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The meeting with Seraphina passed uneventfully yet interestingly, as was always the case. They started off in a coffee shop owned by Seraphina's friend, but when marriage and Beltane celebrations had been discussed and she had brought up the next subject of conversation, it was agreed that they must go somewhere more private.



The look of pain that flitted briefly across her best friend's face made the girl sad to have told her, but not regretful. Seraphina could be trusted with anything, of this she was as sure as she was of the very fact that she lived. They talked about Lea, and Seraphina could not quite conceal the pleased glint in her eye when the girl explained that, whilst she loved Lea dearly, there were things she could never discuss with her; almost anything, in fact.



"They're organised, Seph", she said in a shaky voice her friend had rarely heard before. "I recognised two of them; I can't remember where from, but there was only one place I ever saw them... or one situation, I suppose..." Her voice trailed out, and Seraphina stayed very still before advising her to continue. They talked in euphemisms, as always: 'please him', 'friends', 'other ones'. It had always been their way to have a code, generally made up as they went along. Smiling, she remembered a chat from a time long ago:

'He's a fucking him.'

'A him-him?'

'Well, yes. But not like him him-him.'

They had continued until the words began to take on that weird, ethereal quality words had when you looked at them for too long, then they had stopped and moved on to something else. Barry the Busman, as he had been known to them, had teased them about it for a long time afterwards. Secretly, Barry the Busman had known, and they had known he had known, and that he had kept an eye on them subtly; and for this they had always been grateful, though they would never have dreamed of admitting it.

Admissions, she thought, plodding towards the station, clutching the piece of paper on which Seraphina had inscribed her most important morcels of advice, did not come easily to the clandestine.