After the Exhibition

Art, my dear boy, said Mr Askern, especially sacred art, needs tradition. Tradition is the bedrock of our art . . . He broke off, staring at the woman in front of him. Her face seemed to lose all definition and her skin turned an unnatural shade of putty-coloured grey. Art, she said, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. Art! Oh my God, art! She swayed dangerously. Jack leapt forward, catching her as she fell. Jack Haldean expected Lythewell and Askerns exhibition of church art in Lyon House, London, to be a sedate affair. After all, Lythewell and Askern, Church Artists, were a respectable, old-fashioned firm, the last people to be associated with mystery, violence and sudden death. Or so it seemed until after the exhibition . . ."