She [the Herring-Buss] imployeth[…]at Land Viewers, Packers,[…]Couchers to make the Herrings lawful Merchandizes.

I pray you enforce youreselff at that justis that ye may be beste, for my love.

She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

Sex with Ivory had gotten better than sexing his wife. Herschel laughed with Ivory, cried with Ivory. They dreamt aloud together. Unlike Nikki, Ivory believed in him. Every man needed a woman who believed in him.