27. Sunday
In which the reports begin to arrive...
Gosie was back at the Bluestocking by 10am on Sunday morning, and @AngleofRepose had never left it. The atlas was where it had been on Saturday morning, and so, very nearly, was Angle, with a fresh page in her notebook ruled into columns and Glossy’s darkroom door already shut, because the first film had come back with Gosie.
The reports came in through the day.
@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius was first at 11.30am, with her scarf still wound for Glasgow.
“The big west window,” she said. “The Creation. There’s a large figure of Eve in the centre. The mark’s in the leading under her. The circle. The three lines.” She took her scarf off and hung it on the back of a chair as if she intended to stay. “I’ve photographed it. Gerbera has the film. She’s on the 12.14.”
“Under Eve,” said Angle, writing it.
“Under Eve,” said Wolef, and went to the bar.
Cumbrae did not come in. What came in at 1pm instead was Gangplank, wet through, saying she had been put over the side of the galleon with a message. @Swashbuckled was still aboard The Dreadnork, making for the mainland against the tide.
“What’s the message?” said Angle.
“Two windows, both photographed,” said Gangplank, and was given a towel.
“And did she find any marks?” asked Angle.
“She didn’t say. Swashbuckled just told me to swim very fast and tell you what I just told you. She made me memorise it and repeat it to her six times, so she was sure I would say it right.”
By now Gangplank had an audience, because a wet gerbil with a message from a galleon was the most interesting thing to happen at the Bluestocking since breakfast.
“Were there sharks?” asked Girdle.
“There are no sharks in the Clyde,” said Gangplank, towelling one ear.
“Were there rocks?”
“There were rocks. I swam round them.”
“Did you see any shipwrecks?” asked Gimbal, leaning in. “On the bottom? When you were swimming?”
“I was swimming on the top.”
“But if you had looked down?”
“I did not look down. I was remembering the message.”
“Say it again,” said Girdle, and Gangplank, who had said it six times to Swashbuckled and once to Angle, said it an eighth time, to general satisfaction, and was allowed to finish her towel.
“That could mean anything,” Angle said. “But then Swashy is a woman of very few words.” She wrote Cumbrae in the notebook. Two windows. Then nothing after it and left the rest of the line empty.
@ChristmasStars came in and said, “@FuzzyPuffling has been to Truro. She’s sending the film and a letter, which will probably arrive in a few days.”
“Did she find anything?” said Gosie.
“She didn’t say.”
Angle wrote: Truro. Film and letter to come in the post.
@ErrolTheDragon did not come in, because Errol did not fit, but at 4pm Errol’s three gerbils did. Gospel, Gossip and Gray went straight past Angle to the darkroom door and knocked, which cost them a certain amount of fixer, paper and goodwill before Glossy would open it.
“We need more film,” said Gospel.
“You had a whole roll,” said Glossy.
“We used a whole roll,” said Gossip. “We need another one. Possibly two.”
“For one cathedral?”
“For one chapel,” said Gossip. “It’s significant. We’ll explain when we get back.”
Gray held out both hands for the film. Glossy issued two rolls, made all three of them repeat the part about not opening the back of the camera, and watched them go out, back towards the yard where Errol was.
“Liverpool,” said Angle, and wrote More film. A great deal of it. She looked at the words and added Significant?.
@Thehorticulturalhussie and @DauntlessDamson came in last, at 6pm, having been to Yorkshire between them and argued about the route in a total of four words each way.
“Nothing,” said Hussie. “Not even Sheffield. Checked it all. Good, new glass. Leading has nothing. Checked twice and Dauntless checked a third time.”
Dauntless, already at the bar, confirmed this with a single syllable. “Nowt.”
“Nothing found,” said Angle, and wrote it in the same hand as everything else.
By 7pm the darkroom had given up its first prints, and Glossy laid them along the big table. Westminster Abbey, the old mark bare in the lead below the Gaskell lozenge, and Glasgow. Gerbera had arrived at 5.15pm with the film, and there it was, the Margrave’s mark under Eve.
The door opened hard, and Gospel came through it at a run with three rolls of film held above her head like a torch.
“More film,” she said. “We need more film.”
“You have had three rolls,” said Glossy, not taking them.
“We have used three rolls.”
Glossy took the film, counted it, looked at Gospel, and went out to the yard herself, where Errol filled the gateway and a certain amount of the lane beyond it.
“That is the good film,” said Glossy. “Do you know what the good film costs? How can you possibly have run out?”
“Because there are so many marks,” said Errol, “and we still have five more to photograph.”
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/27-sunday