Jeanette showers me with her tinkly laugh. "Youcansell fraudulent art. It's a matter ofwillyou."
Sucking in a shaky breath, I exhale slowly.
I don't know. I honestly don't.
I think of myWhatever It Takespainting and while I meant it at the time, now my back's to the wall, I'm not sure anymore.
Jeanette pats my arm, then removes her hand. "All the people who know will never let on. Not when it means securing their future, preserving a way of life in a place they love. Don't you think?"
She's right. I know she's right. But they are not the only liability.
As if reading my thoughts, Jeanette says, "You haven't been worried about the letter discarder to this point."
"The stakes are higher."
Jeanette wags her head from side to side as if weighing something up. "Yes. The game's changed. But I know you, Bess. You have the metal to pivot. If that's what you choose."
It's too big a decision to make under the weight of today's revelation.
Ed's anxious and shame-filled face fills my head. Principled, honourable Ed. My heart tilts towards the whirling mess of emotions under my ribcage. Perhaps I don't know my best friend as well as I think.
"Ed," I say quietly. "I never knew he had it in him. To be that kind of devious."
"Oh, yes. Poor Ed. He's really struggled with it all. It's been more difficult for him than anybody else."
"So it bloody should be. How much of it was his idea?"
"None of it. It was all Mistral's doing. Everyone else has been a lackey." Through a laugh, she says, "Elly showed a little less resistance to the idea than the rest of us."
"Mistral?" I didn't see that one coming.
"Bess." Jeanette turns to me, her brows knitted in earnestness. "We really were going to tell you. As soon as you announced the auction, we had to. And then the high bidding...complicated things."
I bet. The promise of a million pounds – over a million pounds – is a lot of money to walk away from, especially when it means all of us continuing to live here and do what we love. I'm having the exact same struggle right now.
The tension inside me gives a momentary reprieve and I laugh. A full-throated, head-tipped-back laugh. The whole letter scheme was audacious. Audacious and utterly brilliant. Until I decided to make money off the letters directly.
I would never in a million years have imagined they were capable of not only conceiving and executing a plan aimed at deceiving me, but also achieving it.
I won't make the mistake of underestimating them again. IthinkI'm proud of them.
"You didn't want to tell me from the beginning? Have me in on the deception?"
"Do you think you could have reacted to the letters in the same way?"
I don't say anything. Of course I couldn't. And it was my reaction to them as much as the letters themselves that got the videos the phenomenal views they did.
I turn away from Jeanette and look at the street outside without really seeing it. My thoughts are still scattered and I can't catch any of them to pin them down.
"So, my love. What are you going to do?"
I take a sip of my cold tea and really wish I hadn't. I place it back on its saucer with an aggressivechinkand say, "I'm going to have to sleep on it. I'll know how I feel in the morning."
Who am I kidding?
It won't matter how I feel in the morning. Time has run out and we both know there's no other option but to runA Lettered Manat auction.
Chapter thirty-seven
