‘Well, there was Jeremy to explode to. And of course the expert.’

‘How strange it is,’ Emily said. She knelt on the window-seat with her arms folded on the ledge and her chin on her arms. Her heartshaped face looked very young. Peregrine knew that he must find out about her: about how she thought and what she liked and disliked and where she came from and whether she was or had been in love and if so what she did about it. ‘How strange,’ she repeated. ‘To think of John Shakespeare over in Henley Street making them for his grandson. Would he make them himself or did he have a foreman-glover?’

‘He made them himself. The note says “mayde by my father”.’

‘Is the writing all crabbed and squiggly like his signatures?’

‘Yes. But not exactly like any of them. People’s writing isn’t always like their signatures. The handwriting experts have all found what they call “definitive” points of agreement.’

‘What will happen to them, Perry? Will he sell to the highest bidder or will he have any ideas about keeping them here? Oh,’ Emily cried, ‘they should be kept here.’

‘I tried to say as much but he shut up like a springtrap.’

‘Jeremy,’ Emily said, ‘will probably go stark ravers if they’re sold out of the country.’

‘Jeremy?’

‘Yes. He’s got a manic thing about the draining away of national treasures, hasn’t he? I wouldn’t have been in the least surprised, would you, if it had turned out to be Jeremy who stole the Goya “Wellington”. Simply to keep it in England, you know.’

Emily chuckled indulgently and Peregrine thought he detected the proprietary air of romance and was greatly put out. Emily went on and on about Jeremy Jones and his shop and his treasures and how moved and disturbed he was by the new resolution. ‘Don’t you feel he is perfectly capable,’ she said, ‘of bearding Mr Conducis in his den and telling him he mustn’t let them go?’

‘I do hope you’re exaggerating.’

‘I really don’t believe I am. He’s a fanatic’

‘You know him very well, don’t you?’

‘Quite well. I help in their shop sometimes. They are experts, aren’t they, on old costume? Of course, Jeremy has to leave most of it to his partner because of work in the theatre but in between engagements he does quite a lot. I’m learning how to do all kinds of jobs from him like putting old tinsel on pictures and repairing bindings. He’s got some wonderful prints and books.’

‘I know,’ Peregrine said rather shortly. ‘I’ve been there.’