“What’s so damn striking about it,” Edward said, “is that it looks a lot like you, especially with those green eyes.”
“Maybe eye color is the same,” Kim said, “but Elizabeth was far more beautiful, and certainly more endowed than I.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Edward said. “Personally I think it is the other way around.”
Kim was transfixed by the visage of her infamous ancestor. “There are some similarities,” she said. “Our hair looks similar and even the shape of our faces.”
“You could be sisters,” Edward agreed. “It certainly is an attractive painting. Why the devil was it hidden away in the very back of the wine cellar? It’s far more pleasing than most of the paintings hanging in this house.”
“It’s weird,” Kim said. “My grandfather must have known about it, so it’s not as if it were an oversight. As eccentric as he was, it couldn’t have been that he was concerned with other people’s feelings, especially not my mother’s. He and my mother never got along.”
“The size looks pretty close to that shadow we noticed above the mantel in the old house,” Edward said. “Just for fun, why don’t we carry it down there and see.”
Edward lifted the painting, but before he could take a step, Kim reminded him about the containers they’d come to the castle to find. Edward thanked her and put the painting back down. Together they went into the kitchen. Kim found three plastic containers with lids in the butler’s pantry.
Retrieving the painting from the great room, they started for the old house. Kim insisted on carrying the art work. With its narrow black frame, it wasn’t heavy.
“I have a strange but good feeling about finding this painting,” Kim said as they walked. “It’s like finding a long-lost relative.”
“I have to admit it is quite a coincidence,” Edward said. “Especially since she’s the reason why we happen to be here.”
Suddenly Kim stopped. She was holding the painting in front of her, staring at Elizabeth’s face.
“What’s the matter?” Edward asked.
“While I’ve been thinking she and I look alike, I just remembered what supposedly happened to her,” Kim said. “Today it’s inconceivable to imagine someone being accused of witchcraft, tried, and then executed.”
In her mind’s eye Kim could see herself facing a noose hanging from a tree. She was about to die. She shuddered. Then she jumped when she felt the rope touch her.
“Are you all right?” Edward asked. He’d put his hand on her shoulder.
Kim shook her head and took a deep breath. “I just had an awful thought,” she admitted. “I just imagined what it would be like if I were sentenced to be hanged.”
“You carry the containers,” Edward said. “Let me carry the painting.”
They exchanged their loads and started walking again.
“It must be the heat,” Edward said to lighten the atmosphere. “Or maybe you’re getting hungry. Your imagination is working overtime.”
“Finding this painting has really affected me,” Kim admitted. “It’s as if Elizabeth were trying to speak to me over the centuries, perhaps to restore her reputation.”
Edward eyed Kim as they trudged through the tall grass. “Are you joking?” he asked.
“No,” Kim said. “You said it was quite a coincidence we found this painting. I think it was more than a coincidence. I mean, when you think about it, it is astonishing. It can’t be purely by chance. It has to mean something.”
“Is this a sudden rush of superstition or are you always like this?” Edward asked.
“I don’t know,” Kim said. “I’m just trying to understand.”
“Do you believe in ESP or channeling?” Edward asked.
“I’ve never thought much about it,” Kim admitted. “Do you?”
Edward laughed. “You sound like a psychiatrist, turning the question back to me. Well, I don’t believe in the supernatural. I’m a scientist. I believe in what can be rationally proved and reproduced experimentally. I’m not a religious person. Nor am I superstitious, and you’ll probably think I’m being cynical if I say the two are related.”
“I’m not terribly religious either,” Kim said. “But I do have some vague beliefs regarding supernatural forces.”