“The Angel of the Apocalypse. Henry and Grace are at it! I didn’t realize she was so sharp on her history.”

Lucy smiled proudly for the compliment to her friend. “She’s a very clever girl, that Grace. Has a soulful singing voice too. There’s a lot you don’t know about her yet.”

“They were talking about the Revelation of John written in the first century AD—an allegory foretelling the destruction of the wicked, the overthrow of Satan, and the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. The author, John—popularly believed to be John the Evangelist without a shred of evidence to corroborate that, mind you—was writing about the Christians under the Roman Empire. But every age has insisted on its own prophetic interpretation.” Although he talked with characteristic energy, he was completely focused on what Lucy was doing.

She smiled at Simon, and continued to cut the negatives into smaller strips and place them into the dryer. “He’s got all the best equipment. I’m not used to the luxury of a drying machine.” She finished and brought up the full light, ready to move to the dry area to deal with the contact sheets.

“You’ve done all the rolls?”

“All but one, with special instructions for processing.” Lucy looked thoughtful. “I’ll need to do it carefully, maybe because of the light it was shot in. But as for the rest, once you’ve loaded one, it’s as easy to do them all. I’ll settle for contacts tonight; but we’ll see what we’ve got, then I can print what we choose.”

Simon was impressed, watching her place the negatives in strips into the contact sheet frames, moving comfortably around the equipment. She knew what she was about, all right.

“You’re quite a girl, Lucy. Will would have liked you—I think Alex would have got full fraternal approval there. One of the remarkable aspects of Will’s character was that he always found something special to say about a woman—every woman. He’d always find her true feature of beauty—her one true feature if that was what she had—and celebrate it. It was a mark of his generosity, but I think he would have been overwhelmed with appreciative things to say about you.”

She was deeply touched by this, peeled off her gloves, and kissed his forehead. “Thanks, Simon. That means a lot.” She switched the red light back on and took sheets of printing paper from the box, then placed them on the dry surface and put the contact frame on top of one. He watched her through the process of flashing full lights for a few seconds, placing the exposed sheet in a safe dark place, then repeating this for each sheet of contacts.

“How much longer will you be? Shall I fetch you a coffee?”