Chapter 5
Robin Fellows didn’t know all of it. Not even most of it.
They had an afternoon to kill—Svangur wouldn’t be found now, couldn’t expose himself to daylight—so they piled into Robin’s
Land Rover and she drove them out to see St. Nectan’s waterfall and hermitage. They hiked the length of a cool green gorge
toward the roar of running water. Colin checked a time or two, but there was no cell coverage at all out here. He tried not
to let it irritate him. The British were so in love with their own past, they were apparently happy to let the future slip
away. Some people couldn’t be helped.
Robin was eager to see some birds called dippers that apparently liked to dive into the water and shoot around like little
black torpedoes. Colin was behind her on the narrow path and admired her round, swinging can. He found himself wondering about
her anatomy—and if doing it with a trans woman put one on the spectrum of homosexuality. The possibility intrigued him. He
had always viewed sex as a kind of sport. He enjoyed the challenge of a new partner and relished a good encounter. The other
parts of relationships bored him. He liked that Donna didn’t need a lot of pillow talk after a good fuck. She tended to fall
asleep and snore with her mouth open.
What really turned him on was knowing secrets. Discovering the things people didn’t want you to know about them—that was the
best sort of penetration.
“And this guy you’re meeting later—Stuart Finger? He’s, what, homeless?” Robin asked.
“I don’t know if he has a permanent residence,” Arthur said.
“But he knows the local cave systems. He’s led other people down into the Camelford Crypts, to Arthur’s Steps.
There’s a Celtic inscription I’d like to see there, and I don’t trust myself to locate it.
I called you because, if Colin and Finger and I are going to wiggle into a hole in the ground, I thought it would be nice to have someone topside to call emergency services if we don’t come back. ”
“But you’re not going to go at night? Not really? You’ll just meet him tonight and make arrangements.”
“It’s always midnight underground. Tonight is as good as tomorrow.”
Robin glanced back at Colin. “And you flew all the way over here to jump in a bottomless grave with him? Midlife crisis?”
“Arthur and I have a well-established relationship,” Colin said. “He falls into a hole, and then I fall in trying to pull
him out. It’s too late to change now.”
“And how do you even know about this Stu Finger?” Robin asked, leading the way as they crossed a narrow, slippery bridge of
two-by-fours over the stream.
“Oh,” Arthur said, without any trace of humor at all, “he’s a legend.”