 Penguin Random House Audio Presents The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall Read for You by Nicholas Bolton Acknowledgements These reminiscences could not have been compiled without the tireless and faithful support of my editor, Mr Horatio Slapbiscuit, of my publisher, Braden and Wells, and of the many friends and acquaintances who have served to remind me of those details upon which my own memory is sadly deficient. To my long-suffering husband, I offer both my thanks and my apologies. I fear I have repeated several unkind comments Ms. Haas made about you, but I have done so in order to preserve an accurate record of events as they transpired, not in any way as an endorsement of those remarks. And of course, neither this text nor any other aspect of my life as I know it would have been as it is had I not the privilege of knowing the incomparable Ms. Shaharazad Haas. I have faith that we shall someday meet again. Chapter 1 Captain John Wyndham That I must begin these reminiscences with the description of myself and my origins is a necessity that runs contrary to both my character and my upbringing. My editor, however, tells me that my readers will wish to know how a man of my unremarkable public reputation came to be associated with so extraordinary a person as the sorceress Shaharazad Haas. I shall endeavour, therefore, to assuage your curiosity by outlining a little of my early life, particularly the circumstances that led to my arrival in Kelathraven and to my falling into company with the woman who would become my most trusted, confident and truest friend. I was born in the kingdom of E during the 467th year of the reign of the witch-king Justinian. My earliest memory of childhood is being summoned to sing Alas Must I in Torment's Dwell for one of my parents' friends. Such gatherings were frequent at that time and I never thought to question their purpose, though they occurred always after nightfall and were conducted with an air of peculiar secrecy. In any case, I performed poorly and my father was disappointed, as he so often was. As for my father himself, I will simply say that he was a man of strong principles and unswerving faith. He fought valiantly for his beliefs and, unlike so many of his contemporaries, practised in private what he espoused in public. Although his role in the revolution and subsequent part in the formation of the Commonwealth afforded him great power and influence, we continued to live simply.