“It’s a weird day to have a birthday,” she had told him. “I mean, everyone is always celebrating on Halloween, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me.” She had already planned the evening; that left him to find a present, and he wanted to give her something that would reflect her passions and his and thus be unique to their relationship. Jewelry did not fit the bill. Amanda happily wore the same pair of diamond stud earrings every day, and that seemed to be the extent of her interest in adornment. Scarves, handbags, chocolate, and flowers—all of which Francis Leland suggested—seemed equally inappropriate. In a box in the dusty back room of a local antique shop, Peter discovered an early edition of George MacDonald’s 1870 fantasy novel, At the Back of the North Wind. The book was illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelite follower Arthur Hughes. Amanda, he knew, considered Hughes on a par with her idol Edward Burne-Jones. This would be the first book Peter would give Amanda.
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