I made two additional points. Sebastian made one.
At the end of the session Hartley called for a procedural show of positions.
The room split seven to five.
In favor of approval.
I was in the seven.
Sebastian was in the five.
We drove home separately.
This had also been discussed and agreed upon — arriving together would have been fine, leaving together after voting in opposite directions would have looked like the vote was theater. It wasn’t theater. But appearances on the council mattered and we both understood that.
I got home twenty minutes before him.
I changed out of my council clothes, made tea I didn’t particularly want, and sat on the window seat of the east wing looking out at the garden in the early evening light. Processing. The vote had gone the way I’d argued for and
