Chapter Ten
Eight Years AgoThe next day Auden turned up at St. Sebastian’s house, but St. Sebastian was already waiting outside, reading a book on the front steps. Auden stepped forward until his shadow covered the pages, and when St. Sebastian looked up, Auden had a crown of July sun behind him.
“What do you want to do?” St. Sebastian asked, standing up.
“I don’t care,” Auden said. “Anything.”
So they did anything.
For the next week, they swam in Thornchapel’s pool, they hung out in the graveyard while the moon swung heavy and bright above them, Auden drawing at intervals while St. Sebastian watched in hypnotic silence. They roamed around the footpaths with baskets of fancy s**t from the house that some servant-type had packed for the teenage master, including bottles of wine they
