"I have good news and bad news." In her San Francisco studio, where -- even the wall-mounted newspaper racks from which were hung sheets of mulberry paper on which Caydance had drawn and painted images from her life -- were undisturbed by the earthquake, Jack and Caydance were talking over coffee. Surrounded by vintage playbooks, Griff was sprawled on the bed. Every now and then he muttered an unintelligible comment.

Jack began with good news. "Nico received a letter from a Priest, whose Parish is a small town in the Apennines. In his Church, there is a venerable gold Chalice that by legend was found on a hillside after a mule cart escaped from the entourage when the French Army passed through the mountains on their way to exert a Valois family claim to Naples."

"Giselle's thesis, that the book of hours might have been lost in the mountains when Charles VIII invaded Italy, is true?"

arrow "Dating of the Music Box of Hours works with this thesis. Local legend is that the gold Chalice was not the only thing the people found on that hillside, but this happened many centuries ago. and Father Robichau had not been assigned to that Parish when a French book of hours was sold to a shop down mountain during World War II."