Lessons in Discovery by Charlie Cochrane Page A

a knot in the base of his
    stomach as he realised that the first words would be, “Hello,
    Orlando. Lovely to see you,” and was then proven correct.
    The double joy of knowing that he still retained some
    memory, deeply buried somewhere, of an incredible twelve
    months and the fact that his special friend looked as if he might be making a recovery almost brought him to tears. But he was
    determined that Jonty wouldn’t see him cry yet, and made do with ruffling the man’s hair, upbraiding him for having worried them
    all so and saying that he would go and find a pot of tea.
    They drank the brew in peace, the only interruption being
    Miss Peters bearing buttered toast, a thermometer and a broad
    grin. She was bold enough to pinch Jonty’s cheek, calling him a
    silly goose, and offering Orlando a place on her team of amateur nurses.

    After Jonty had eaten some toast, drunk some tea and
    demanded more of both, he asked for a full rundown of the last
    few days, posing question after question and barely sparing
    Orlando’s blushes. “Bed bath, eh? That was a bit daring, even for you.”
    “Will you ever stop that mouth of yours? Anyone could hear
    you!”
    “If I had a pound for every time you’ve used that expression
    or similar I’d be as rich as Croesus. People could quite easily hear and take no notice whatsoever if it weren’t for the song and dance you make of things.”

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    Charlie Cochrane
    “Jonty Stewart, I haven’t nursed you for three days just to
    end up in a flaming row. If you won’t stop your mouth, I will.”
    Orlando leaned over from where he sat on the bed and pressed his lips to Jonty’s.
    It wasn’t as clumsy as his first attempt at a kiss had been,
    back in January. In fact it was almost acceptable. Weak and
    strange as Jonty felt, he couldn’t resist lying back, pulling
    Orlando closer to kiss him passionately in return.
    With apparent reluctance, Orlando broke the embrace and
    pulled away. “Sorry, Jonty. Shouldn’t have done that here. I
    should have waited. Couldn’t.”
    “It doesn’t matter to me, Orlando, the sooner the better as far
    as I’m concerned. You have no idea how much I’ve missed
    kissing you.”
    Orlando smiled, gently brushing his hand along Jonty’s arm.
    “Think I must have missed kissing you as well. Is it always as
    nice as this?”
    Jonty laughed, regretting it straightaway when the activity
    ended in a coughing fit, something that made Orlando fuss over
    him like a mother hen. He got his breath back and flapped his
    friend away. “I’m fine. Honestly.”
    “You need to take care. I shouldn’t have been making you
    frolic this early in your recovery.”
    “Bit of frolicking is just what the doctor ordered, or if he
    didn’t, he should have done. Can’t think of any better way to
    improve my mental state.” He stopped, full of suspicion. “Have
    you been here all the time?”
    Orlando nodded, rather shamefacedly.
    “Well that was daft of you. You could have caught this
    yourself. I was laid out three days, you reckon? Nasty business.”
    “It was, Jonty. Very nasty.” Orlando touched his friend’s
    arm again. “May I ask you something?”
    “But of course, anything.”
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    Lessons in Discovery
    “You must have been the first person I ever kissed.”
    “As I understand it, yes, or so you told me. There may have
    been droves of them, I suppose, and you kept me in the dark.”
    “Idiot. You can take it as read that you were. What I would
    like to know, and I assume that you’ve told me before but it’s lost to me now, was I the first person you kissed?”
    Jonty considered for a moment. He remembered what
    wonderful consequences had occurred when he’d first discussed
    his previous love with Orlando. They could hardly repeat them
    here. “No, I’m afraid not, although it would have been quite nice to have been in the same boat. When I was first at Bride’s there was a boy called