‘It’s David!’ I said.
‘It is David,’ said Richard. ‘See the sling in his hand? He’s just setting off to face Goliath and the Philistines.’
‘It’s the first time I saw him,’ I said, and gazed down at the pictured face, so young, and with that look I remembered so well of the grave acceptance of a burden too heavy for his shoulders. David, alone among his enemies, had faced them with just this same gaiety and temper that was written in the bearing of the young champion of Israel.
‘May I have it for a wedding-present?’ I asked.
‘You certainly may. What a glorious bit of painting! And the man who painted that meant it with every stroke of the brush. Young Israel, up against the enemy … I wonder—’
He broke off suddenly as he leaned forward to peer at the narrow strip of brass along the base of the frame.
At the look in his face I cried out: ‘Richard, what is it?’
‘Look for yourself,’ he said.
I peered through the plate glass. In tiny letters on the brass I made out the legend:
LE JEUNE DAVID
and below this the name of the artist:
EMMANUEL BERNSTEIN
And so it ended, where it had begun, with the little Jewish painter whose death had been so late, but so amply avenged. And, ten days later, with The Boy David carefully boxed in the back of the Riley, my husband and I set our faces to the South, and the Isles of Gold.
Also by Mary Stewart
Wildfire at Midnight
Thunder on the Right
Nine Coaches Waiting
My Brother Michael
The Ivy Tree
The Moonspinners
This Rough Magic
Airs Above the Ground
The Gabriel Hounds
The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment
The Wicked Day
Thornyhold
Stormy Petrel
The Prince and the Pilgrim
Rose Cottage
THE ARTHURIAN NOVELS
The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment
The Wicked Day
The Prince and the Pilgrim
POEMS
Frost on the Window
FOR CHILDREN
The Little Broomstick
Ludo and the Star Horse
A Walk in Wolf Wood
Mary Stewart, one of the most popular novelists, was born in Sunderland, County Durham and lives in the West Highlands. Her first novel, Madam, Will You Talk?, was published in 1955 and marked the beginning of a long and acclaimed writing career. All her novels have been bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic. She was made a Doctor of Literature by Durham University in 2009.