Hurriedly, he turned his wheelchair round, knocking it into a table as he did so and spilling some tea. Just reaching the phone on its last ring, he snatched it up. ‘Hello!’ ‘Samuel, it’s Marshall.’ Samuel sighed, wondering why he was so nervous. Outside the door, Mrs McKendrick began vacuuming; a moth beat its wings helplessly against the lining of one of the study curtains. ‘Did you find out anything?’ ‘Geertje Dircx made a note about the paintings, a little memento to remind her that the portraits could be identified because the man had a beard.’ Quickly, Samuel scrabbled around the books on his desk and pulled a catalogue towards him. ‘I have a reproduction of them now. The woman is wearing a typical Dutch cap; the man has a small ruff and a beard.’ He flicked over the pages hurriedly, testing his memory against the facts. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Checking something.’ Samuel went on, glancing over all the portraits Rembrandt painted in 1653. ‘There are two other paintings of men with beards, but no companion portraits.
What do You think about The Rembrandt Secret (2011)?
