“I hold her. I don’t tell her it’s okay.“Be mad,” I say. “Be hurt. Be broken. Cry.”

“I was going to say, No, no, don’t cry, I’ll go outwith you. Anything, but don’t cry. . . . But I stillcouldn’t make my voice work.And then he sort of cleared his throat and said,“Georgia, don’t feel bad. It’s always tough to hurt someone and tell them the truth. I know that. You’re a really lovely girl. Lovely . . . mad . . . butlovely. I’ll always like you. Don’t worry.”

“If I hold her hand she says, ‘Don’t touch!’If I hold her foot she says ‘Don’t touch!’ But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know.”

“As I penetrate Clare she looks at me and I think I don’t exist and a second later she turns her head and sees me. She cries out, not loudly, and looks back at me, above her, in her. Then she remembers, accepts it, this is pretty strange but it’s okay, and in this moment I love her more than life.”

“It’s true I’ve never been pregnant, but I know it’s like to lose the possibility of a baby. So of course I sympathize with Elizabeth, Phil! Deeply! My heart breaks for her. I’ve cried and cried for her each time she’s lost another baby.It’s just that sometimes I want to say to her, “Darling, maybe you don’t get to be a mother, but you still get to be a wife.”

“I don’t want to hurt her, don’t want her to suffer. But the truth may hurt her more. I wrap my arms, my wings, around her as her body shutters.”