"Thank you," George said, leaning his head against Patrick's. On the floor, Downpatrick came up to investigate his owners' distress. George reached down and pulled him up onto the couch to include him in the hug.
"Some of them were trying to make me renounce. They thought they were helping, in their own way, since the Emperor had offered me a very nice life if I would just stop with all this Christ nonsense. I think they hoped that when I 'came to my senses' or something, I'd understand why they'd done it. Others were just angry, or hadn't liked me anyway." George sighed. "It was hard to forgive them, when I came back as a saint. It took a long time. And they had been dead for centuries by then, so it wasn't as though I could confront them."