Velvet Chains
I think I could not have borne it if you hadn't.
Second, said Margaux, a little while later, the letters. She had composed herself, and wiped her eyes, and poured two cups of tea from the pot Bas had left. She laid her hand flat on the stack of cream envelopes on the table. There were twelve of them, each in her upright, spidery, old-fashioned hand. One for each of them, she said: Damian, Bas, Étienne, Alexander, Delia, Okafor, Weston, Nathaniel, Mrs. Cho, Renata. And the two little ones, for when they are older. She touched the last two, which were slightly thicker than the rest. Eleanor's is to be opened on her eighteenth birthday. Marcus's, on his. I have told them both that I am proud of