f indulged youth…

    And trated t of tion at the neck.

    Someone ching me.

    I kno an uncommon p ime it o me. Like t many solitary people, my senses are acutely attuned to to being to being spied upon. Noc only t, but akable sensation been tickling me? I t back over t minutes, trying to retrace t since to speak to to t moving a muscle,  over ticed notried to remember.

    then I realized.

    I  it even before I picked up the book.

    Needing a moment to recover myself, I turned tinuing tense of reading.

    ‘You can’t fool me.“

    Imperious, declamatory, magisterial.

    to be done but turn and face her.

    Vida inter’s appearance  calculated for concealment. S queen, sorceress or goddess. iff figure rose regally out of a profusion of fat purple and red cusurquoise-and-green clot cloaked  soften ty of  copper o an elaborate confection of ts, curls and coils. ricately lined as a map, ick. In er of rubies, emeralds and ruck an incongruous note.  unnerved me more t er, o develop t; I  from beo my very soul.

    I drerality, hid behind appearance.

    For an instant I t I  transparent,‘t s see straig shan I had.

    ‘Very ly, and o business. Your letter gives me to understand t you ions about the commission I am offering you.“

    “ell, yes, t is—”

    t  registered terruption. “I could suggest increasing tipend and the final fee.”

    I licked my lips, soug er’s dark saking in my flat broraig and navy cardigan. Sying smile