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Good evening and welcome to the Sleepy Bookshelf, where we put down our worries from the day

and pick up a good book. I'm your host, Elizabeth. It is a pleasure to be reading to you tonight.

This evening we are returning to a tale of two cities.

But before that, we'll take a moment to relax and get ready for sleep.

Concentrate on how your body feels

and where you might be holding any tension.

Take a big stretch and allow those areas to fully relax and sink into your bed. Now let's take some nice, deep breaths.

Inhale and collect all your thoughts and concerns from the day. And exhale, letting them all go.

Once more, inhale and exhale.

Lovely.

The letter defarge found in the chimney of Dr. Manette's Bastille Cell was read aloud.

In 1767, he had been picked up in a carriage to attend a scene by two brothers. On arrival he found a young woman, in a bed, bound with torn men's clothing, shrieking about her husband, father, brother, then counting to 12,

and saying, hush, before pausing and repeating.

The men provided the doctor with some narcotics, which he prescribed before being taken to a barn loft, where a young boy lay, wounded in the chest with a sword.

Determined to tell someone, the boy explained that the Marquis, the elder brother, had tortured

his sister's husband to death before kidnapping her. The boy had broken in and fought

the Marquise before being slain with his own sword. He mustered enough energy to denounce the brothers,

and all their line passed and future,

before passing away.

The sister died a week later,

...