The Clairvoyant Countess Page 20

  “Open,” he said, and she walked in, wincing a little at the painting mounted on his easel. His clothes, as usual, were daubed with paint, even his beard had flecks of green, but although she disliked his work—as he knew by now—he had studied in Paris as well as New York, and his work had begun to sell.

  “More snakes,” she said with a sigh, looking at the painting on his easel.

  “My dear Madame Karitska,” he said, “snakes and serpents have been the most hated, most worshiped of creatures on this planet. In history they’ve been symbols of good, evil, immortality, healing, fertility. Snakes are the signature of my work. And,” he added with a boyish smile, “they have begun to sell, and for good prices. What can I do for you?”

  “If the young woman who sketched this comes back,” she said, showing him Betsy Oliver’s sketch, “what can I suggest to her?”

  He leaned close to look at it, not touching it with his paint-stained fingers. He said flatly, “I hate her—at once I hate her; she draws better than I ever could.”

  Madame Karitska smiled. “Yes, but if she returns, Kristan? She has no confidence, no money.…”

  He sighed, and then with a shrug, “Then you’d better send her up to me. I have connections; I will even do my best to conceal my envy—my outrage—at such spontaneity.”

  Madame Karitska leaned over and placed a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you,” she said, and left.

  By Dorothy Gilman

  Published by Fawcett Books:

  CARAVAN

  UNCERTAIN VOYAGE

  A NUN IN THE CLOSET

  THE CLAIRVOYANT COUNTESS

  THE TIGHTROPE WALKER

  INCIDENT AT BADAMY

  THALE’S FOLLY

  THE BELLS OF FREEDOM

  THE MAZE IN THE HEART OF THE CASTLE

  GIRL IN BUCKSKIN

  The Mrs. Pollifax series

  THE UNEXPECTED MRS. POLLIFAX

  THE AMAZING MRS. POLLIFAX

  THE ELUSIVE MRS. POLLIFAX

  A PALM FOR MRS. POLLIFAX

  MRS. POLLIFAX ON SAFARI

  MRS. POLLIFAX ON THE CHINA STATION

  MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE HONG KONG BUDDHA

  MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

  MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE WHIRLING DERVISH

  MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE SECOND THIEF

  MRS. POLLIFAX PURSUED

  MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE LION KILLER

  MRS. POLLIFAX, INNOCENT TOURIST

  MRS. POLLIFAX UNVEILED

  Nonfiction

  A NEW KIND OF COUNTRY