Now she stared intently at the tapestry, noticing that the gold thread looped along between the individual white stars in the Virgo constellation—tiny crystalline shapes of pinprick light resembling jewels—and then linked the whole shape to make the kite figure, repeated in the lower diagram. The upper picture was labeled with symbols at the stellar points, which Lucy couldn’t read. Simon and Grace leaned over the sofa to see.

“This top left symbol is the number 3, written in mirror image.” Grace scrutinized it without success.

Alex explained. “It’s Greek—nothing more cryptic than the Greek alphabet. This one,” he pointed to the reversed 3, “is a Greek E, Epsilon, where the wing joins the arm. This one at the lowest part of the diamond shape is G—Gamma, the edge of the robe. And the top of the wing is Nu. They are three of the main stars in the constellation of Virgo. All these others are more minor—but still bright, I think. Nu is top right of the constellation; Eta, in the middle of the kite shape; and then this one is Beta at the sharp point of the rhomboid, Delta just opposite, and Alpha—the brightest of the stars—on the kite’s tail, marking the wheat.” He pointed to the clusters of other pinpricks, which had a series of tiny symbols embroidered next to them. “I believe the whole constellation of Virgo is named after the Greek letters, which is unique. But what’s going on in the lower diagram? The shape of the constellation, without the figure drawn in?”

They all leaned closer to look. Lucy read aloud the names of various French towns in corresponding positions, embroidered beside the stars. “Bayeux seems to correspond to the point on the map for Epsilon; Amiens is where Nu is; then Evreux fits neatly with Delta. What are these others again, Alex?”

“Well, Reims accords with Beta—one of the most important cathedrals in France, where the coronations took place. Do you think Laon fits Kappa?” He frowned a little. “Paris matches Eta; and Chartres seems on target for Gamma. Very strange. But why did she care?”

Henry took spectacles from his nose and answered with a surprising liveliness. “We made a tour of them together, when you were a baby, Alex, and she told me that these great French Gothic cathedrals are ‘Notre-Dames’ cathedrals—each dedicated to Our Lady. She said that they encrypt the constellation of Virgo, the virgin, on the earth below—which I always thought was a little far-fetched, but it pleased her so much! Virgo is the only female constellation in the zodiac, and she’s connected with Ceres, the corn goddess, and Isis in the Egyptian pantheon.”