Patches of colour graze across a surface, marking little x’s on a surface, Lucy wonders how each thread becomes a tint, illuminating a fresco, a painting, an ink blob decorating the cotton of a bodice.


Mending and seaming, needlework, dressmaking, such skills are necessary for women to hold, though she never knew the reason why, only that she was taught them and it was self-evident that she should follow.