JULIAN

The security team arrived at seven.

Not because I had asked them to arrive at seven specifically, Marcus had said he could have the full team on-site by eight, and I had said seven, and Marcus had said seven in the specific tone of a man who had worked for me long enough to know that when I moved a time earlier it was not a preference but a decision, and had made the necessary arrangements without further discussion. I had been awake since five. I had been in the study since five-thirty with coffee I had made myself because the household staff did not arrive until eight and...