Lady with A LUTE

THE STORY SO FAR: Northern England, 1570. Lizzy Goode is greatly pleased by the impending visit of a French artist. Her portraitist father has been downcast since last year’s disastrous rebellion against the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. He is a fervent Catholic, who now cannot practise his religion openly. Edgar, his assistant, is curiously against the Frenchman’s visit but refuses to tell Lizzy why. They argue and it leaves a bitter taste. Over dinner, many serious topics are discussed. When Monsieur Durand asks Lizzy about herself, she talks about her artistic endeavours, regretting never having been abroad, like her father and Edgar. She moves on to the sumptuous gown she once wore, posing for one of her father’s portraits commissioned by the French court. But she doesn’t get very far as she’s rudely interrupted by Edgar. It is clear he doesn’t want her to talk about it in the visitor’s company.

Lizzy found Edgar alone in the studio. He didn’t look up or acknowledge her immediately, as was often the case when he was busy.

Normally it didn’t matter but she had not forgotten his behaviour of last evening and was determined to quiz him on it. She would pull the very brush from his hand if he ignored her, stand in front of the easel and its painting, if he declined to speak to her.

Edgar was working on some minor detail in one of her father’s paintings, which portrayed a local man of