Laurent stood in sandals and simple cotton, a white-petalled flower in his hair. If you ignored his manner, he looked like a slave of the old style, the face too beautiful to be anything but handpicked, the white chiton like a garment chosen for him by a follower of the classical ways, who preferred their household to embody simplicity and natural beauty. If you did not ignore it, he looked like what he was: Veretian aristocracy, royalty in his every movement, in the tilt of his chin, in the sweep of his gaze. He might have been extending a signet ring to be kissed, or tapping his boot with a
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