“They are taken to a gallery in Edinburgh.” She couldn’t look at him any longer. Though his voice did not betray him, she could still feel his anger.
“How do they get there?”
“A servant usually delivers them for me.”
“I assume some will be delivered soon?” he asked.
“Yes.” Charlotte looked up. “How did you know?”
“I saw you carrying canvases to the stables.”
She knew that she should have been more careful.
“That is also when you injured your hip, is it not?”
“Yes. I was coming down the ladder from the loft and caught my foot in my skirts and fell. I injured my shoulder in the same manner two days earlier.”
“Why didn’t you have a servant take them up?” he demanded.
“They were busy, and I needed to hide them before…”
“Before I woke up.”
Heat flooded her face. “Yes.”
“You’ve sold twenty paintings,” he noted. “How many are being sent to Edinburgh now?”
“Eight.”
“I assume the reason I haven’t seen those paintings is because they are in Scotland. Otherwise, I would have learned that my wife was selling her work.”
Charlotte nearly cringed at his raised voice. “I did not sign them with my own name.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t wish for you to be embarrassed or find yourself in a position to explain to your friends,” she answered. “Also, I learned that if a painting is signed by a man, it brings a higher price.”
Victor stared at her, opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and narrowed his eyes. “What name do you sign?”
“Charles Thorn.”
Victor stood so quickly that the chair he’d been sitting in toppled backwards. “Youare Charles Thorn?” he yelled in surprise.
How had he heard of the artist? “Yes,” Charlotte answered meekly.
Victor dropped his face into his hand and shook his head.
“I am a great admirer ofhiswork, as are many in Society.”
“In London?”
“Yes! People do travel to Edinburgh and return to London. And everyone wants to own a landscape painted by the Scottish artist.”
“But I am not Scottish.”
“It was assumed, since they are sold in Scotland.”
She never considered that such an assumption would be made, not that it mattered. However, she was surprised that Charles Thorn was known.
