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Dear Mama,

I am most certainly not dead Thank you for your tender concern I will try to write more often so you don’t have to worry so between letters (Because a week’s silence surelyillness or been ray streets)

School is going well I as never change, and girls are not challenged in Albion in the saent and kind (Kind of horrible) None stand out (I refuse to mention him by name, no matter how many obviously “subtle” questions you ask) The other students are also quite focused on their schooling, and none of us has irls attend separate classes as well, so no, I have notnor being courted Please stop hoping)

Tell Aunt Li’ne thank you for the mittens They are very much appreciated in this cold, damp climate I am so unused to And please tell the sun hello and I miss her very much! I also miss you, of course (I do Very much)

All my love,

Jessamin

Reading over the letter tothe true statements to my written words that I fail to pay attention to the street I cannot decide which shocksrun over by the horse-drawn cart, or the fluid strea directed at me

I look up, cheeks burning, and meet a pair of black eyes that, coe, hitfor Melei so deep and painful I can scarcely draw a breath

The man pauses, obviously surprised to see how dark of skin and eyes I am in spite of my school uniform And so I take the opportunity to insult his le, well-crafted turn of phrase I haven’t used since ht it to me when I was fourteen

He smiles

I smile back

Brushing his hand through the air in another gesture so achingly faue and the cart otten

He’s made me crave heat The sun’s anemic rays pull more warray country I hate Avebury, a city just as gray, tee with people but coldly lifeless

No Hohten my shoulders and march toward the hotel I only have a couple of hours beforefor to less than the best I cannot afford it

I cut away frohfare and find myself in a narrow alley It’s old, the lines not quite vertical as they lean ever so gradually overhead

“What’s wrong, chickie bird?”

I startle, my eyes whipped down from where they traced the line of the sky Aripe scent of a dockworker stands directly in front of me

“Nothing” I flash a tight, dis to blend in “Just passing through”

“Nah, don’t do that” He steps to the side as I do, and hisby “Come have a drink with me, yeah? Make you feel all better”

“I have somewhere to be”

His smile broadens, blue eyes nearly lost in the tanned squint lines of his face “You ain’t from ’round here, are you? An island rat, that’s what you are” He reaches out with a ht and waterfall straight, where I have it pulled into a bun at the base of my neck