Sean was polite and formal, but most importantly, he was a boy who joined the Trinitians after the war, so he’d never experienced a real battle. As we walked along Dame Street, he tried hard to look confident and intimidating while I screamed inside. I couldn’t blame Albert for that. He passed the escort request to his officers, and one of them decided that the commander’s whim wasn’t worth more than the necessary minimum. That meant one guard to accompany me home. A decision that I would have welcomed with gratitude if they’d assigned a veteran to me. We’d stroll home exchanging stories and draw much less attention than the freckled blond teenager who made escorting me into some sort of display of masculinity.
And, of course, all my attempts to send him back early failed as my guard insi
