I woke up knowing something had changed.
Not in the dramatic sense, nothing had been declared, no lines crossed. But the library and what had happened in it, what hadn't happened and still somehow had, sat in me differently from how it had sat the night before. Less like something held at arm's length. More like something I had decided to stop holding at arm's length and was now simply carrying, which was different and lighter and also considerably more complicated.
I lay in the dark for a few minutes thinking about complicated.
Then Lucas knocked on the connecting door and said through it: "Mummy. Are there eggs today?" and the morning started the way mornings started here, which was immediate and narrated and fine.
Nkechi called at eight.
"He knows," she said. "The duke. The expande
