Part 2 (1/2)

Outside the building, pacing back and forth, he urged himself to calm down The Princeton lecture was thirty-seven days away Theseus's Minotaur was growing tusks and horns He could not afford to lose another day of work

After abaleful looks at the undergraduates hurrying past, Charles went back inside the building He found Pendlehurst at a desk Beckoning hi to need a key to get in early tomorrow, Pendlehurst,' he said 'Lots on'

Charles let hi, before the other scholars had arrived He found his table blissfully unoccupied Glancing up at the placid wooden face of St Catherine, giving old Abbot a silent nod, he sat down and opened his satchel Re its contents, he carefully stacked his books in a pile, largest at the bottom, smallest at the top, each voluinnings of a pyramid He selected a notebook and placed it in front of hie and equidistant from each of its sides Frole pencil He lined the of each instrule towards hiement of his tools, Charles let his eyes drift across the library, deciding where to begin It proved difficult However hard he tried to focus on the Princeton lecture, he found hi to the exact choice of words he would use when the girl arrived at opening ti petulant He would not de that underlined his ascendancy while deraciousness in victory

The exact content of that sentence changed several times over the next hour, as he polished it, refined it, added and subtracted hidden subtexts

By ten o'clock she still hadn't appeared By eleven, he persuaded hi By quarter past eleven, he noted with dis and had spent nearly three hours devising a pointlessly sirl he had met only twice By midday he had wound himself into such a maelstrom of fury that he leaped up from the desk and scraped his papers back into his satchel Deciding to abandon the caether, he strode out of the library and crossed the street to where his car was parked

The Jaguar a silver E-Type Series 3 indulgence here he had left it in front of a brick wall Now he discovered that a dark green Hillman Hunter had parked horizontally behind it His vehicle was trapped against the wall

Frowning, Charles approached He bent to the driver's side of the Hill lay on the black vinyl seats that provided any clue to its owner He rested his hand on the bonnet It arlare of the midday sun The car could just as easily have been here aaround hi a patch of grass Nicole Dubois was reclining against its trunk

Sighing, Charles walked over 'Let s to you'

Nicole looked up at hiht Her face remained impassive, her tone neutral 'Charles What you did this racious, unbeco by the rules, you used the advantage of your position to get what you wanted I am not impressed'

He opened his mouth to protest and discovered with dis for their next clash, he was utterly unable to think of a retort When she forced him, unexpectedly, to defend his behaviour of the last few days, he found he could not Now that he was outside the sombre environrined at just how irrational how ungracious he had been And all over a table

She aiting still for his answer Casting about, he noticed the book she had been reading, a thuaroruely of fiction,' he said

'Of course And you will also realise that it's one of the earliest texts available'

'What are you trying to find out? I ht be able to help'

'If I need to locate a table, Charles, I'll let you know'

He nodded 'OK, I deserved that'

'Yes You did'

'Look, perhaps I could buy you a cup of tea To say sorry' He blinked, aghast Where on earth had that come from? 'I arian history'

Nicole closed the book When she jumped to her feet he was surprised to see that they were alht 'No, Charles I don't want to talk about it'

He held up his hands 'That's fine'

Ruo'

'Yes Of course' He stood back, allowing her to pass him, the aardness between them now painful

She unlocked the Hill the car, she reversed into the street Nicole wound down the'You need not worry, Charles To the Hillht hi su himself whether she would indeedof her, or quite why it seemed so important that she left Oxford with a better i to the library before her and taking a seat at the wretched table would be disastrous, which hy he refused to allow hi until just past ten o'clock

The library was quiet, with only a few readers occupying desks He ventured into the stacks and found St Catherine and old Abbot gazing down at hi moment, quite unprepared for the disappoint

He knew the girl's name And the fact that she was French It was little , really He sat in the seat for a further half an hour, his oing to appear He stood up to leave and as he passed the front desk, Pendlehurst called out to hi for you'

Immediately, he felt his spirits lift 'She's been in?'

'She was here first thing thisSat at your table for a bit, passed , he realised he had missed her by just thirty minutes Pendlehurst handed him a folded sheet of paper torn from a notepad Quickly he opened it

Ki koran kel, aranyat lel It was Hungarian But he could not translate it

'Did she say anything?'

'Just that she couldn't wait any longer and that she had to leave'

'Did she say where she was going?'

'I didn't ask'

'daht?' asked Pendlehurst

'Do you know any Hungarian speakers?'

'I think Beckett is your best bet'

'Can I use the telephone?'

It took Charles ten et the translation

He akes early, finds gold A Hungarian variation of an English proverb: the early bird catches the wor for the first ti, and then an idea struck him He tracked down Pendlehurst 'She must have contacted us in advance to access the library'

'Of course'

'So you should have a record of her'

'I believe so Professor, are you sure there isn't soet back in contact with her before she leaves Oxford Can you hunt out her details for e look, the librarian beckoned hian walking his fingers through them 'Here we are Dr Amelie Prefontaine'

Charles shook his head 'No, her nairl? French accent?'