The Courtship of Julian St. Albans (29 page)

They stayed cuddled like that for a few minutes
more, just resting in each others’ company until Julian’s belly gave a little
growl and they both laughed. “Magic makes you hungry,” said Alex,
kissing his hair. “Want to go have more tea and sweets?”

“Yes, please,” said Julian, grinning
hugely. “Did I really do part of the magic?”

“You did, you contributed energy with your
breath and blood, and also at the end, when I pushed my stronger magic through
you it took a little of yours with it,” said Alex. He and Julian stood and
made their way into the kitchen, where the two Guardians were happily arguing a
detail from a book they’d both read recently.

“All done?” asked
James, getting up to put the kettle on.

“Can I see it?”
asked Jacques, clearly curious.

At Alex’s nod of permission, Julian pulled the
amulet back out from under his shirt and showed it to the two Guardians.
“I’ve never made anything really magical before,” he said shyly.

“I haven’t done anything like this,”
said Jacques, looking it over curiously. “Guardians aren’t big on stuff
like this.”

“There’s other mages in the Temple that
make this sort of thing, though,” said James, coming over to look, too.
“This is a really good one, especially for how simple it is. I can
tell.”

“Do you hear magic,
too?” asked Julian curiously.

“Oh, no,” said Jacques, getting up to
prepare the teapot, rinsing away the old leaves and choosing one of his herbal
mixes to replace them. “We’re both sight sensitives, I see glowing and
colours, and James sees waves and shapes.”

“It’s hard to describe,” said James,
but he clearly didn’t mind trying. “You know like when you see topography
maps, the way the shapes and colours represent hills and valleys?”

“Oh, yes! That makes sense, so you see
hills where there’s magic?” asked Julian, fascinated.

“Something like that,
yes,” said James, grinning.

“It all seems so amazing, that you can see
magic, or hear it, all around us when I can’t see anything,” said Julian
with a sigh. “I’m just ordinary.”

“You’re hardly ordinary,” protested
Alex, giving his hair a kiss. “Not many men would go on a date with two
Guardians and a mage that investigates murders.”

Julian giggled. “Not
many men would get invited,” he said impishly.

“Exactly,” said
James, and Alex looked smug.

“So, when do you have to be home,
anyway?” asked Jacques curiously, nibbling on a sweet.

Julian got a sly look and snuggled a bit closer
to Alex. “Technically not until tomorrow morning,” he said, looking
up at Alex hopefully.

Alex chuckled and kissed him. “You’re not
making it easy to be a gentleman about things, my sweet,” he said.
“Can you imagine Godfrey’s face if I brought you home tomorrow all
debauched?”

Julian laughed, delight warring with mortification.
“Oh, he’d never forgive me for letting you be the first to keep me
out,” he gasped, then cracked up all over again.

Alex felt a surge of possessiveness, wanting to
have Julian now and make him never want any of the other men in the Courtship,
but he knew in his heart it wasn’t the right time. No matter what his lower
anatomy might think. “I hesitate to think the glares he’d level at me
then,” said Alex, teasing instead of seducing.

“Well, best get me home before midnight,
then,” said Julian, still giggling into Alex’s chest and clearly content
for the excuse to stay there.

“That’s a few hours,” said James,
“why don’t we go out to the living room and play a bit of gin or
something? We can put the planter by the door, now he’s had his moment.”

Alex chuckled. “It is traditional to try
to surprise and amaze when one is Courting,” he said, mock-defensively.

Jacques snickered. “I’m just amazed you
didn’t kill the plants, I heard what Mary Margaret had to say about you.”

Alex laughed. “I’m lucky she likes
me,” he said wryly. “I have a terrible track record, but she forgives
me because I cleaned out a terrible pixie infestation for her in exchange for
credit.”

“I don’t think that’s why she likes
you,” said Julian. “You’re very likeable when you let people.”

“When I let
people?” said Alex, surprised.

Julian nodded against his chest. “Mm-hm.
You don’t want people like Duckworth to like you because he’s a stuffed prat,
but you’re nice when you want to be, like with me. You were always thoughtful
with me.”

“You say what you think,” said
Jacques, putting the tea things and a few consolidated dishes of sweets on a
tray, “but you make it funny when you want to.”

“If you want to,” added James wryly.
“You hate having to kowtow to anyone, though, so the more someone thinks
you ought to respect them, the more unpleasant you are.”

Alex chuckled. “And here I always thought
I was just generally unpleasant,” he said, but of course he had known
better, sort of. He just hadn’t wanted to think about it, much. “Julian
will just have to be the guiding light of kindness and joy in my otherwise
misanthropic life.”

They all laughed at that, and then the
Guardians shooed them out into the living room, James moving the planter while
Alex got rid of the remains from their spell and Jacques got everyone set up
with tea and found the cards. Julian perched on the couch, watching and
smiling. “Next time, I’ll know where things are so I can help,” he
said.

“I hope there’s a next
time,” said Alex, coming to sit with him.

“Of course there’ll be a next time,”
said Julian. “You’re the front runner officially, now.” He was a
little sad as he said it, and Alex snuggled him close.

“I’m sorry you’ve had so much loss,”
Alex said quietly. He tilted Julian’s face up, cupping his cheek, and kissed
him very sweetly. “I’ll do my best to stay alive.”

“And not just for his own sake,”
teased James, sitting down in one of the chairs.

Jacques took the other and shuffled.
“We’ll keep his skin intact for you, don’t worry.”

Julian giggled. “I know you will, that’s why
I’m happy he’s the one I like best. It would be tragic if you were guarding
George Entwistle instead.”

Jacques dealt the cards and they all gossiped
laughingly about the other candidates, the Guardians having done their research
enough to be able to participate. Alex admitted he rather liked Chudleigh the
way one likes a puppy, though he didn’t voice his worry that the cheerful man
would take Pembroke’s death harder than most. Julian teased Alex by bringing up
Whitby Chilcott, who had so far been very sincerely interested in Julian
himself, and less so the estate and lands, unlike some of the others.

“Oh, god, I don’t think Standish Flynn
could even remember my first name half the time, he was so fixated on the St.
Albans titles,” said Julian with a giggle. “He kept having to resort
to ‘Mr. St. Albans’ like we were discussing a business deal.”

It felt good, to gossip and talk with Julian
like friends, to be someone Julian could tell about his life and the most
important thing in it right now. Alex was grinning for more than one reason
when he laid down his cards and announced, “Gin.”

Julian laughed, then pouted and demanded a kiss
to compensate for losing, and Jacques demanded James help make the tea this
time. Alex didn’t let the kissing get too heated, but he could feel the fine
tension running through both of them. “After you’ve made your formal
announcement, it will be more acceptable for you to come for a weekend,”
he said softly, feeling shy to be the one to suggest such a thing.

“It will, won’t it?” said Julian,
grinning happily. “I expect our fourth date to be for a whole weekend here
in the city, then, during which we put up silencing spells and rarely leave the
bedroom.”

“It sounds like a
plan,” said Alex, stealing a few more kisses.

Their idyll was broken when Alex’s phone went
off, and Alex sighed to see it was Lapointe. “I should take this,” he
said, giving Julian one last, soft kiss before answering. “This better be
good.”

“We found the ward-breaker, you were
right. We had to requisition a special box just to hold it, but as soon as it
was put away the mage in the room relaxed and said it was working,” said
Lapointe. “I just thought you’d want to know your information was
good.”

“I knew it was good, fae take lying very
seriously,” said Alex, “but thank you, it will make Julian happy to
know that no one else will be attacked at the Agency on his behalf.”

“Not even you,”
said Lapointe, and then hung up.

Alex chuckled. “They’ve figured out how he
was triggering the devices inside the Agency and stopped it,” he said,
loud enough for the Guardians to hear as well. “Armistead will live
another day.”

“Pity,” said
Jacques.

They all laughed, but it was a little strained
this time. Alex, at least, was inevitably wondering what their murderer would
come up with next, now that they’d smashed or disabled all his toys.

He had a feeling Julian was,
too.

~ ~ ~

They’d been quieter for the rest of the
evening, talking about everyday life and how things might change, if Alex and
Julian did truly marry. Alex admitted he’d need Emmeline to stay on for as long
as she was willing to help him learn to run things, and Julian wondered aloud
if she’d want to just stay on, period, marry someone and run the place with her
husband.

“If she did a Courtship she couldn’t, but
if she just met someone she liked, she could,” said Julian thoughtfully.

“If your master-husband allowed it,
anyway,” teased Alex. “God, I hate that term.”

“Which part?” asked Julian with a
smile. “I do like being taken care of like a consort, but I wouldn’t mind
a little more autonomy, since…”

“Since I’m not your Cecil,” said Alex
quietly, kissing him. “I’m glad you’re learning to live past your grief,
but I know you’ll always have him in your heart.”

“You, that doesn’t
bother you?” asked Julian in a small voice.

“Of course not, the fact that you still
love him after everything is one of the things I love about you,” replied
Alex. “It’s one of the things that resonated with me, when I was in the
Temple pondering what to do about you.”

“I’m glad you listened to your
heart,” said Julian, kissing him again. “I wouldn’t have wanted to
miss out on this.”

Alex touched the spot where Julian’s new
Keep-Safe charm rested, just his shirt in the way now, both of them having shed
jackets and cravats as the night wore on. “I’m glad you have a bit of me
keeping you safe now.”

They kissed again, and then Julian giggled.
“It feels a little weird, you two don’t mind?”

James was the one who answered after a moment
of silent communication with Jacques. “Of all the things we’ve inadvertently
been a part of or witness to as Guardians, this is one of the most
wonderful.”

“It’s not often a Guardian gets to watch
people fall in love,” added Jacques, gathering up the cards.

Julian beamed, and Alex had a feeling he had a
very similar expression on his face. “It’s not often I get to fall in
love,” Alex said.

Julian rewarded him with a very sweet kiss.
“You are the opposite of unpleasant, Alex Benedict,” he said firmly.
“All those other people are clearly idiots.”

They all laughed, and then Alex’s phone got a
text from Jones saying he was waiting downstairs. Alex sighed. “Our
carriage awaits,” he said, stealing one more kiss before standing and
stretching. “Don’t forget your cravat, that pin is gorgeous and Fauna
might try to make me wear it.”

“No she wouldn’t,” said Julian, face
serious. “The colour’s all wrong for your complexion.” He giggled and
stood, and they spent a few minutes making sure everything that was meant to
go, went, and everything that was meant to stay, stayed. Alex elected to carry
the window box down in order to leave the Guardians’ hands free.

Jones was ready and waiting, and he helped Alex
get it situated in the trunk while the Guardians gave the car a quick
once-over, then they were all settled and off back to the estate. “Do you
find it tedious, having to drive back to the city for all these dates?”
asked Alex curiously.

Julian tucked himself in Alex’s arms and nearly
in Alex’s lap for the ride. “I like this part, though I guess we won’t
snog as much this time.”

Alex chuckled. “Not as much, but maybe a
little,” he teased. “You were more of a homebody before this, though,
right?”

“I was,” said Julian, though he stole
a kiss before he answered. “I like going out, though I wish I could space
it out a little more, and I don’t mind the drive when we’re talking and it’s
nice, but it’s a bit torturous when it’s someone dull and I’m trapped in a car
with them for that long.”

“Well, good thing I’m
not dull,” said Alex, rubbing noses affectionately.

Julian giggled and touched the charm through
his shirt. “I think that tonight qualifies as one of the most not-dull
evenings I’ve had, between having my honour protected by Guardians and my
suitor making magic with me.”