The sea around the boat was very clear—much clearer than the air—and though the surface was patched with shifting brilliances of copper glare, he found that between these he could peer down into a kind of spacious upper room of well-lit water. There were creatures in there! Small, with bodies like globes of purest glass, their legs trailing under them like ribbon, like soaked cotton. He did not remember seeing these before. He had been unobservant, perhaps, or had simply not been in a boat like this, so close to the water, getting closer. And once he started to watch them he could not stop. They were immensely restful (he was immensely tired), and as he followed them, saw one rising into view, another sink into obscurity, he felt the moment’s circumstance—the circumstance as you might describe it in, say, a court of law—start to loosen, to slide. The creatures, animate bubbles that fed, quite possibly, on light itself, were trying to teach him something he did not know he would be able to bear. He looked up at Emily, but before he could speak she leaned forward, startling him, finding his knees, clutching them. She had, quite unseen by him, removed the grey silk. Her eyes—pale, pale lids—were shut, and on her face was an expression of deepest joy, the same face she might have shown the congregation at her father’s house in the days before the dreams turned sour.

“John!” she cried. “John! Now we shall be entirely free!”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the generosity of Drue Heinz and the Hawthornden Foundation at Lasswade. Hard to imagine a more perfect place to work. And heartfelt thanks to Frieda and Rachel for putting up with my absences and occasional derelictions of duty. Also to Jon and Mary Pritchard, who led me, very gently, towards the playing of music.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Miller is one of Britain’s leading novelists. He has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award. His bestselling novel Pure was a Costa Book Award winner in 2012 and was listed by The Guardian as one of the 10 greatest historical novels. He was born in Bristol and lives in Somerset, England.