A Lesson in Thorns (Thornchapel #1)(35)

The priest in question polishes off his flute of champagne. “Actually,” he says, “I don’t see the harm in it.”

Now we’re all surprised, staring at him with open mouths and slack expressions. He regards us with amusement. “Well, it is just kissing, after all; I don’t plan on breaking any vows for real. I haven’t had that much champagne.”

“Isn’t kissing against the spirit of the vow though?” Saint asks quietly. It’s the first he’s spoken in at least an hour, if not more.

“Jesus kissed his friends,” Becket replies, his words untroubled, but I didn’t miss the barely there flinch he gave at Saint’s question. It makes me wonder exactly how Becket feels about his vows—and kissing—and his friends.

“It doesn’t matter because we are not playing,” Rebecca announces. “We are too old—”

“That’s exactly it!” Delphine interrupts, glowering at Rebecca. “We are too young to be so old! I’m so tired of not doing anything fun ever.”

“You are such a child,” Rebecca accuses, crossing her arms and glaring at Delphine. “The minute people aren’t falling all over themselves to entertain you—”

“Erroneous! I’ve been entertaining myself just fine while you and Auden spend hours and hours talking about the house stuff. I do have a job too, you know, and—”

When Rebecca cuts in to disagree, Becket stands up. “We all know you two can go like this for hours,” he says kindly. “But we also all know the secret, and the secret is that you don’t actually hate each other.”

The glares Delphine and Rebecca trade between them would suggest otherwise, but Becket keeps going. “I think it does sound fun. And I’m not ashamed to admit I miss the feeling of being kissed, even if it’s by a friend.”

I try to sound very Sober and Adult when I chime in, “I also think kissing sounds fun!”

“Of course you do,” Delphine replies. She walks over to Auden and stands between his knees, taking his hand in hers.

“I know you love me,” she says, and she sounds less tipsy now, and more wise. “I know how faithful you’ve been to me and at what cost. Just like we all know that Becket loves God and has been faithful to him. Kissing someone in a game doesn’t change any of that.”

“What if it does?” Auden whispers up to her. His hand is tight in hers and his eyes are more brown than green in the glow of the fire.

And then they slide to me.

And then to Saint.

He looks back up at Delphine. “Sometimes a kiss is more than a kiss,” he says, and there’s a faint edge of hoarseness to his voice. Saint’s fingers whiten around his glass, and I wonder if he’s thinking of that summer, of that wedding kiss the three of us shared.

Of a kiss that was so much more than just a kiss.

It was an omen.

An anointing.

Delphine squeezes his hand. Her engagement ring sparkles. “I won’t think less of you for kissing someone, and I know you’re too generous to think less of me.”

Auden doesn’t answer, but he does pull Delphine’s hand close to his mouth and he brushes his lips over the back of it.

“Is that an ‘okay’?” she asks.

For a minute, the wind picks up and rattles the glass with fierce, noisy gusts; the rain hammering the window sounds like it’s turned to sleet. Almost as if the forest itself wants to answer for Auden.

Finally he says, “Okay.”

Delphine turns to the rest of us. “And it’s okay with the rest of you?”

I look to Rebecca, who throws up her hands. “Fine,” she says. “But if I kiss someone, I’ll kiss them my way. Is that understood?”

We all nod.

“Poe?” Delphine asks.

“Yes, please!” I say eagerly, like the horny librarian I am. Then I clear my throat and try to sound normal and not perverted. “I mean, as long as everyone else is okay with it.”

And then we look to Saint. He drains the last of his whisky and puts the glass on the table. “Yes,” he says. “I’ll play. If you are willing to have me.”

There’s no doubt that by you, he means Auden, and the faintest frown pulls at Auden’s mouth at his words. But he gives a short nod.

“Excellent!” Delphine exclaims, clapping her hands together. “Let me just clear off the table here and get our bottle ready.”

I decide to refill my glass—as do Rebecca and Saint—and by the time we’re back, the table in the middle is clear, save for an empty bottle on its side, and the drumming, manicured fingers of an eager Delphine Dansey.

“This is perfect, you know,” she says, as we get settled around the table. I choose to sit on the floor next to Saint, and Rebecca perches on the arm of the sofa. “We never got to have this kind of fun as a group when we were in school. Now we can make up for lost time.”

I have to admit that if life had been different, if for some reason all six of us had been able to keep seeing each other, I’m sure we would have done lots and lots of wild things, and I’m sure at least some of them would have involved kissing. Maybe Delphine is right, and we’re reclaiming something that ought to have been ours to begin with.

“I think Becket should go first,” Delphine says. “Since he was the first to agree to my game. And also he’s the oldest.”