What if the police came back and wanted to search his studio? They’d want to know what was behind the padlocked door. He’d have to give them the key and let them go down to the cellar. Remington’s chest tightened at the thought of it.
They’d see the portraits and know that he had lied. They’d know he’d collected the insurance money. They’d never believe his motives. They wouldn’t understand that he’d set the fire as a ruse so the public would think Belinda’s portraits had been destroyed. How could he explain that he just couldn’t stand the thought of all those strangers gawking at his beloved?
He tried hard not to look at magazines or newspapers or reruns of her old movies on television. It pained him to think that she was so exposed. All the world could read about her and look at her and gossip about her. He hated that. Three years ago it had bothered him so much that he’d couldn’t play into the public’s fascination with Belinda any longer. That was when he’d come up with the idea of the fire. Over two nights, Remington had sneaked the portraits out from his old studio in town and stashed them in the back of his station wagon. He had then driven them to a storage facility in Albany. When he was through, he’d set the fire.
He hadn’t counted on Belinda being so upset at the loss. And when he’d told her that he couldn’t bring himself to paint her portrait again, she hadn’t realized the reason was that he didn’t want to share her with anyone, didn’t want to be part of the objectifying of Belinda Winthrop. She’d thought he was so destroyed by the loss of the portraits that he didn’t want to be reminded of it by painting her image again.
Belinda had made it her mission to bring Remington around, to make him want to work again. He was such a great talent, she told him. It would be wrong for him to give up his art. Her fondest wish, she said, was that he paint another portrait. She would help him get back on his feet. He could come live and work at Curtains Up.
Remington had luxuriated in her attention. He’d welcomed the opportunity to be able to live so close to Belinda when she came up to Warrenstown. He couldn’t say no to her, and finally, Remington had agreed to paint her again.
After she went back to New York at the end of the season, he took the paintings out of the storage facility and brought them to his new home. They were arranged in his special shrine to her in the cellar.
But now, they weren’t safe.