And then the door opened again, and my mother stood up off the bed and turned round to face it before I had even registered the sound.

Part Forty: Good Pearls and a Large Envelope

My mother-in-law came in.

She had her good pearls on and a big envelope held under one arm.

“Well,” she said, looking straight at me and not once at either bassinet.

“Here we all are then.”

She was sixty-six years old and she had got dressed for this.

That is the detail I give people when they ask me what she is like, and it is the only one they need.