removed in a great fan shape, so that no shadows could fall across the house. It must have been done years ago; the sawn boughs of the trees had long grown over.
Returning to the bed and gently stroking Mateo’s arm, I watched as his black lashes parted. ‘The house –’ I began, but didn’t know how to continue.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just that the light – it comes all the way through to the central atrium,’ I said. ‘All of the time. Like a trail.’
‘I don’t understand.’ He sat up, fumbling for his clothes. ‘Is that a problem?’
‘No, but it’s unique. I mean, in a house of this age. It must have been done for a reason. Can we – ?’
‘Let me find my pants.’ He searched around, dressing with infuriating slowness while I waited impatiently.
‘The Hyperion Observatory must exist in some kind of catalogue,’ I said, holding open the door.
‘You want to start this right now?’ He was still half-asleep.
‘You said I needed to find myself a project, and I’ve found one.’ I led the way back down the stairs, past the unsmiling Senora Delgadillo, her arms palleted with folded sheets. I wondered if she’d heard us making love.
The rooms spread out beneath us from the central atrium, shafts gilding the polished floors. I slid open a tall panel of glass that admitted us to the great octagon at the heart of the house.
I wanted to understand. After the telescope was removed, why did they replace it with a glass roof? ‘The agent called it La Casa De La Luz , the House of Light,’ I said. ‘The house is self-fulfilling. Plants are phototropic. They always turn to face the light, so everything faces front. There are precedents. Several similar Venetian versions were constructed in the 18 th century to use the light from the Grand Canal, and there were some built in Paris, usually for the display of precious objects. The Italian ones were filled with collections of glassware. The sun passes across all of the windows, but it doesn’t look as if the house was intended to display anything. Who would they show off to? If that was the purpose, the Hyperion Observatory wouldn’t have been constructed in such an inaccessible place.’
As I passed between the plants, their foliage shining with a waxen lustre, I became aware that there was something missing. I tried to think it through. Astronomical observatories were built long before telescopes were invented. They’d been around since the third century in Alexandria, when the movement of the stars was studied with the naked eye. Then the Caliphs built them in Baghdad in the 9 th century. French and English telescopes were invented for the purpose of learning about navigation, but they didn’t arrive until the early 17 th .
‘Are you sure there was even a telescope? Do you think it could have been some other kind of apparatus? Those struts needed to come all the way down to the ground floor, but there are no sloat cuts.’
‘What does that mean?’ Mateo asked.
‘It’s an old theatrical scenery term, obsolete now. A wooden slot that you can slide something through. The wood on the ground floor is original; it’s never been planed and filled, so the only supporting arms were those two rods up there. Which means it probably wasn’t a telescope, because the old ones weighed a ton. It must have been something else. Look.’ I pointed to the small brass brackets that stood around the edges of the room. ‘Your lawyer’s great-grandfather thought he saw a telescope, but there was something else held here.’
Mateo had folded his arms and was watching me with interest. ‘I can’t believe your practice went under with you as an asset.’
‘The bank wouldn’t budge. We were doing everything right, we just got caught in the downturn. Hey, maybe the agent has a history of ownership or something. We have the address of the last owner, right?’
‘No, we have the address of his attorney.’ Mateo studied
Returning to the bed and gently stroking Mateo’s arm, I watched as his black lashes parted. ‘The house –’ I began, but didn’t know how to continue.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just that the light – it comes all the way through to the central atrium,’ I said. ‘All of the time. Like a trail.’
‘I don’t understand.’ He sat up, fumbling for his clothes. ‘Is that a problem?’
‘No, but it’s unique. I mean, in a house of this age. It must have been done for a reason. Can we – ?’
‘Let me find my pants.’ He searched around, dressing with infuriating slowness while I waited impatiently.
‘The Hyperion Observatory must exist in some kind of catalogue,’ I said, holding open the door.
‘You want to start this right now?’ He was still half-asleep.
‘You said I needed to find myself a project, and I’ve found one.’ I led the way back down the stairs, past the unsmiling Senora Delgadillo, her arms palleted with folded sheets. I wondered if she’d heard us making love.
The rooms spread out beneath us from the central atrium, shafts gilding the polished floors. I slid open a tall panel of glass that admitted us to the great octagon at the heart of the house.
I wanted to understand. After the telescope was removed, why did they replace it with a glass roof? ‘The agent called it La Casa De La Luz , the House of Light,’ I said. ‘The house is self-fulfilling. Plants are phototropic. They always turn to face the light, so everything faces front. There are precedents. Several similar Venetian versions were constructed in the 18 th century to use the light from the Grand Canal, and there were some built in Paris, usually for the display of precious objects. The Italian ones were filled with collections of glassware. The sun passes across all of the windows, but it doesn’t look as if the house was intended to display anything. Who would they show off to? If that was the purpose, the Hyperion Observatory wouldn’t have been constructed in such an inaccessible place.’
As I passed between the plants, their foliage shining with a waxen lustre, I became aware that there was something missing. I tried to think it through. Astronomical observatories were built long before telescopes were invented. They’d been around since the third century in Alexandria, when the movement of the stars was studied with the naked eye. Then the Caliphs built them in Baghdad in the 9 th century. French and English telescopes were invented for the purpose of learning about navigation, but they didn’t arrive until the early 17 th .
‘Are you sure there was even a telescope? Do you think it could have been some other kind of apparatus? Those struts needed to come all the way down to the ground floor, but there are no sloat cuts.’
‘What does that mean?’ Mateo asked.
‘It’s an old theatrical scenery term, obsolete now. A wooden slot that you can slide something through. The wood on the ground floor is original; it’s never been planed and filled, so the only supporting arms were those two rods up there. Which means it probably wasn’t a telescope, because the old ones weighed a ton. It must have been something else. Look.’ I pointed to the small brass brackets that stood around the edges of the room. ‘Your lawyer’s great-grandfather thought he saw a telescope, but there was something else held here.’
Mateo had folded his arms and was watching me with interest. ‘I can’t believe your practice went under with you as an asset.’
‘The bank wouldn’t budge. We were doing everything right, we just got caught in the downturn. Hey, maybe the agent has a history of ownership or something. We have the address of the last owner, right?’
‘No, we have the address of his attorney.’ Mateo studied
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