Part 31 (1/2)

”I came with regard to the commission. I thought it might suit you to paint the individuals in your own time and when the mood took you. I would arrange that you had a generous time limit.”

Hendrick pondered, recalling that Rembrandt had taken four years to paint that militia company preparing for the Night Watch, for although he had let his pupils do much of the groundwork and the garments, he had taken other commissions in between painting the faces and the important details.

”The officers would come when it suited me?” Hendrick checked.

”I would make that stipulation on your behalf.”

”Hmm.” Hendrick thought the matter over. The canvas would be too large to set up in his studio, but he was not far from the Zuider Church, where Rembrandt had been allowed to paint, and since he and his family wors.h.i.+pped there, he was almost sure the same privilege would be extended to him. This meant that he could hire an artist to do everything except the faces and anything else he particularly wanted to do himself. The fellow would not be under his feet, something he had never been able to abide in his own studio.

It was still not a commission that appealed to him, but he was wearied of painting solely for Ludolf, who took unerringly whatever he produced. The history painting he was finis.h.i.+ng now had been commissioned originally by somebody else, but Ludolf had taken a fancy to it. It had meant making an excuse for a delay while another was painted for the merchant, who had wanted that particular subject, and Hendrick was not surprised when the commission had been taken from him and given to somebody else. If Ludolf had paid as he did originally it would have sweetened the pill a little, but he had revealed a tightfisted streak that had not been apparent before. A group painting of the Civil Guard would be the last thing Ludolf would want on his wall.

”I accept the commission,” Hendrick stated firmly. Then, because enough time had elapsed for him to overlook Pieter's role in Aletta's misdeeds over her paintings, he stopped working and addressed him more civilly. ”I thank you for coming. It could not have been easy for you. Had I been in your shoes I would never have come to this house again.”

”I had a dual purpose in coming.”

Hastily Hendrick held up a hand. ”Don't ask me to let you renew your courts.h.i.+p of Francesca, because nothing you could say would move me on that.”

”I didn't expect it since Ludolf van Deventer has forbidden it.”

Hendrick looked taken aback. ”Why should you suppose he has anything to do with my decision?” he blurted.

”Until you clear yourself of debt to him he will continue to dictate to you about Francesca.”

”So you've worked that out.” Hendrick let his shoulders rise and fall resignedly as he spoke in a dry and wearied voice. ”I thought you might.”

”The man is evil!”

”Do you suppose I don't know that?” Hendrick sat down on a stool, a hangdog expression on his face. ”I would never have stood between you and Francesca. Far from it. You proved yourself to me by shouldering the expense of her tuition without wis.h.i.+ng her to know anything about it. To me that showed you loved her unselfishly. Different from that devil!” he exclaimed on a rush of pent-up bitterness. ”He makes a show to me of considering her in all matters, but already he has tried in vain to switch her apprentices.h.i.+p. Can you guess why?” He did not wait for a reply. ”He thought that after ending one apprentices.h.i.+p with all its rules and regulations about no marriage for pupils and so forth, he would marry her before she took up another! Except that it wasn't to be an alternative apprentices.h.i.+p he had planned for her. It would have been private tuition as a married woman!”

”Francesca would never marry him!”

Hendrick's chin had sunk low on his chest. ”Not by her own free will.”

Pieter was seized by a terrible suspicion. ”What do you mean by that?” When the artist did not answer, he went forward and shook him vigorously by the shoulder. ”Have you contracted her to him? Is that it?”

Hendrick put a hand over his eyes. ”I had no choice,” he admitted miserably. ”If I had not agreed he would have put me in prison for debt under a sentence of many years.” He confided in Pieter the sum that was owed.

Pieter breathed deeply. ”When do you intend to be honest with Francesca about what you have done?”

Hendrick jerked up his head. ”Not yet! To my dying day I'll be grateful to Vermeer for refusing to release her. At least she still has some carefree months ahead of her. It is my fervent hope that she will need the three years instead of only two before she gains the members.h.i.+p of the Guild. Perhaps by then the situation will have changed.”

”In what way?”

Hendrick's voice lifted on the thought of what his youngest daughter might inadvertently do for him. ”Sybylla is being escorted here, there and everywhere by a van Jansz, his married sister acting as chaperone. Everything is in the bud as yet, but the signs are promising. With time I hope to prevail upon a rich son-in-law's generosity.”

Pieter thought Hendrick was foolish to raise his hopes in that direction. The van Jansz family was not known for being charitable to others. ”Which van Jansz is Sybylla seeing?”

”Adriaen van Jansz. Do you know him?”

”Not personally. I designed a garden for an acquaintance of his once on the Golden Bend.” Pieter was not prepared to say more on the subject. The client had been a married woman with whom Adriaen van Jansz had been involved since he was seventeen. She was twice his age and the husband was old and complaisant, the result being that the affair had caused a scandal in certain circles for a considerable time. It had provided his fellow officers with a succession of bawdy jokes, but he had never paid much attention to the name of van Jansz and there was too much else to discuss without dwelling on Sybylla's chances now. ”What if Ludolf should tell Francesca of the marriage contract?”

Hendrick answered confidently. ”He won't. Not now that he has to wait longer than he had antic.i.p.ated for her. I know from what he has said he thinks to win her as a willing bride. It's hard to suppose that such a man is capable of love, but it can't be denied that he is infatuated by her.”

Pieter paced slowly over to the window, deep in thought. At the present time he had too many commitments to raise the sum required to settle Hendrick's debts together with the interest, which would have been mounting up. Had it not been for a large colonial investment he had completed recently, he might have sc.r.a.ped it together, but it would not end there, for inevitably a long and expensive battle would follow in the courts to break the marriage contract, with no guarantee of success, especially when Ludolf could show that he had saved Hendrick from bankruptcy and prevented him and his family from being turned out into the street. It seemed to Pieter that his original plan to get Francesca away to Italy still remained the only way by which to save her.

”I shall be making a visit to Delft as soon as it proves possible,” Pieter said, returning to the middle of the room. ”There's no need to look alarmed. Ludolf won't be hearing that he has a rival. With the busy tulip season ahead I can't make definite plans yet. All my various stalls will need to be supplied.”

”With amateur paintings too?” Hendrick questioned sarcastically, a sore wound reopened.

”Not this time. If necessary I shall speak to Aletta, but as Francesca has most surely told you, her sister has not sketched or painted anything since she left her. But if she had work to sell I would gladly give her the opportunity again.”

Hendrick frowned angrily, rising to his feet. Then his temper subsided almost as quickly as it had come. He had not forgiven Aletta, whom he now saw as a heartless daughter who had deserted her father, and anyway Ludolf was too much a constant thorn in his flesh for him to have much anger left over for anyone else. ”That subject is a closed book in this house. I wish you well with your new stall, but for mercy's sake keep away from Francesca. Just through caring for her you present the greatest threat to her present safety. Don't endanger her, Pieter.”

”It would cost my life first.”

They parted on restored good terms. Two hours later Pieter was back at Haarlem Huis. With spring fully arrived again it would be only a short time before his bulb fields burst forth into color.

Chapter 17.

HAVE YOU HEARD WHAT CONSTANTIJN DE VEERE HAS DONE now?” Geetruyd asked Francesca, her tone showing she had gained another snippet of gossip at a meeting of regentesses.

”I hope it is something that will benefit him.” Francesca knew, as everybody in Delft did now, that Constantijn had had himself carried out of the house on the square into a hired coach and gone off into the night, letting n.o.body accompany him.

”It turns out that he went to his country house just outside of town on the night of his departure. While still in the coach he called for the housekeeper and dismissed her and all the domestic staff except for an old maidservant who was there in the time of his grandparents, from whom he inherited the place. Most of the rooms have been shut up and he's living there on his own while the elderly woman cooks and cleans. He sees n.o.body. The gates are kept locked and a guard with dogs keeps everyone away, even Constantijn's own parents. After all the selfless hours his mother spent at his bedside! Obviously he lost his mind as well as his legs in that accident.”

Francesca saw the situation in another light and spoke with deep feeling. ”I only hope he hasn't taken to his bed to die.”

”Perhaps he has.” Geetruyd's voice did not hold a note of pity.

”My sister will be very sorry to hear all this about him. Aletta has taken such an interest in his progress.”

”I have been slightly involved myself. The old maidservant wants someone to fetch and carry and do the scrubbing of floors and so forth. At this morning's meeting at the orphanage my fellow regentesses and I considered her request for an orphan and turned it down. That house with a madman is no place for any of the young ones in our care.”

Francesca made no comment, for she was thoughtful, an idea having come to her.

In the morning she sought Aletta out before going to the studio, ignoring Clara, who tried to keep within earshot. As she had expected, her sister had heard the same news about Constantijn shutting himself away. Aletta had something more to add.

”It is said that it was only after all the domestic servants had left that he allowed the coachman to lower him onto the steps of the house before driving away. The old maidservant could never have lifted him, which means he must have levered himself up the flight to get indoors. The next day he sent for the man who used to coach him in his ice racing and other sports, and who now keeps guard.” Aletta's face was tragic. ”When Constantijn de Veere showed such courage on that first night, why couldn't he sustain it instead of making a hermit of himself?”

”You have a chance to ask him.”

”What do you mean?”

Francesca explained and Aletta's eyes widened when she heard of the work she might get there. ”I'll go today. I can't risk anyone else applying for the post there before me.”

”What of the children's lessons?”