“Ah, I see.” He knows that Gabriel and Neil Perry are friends, of course. But he had not realized that Guy had told Neil, a boy he did not know particularly well, what had happened. Anthony supposes that if the two had run into each other, something of the story might have come out. “Yes.” A pause. “More or less,” he amends, trying to be a little more honest about the trials of the last few weeks. Anthony has been caught up in his own sort of hell, overwhelmed with worry for Guy, and also keenly aware that the Guy’s miserable future, as depicted in Auden’s file and corroborated by Billy Russo, spells his own defeat as well. Even if he never had to flee England himself, he was not able to keep his friends safe. That reality has gnawed on him, a slow, private, excruciating sort of torture.

Anthony can’t tell Gabriel all of that. He doesn’t know how to be quite that honest.

“You were very good,” he says, taking half a step closer. But even close together, a gulf seems to remain between them.