Doctor Steele and the Nexus of Desire

[ariosto]

It's a chilly January afternoon at Longfellow College and Professor Julian Steele stands looking out his many paned office window at the snowy New England hills rolling away beyond the ivy clad buildings of the Quadrangle.
A fire chuckles invitingly in the hearth behind him, casting a warm glow on his large clasped hands and tall, lean backside.

The campus is quiet, students will not be returning until next week. The only reason Doctor Steele is here in fact, is to meet the newest member of his department of fine arts and antiquities, Dr. Rebecca Frandlust. She was hired to replace poor Bernadette Zuckerman, who keeled over with a heart attack while giving a field demonstration of pot shard retreival techniques to her sophomore archaeology class.
Doctor Steele had been on sabbatical at the time, finishing his latest manuscript, "The Isenheim Altarpiece, Eros or Pathos?"

On the wide, heavy legged Victorian table that occupied the center of the room was a battered cardbox box, with postage stamps all over it from a place called Balukistan. He had glanced at the object in it only breifly when first arriving this morning and felt it might serve as a conversation piece when the new professor arrived.

He was about to pour a nip of brandy from the decanter on his desk when the intercom buzzed.

"Doctor Steele, Professor Franbust is here to see you....(murmering)...FrandLUST I mean, sorry."

Julian, straightened his tie and settled the wire rims more firmly on his nose, a glance in the mirror showed a man on the far side of fifty, greying hair and beard but all in all a decent looking fellow. Quite distinguished in fact.
He smiled,
"Send her in Francine."

______________________________________________

OOC...This is a closed thread for Maid of Marvels and myself. But wait...stick around, you might learn something about art!

 

[Nikki22]

I LOVE what I am reading so far!

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Introductions...

OOC: Rebecca Frandlust

EDUCATION:

Phd. in Art History/Classical Archaeology from the University of Virginia
Masters from Rice University; Summa Cum Laude.
BA in Ancient Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University; Cum Laude.

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Date of Birth: 3 April 19xx
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 125
Hair Color: Auburn
Eye Color: Dark Brown

**************


Rebecca Frandlust sighed inwardly when the secretary announced her as Professor FranBUST. Usually it was just the men who couldn't see past her ample breast size, though she had taken her share of ragging from women over the years as well. She brushed back a stray wisp of hair that had fallen down into her face and walked toward the massive oak door leading to Doctor Steele's office.

Rebecca looked around as she entered, taking everything in at a glance including the man who approached her with hand extended. "You must be Doctor Frandlust. Julian Steele. Welcome to Longfellow."

"Rebecca. I'm very pleased to be here, even under the circumstances. A new door opens for every one that closes behind us, yes?" Of course she was sorry about what had happened to Bernadette Zuckerman, but working with the Julian Steele was a chance in a lifetime and that she would never regret.

Rebecca was honest, if nothing else, Julian thought to himself with a smile. Refreshing. "I was just about to have a brandy. Will you join me?"

Rebecca sank into one of the chairs before the fireplace. Slipping off her shoes, she pointed her feet toward the flames and wiggled her toes. "Mmmm... toasty. What a wonderful room, Julian." He nodded as he handed her a snifter and sat in the opposite chair.

Mahogany, books and fine leather. Rebecca mused to herself, wondering if the room fit Julian or if Julian fit the room. As she swirled the brandy, the glow from the fire reflected off the crystal and the amber liquid inside. "I love days like this, don't you?"

 

[ariosto]

He laid the dossier on the desk, musing on how little her photo did her *justice.* and also considering the implications of her immediate use of his given name. No deferential, Doctor Steele here. He poured a healthy amount in the goblet and handed it to her, wishing now that he'd worn the tailored sportscoat, rather than the old baggy tweeds.
Once Julian had been quite a Ladies man, but he had put all that away when he started seeing Plautia Fonroy, heiress of the Fonroy Foundation Apparel empire.
It had been a long seven years.

He settled into the chair opposite and took in this rather marvelous looking woman. He fancied he could see beyond those
remarkable attributes but in truth not all that far.

"Yes...yes, I love days like this myself...
A toast then if I may, to your new association with Longfellow!"
They clinked glasses, and drank deep, eyes meeting.
Julian began to tingle and suddenly was feeling a lot more chipper than mellow.

"Now I believe you have done extensive field work in the Near east? Correct Doctor....ahhh Rebecca?"

How extraordinary, he thought, the woman is wearing a toe ring! Plautia would never wear a toe ring...

 

[Maid of Marvels]

She leaned her head back against the high back of the leather chair, studying Julian. Rebecca had always liked that "tweedy look"... bookish but comfortable. She knew he was surprised at her use of his first name, but she had picked up the habit early in her career. She preferred to interact with her colleagues on a more personal basis, immediately setting aside the 'I know more than you do' attitudes many had developed over time. Of course, many of them did know more, but she wanted to learn from them, not be talked down to by them.

The quiet drone of Steele's voice interrupted Rebecca's thoughts. "Now I believe you have done extensive field work in the Near East? Correct Doctor....ahhh Rebecca?"

"The Near East... Yes. Turkey. I spent some time at Aphrodisias, the birthplace of Aphrodite." Rebecca tucked her feet up underneath herself and took a sip of the brandy. "The site is in the Maeander River basin, southeast of Izmir. I was privileged to be part of the NYU project there. Bronze Age." She grinned at the memory he had invoked.

"Have you ever been to Aphrodisias, Julian? It's wondrous." Not waiting for a reply, she continued. "As I entered the city wall, I first saw the Sebastian complex. The buildings stretched out toward the rising sun. It seemed as though they were surrounded by a golden crown."

"Further down the path is the Tetrasoon. An arena circled by great columns. The center of this was the marketplace. I thought I could hear the merchants crying out their wares and the murmurs of heated bargaining between them and the customers. I smelled the aromas of foods being prepared, spices displayed in stalls, animals in pens... " Rebecca glanced up at Julian. He must think me mad, she thought to herself. "I apologize. You wanted to hear about the Temple and the artifacts... "

 

[ariosto]

Journeying to Aphrodisias

Julian could feel the heat of the Mediterranian sun on his shoulders as he closed his eyes and tried to imagine the world Rebecca spoke of. No, he had never been to Aphrodisias but he had kept up with the journals and had seen the pictures. Now with her words was fleshing them out he was seeing it all in three dimensions... vibrant colors...sounds...smells...

"Professor Steele?"

"What...hmmm, Oh very sorry. I do tend to daydream."

"I asked if you'd ever been to Aphrodisias."
Rebecca crossed her long legs exposing smooth and lovely knees. It was enough to shake him back into the real world of Longfellow College.

"Ahhh..no. I did spend time in Ephesus, Pergamum,
you know...I was in Classics before I changed to Renaissance in graduate school. I find ruins most...evocative."

Did she imagine an added emphasis on 'evocative'.
She smiled..."So do I."

He rose suddenly and walked over to the table.
"Rebecca, I'd like you to take a look at this.
It was found unopened in Bernadettes...Doctor Zuckermann's office."

She joined him and together they pulled a heavy object swathed in old newspapers from the dusty box.
Standing side by side they removed the artifact from it's wrappings.

"Oh my!"
Rebecca reached out and touched it.

"Do you know what it is?"
Professor Steele was holding the dun colored ceramic bowl in both hands, the lip of the bowl
curved in on itself giving it the form of an opened pouch, protruding from this was a smooth curving horn of dull bronze, with a slight indentation at the end.
Rebecca's hands were running softly along this...

"Penis."
Julian was peering inside the dark interior a musty, musky smell came from it.
"It looks like a penis and a..."

"Pussy...Oh!..I mean ahh...a vulva."
Julian peered at her over his glasses. She was crimson cheeked, but the way her hand was holding and caressing the horn, Steele wasn't sure whether embaressment or arousal was the cause.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before Rebecca?"
"Yes." she said, haven't you..."

_______________________________________________

The object lay on the merchants stand in the Agora and she had never seen anything like it.
She turned to her companion, a tall, slender
man. A man she had just met in fact...
"Isn't it beautiful!" she said.
"Will you by it for me?"

 

[Maid of Marvels]

They had only just met...

She had been shopping in the Agora when he had approached her, asking advice regarding the freshness of a particular fruit. Truth was, he had been drawn to her as a moth to a flame. Her chestnut hair cascading in curls down her back, the sparkle of mischief in her eyes as she haggled with the shopkeeper over the price of something. It didn't matter what it was. He only knew that he had to meet her. Any way that he could.

"Are these ripe? How can one tell?" he asked quietly, picking up an apricot from the stall. She turned toward the stranger, thinking it an odd question. He was tall and thin, and his eyes... His eyes. There was something so... familiar. Yet she knew that she had never met him before. Even so.

She had taken the fruit from his hand and, after looking it over, bit into the pale orange flesh. The juice dribbled down her chin and she laughed, wiping it quickly with her hand. "It is perfect," she said holding it up to his mouth. "Taste." The vendor stopped his squawking as she picked up her purchases and paid quickly, ending the game they had played at haggling. "I must go," she said to him, unable to think of any reason to remain standing there.

"Demosthenes," he called after her. She smiled then. A smile that spread over her entire face, lighting her eyes. "Amara," she replied without turning back.

Her thoughts lingered on the handsome stranger as Amara wove her way through the throng of people in the Agora. "Demosthenes." She whispered the name to herself as a hand fell on her arm. Startled, she looked up. It was him. "Yes?"

"Might I walk with you?" Amara nodded as Demo fell into step beside her. They stopped here. Looked there. She haggled over spices. Vegetables. All the time talking, laughing, touching. Comfortably, as though they had always known each other.

As they passed the pottery stall, something caught Amara's eye, and she pulled him over to take a closer look. "Isn't it beautiful? Will you buy it for me?" Demo watched in fascination as her fingers traced along the sleek bronze phallus decorating the bowl. He didn't bother to haggle, just threw some coins down and smiled at Amara. "Done. Shall I carry it for you?"

They wound their way through the north end of the Agora, down narrow streets that branched off between the Temple of Aphrodite and the stadium into the residential section of the city. Eventually, Amara stopped before an open doorway. "My home. Will you come in?"

 

[ariosto]

The heat that Demosthenes attributed to the objects having been in the hot sun, seemed to be actually increasing as they wound through the streets. This was terrificaly unusual for him, to be following an attractive stranger through the crowded streets, even offering to carry her
burden . Demosthenes was known all around town as a cold and humourless man.
He was not feeling cold or humourless right now though.

"Amara" he said once they'd entered the shade of the the porch.
"Somehow I feel I know you? Have we met?"

She smiled, unlatching the door,
"Strange," She said over her shoulder, "I had the same feeling."

She had him sit on a low Egyptian divan and sent for rich red wine.
She set next to him and reached over to grasp the dully shining horn of the artifact which he was holding in his lap.

"Let's see it Demo, It's so beautiful!"
He watched her hand in slow motion fingertips tapering light and delicate, touching the curving phallus. He felt an electric current shudder through him as her hand slid sensuously over it.

"So smoooth, so....."
Her voice seemed to come from a great distance.

He saw...he felt! her squeezing...squeeezing...

"My god."
She was slowly stroking HIM, there was no artifact..he was the artifact. Demo stood rampant thrusting out from his loins, his robe thrown back across his thighs.

Amara looked at him in some wonder and surprise but didn't stop her arousing ministrations.
"By the God's Demo you make me...a wild woman! a bacchante!"
Then she leaned forward, engulfing him between her coral lips. Her hands held him steady as she took more and more and more into her eager thirsty mouth.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Amara's fingers trailed over the length of the phallus, closing around its girth, stroking as she lowered her mouth slowly toward the object of her desire. Tasting... A long deep moan from somewhere distant caused her to lift her head. Her eyes met those of Demosthenes for the briefest of moments. He was watching her, eyes glazed, fascinated... "By the gods, Demo you make me... a wild woman! A bacchante!"

Her hair fell over her face as she lowered her mouth once more, her lips parting slightly as the tip of her tongue flicked over him tasting the first honeyed drops of his desire. Amara captured them with her lips as she began to nuzzle downward, along the vein on the underside of his engorged penis. Licking. Nibbling. Nuzzling. One hand delicately cupped his balls, the other ruffled through the mass of tight curls on his belly.

Kissing her way back up, her tongue circled the silky smoothness, teasing at the v-shaped notch, flickering over the eye as she once more tasted of his nectar.

Demo reached down, brushing Amara's hair back as his eyes feasted on the sight of her. She looked up at him, her fingers circling his shaft at the base. Her mouth parting slightly. Her lips surrounding him. Moving lower, engulfing his cock.

He slid into the warm moistness of her mouth, her tongue dancing over his cock as her lips held him tightly. Amara moaned as he filled her completely, the vibrations sending shivers through Demo's body. A quiet "Mmmmm... " escaping his lips.

She met his gentle thrusts as Demo arched his hips, weaving love knots in her hair. As their tempo increased, she slid one finger behind his sac, massaging his perineum. Amara's cheeks were concave as she sucked him in, feeling him swelling even further.

Stroking. Sucking. Squeezing. Amara's mouth moved over him. Up and down his length. Harder. Faster. She could hear his deep gutteral moans, his gasps of delight as she felt the vein on his turgid manhood beginning to throb.

Amara looked up at him then, their eyes locked as his passions peaked. "Nowwww... " he called out as he pushed up into her eager mouth. Demo's cock began to pulsate. Throbbing. Pumping. She swallowed the salty sweet cum as he emptied himself between her lips, his body wracked with shuddering spasms.

Amara ran her tongue over him one final time, causing Demo to twitch almost painfully as he pulled her up, placing his mouth over hers... .

 

[ariosto]

Afternoon in Aphrodisias

The long kiss migrated south, kissing her skin as his hands unpeeled the soft white cloth that suggestively clung to her lush body. His lips moved down and then up the swelling curves of her rich breasts and took in the coral nipples, one by one. Drawing them in, sucking, teasing them with his tongue...somewhere in the back of Demo's mind another image drifted, a place he'd never seen, strange furniture, strange smells, snow clad mountains through paned glass...He shook it away and engulfed even more of her, not stopping until his mouth was full, her hard nipple pressing the back of his throat.
He came off her using his lips and teeth to make the withdrawal tantalizingly slow.

"You are delicious Amara, but to truly savor you there is one more place I must devour!"
He winked, she winked back and opened her legs, the last of her dress falling to the floor. Outside the sound of students going to hear a lecture by Ergophemos, (the old fool) drifted in.

"You're not one of those scroll heads are you?"
She tossed her chestnut locks and laughed.
"Would I be offering you my honeyed lips",
she arched an eyebrow and grinned, "If I were?"

"Thank goodness..." Demo said, placing his hands on her perfectly shaped, smooth skinned knees and beginning to kiss his way up her thighs.

She slid forward on the narrow couch to give him a better line of approach which he took advantage of to quickly nuzzle his way to the heated mound of her sex.
Parting the pale pink petals with his fingers, Demo began to lick them and the little pink bud above them with short firm strokes of his pointed tongue.

He felt her fingers slide into his hair and pull him closer, pushing herself onto his eager hungry mouth...

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Demo's lips...

were like a velvet caress on her lips, the hollow of her neck. His mouth... surrounding her nipples, grazing them with his teeth.

Amara's arched her back as he trailed kisses over her body, igniting the passionate fires burning deep within. "Ahhhh, Demo..." her voice trailed off as he kissed his way up her thighs. She slid lower on the divan, holding her breath as slight pressure from his fingers parted her outer lips, revealing Amara's desire.

Demo brought his mouth down, the tip of his tongue lapping at the glistening drops of sweetest honey gathered there. Amara cried out as he began to lick at her, weaving her fingers through his hair. Rising up to meet his hungry mouth she pulled him closer to the center of her being.

 

[ariosto]

Face buried between her velvet thighs, Demo tried to follow his tongue up into Amara's warm gate.
She snuggled herself down against his face to aide him in the quest, and locked her fingers in his hair, digging nails into his scalp.
His mouth was tasting her honey and his twisting tongue was gathering more.
He dropped a hand down to his member which had never completely deflated, and began to stroke himself back to life.
Amara's heels were digging into his back and he could feel her body beginning to tense and shudderwith a rapidly building release.
Demo redoubled his efforts , moving faster inside her, swirling against the aching walls of her intimate passage.
He opened his mouth wide and drew all of her eager sex into his mouth and began to suck at the same time his tongue was probing all the deeper.

Amara threw her head back against the open window and cried out loud enough for the students in the dusty street outside to take notice.

"Godddddddsssssss...Demooooooooooo.."

She pulled his head violently against her at the same time pushing up into his face, her thighs tensed to vises as she fell into a shuddering
orgasm that filled his mouth with sweet warm necter...

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Amara surrendered herself to the throes of passion...

Demo's tongue circled and teased her elongated clitoris while his fingers searched the depths of her heated wetness taking her over the edge. Her body convulsed with shuddering spasms, Amara pulled his mouth closer crying out in her ecstasy.

The flames from a brightly burning fire crackled and spit, licking at the logs piled within the grate...

Demosthenes holds her gaze with his own as he rises above her, sliding his shaft between the matted curls on her puffy outer lips. He moves further up her body then, straddling her as he cups her voluptuous breasts in his hands. His cock, hard, swollen and slick with the juices from her pussy slides easily into the valley between them.

Amara places her hands over his as he rocks between her breasts, his thumbs playing with the hardened buds that are her nipples. She raises her head so that the purpled glans will reach her eager lips as he pushes toward her, though it slips away as he pulls back.

The musical sound of crystal clinking against a glass as it fills with a liquid the color of amber...

Demo increases his pace as he slides through the cleft between Amara's breasts. Her mouth taking his head in as it approaches her, he is slick with her nectar mixed with his own precum. Her fingers comb through the curls on his chest as his hips move Demo back and forth until at last a deep growl escapes his lips. "Arhhhhh! I'm cummmmming!"

Their gaze never falters as Amara takes the tip of his cock between her lips, catching the streams of Demo's hot seed as they erupt from the very depths of his inner being.

"Where did you say this came from, Julian?" Rebecca asked him as she brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen down into her face. A thin sheen of sweat had gathered on her forehead. She ran her hand around to the nape of her neck lifting her chestnut curls in hope of cooling off a little. Damn, she thought. Did I get this way from just one drink?

************
D... Thank you for my 100th post. ~N.

 

[ariosto]

Demo, shut his eyes in ecstatic release as this incredible girl whom he'd just met, sucked and swallowed the warm liquid fruit of his orgasm right down her throat...

"Where did you say this came from Julian?"
"Ughhhhh....from, from......ahhhh......my....MY!"

"Julian are you allright!"
He opened his eyes to find Rebecca Frandlust staring at him with alarm.
He dropped the artifact like a hot potato. She dived and caught it just as it was about to hit the floor.

"Balukistan." He said.

"What?"

"Balukistan. It came from Balukistan...Rebecca, I've had the most incredible dream, It's, its going fast but you were in it...you were...you were..."

"What was I, what was I doing Julian?"

"Oh my."
He fell back down heavily on the couch.
She sat down and placed the object between them, It's phallus upthrust defiantly.

"I did too Julian. It was incredibly vivid and then...swoosh, it was gone."
She put her hand on his arm and idly began to stroke the bowl of the arifact.

"Swoosh...",
He leaned back and closed his eyes again.

"Tell me about that painting over there?"
maybe to talk of other things would break the spell he seemed to be under.
Steele looked up at the vanEyck reproduction and smiled. It was a pianting that pleased him greatly.
"Yes of course, that is the Arnolfini wedding portrait by Van Eyck. She's quite lovely don't you think?"

Rebecca nodded and listened beginning to idly stroke the bowl again.

"Arranged marriage of course....Arnolfini, represented Medici concerns in Flanders, he..."
Julian's hand reached down and touched the artifact and Rebecca's fingers at the same time.

The world stopped.

 

[ariosto]

(((((BUMP))))

 

[Maid of Marvels]

I Jan Van Eyck Was Here by ariosto

So Arnolfini we are done

My pockets clink with Florentine ducats
Dropped one by one
Into Judas' paint stained fingers
Grown arthritic
From clutching the brush
Whose innocent hairs traced
Your grotesque face
To this melancholy board

Flanders was beneath you
You lamented daily, yet
You married this fair Northern girl
A maid of Ghent
This child I cared for once
Whose gentle eyes kept turning
towards me as I worked
Filling me with memory
Pain
And much regret.

I hurl the hated oranges
To the board
These symbols of your bloated wealth...
I slash the drooling puppy
At your pious naked feet
With quick deft strokes

you need not worry
all is lost between us now

Of course the Eye of God
Must sanctify this theft of yours
So I light a flame
Above the silly hat
With a touch of yellowed crimson
And...

Most hated stroke that you demand
Thin lips curling
Medici's faithful dog

I add
Your child to her soft womb
Which once I touched
with grace and reverence

Her eyes on mine
I falter...

It is done
I prime the instrument
With black and blue
And above the curving mirror
Sign
A witness to this travesty

I, Jan van Eyck was here...

*****************************

~D, I needed to put this wondrous poem here before we went any further. Thank you for allowing me to reveal another side of you. ~N


And so it goes...

 

[Maid of Marvels]

The announcement was made at home...

http://www.Bibracte.dreamwater.org/ATWAS/Giovanna.jpg
among family and friends as was common in in Bruges. Giovanna Cenami stood beside her husband-to-be, accepting the greetings and well wishes of the guests.

Everyone knew that this was an arranged marriage. He wanted the contacts an alliance with her father would bring and she... Well, she didn't want anything. Her father wanted a respectable marriage for her.

"Giovanna!" Arnolfini hissed sarcastically into her ear. "Smile. At least give the outward appearance of happiness. After all, you are to be my bride." She nodded assent and smiled softly. Sadly.

She was beautiful, this woman-child who stood beside him. He wondered if she would ever look at him in the way that he knew others looked into their lover's eyes. It mattered not. She was his now and would belong to no other.

Tomorrow they would go to van Eyck. The painter! Oh, yes. Arnolfini knew who he wanted to immortalize this wedding. One did not handle Medici concerns without having certain contacts. But enough of that for the moment, he thought as his eyes took measure of the gifts stacked on tables at the back of the room.

"Julian? What's happen..."

Arnolfini barely caught Giovanna as she crumbled to the floor, so shocked was he to hear another's name uttered by her lips.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

"It's just the excitement. Now go back to the party."

http://www.Bibracte.dreamwater.org/ATWAS/Giovanna.jpg
Giovanna heard her grandmother say as she shooed everyone from the bed chamber.

"I had too much wine, Nonna. It's nothing," Giovanna protested weakly, though she didn't truly understand what had happened.

"Non puoi rimanere ubriaco più a lungo di quanto tu non possa restare a terra senza reggerti," Lina Cenami snapped, making the sign to ward off the evil eye. "I will tell you when there is nothing wrong, Cara."

"I'm not a child anymore, Nonna," Giovanna groaned while Lina felt her forehead and the back of her neck.

"I'll tell you when you are no longer a child, Giovanna," the old woman chided. "And there is nothing wrong with you. It was just the excitement as I said. Now get some sleep, figlia mia. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

****************
Translation:

Non puoi rimanere ubriaco più a lungo di quanto tu non possa restare a terra senza reggerti.

You are not drunk so long as you can lie on the ground without holding on.

 

[ariosto]

Jan van Eyck would never have taken the commission at all except for the wheedling insistance of his brother Hubert.
"We need the money!"

The Van Eyck Shop it was true had seen better days.
Money was still owed to them on the monstrous altar piece that had consumed them both for the past year.Some quick jobs were needed badly.

"I don't like the damned Florentines!"
(No one in Bruges did.)

"All right, I admit Arnolfini is a greasy bastard but you should see who he's marrying!"
Hubert could be damned insistant.

"Who?"

"Are you ready?"
His brother had a flair for the dramatic.

"YES!...tell me."

"Giovanna Cenami."

The words were like iron nails being driven into his heart!
He felt faint and sat down.

"I thought that might interest you little brother."

 

[Maid of Marvels]

"Wake up, Cara!"

"Arnolfini is in the dining hall. He says he will be ready to go soon and you must be ready." Lina Cenami didn't bother to hide her dislike for the man her granddaughter was to marry, but it was a good match. And there would be mistresses to keep him away and busy. God willing.

"Buongiorno, Nonna. Oh, I don't want to get out of bed," Giovanna whined as she stretched and pulled the covers up over her head. "It's barely dawn. Let him go by himself."

"You are going to the Limners. He wishes to commission a portrait from the Van Eycks. Now up with you, you must eat something before you dress," Lina scolded, pulling back the counterpane.

Giovanna rose slowly, sitting at the small table where her grandmother had one of the serving girls place some fruit, roasted fowl and some wine. The girl picked at the food, her thoughts turning to Arnolfini.

He might not be so bad. At least he wasn't old, fat and sweaty like that Ernesto Giambini. Nevertheless, she winced inwardly at the thought of him. Perhaps he would take a mistress...

A knock on the door brought her back from her reverie. "Signora, the Arnolfini is waiting in the cart."

"Tell him that the Signorina Giovanna will be there momentarily," Lina snapped at the servant who went scurrying away. Grimacing, she turned to her granddaughter. "Come, Caro. Hurry. We don't want to anger him."

Lina Cenami didn't want to risk the chance of her beloved Giovanna falling into Arnolfini's bad graces. He would 'own' her soon enough and could make her life quite miserable if he so chose. She looked skyward and murmured, "Dio Mio.. a mistress for him. Please?"

 

[ariosto]

The reluctant limner

They looked impossible together, he thought as he watched the ungainly Arnolfini helping her down from the cart.
The stringy, ugly, nearly bald Italian, and his fair sweet Giovanna.
Jan sighed wishing he were a well paid minion of the fabled Mrdici and not a simple painter up to his ears in debt.

"I'm going now, good luck."
Hubert had thrown on a coat and was hurrying out the back door.

"Wait!"...Jan grabbed his arm.
"Don't leave me with that man. I'll kill him!"

"Temper, temper little brother, I have to pick up the new shipment of wood at Fleric's warehouse.

"Now?...Now?...it can wait."

Hubert shrugged him off and stuck a package in his hand,
"No it can't, if I stay ...I"LL kill him!"

"What's this?"
He looked down at the box.
"It's for them, a wedding gift of somekind. It was delivered last night, I have no idea by whom." He looked puzzled.
Well dear Jan...again, good luck!"

The brothers embraced and with a sense of despair, he turned
towards the big front studio where the sound of Arnolfini's impatient pounding was like the hammers of fate sealing the casket of foolish dreams.

 

[Maid of Marvels]

Giovanna lowered her head...

to hide the blush that spread over her face. Arnolfini was pounding on a shelf and shouting for someone to attend him immediately! Why did he have to be so insufferably rude?

"Mi spiace, ma... My brother, Hubert... was just leaving now... " Jan swore at the clumsiness of his words as he set the mysterious box on the table in front of Giovanni Arnolfini. "Signore Arnolfini. This was delivered here for you last night."

Arnolfini arched an eyebrow. "Open it."

Jan's face reddened as he prized open the lid to the wooden box. Pushing aside the straw, Jan waited, but the arrogant bastard that Arnolfini was waved a hand indicating that the limner should remove the contents of the box for him.

Jan glanced up at Giovanna who had moved closer and nodded almost imperceptibly as he lifted the unusual bowl and handed it to Arnolfini...

 

[ariosto]

He staggered and nearly fell.

"Clumsy oaf!"
Arnolfini minced away.
"I could get Campin to do this! In fact I think I will."

Giovanna, reached out to steady the painter and their eyes met, something passed between them.
"No no, ser Arnolfini please. I will do a good job, I won't displease you."
His head was whirling...strange thoughts, images, as though he were somehow dissolving....what's happening to me!

She took the object from his hands and blushed at the obvious symbolism that it so crudley displayed.
Just like something Giovanni would admire, a tasteless....
The object crashed to the ground and she fell back clutching the wall for support.

"God's sainted blood!" Arnolfini bent to retrieve it.
"Is your malaise catching Limner?"

Good Lord, Rebecca is that you?....Steels conciousness spun to the surface and he looked wild eyed at the frightened girl whose face had drained of color.
Professor Steele.....what's happening to us!?
Their minds on some level were locking, but everything was in flux...rising sinking...Rebecca!!!....

"Get your coat Giovanna, we shall go see Campin at once."
The Italian clutched the object under his arm and began shoving his 'intended' towards the door. She looked back at Jan desperately.

"No..Please ser Arnolfini...I'll paint it for half the price my brother told you."
"Half the price you say?" The Medici's creature was counting Florins in his head. He turned back...

"In that case perhaps we will allow you to do it afterall."

 

[Maid of Marvels]

As quickly as their recognition of each other came...

it vanished, leaving Giovanna reeling. She didn't understand what was happening. All she knew for certain was that she had to see the limner again, that somehow Jan Van Eyck was connected to her fainting spells.

When Jan offered to lower his price, Giovanna knew that Arnolfini would not refuse. On the other hand, she knew that Jan could not afford to do this. She had some money put aside and if it was not enough, she would get more from Nonna. Jan Van Eyck would paint the wedding portrait and have his full commission as well.

She smiled gratefully at the young painter as she slipped her cloak over her shoulders.

"You will begin tomorrow," Giovanni commanded. "It is not long until the wedding and I would have it completed well before then."

 

[ariosto]

Jan watched them leave. The cart pulled out into the frozen slush of the narrow street and as it turned the corner he imagined Giovanna looking back over her shoulder and smiling.
He shut the door and sighed...crossed over to the fireplace and stared into the flames.

He'd been in love with her since they were children. He'd seen her first on the way to Mass,
surrounded by the sleek well dressed members of her family. He was little more than a thread bare urchin.
They saw each other often through the years and they became friends. Or at least as much as the times and the class distinctions would allow.
He knew the day would come when Giovanna would be betrothed to another but it had not made the news any more palatable.
Arnolfini was the last person in the world that he wanted to see her with.
The thought of her in bed with him!...

He shuddered and turned away from the fire, grabbed his sheepskin coat and headed for the Tavern. In drink at least he could find some peace.