quite good, but her skills couldn’t match anything you’re wearing now.’ They had reached the landing and the woman threw open a door. ‘This is the room and the privy is outside in the courtyard. I will do your laundry at a reasonable charge.’

  The room, which was smaller than any servant’s room at the château, was as clean as everything else Lisette had observed on her way upstairs. It had a single bed, an iron washstand in the corner with a china ewer patterned in pink roses and a row of wooden pegs on the wall. The rent of the room with breakfast included was so low that Lisette almost offered more, but decided that would be out of character for someone working with a magic lantern show.

  With payment settled in advance Lisette went at once to call on Madame Monclar, who was thin, tall and sharp-eyed. She agreed to make two cotton dresses, a skirt and a jacket within the week, saying that her daughter, also a seamstress, would help her finish everything in time. As Lisette was measured it was settled as to how much material would be needed for each garment.

  Although at the château her disappearance was probably only just being discovered, nervousness made Lisette acutely aware of the glances that she was receiving as she swished along in her silk coat among the shoppers. To add to her embarrassment a wagon driver whistled at her as she went by.

  At a draper’s shop she chose quite plain materials for her dresses before selecting a hat-veil and what she wanted for her mask. She found among some bargain offcuts a length of filmy black lace and another of black velvet. At the haberdashery counter she bought a sewing kit and a piece of fine canvas as stiffening for the mask, which would be lined with a scrap of silk she purchased very cheaply. In another shop she bought a shawl, more underwear, some extra stockings and a few other items she had forgotten to pack in her hurried departure. Lastly she purchased a larger, more cheap looking valise than her own to hold her new belongings and whatever else she might buy in the near future.

  Back at her lodgings after delivering the fabrics to the seamstress, she sat on her bed and made her mask, attaching to it a fall of the delicate lace that would hide the lower half of her face. Well-pleased with the result, she returned to Daniel’s venue. He was outside, talking to the cafe owner, and he nodded that she should go in and up the stairs. In the upper room, bare of everything but chairs, she saw that he had already set up the lantern on its stand and also the screen. Putting on her mask and tying its ribbons at the back of her head, she went across to the lantern to study it with interest, having barely given it a glance when she was at the show with Philippe.

  It was the tallest lantern she had ever seen, its polished wood gleaming and its brass-work highly burnished, and it was unusual in having three lenses spaced out one above another, each with a brass shutter and corresponding slots for slides at the sides. At the back were a curved pipe and a little door, which she opened to see the prongs within what was clearly a thickly insulated interior.

  Daniel grinned at her as he entered the room. ‘I like the mask.’

  Now that he had seen it she took it off. ‘This is a fine lantern, isn’t it? I’ve never seen one like it.’

  He came to stand by her side. ‘I bought it from a Liverpool company and it is the best available anywhere.’ He took up a small cardboard box beside the lantern and opened it to reveal what looked like short, grey square candles. ‘These are called limelight illuminants.’ He stuck one on to a prong within the lantern. ‘It gives a full force of light to any lantern. It is said that one of these illuminants lit in Scotland can be seen as far away as Ireland.’ A smile touched the corners of his worldly mouth. ‘But who conducted the experiment I’ve no idea.’

  ‘Why are there three lenses, Mr Shaw?’ she asked with interest.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘I think it’s time we used Christian names, Lisette.’

  ‘Very well. Daniel,’ she replied.

  Just for a moment his gaze held hers and then he turned back to the lantern. ‘The three lenses enable me to create certain effects with two or even three slides showing at once, such as varying the colours of a fire. I can also make one scene fade into another by opening and closing the shutters in turn. I’m quick enough to have the top slide ready before I fade out the bottom one.’ He moved towards the screen. ‘Now I’ll show you what you have to do.’

  Behind the screen everything that would be needed was neatly arranged in rows on a folding table, which she had seen in his cart, and now a black curtain was hung at the front of it to hide the feet of the assistant. Patiently he showed her how to crunch up some special paper to simulate the devouring flames of a burning building and there was a hand-bell to ring for the arrival of the fire engine interspersed with the speedy clop of two coconut halves for horses’ hooves. Two wooden mushrooms, which she had only ever seen kept in a sewing-basket for darning holes in socks, were covered in padding and could be used to convey the sound of heavy footsteps. A tin whistle as well as another for police slides lay with a rattle, a pair of castanets, a motor car horn, a reed pipe and a small drum. Lastly he demonstrated how a metal sheet could be shaken to convey thunder. She tried out everything before he gave a nod.

  ‘Now I’ll run through some slides,’ he said, ‘keeping to the programme that you’ve already seen, and we’ll see how you manage.’ He went to pull curtains above the two windows to darken the hall before taking his place behind the lantern.

  The glow of the slides through the screen gave her plenty of light to see everything laid out before her. She soon realized that speed was essential. At first she made mistakes and was sometimes too slow, but he was patient and did not shout out in exasperation as she had feared. As the rehearsal went on she
became more proficient, but it was a relief when he called a halt.

  ‘You’ve done well,’ he said approvingly. ‘Normally I have to interview several people before I find one alert enough to cope with what I want. Sometimes I have to make do with very few sound effects on the first night. We’ll go into the cafe now and have a meal. Then we’ll rehearse again.’

  She ate well, being hungry, and over the meal she asked him how he had learned to speak her language as if he were French born. He explained, adding that the holidays he had spent with his grandparents during school holidays had given him a love of France as great as that he felt for the country of his birth.

  ‘I suppose that explains why you’re touring here?’ she questioned.

  He shook his head. ‘No, it’s out of consideration for my one and only employer, an English photographer named Friese-Green. I grew up fascinated by photography and I went to work for him as an apprentice. I knew he was conducting experiments in some advanced work and I wanted to learn everything he had to teach me.’

  ‘Did you?’

  ‘Well, first of all in taking and developing photographs of babies, family groups, wedding couples and so forth.’ He refilled her wineglass and then his own. ‘But best of all for me, he was working on his invention for a camera that would take moving pictures and he allowed me to work with him.’

  ‘Moving pictures!’ she repeated incredulously. ‘Could that ever be?’

  ‘They are on the way.’

  ‘But how is it possible?’ she persisted.

  ‘It’s simply that photographs are taken consecutively on long strips, which are being made of celluloid now, and when projected at speed through a lens on to a screen there is an illusion of movement.’