Anthology

by Windslayer

A series of one shots and sketches in the lives of a consulting detective and his biographer, based upon a poetry anthology found in a cottage on the Sussex Downs. No particular order, non-slash.

1. Prolouge

There is a bookcase in the corner of a large sitting room in a cottage on the Sussex Downs.

In the morning the sunlight streaming through the windows pools onto the faded rug just in front of the bookcases' lower shelves, bringing light to its denizens for a few brief hours each day. Upon its bottom shelf, among various other volumes, sits a large book bound in green leather. A present, from one old friend to another, its surface conspicuously absent of the dust that covers its fellow companions on the shelf.

The spine of the book is cracked, the pages have been torn, folded and scribbled over in two sets of handwriting more times than either of the owners can count. The anthology, while being new compared to the residents of the cottage has come to resemble both of them in appearance and content.

It is not merely an anthology of poetry. It is an anthology of memories.