2. It rains in the same soft, sustained way that it did the morning Bettany was born. I nurse her on the sofa and watch the tired world drinking long and deep.
3. All the voices of the rain. It drums and patters on the jasmine and tinks and tonks in the watering can. It splats on to the paving. It gurgles and murmurs and chatters in gutters and runnels and downpipes. Later, when Bettany and I join our boys in the study Nick says 'Come up here and listen to the rain'.
