“Why don’t I show you?” Penelope wasn’t here to linger. Not to indulge in art or philosophy. Not with Lucia. Despite this, hersteps led her to the Gallery of Sacred and Secular Visions, the home ofA Piece of Heaven, a favorite of hers since she first saw it as a teen.
Lucia studied the painting, her brows knit in something like reverence.
“Do you know it?” Penelope asked after a moment, her voice low, though she didn’t know why she was whispering. They weren’t in a library.
“Yes, though I’ve never seen it up close before.” Lucia’s voice adjusted to Penelope’s register.
“Most people assume it’s devotional art. It isn’t. The painter was agnostic. There’s a letter where he calls it ‘hope in oil,’ not salvation.” Penelope wondered if this reflected her more so now than ever.
“Yet people believe the woman found heaven.”
“Maybe she did. A heaven on this plane, not in a celestial sphere.”
Lucia’s gaze drifted from the canvas to her. “Do you believe in heaven?”
Penelope’s lips parted, but no words came at first. “I’m…undecided.”
Lucia nodded, turning back to the painting. “It’s beautiful. A challenging piece, too.”
“Oh?” Penelope latched on. “In what way?”As a forgery?
“To capture the emotion, the hope, the longing while also allowing a certain amount of darkness present. See the shading here?” She pointed at a section. “That kind of balance isn’t easy to capture. It’s delicate and seamless.”
“Painted a lot of devotional pieces?”
Lucia smiled. “I thought this wasn’t devotional?”
“There’s that, yes.”
They stood in silence.
“Ms.Lake entered one of my pieces into an art competition back when I was twelve, thirteen maybe?” Lucia sighed.
“Did that upset you?”
“Not really, though I’d have preferred to be asked first, but…” She shrugged. “It was nice. Someone who actually believed in me—that I could be more than just…”
A beat during which Penelope almost didn’t dare breathe.
“More than what?”
“Average, I suppose.” She shook her head. “God, that sounds awful.” She averted her gaze. “Don’t mind me.”
“Did you win the contest?”
“I did, yes.”
“Here in Atlanta? That is, are you from here?”
“Born and raised. But that was twenty years ago, so I doubt you’d find anything online about it.”
“2005 isn’t the Dark Ages where the internet is concerned. It might still be out there.”
Lucia hesitated. She gazed at Penelope as if assessing something. “Perhaps, but…” She paused. “You won’t find it underLucia Rossi.”
Penelope swallowed hard. Why was Lucia telling her all this?
“Oh? How’s that? I didn’t think you were married.”Seriously?Penelope refrained from hitting her head against…something.
