“College.”
“And before that?”
“I went to school,” he says simply. “Like everyone else.”
“Was it a private school?” I say, on a hunch.
“Boarding school. From the age of eleven onward.”
I lift my head off his shoulder, staring at him in surprise. “Eleven? You were sent away at eleven years old?”
“My parents firmly believed that sending a child away from home developed independence and character.”
“And did it?”
“It taught me how to pack a suitcase in under three minutes.”
The statement is delivered with his characteristic half-teasing tone, but the underlying weight of it hits me hard. I imagine a young Locke navigating cold hallways alone, learning to lock his emotions away behind iron doors.
“Were your parents strict?” I ask softly.
“Extremely.”
“Were they cold to you?”
Locke p
