I have been terribly ill over the last few weeks but I am feeling a
little better now. I've lost a considerable amount of weight too, which Leonard
will no doubt rectify by force-feeding me carrot cake and mountains of
profiteroles over the next few sessions! I'm not sure whether it is a lingering
symptom of the illness or just an unfortunate side-effect of these hot summer
nights, but I have been having horrible nightmares again and I have been feeling
very lethargic in the daytime as a result. Leonard insists that we should postpone
the continuation of our work until I have made a full recovery, but I enjoy visiting
him and I am in much better spirits when I am at the house and so he has agreed
that I can visit socially whenever I need cheering up or I need to escape from
the flat for a while.
I paid one of these casual visits to Elmfield House yesterday afternoon
as it seemed a shame to leave Leonard and Hooter alone in the house on such a
lovely sunny day. It was too warm to sit comfortably in the workroom so Leonard
and I took two kitchen chairs into the garden and we sat in the shade of the
yew tree, watching the birds peck at the homemade nut boxes that hang from the
washing line. The heat of the sun was incredibly rejuvenating and I felt the healthiest
that I had felt in a long time. Leonard disappeared into the house at one point
and returned with his cassette player and extension lead so that we could play
music on the back porch, as well as small glass of ‘medicinal’ cognac for me
and a ‘sympathetic’ glass for himself. We both agreed that the duet ‘Au Fond Du
Temple Saint’ from Georges Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers is the
perfect soundtrack for idling in the garden on a hot summer’s day.
Luke arrived at the back gate about an hour later and he was surprised
to find us relaxing in the garden without the drawing board nearby for once. He
was evidently in a foul mood and he complained that he had been hammering on
the front door for ten minutes but he had not received an answer (Leonard always
locks the front door when we move into the garden). I assumed that Luke had
arrived for a session and stood to leave, but it transpired that he had simply come
to help Leonard with a few jobs in the garden and they were both insistent that
I stayed a while longer, so I settled back in my chair while Leonard fetched a
tray of Battenberg cakes from the kitchen. I was flustered and embarrassed by
Luke’s presence at first and he barely spoke to me even though I tried to initiate
a conversation with him on several occasions, but he graced me with the occasional
smile and I felt him watching my every move, only this time I was watching him
too and I even braved one or two smiles back at him. It's exciting to have a
secret between us!
It was a very pleasant
afternoon; Leonard and I sat in the corner of the garden eating cake, drinking cognac
and watching Luke like two overbearing supervisors as he unravelled the cable
for the hedge cutters and started to trim the hedge. It was nice to see him do
something…well, useful, for once! Leonard was strangely quiet and subdued, swirling
the alcohol wistfully in his glass while studying Luke like a proud grandfather
watching his grandchild play in the garden and I could see from the distant
look in his eyes that he was thinking very deeply.
He told me that he is
grateful that Luke and I choose to spend so much time with him when we should
be ‘enjoying ourselves elsewhere’ and, if I am honest, the calm contemplation in
his voice worried me a little. And then, from out of nowhere, he said “I’m sure
that outsiders find the relationship between Luke and I very difficult to
understand.” Unsure of how to respond to this statement, I answered vaguely and
rather patronisingly along the lines of “well, you both have a wonderful
friendship and that’s all that matters,” and then added as an afterthought to lighten
the mood “…you could always tell people that he is your gardener!”. Leonard
laughed, but then became preoccupied once again and he confessed that he is disappointed
that Luke is no longer able to attend his dance classes (I didn’t get a chance
to ask why) and he worries that Luke is wasting his time with their portraiture
sittings when he should be focusing on developing his expertise in ballet. I assured
Leonard that Luke enjoys his visits to Elmfield House and I suggested that he
should train Luke as an apprentice so that he has a trade to fall back on in
the event that his precious ballet career should evade him. Leonard became confused
by this idea and he replied “well if you or I were inclined to practice magic
regularly then we would certainly have many uses for him, beyond his
hedge-trimming services.” I was referring to training Luke as an apprentice artist
and not enrolling him on some kind of magical apprenticeship but Leonard had clearly
interpreted my use of the word ’apprentice’ as referring to the latter. However,
rather than interrupt and correct him, I allowed him to continue speaking
because I was interested to discover why magical apprenticeship had come so
readily to his mind.
He told me that Luke has many qualities that would have been highly sought
after by the magicians of antiquity since a number of archaic magical procedures
require the assistance of a young, pure and uncorrupted boy. ‘Young, pure and uncorrupted’
were certainly not terms that I would naturally associate with Luke, but he is
young and there are adolescent aspects to his appearance and behaviour that
might squeeze him into this category by the skin of his teeth! Leonard
explained that the age and sexual purity of young boys and their freedom from
physical desires was thought to enhance their perceptual abilities and allow
them to be effective mediators between the magician and the spirit world, hence
they were often employed in divinatory procedures such as ‘lecanomancy’. When I
questioned Leonard about this peculiar-sounding magical practice he told me that
many lecanomancy rituals involved stripping a young boy naked, dressing him in
pure linen garments and blindfolding the boy or restricting his vision somehow.
The blindfold would be removed during the ritual and the boy would be asked to
gaze onto a reflective surface such as a pool of water or a polished stone and
the images or shapes that the boy saw were thought to contain a message from
the gods or spirits (as Leonard said this he gestured towards the small pond in
the garden and for a second I was unnerved because sunlight was glinting off
the surface of the water and transforming the pond into a circle of white light,
I'm not quite sure what I expected to see in there!).
Drops of rain interrupted our conversation
at that point so we hurried our chairs back indoors. Once we were safely inside
the rain began to fall heavily and Leonard took out a plate of paprika chicken
skewers from the fridge. I was conscious that time was moving along swiftly and
I had only intended to stay at the house for a short while, but Leonard was
insistent that I ate before leaving and so I agreed to stay for a little
longer. Although I enjoy Leonard’s company immensely, over these last few weeks
it has felt as though he will formulate any excuse to prevent me from leaving
at the end of the day and I am worried that he is starting to regret his lonely
existence at Elmfield House.
