55. The Empty Bar
In which Marie de Gournay returns from Paris…
@MarieDeGournay came in with five gerbils behind her, Gendarme still in her beret. She stopped just inside the door.
The Bluestocking was empty. Chairs turned away from the tables at odd angles, and only one coat hung from the hooks. On the long table Gasket’s ordinary teapot stood among a row of half-drunk mugs. Gourmand went straight to the table and put a paw against the side of the teapot. “It’s still warm,” she said.
@AngleofRepose was on her own at the laptop.
“Where is everybody?” asked Marie.
“Sweden,” said Angle.
Marie set her bag down on the nearest chair.
“They must have just gone,” said Marie.
“About four minutes ago,” Angle said. “Griffin, Gimbal and Graphic are in a crate on the way to Umeå. Gosie’s already there. Everybody else has gone after them.”
“Did MyrtleLion go?” asked Marie.
“With a clipboard.”
“Then they will be fine,” Marie said.
Garlic, Gateau and Glacé began collecting the mugs. Gendarme finally took off her beret.
Marie poured herself a cup of tea. “I found the Margrave’s mark,” she said. “And the Reconstruction mark.”
“Where?” asked Angle and opened her notebook at the page headed Sainte-Chapelle.
“The upper chapel,” said Marie. “The Margrave’s mark is in the Judges window, next to Deborah where she sits judging for the people.”
Angle wrote it down.
“Miriam has one too,” said Glacé.
“Yes, in the Book of Numbers window, next to Miriam where she is struck with leprosy for speaking against Moses.”
“Poor Miriam,” said Angle and wrote Margrave mark, Deborah and Miriam. “Doesn’t pay to go against a man. Plus ça change.”
“I also found the Reconstruction mark under Esther,” said Marie.
Angle wrote it down.
“Did you photograph them?” she asked.
Gendarme held up the camera. It was still in its bag, and she did not let go of it. “Nobody may open it except Glossy,” she said.
At that moment, Glossy appeared next to Gendarme and took the camera. “There is currently no queue," she said, and went to the dark room.
“There were real gendarmes at the door,” said Garlic. “Gendarme was very disappointed.”
“They didn’t have berets, so they were wearing the wrong hats,” said Gendarme.
“Being in the chapel is like being inside a sweet shop,” said Gateau. “It’s all red and blue coloured glass, like boiled sweets in a jar.”
“Apart from the parts where there was scaffolding,” said Gendarme. “Lots of the windows had been taken away.”
“There are tarpaulins and ladders and boards instead,” said Garlic.
“I bought croissants,” said Gourmand.
“There was a queue all along the railings,” said Gateau. “Gourmand had bought so many, she gave them to the queue.”
“I said bonjour to the guard four times without stopping,” said Glacé, “and she smiled.”
Angle was barely listening. She had returned to the laptop and opened the Dispatch tab. She ran a finger down the column past Norwich, past Carlisle, past St David’s, to Sainte-Chapelle, and stopped. “That’s weird. The glass that’s in the crate in Sweden is a Judith window, not Miriam or Deborah.”
“It’s the Actions of Grace panel, where the women of Jerusalem crowned Judith with olive wreaths for killing Holofernes,” said Marie.
“I’m sure,” said Angle, “you said a lot of windows had been taken away?”
“For restoration,” said Marie. “They have been working their way round the chapel for more than 50 years. They started this new phase of work at the beginning of 2026. The Judges and Numbers windows have already been restored, now they are restoring Judith and Job.”
Angle opened a web browser and searched for information on the Sainte-Chapelle restoration. “Yes, it’s here. The Judith windows were removed in January but haven’t been replaced yet.”
She paused to think, “But that doesn’t make sense, why would the Reconstructionists take a window before it’s been replaced?”
Inside the crate the gerbils could sense the van stopping and starting at regular intervals before it travelled for a long time in a straight line at a constant speed. Then it slowed down and there were many turns before it stopped for good. They felt a cold breeze and then the jolt of the crate as it tipped back. Griffin stabilised herself against one corner, with a paw on each side. Graphic braced herself against one side while never lifting her paw from the glass pane, and Gimbal was flung across the crate as it was tipped back and wheeled a long way across a floor that rang under the wheels. Eventually they felt the crate suddenly come to a hard stop. They could smell diesel. Then came the sound of something ripping and they felt something being pressed onto the lid.
“It’s a Fragile sticker,” said Griffin.
“How do you know?” asked Gimbal.
“Because it’s glass. Glass always has a Fragile sticker.”
After that nothing happened for a long time, and then a great deal happened at once. They were lifted off the ground and moved slowly up a slope until they stopped somewhere much darker. They heard loud and heavy slams and then a hum started that grew into a roar, and they were pressed down into the crate.
Everyone’s ears felt strange as if they were bunged up.
“We’re in an aeroplane,” said Griffin.
“We can’t be,” said Gimbal. “We haven’t got passports.”
“Consignee 3859,” said Griffin. “The last crate with that number went to Sweden. I think that’s where we’re going.”
Graphic had worked her paw down through the wool until she could feel the edge of the glass panel beneath them and kept it there.
It was not as cold as Gimbal had expected it to be, because they had been so cold since the kiln had turned off in the workshop the previous evening, but It was very dark, and the roar continued. Gimbal took the seed packet out of her pocket and counted the seeds by touch. There were nine. She gave one to Griffin and one to Graphic, took one herself, and put the packet away with six still in it.
“Just in case,” she said.
They ate slowly. After a long while the roar changed its note and their ears popped. There was a thump that lifted all three of them clear of the wool and dropped them back into it, then a smaller one, then a long rushing that pressed them towards one end of the crate, and then the roar sank to a hum.
“We’ve landed,” said Griffin.
Gimbal counted the seeds again. There were still six.
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/55-the-empty-bar