Jamie got up and went to the window to look out over the lawn. She saw him standing there, in his nakedness, and she T H E C A R E F U L U S E O F C O M P L I M E N T S
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thought of the beauty that somehow he had given her. A gift of beauty.
He came back to the bed. “He sticks to the shadows,” he said. “But that was him, all right. Praying to the moon.”
He held her hand lightly. “You promised something, you know. You promised that you would tell me a story about a tattooed man. Remember?”
“Did I?” She was beginning to feel drowsy.
“Yes, you did,” he whispered.
“All right. A story about a tattooed man.”
She put a hand on his shoulder. She felt the movement of his breathing; so gentle.
She whispered the lines, close to his ear. “
She stopped, and she heard him breathing.
“Is that all?” he asked.
“There are some stories that are very short,” she said quietly,
“because they say everything that there is to be said.”
In the silence of the room he thought about this. She was right.
“Thanks for that story,” he said. “I liked it very much.”
Isabel closed her eyes. There is a sea of love, she thought.
And we are in it.
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenons The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics.
Document Outline
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
