ffed sofas  cusered footstools, capestries ered furniture, every floor ed, every carpet overlaid  draped t as blotting paper absorbs ink, so all t absorbed sound, ting paper takes up only excess ink, to suck in the words we spoke.

    I follourned left and rig and left,  up and doairs until I  all sense of ed interior of ts outer plainness. tered over time, I supposed, added to ension invisible from t. “You’ll get t,” tood urned from a o a . S opened into a sitting room. t. “Batudy.” tains and  of the house.

    ‘ill you take your meals in ting table and a single che window.

    I did not knoing ess, and unsure of my status in t or an employee?), I ated, er to accept or to refuse. Divining tainty, to overcome a  of reticence, “Miss inter als alone.”

    ‘t’s all to you, I’ll eat here.“

    ‘I’ll bring you soup and sandrain. You’ve to make your tea and coffee just o reveal a kettle, tiny fridge. ”It o tc, for not ing me in chen.

    S me to my unpacking.

    In t e to unpack my feoiletries. I pusea and coffee to one side and replaced t of cocoa I  from  enougime to test tique bed— tress and I  kno—before turned ray. “Miss inter invites you to meet  eig to make it sound like an invitation, but I under-stood, as I  meant to, t it was a command.