Perhaps because it seems so appropriate, I don't notice the rain. It falls in sheets, a blanket of silvery thread rushing to the hard almost-winter ground. Still, I stand without moving at the side of the coffin.

Alice will always be a beautiful mystery. It is one I am content not to solve.I can love her now in her lovely darkness." -Amalia Milthorpe

He wishes there were more coffins, more funerals and much more pain.

Don't you love to look at coffins? I've always enjoyed looking at one now and then. I think of a coffin as an absolutely lovely piece of furniture, even when it's empty, and if there's someone lying in it, it's really quite sublime in my eyes.

I shake my head. "Remember, Mother. There are no mistakes."
She smiles through her tears, leaning in to kiss my cheek "No mistakes, my angel.

I must confess I will miss your... proximity when jumping together.'
'Well,' she said, answering his smile with one of her own.
'There's always sickle training in the ballroom.'
'That there is.