The Hand That First Held Mine

Content Warning: This section references traumatic childbirth, miscarriage, the traumatic loss of a parent, and attempted sexual assault.

The narrator describes the natural world as waiting in anticipation. The scene is a family home between Devon and Cornwall around 1955; a baby is sleeping in a stroller in the garden. Lexie (referred to at this point as “Alexandra”) explodes from the house, 21 years old and enraged at parental injustice.

The point of view shifts to show Innes Kent, an art dealer and critic, witnessing the same moment. Innes’s car has broken down, and he is frustrated both by this and by the artist he visited earlier. Kent encounters Lexie and watches her through a hedge. He thinks of her as a piece of art. Lexie angrily confronts him about watching her. He explains the situation with his car and argues that he wasn’t spying on her. He assumes the baby is her own, but she corrects him, angry that he thinks the baby—her sibling—belongs to her. They talk more and she discovers he’s from London, where she says she plans to move. He questions why she hasn’t, and she decides that her family’s disapproval is not enough to keep her in the country.