if he was quoting someone else.
School.
Anna’s throat tightened.
‘We’ve been throwing ideas around, nothing’s set in stone,’ James said.
‘Not sure about the use of the word “whore” really,’ John the curator said, mildly. ‘It’s a bit of a value judgement about a female.’
‘Yes. It’s not as if you’d ever call a show
Genghis Khan: Mongol Warlord, Massive Shagger
,’ Anna said.
Parker looked as if he might be about to try to answer a rhetorical question.
‘We want to stress that Theodora was an amazing, ambitious woman. Not some … hooker who got lucky with the right husband,’ Anna continued. ‘It was more burlesque dancing anyway. She was an entertainer …’
This was pushing it. Theodora’s sex life was pretty darn rococo. But Anna wasn’t going to have her beloved heroine casually slut-shamed by a man wearing an Acid House smiley earring, named after a Thunderbird.
‘Oh right. I was going by her Wikipedia page, and there was something on there about a party trick with barley on her … down there, and geese pecking it off? Quite rad,’ Parker said.
James rubbed his eyes in a way that might have been an attempt to put his face in his hands.
‘Oh well, I bow to the knowledge of someone who’s been on Wikipedia,’ Anna said to Parker. The tension in the room reached snapping point.
‘If we could meet up to film a Q and A soon, that’d be helpful,’ James said, stony faced, with a near-sarcastic emphasis on ‘helpful’.
‘Yes I think it’d help, Anna, if you and James touched base over a coffee soon,’ John said, nervously. ‘Make sure we’re all happy with the direction. I have a feeling this is going to turn out to be a very fruitful collaboration.’
Anna gave James a look that said she’d rather touch his prostate than his base, and the meeting was over.
18
Anna flew back to UCL as if she had the wind at her heels. But this time she wasn’t buoyed by joy, but borne aloft by the kinetic energy of outrage.
Had James Fraser recognised her? It was impossible to tell. Her instincts said not – there was no dawning of the light writ across his features at any point. But that didn’t mean much.
Now he had her surname
and
he’d seen her at the reunion. If the penny hadn’t dropped yet, it would soon. It was teetering, wobbling, right about to roll.
Alessi.
She might be Anna not Aureliana, but her full name was unusual. It alliterated, it was memorable. No doubt about it, the bells would soon chime.
He’d have a look of triumphal malignity on his face at their next encounter, and conclude by saying: ‘It’s come back to me, I
do
know you …’
Technically, of course, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if he could use that information in any way that harmed her professionally, beyond embarrassing gossiping with the exhibition team. It was hard to explain why it felt so catastrophic.
She had dealt with school by moving forward and never looking back. She boxed her inappropriately titled
Forever Friends
diaries and banished all reminders to the loft. She changed her forename. And eventually, she’d changed her appearance.
She’d walked into the reunion knowing she could walk out again at any time she chose. And she’d never imagined he’d be there in the first place.
This turn of events felt like a taunt from above at her audacity. God saying:
if you want to mess with the order of things, I’ll mess with you right back.
To have the monster tear through the paper screen like this, someone who knew who she used to be – and
him
, of all people – working with her in the present? It was a merging of realities she never, ever thought she’d have to face. She was near-tearful at how she could be so improbably unlucky.
Of all the gin joints in all the world
…
‘Faster than a speeding bullet!’ Patrick called after Anna as she stomped through reception.
She felt pathetically, overwhelmingly grateful for the sight of him. Someone who would never
School.
Anna’s throat tightened.
‘We’ve been throwing ideas around, nothing’s set in stone,’ James said.
‘Not sure about the use of the word “whore” really,’ John the curator said, mildly. ‘It’s a bit of a value judgement about a female.’
‘Yes. It’s not as if you’d ever call a show
Genghis Khan: Mongol Warlord, Massive Shagger
,’ Anna said.
Parker looked as if he might be about to try to answer a rhetorical question.
‘We want to stress that Theodora was an amazing, ambitious woman. Not some … hooker who got lucky with the right husband,’ Anna continued. ‘It was more burlesque dancing anyway. She was an entertainer …’
This was pushing it. Theodora’s sex life was pretty darn rococo. But Anna wasn’t going to have her beloved heroine casually slut-shamed by a man wearing an Acid House smiley earring, named after a Thunderbird.
‘Oh right. I was going by her Wikipedia page, and there was something on there about a party trick with barley on her … down there, and geese pecking it off? Quite rad,’ Parker said.
James rubbed his eyes in a way that might have been an attempt to put his face in his hands.
‘Oh well, I bow to the knowledge of someone who’s been on Wikipedia,’ Anna said to Parker. The tension in the room reached snapping point.
‘If we could meet up to film a Q and A soon, that’d be helpful,’ James said, stony faced, with a near-sarcastic emphasis on ‘helpful’.
‘Yes I think it’d help, Anna, if you and James touched base over a coffee soon,’ John said, nervously. ‘Make sure we’re all happy with the direction. I have a feeling this is going to turn out to be a very fruitful collaboration.’
Anna gave James a look that said she’d rather touch his prostate than his base, and the meeting was over.
18
Anna flew back to UCL as if she had the wind at her heels. But this time she wasn’t buoyed by joy, but borne aloft by the kinetic energy of outrage.
Had James Fraser recognised her? It was impossible to tell. Her instincts said not – there was no dawning of the light writ across his features at any point. But that didn’t mean much.
Now he had her surname
and
he’d seen her at the reunion. If the penny hadn’t dropped yet, it would soon. It was teetering, wobbling, right about to roll.
Alessi.
She might be Anna not Aureliana, but her full name was unusual. It alliterated, it was memorable. No doubt about it, the bells would soon chime.
He’d have a look of triumphal malignity on his face at their next encounter, and conclude by saying: ‘It’s come back to me, I
do
know you …’
Technically, of course, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if he could use that information in any way that harmed her professionally, beyond embarrassing gossiping with the exhibition team. It was hard to explain why it felt so catastrophic.
She had dealt with school by moving forward and never looking back. She boxed her inappropriately titled
Forever Friends
diaries and banished all reminders to the loft. She changed her forename. And eventually, she’d changed her appearance.
She’d walked into the reunion knowing she could walk out again at any time she chose. And she’d never imagined he’d be there in the first place.
This turn of events felt like a taunt from above at her audacity. God saying:
if you want to mess with the order of things, I’ll mess with you right back.
To have the monster tear through the paper screen like this, someone who knew who she used to be – and
him
, of all people – working with her in the present? It was a merging of realities she never, ever thought she’d have to face. She was near-tearful at how she could be so improbably unlucky.
Of all the gin joints in all the world
…
‘Faster than a speeding bullet!’ Patrick called after Anna as she stomped through reception.
She felt pathetically, overwhelmingly grateful for the sight of him. Someone who would never
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