BooksBarbecue
Back Glamour in Glass Save as PDF
Chapters (30)
  1. Cover
  2. Glamour in
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. Author’s Afterword
  29. Glamour Glossary
  30. Reading Group Guide

Jane wanted to shriek with vexation that he had changed the subject yet again, but she could hardly fault him for their acquaintance’s decision to walk down their street.

Jane agreed that it was indeed Mme Meynard, and they crossed the street to greet her. Seeing Vincent shift his weight and check the height of the sun in the sky after a few moments of conversation, Jane took the opportunity offered to walk with Mme Meynard, thus releasing Vincent to ride on to Brussels. She longed to keep him, but it was clear that he wished to be away. And even if he stayed, he seemed to be finished with the topic of how he spent his days. Jane found that for every question answered, a dozen new ones clamoured.

FOURTEEN

Sunlight and Keys

Jane straightened her back, neck protesting from having been bent so long over her book. Signor Defendini’s documentation of the Murano glassblowing techniques had been giving her less insight into what had gone wrong with their glamour than she had hoped. Brussels had a small circulating library for the British citizens who had flocked there as if it were Bath. Jane had applied to Vincent to search it for some useful text, and this had been the best he could offer. The slender volume had lavish illustrations to accompany the text and tantalizing hints that Murano glassblowers used glamour in their craft in ways that other glassmakers did not, but the methods themselves seemed to be secrets so closely guarded that the book read more as a sales catalogue extolling their virtues than an examination of techniques.

Sun streamed through the window of their apartments, in the first break from three days of spring rains. Steam rose off the paving stones in the courtyard below, and the smell of damp earth rose with it.

Putting her book to the side, Jane copied some notes into her sketchbook and then took up the glass ball they had made. She thought that she might try to draw it, hoping that setting the Sphère on the page would help her see it more clearly. When she was finished, she might ask Vincent to send the results to Herr Scholes to ask for his opinion.

Anne-Marie bustled around behind her, straightening the clothing which the laundress had sent up. ‘Madame, where shall I put this?’ She held Vincent’s riding coat in one hand and a small key in the other. Jane recognised it as the key to his writing desk. It was lucky that the laundress had not lost it, small as it was.