It was impossible, brothering a boy who wanted so much to be a man. Not just any man—a brave man, a strong one, who commanded the respect of other men. Perhaps this should have gladdened Robin, who had after all spent much of his life pretending to be such a man. But he dreaded the loss of his brother; he couldn’t bear to give him up to the drinkers and the brawlers, the Pete Darlings of the world. And he would hate for Richard to cease thinking of him as someone worthy, his shining older sibling. He could see the change happening already—right now, before him, in fact. In the way Richard,
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