tfully I lifted my eyes from ter’s diary. A number of truck my attention as I , and no I o consider thodically.

    O.

    Oh.

    And then, Oh!

    o describe my eureka? It began as a stray ure, an implausible notion. It  impossible per absurd! For a start—

    About to begin marserarguments, I stopped dead in my tracks. For my mind, racing aself in a momentous act of premonition, ted to ts. In a single moment, a moment of vertiginous, kaleidoscopic bedazzlement, tory Miss inter old me unmade and remade itself, in every event identical, in every detail t entirely, profoundly different. Like t reveal a young bride if you  ts of random dots t disguise teapots or cloo see trut.

    t at a time, taking all t angles separately, I revieold and everyt. And yes, again. t, and t, and t, too. My neo tory. It began to breat did so, it began to mend. ts ed. Puzzles explained teries eries no longer.

    At last, after all tale telling and all ter trick mirrors and the double bluffs, I knew.

    I kne day s s.

    I kneity of the garden.

    I kneacked Mrs. Maudsley h a violin.

    I knew whe-dig.

    I knew who Emmeline was looking for underground.

    Details fell into place. Emmeline talking to er  tor’s  appears and reappears in tory, like a silver tapestry. I understood teries of er’s urn of tood trangeness of Joo teaced o tend it.

    I understood t, and  of it. I understood   a girl like Adeline could melt aer in her place.

    ‘I am going to tell you a story about ter er me t first evening in t ed ecory attacibly to hers.

    Once upon a time two baby girls…

    Except t noter.

    Sed me in t direction t very first nigo listen.

    ‘Do you believe in gs, Miss Lea?“ so tell you a g story.“

    And I old ime.”

    But sold me a g story.

    Once upon a time two baby girls…

    Or alternatively: Once upon a time three.

    Once upon a time ted.

    t s, mostly invisible, and yet not quite invisible. t  open, and t s. t in a mirror t made you glance up. t beain ed movement of books from one room to anoterious movement of bookmark from page to page. It ed a diary from one place and  in anot replaced it later. If, as you turned into a corridor, to you t you  missed seeing ttle g  far ay, t ttle g was iness somewhere.

    o see. Yet s seen.

    Sed softly. On tiptoe, in bare feet, s sfall of every inant of to s of so o move among them invisibly.

    Isabelle and C. Living as tside logic, outside reason, t t to be perplexed by tems seemed to t of tural universe. A s fell across a carpet  to be did not cause to stop and reflect; suceries seemed only a natural extension of ts and minds. ttle g  in t stac t, to tovers in try like a mouse, er to bed, disappeared into tion tant anyone appeared.

    S of the house.

    Like all secrets, she had her guardians.

    ttle g as plain as day, despite . A good too. it ion try, enoug loaf, to sustain ttle g. For it ake to t t ers. No. Somac y it o be filled.

    But se, ss, you see, ra pair of  and an old pair of Jorousers, cut off at ting of tful. In tatoes gre  out under lo only did souc and vegetables, but ter,  desire of box and yeo become geometry. At ically straight lines.

    In tctle g did not need to ectors, augo be safe in it. tcranger came to live in t, o banis her.

    More they loved her.

    But  appear at random. to le g   ill t. ory ten in her copper hair and her emerald eyes.

    For  curious t tory. t bore t uncanny resemblance to ted for so long? t fell in a mass doriking emerald eyes. Odd, don’t you to ttle g and so them?

    ‘er told me, ”I .“ So sory in o a picnic, met Roland and eventually ran ao marry ed by er,  on a rampage, venting ers of earls or of so  did not really matter , ion for oblivion.

    Isabelle gave birto  t like t like their uncle.

    : At about time, in some barn or dim cottage bedroom, anot ter of an earl, I trouble. S oo. Copper hair. Emerald eyes.

    Child of rage. Child of rape. Charlie’s child.

    Once upon a time there was a house called Angelfield.

    Once upon a time twins.

    Once upon a time to Angelfield a cousin. More likely a er.

    As I sat in train er’s diary closed in my lap, t ruso feel for Miss inter ailed e co mind. Aurelius. And my sympaturned to anger. ed from  to fend for  knowing ory?

    I t, too, of te tent and t t I no to be er’s.

    It all boiled doo t of t of a baby.

    rain arrived in e and I stepped out onto tform, I o find it ankle-deep in snoaring out train for t side.

    I t I kne all, ion.

    I t,  t Angelfield but t I o tory in my hand.

    At tations I realized t until I knehing.