A Second Letter Arrives

A Second Letter Arrives

T HIS LETTER, TOO,

is addressed to Captain E. Winston

.

Eddie,

Thank you kindly for your reply and, if you’ll permit me, what utter nonsense! Your visit will be no imposition at all. And I do insist you visit, you know. I have plenty of air miles but not another living person in the world who has letters written for my darling Elsie. And I simply must have them.

Now that I’ve convinced you, let us chat a while.

Do you enjoy working in the charity shop? I do love a good rummage. The few charity shops we have on Corfu are not the same – they don’t have the lucky-dip jumble-sale feeling of the ones I used to frequent in England. Many years ago, I bought a clutch bag in a charity shop in Ealing for an extravagant publishing gala. And when I opened it up on the night, I noticed a stain of what looked like soy sauce on the inside. I love making up stories for

the things I buy second-hand, so I decided the clutch bag belonged to a violinist who had followed a showstopping performance at the Royal Albert Hall with a visit to one of those sushi restaurants where the food slides about on a conveyor belt. It made me like the bag all the more. Stories are my currency, you see, but I write under a pen name that requires at least two glasses of fizz for me to reveal.

Please do say that you’ll stay. Tell me who you’d like as a guest and I’ll make it so. Two guests if you wish. Bring the guinea pig!

Yours persuasively,

Emmeline x