That’s very unfair.

You went to my mum’s house!

You asked me to!

This was straying into the realm of a very personal conversation, and Lissa was worried, suddenly, that she’d gone too far. She was, after all, sitting in his house. It wasn’t really fair; it was just a professional swap.

How were the Lindells? she typed suddenly, anxious not to offend him.

Cormac mentally groaned, although at least he was on safer ground. He did feel uncomfortable, wondering what his mother had told Lissa, what she told everyone else in the village. She didn’t know what he’d seen, what it was like out there. Neither did Lissa, neither did Emer. Nobody did.

He wrenched his memory back to his unpleasant afternoon.

It was horrible to see.

I know.

THE ODDEST THING had been that Cormac had just been thinking how surprised he was by the city, how it wasn’t at all what he’d expected. From the papers you’d think it was all pollution and crime, but instead he found himself daily impressed by the layers of history, from the Roman walls in the City to the mudlarks down by the Thames, searching for ancient coins and treasure from the two thousand years’ worth of boats that had traveled up and down the river. And the contrasts, like where he was now, with the shining modern glass towers and the beautifully preserved old Georgian buildings of weavers and artisans past. Walking to his next appointment, he had passed an ancient building where they made up coats of arms and that housed the great merchant companies of the cities, then, being characteristically early, he had taken a detour to see the extraordinary inns of Chancery, with their fountains and gardens, mysterious shops selling wigs and pens, and signposts to the “Yeoman’s Office.” Cormac had never been academic, but even he was quietly taken aback to walk past the redbrick Middle Temple Hall and read a small plaque modestly mentioning that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was first performed within its walls; he had then passed the famous circular church of the Knights Templars, with its gray stone effigies laid to rest.

It was a completely different world from any he had ever known; he felt there was a surprise behind every corner in London, a sense too of the huge weight of history, commerce, and grandeur that made it easy—perhaps even necessary—for Westminster to send a bunch of young lads from small towns far, far away to fight and die in a distant desert.

He was in a thoughtful frame of mind when he reached his next appointment, and what happened next did not change it.