PART FOUR ~ Number Eleven:

Christmas, and the New Year to follow, would provide me with an unexpected gift; a gift beyond the one I cultivated during my four months absence from the world. [However, even in these arrogant days, I carried myself as if this gift were expected. When the gift arrived, in the form of an Artist’s Model, I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Up to this point in my life, Beauty was known to me as a painting. She was the iconic subject of Ian Rodgers’ most famous work; a gift, frozen in time].