I didn’t know any rich people back home. I certainly didn’t have an insight into what kind of art they liked, but I was pretty sure it would be all the modern stuff that Augustin was trying to make me do. I didn’t think they would go wild in a bidding war over a portrait of a police horse.

Augustin had decided it wasn’t enough to just tell me that I wasn’t good enough to be in the auction. He’d told Madame Richard, as well. And, of course, she had told Nicole.

“Madame Richard says Augustin is very concerned about you,” Nicole explained over dinner.

I pushed my food around on my plate, not sure how to respond. “Augustin isn’t concerned,” I said. “He just hates my work.”

“Maisie,” Nicole said gently. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is!” I shoved my plate away. I’d lost my appetite. I felt sick. “He told me again today that my art still isn’t good enough.”

“That’s just ridiculous,” Françoise almost choked on her food as she leapt to my defence. “I love your pictures of Claude!”

“Well, Augustin doesn’t love them,” I said. “He likes art that is modern.”

Françoise huffed at this. “So you are supposed to just become a clone and do whatever Augustin likes? I thought art was about having your own ideas? What is original about doing what everyone else in the class is doing?”

Nicole frowned. “Françoise has a point. You must be true to yourself, Maisie. Good art can never be made by pretending to be someone else.”

Nicole put her hands to her throat and fiddled with a large gold necklace that she often wore that was studded with tourmaline and tiger’s eye. “All the same, Augustin is a great teacher, his opinion is very respected. For him, I know, there is much at stake with the Lucie’s auction looming. The cream of Paris society will be out in force to snap up the work of his students, and the success of this society event is all riding on Augustin. He is the gatekeeper, choosing which work is good enough to put forward for auction. He is incorruptible too. He will never hand over anything that does not genuinely meet his exacting standards. To do so would be to destroy the esteemed name of the Paris School itself.”