Cuffs & Links

Preparing my natty wardrobe for Thanksgiving luncheon in two hours' time.

I keep forgetting why those two shirts in my top shelves stay un-opened: they are real shirts requiring real cufflinks, of which all of mine were filched in the early hours of my mother's packing for Italy in April 2007.

I discovered the theft almost immediatelu thanks to my brother's bungling and leaving the distinctive box out on his bedroom dressing table.

A few months on, maman must have come across a box of cheapos which she left out in Thief Alley without a word.

I spotted them when I went in. I dont know if they were meant to appease me but I took the box out to the garden and shook it in her face where stood at her hobby:

"I don't want to see this sort of crap. Throw it straight away before it catches my eye and reminds me of the theft of my and my girls' own jewels."

The theft that goes on stealing. Every time I see cufflinks advertised in some glossy, every time I inadvertently go to don a shirt needing cuffs, I remember the double theft.

Work in Progress - 'Piece of Work', as someone named the filch. I should have this printed and pinned prominently as a reference source when I give visitors the guided tour of the thievery and recount the nasty tale.