To Trust Man On His Oath
I saved this conversational exchange as a draft review, knowing that I was terribly behind on reviews and wanting not to forget the sentiment:
Will sighed internally. “Look, you don’t have to talk to me. But if you want to, it’s three in the morning.”
“Does the time make a difference?”
“Don’t you know?” Kim’s expression suggested he didn’t, and perhaps he wouldn’t. He was not much of a man for confidences, or intimacies. “Three in the morning, or whatever ungodly hours, you can say things then. It’s sort of allowed. On watch in the small hours, that’s when people brought out private stuff, the things they didn’t want to say in daylight, or to have anyone bring up later. You could say it then and not have anyone hold it against you. Like it never happened, you never said it. But you got it off your chest all the same.”
This is oh-so-short, almost painful in how well it sketches out the fragile detente that exists between Kim and Will between books 2 and 3 of the Will Darling trilogy. Will is Wary, Kim is trying to be less Kagey (sorry), but the two of them want to make it work.
It’s basically a short (I think someone said 12 pages) pillowtalk interlude, set late at night, when both of our self-sabotaging main characters have grown tired of walking around each other. They’re going to get an opportunity to talk, and we’re…we’re going to get to listen, and it’s beautiful. As the title suggests, Will is trying to trust Kim on the promise he made to always be truthful.
How Goes The World?
How Goes the World, Charles asks? TERRIBLY, I tell you, BEREFT OF WILL AND KIM ADVENTURES FOREVER. I wonder if people have written fanfic for this series update: a small amount, but yes!
This is a very short epilogue of sorts to the Will Darling series, so I will spoiler tag the rest. Suffice to say, from the cover, we’re revisiting both Will and Kim so it’s not like, tragic or anything, but it’s worth seeing how they get to this end without knowing what the end is, per se. End of the series! for avoidance of doubt: [wherein both of our main characters have settled into their life as like, spy for hire and “man in chair but with gun who cannot stay in chair.” Will is still a bit on edge with what it all means, sending Kim out for one dangerous adventure after another, and to make everything better they’re both at a gentleman’s club. Will is trying his hardest not to get thrown out, I’m sure.
It’s not meant entirely in jest–the ongoing trauma of sending a loved one out to dangerous missions is a real one, and Will is clearly struggling with it–but there’s something hilarious to me about a spy organization entirely staffed with gay couples who grow old and crotchety together. And while Charles may never write more of their later adventures, I can imagine them very happily indeed.]
