The courier had delivered the letter to her shopfront on November ninth, one day after the deadline printed in the text had already passed.

Caroline got up from the table and walked over to the standing brass lamp in the corner of the room.

She held the sheet of white linen paper up against the light bulb, staring at the faint watermark running through the heavy weave.

She reread the date stamped on the envelope, then checked the typed line on the stationery once more under the yellow light.

Caroline stepped into the post office lobby at a quarter past ten in the morning.