It was, too. When we left the house about ten minutes later, Connor still looking grim and preoccupied, I was glad of the bright sun overhead, the deep clear blue of the sky, the white puffs of clouds that moved with winds aloft, sending racing shadows over the hillsides. He didn’t exactly smile, but as we walked, with the crisp, cold breeze pulling at our hair and the scarves wound around our necks, I could see the set of his shoulders begin to relax a little, even though he was walking through what was, for him, enemy territory.
Since it was the Friday of a holiday week, and so many people had the days between Christmas and New Year’s off, Jerome was packed with tourists. I used to hate days like this, since everywhere I went was overrun, but now I was glad of the crowds, glad of the pr
