Two: The Memo

Napier was a stranger to formal education. Prior to the incident which claimed the lives of his parents the family lived in Edinburgh on Tristan Da Cunha. He was accustomed, therefore, to a life of isolation. Upon their bereavement, he and Lara were shipped back to London, after a brief stay in St Helena, a bleak interval for Napier, apparently, which he refuses to discuss. It soon became obvious that these two dark children, still squinting into the remembered winds of southern latitudes, were not yet ready to adapt to city life. Aged nine (her)and ten (him), the orphans were removed to a progressive boarding school on the South Coast, where lessons and clothing were optional, but where at least they could let an offshore breeze dry the tears from beneath their dark, lost eyes.