Uncovering Cathy [working title]
an excerpt

"I need your help with a dilemma, old friend." Anatole leafed through the etchings distractedly.
"Anything," said James taking a seat in one of the big library chairs. "Well, almost anything." James always had to be slightly cautious where Anatole was concerned: he was known to associate with some rather coarse characters.
Anatole paced alongside the library table, dragging his fingers across the polished top. "I had made some drawings with two models, two female models. Well, you can imagine what sort of drawings these were perhaps?"
"I can." James had an amused expression.
"One of the models, she did not show for the final session. The client wanted the drawings the next day for a very important patron. He has offered me quite a sum. Well, anyway, I had to improvise. I had to use Lucia."
"You have certainly done that before." James had unwittingly seen some rather improper poses of his wife's sister.
"Well, yes, but the agreement was that the models' faces be shown. You know I never compromise Lucia in that way. Jem, this man, he has seen the drawings. He has seen my beautiful Lucia. Now he wants more pictures of her. But now he wants them with men." Anatole hesitated. "I need someone to pose with my wife." He cast an eager look at James.
It took only a second for James to realize what his friend was asking. "For god's sake Ant, absolutely not. She's my sister-in-law. I couldn't possibly."
"Is this your silly English morality? How you are not allowed to marry your dead wife's sister? Why that is the government's business—"
"Ant!" James raised his voice slightly to stifle his friend. "No." He stood up and lowered his voice again. "Look, I've known Lucy since, well since her mother was pregnant with her. Christ, she's like a little sister, even a daughter to me. It would be…grotesque." James watched as Anatole grew more disheartened. "Really Ant, I would rather fuck you and have Lucy draw us. That I could handle."
"She's very good you know."
"At drawing or fucking?"
"I meant drawing, but both since you ask."
"I do not want to know what Lucy is like in bed, thank you. It's bad enough I know about my own sister's habits."
Elizabeth appeared from the library annex, holding a black leather-bound volume. A rather familiar-looking volume noticed James. His wife perched on the arm of the library chair and held the tome in her lap.
"Darling," she said excitedly, "Lucy has just showed me the most marvelous book. Apparently this man has fucked over a thousand women. And," she had a devilish glint in her eye, "his name is Walter. Do you think it is our Walter?"
"What? Lizzie, no. And what is that you've got there?" James knew damn well that Elizabeth had a volume of his deceased wife's intimate journal.
"Lucy wants to read the part about you and Anatole having sex with Caroline. Do you remember what year that was?"
Anatole chuckled.
"No," James said curtly. He was starting to get annoyed with the antics surrounding him.
"I think I was nineteen or twenty," Anatole responded, trying to suppress a grin. "Lucia, sweetness, try 1870 or 1871," he called to his wife in the library annex.
Elizabeth went back to her sister waving the book. "I was right! I have 1870."
James rolled his eyes in distress and plopped back in the chair.
"And I believe it was late summer," Anatole exclaimed to the women. He raised an eyebrow at James. "I seem to recall that is the best season to be fucking in that little Greek temple you've got."
"Really Ant, the temple is Roman. It's what we did that's Greek." James had regained his sense of humor. "Now, why can't you just use mirrors?"