The Courtship of Julian St. Albans (37 page)

Chilcott looked surprised at the compliment.
“There’s a tiny bit of illusion involved that adds a bit of leafy rustle
and the slightest scent of green growing things,” he said, “but
mostly it’s real.”

“It’s wonderfully made,”
said Alex. “I think Julian will like it.”

Chilcott smiled. “I hope so, though I
suspect he’ll like yours, too. It’s very you, flashy yet somehow
understated.”

Alex laughed. “Thanks, I think,” he
said. The music started up, and people flowed out of the way, the dance floor
clearing in a smooth wave as Julian and Emmeline began to dance, the delicate
peacock sheltered beneath the branches of the proud young tree.

“How have your dates gone with
Julian?” asked Alex. Gossip had him looking quite cosy indeed on his last
date, but you couldn’t always tell how much of that was real and how much was
made up to add tension.

Chilcott smiled, and it was quite fond.
“Well, I think. He’s a complex young man, more than he lets on.”

Alex smiled right back. “It’s good you
appreciate that,” he said. “If I was going to lose him to anyone
here, I would sulk the least if it was you. You wanted him for himself from the
start.”

Chilcott chuckled. “I had admired Julian
before he was with Mandeville, and always cursed my ill luck at missing my
chance.”

“I’d still sulk,” said Alex, but his
voice was warm. He’d always felt Chilcott sincerely wanted a chance at Julian
rather than the St. Albans fortune, and more importantly when Alex slipped his
fingers into his pocket to touch his watch fob, the man’s personal magic was
nothing at all like any of the things from the murder investigation. Chilcott
was a rather romantic symphony to Alex’s magical ear, a layered song full of
hope and longing with an underlying determination.

Chilcott chuckled. “I will consider it a
sign if I lose him to a second man,” he said, “but I’ll curse the
fates least if it’s you.”

Alex chuckled with him, and felt that they’d
come to an understanding. “Tell me,” he said, eyes on the crowd now
though his attention kept being drawn back to Julian, “what do you think
of Willoughby?”

Chilcott tensed, but didn’t walk off.
“That man is a viper hiding among grass snakes,” he said, quiet
enough Alex had to strain to hear.

An interesting metaphor. “Or a wasp among
honeybees,” said Alex just as quietly.

“Perhaps more fitting, given his
costume,” said Chilcott in a more normal tone. “The moth’s a bit odd,
don’t you think?”

“It is, and the colouring rather washes
him out,” said Alex, keeping to light banter, aware that they were likely
being listened to. “Dull and unflattering.”

Chilcott chuckled, then moved off to find
another conversation partner, though Alex had a feeling they’d come to some
sort of gentleman’s accord.

“Moths are excellent at
hiding in plain sight,” said James thoughtfully.

“Assuming I survive this ball, we should
get Julian to give us all the dates that Willoughby had to move around or
cancel and at what notice,” said Alex. The first one had coincided with
the artificer’s murder, perhaps the rest would have equally suspicious
coincidences. The relatives could be a smokescreen, real but not the true
reason for his absences.

The crowd was flowing around them, rearranging
conversation groups in little eddies as the dance came to an end. The
now-twelve Suitors found themselves at the front of the group in a ragged
circle, poised for Julian to make his choice. Emmeline would dance mostly with
the other guests, courtiers and celebrities of high enough standing to get an
invite and be seen at such a prestigious event. Alex was fairly sure he’d seen
at least one movie star lurking around the edges, and he wondered who would be
happier if they got to share a dance, Emmeline or the movie star.

Given the limited number of dances for the
evening, it would be an honour for anyone to get a dance with the hostess, and
a boost to their reputation.

Julian stepped forward, choosing Cruther’s
cheerful hedgehog for his next dance, which looked like something out of a
child’s storybook. “A hedgehog dancing with an apple tree,” said a
droll voice next to Alex. “What has the world come to?”

Alex turned to find a small man in an
intricately filigreed mask regarding him curiously. “I rather like
it,” said Alex. “Later the tree can dance with the sun, too, that
will be lovely.”

“Several forest creatures will get their
chance, I suppose,” said the man, though he didn’t sound like he approved
of the falcon and hound any more than Alex did.

“And some unrelated things,” said
Alex. “There’s something a bit morbid about at tree dancing with a paper
book, after all.”

The man laughed in scandalised delight, and
then a woman who seemed to be his wife came and told him to stop bothering the
nice Suitor and shooed him away.

“Harmless and entertaining,” said
Jacques. “He may have been your best conversation partner of the evening.”

Alex chuckled.
“Excepting Julian, of course.”

“Excepting Julian,” agreed James. The
Guardians had gone back to flanking Alex, so he couldn’t see their faces
without twisting around and risking poking the other one with his headpiece,
but he had a feeling they were doing their best to look officially intimidating
anyway.

Alex made his way over to Chudleigh, who was
looking a bit forlorn over by the bottom of the stairs. “Your costume is
amazing,” said Alex with a smile. He was rather enjoying the surprised
looks he got when giving out compliments this evening.

“Oh! Thanks, yours is neat,” said
Chudleigh, but his hail-fellow-well-met spirit was dimmed a bit tonight.

“I was sorry to hear about Pembroke,”
said Alex. “I know you two were friends.”

Chudleigh shrugged. “We weren’t really
that close, but he was nice to me in school.” His tone was neutral but he
couldn’t quite hide the hangdog look in his eyes.

“You must be enjoying all the magic
tonight,” said Alex. “The bubble man reminds me of your story.”

Chudleigh gave him a surprised, happy look.
“Yeah, he does, a little. I hope he doesn’t pop, though.”

“Me, too,” said Alex with a laugh.
“I keep being afraid someone’s going to bump into him and…”

“Pop!” said Chudleigh. He was
grinning now, his mood brightened. “Then they’d have to get one of those
‘wet floor’ signs out.”

“That would be a lot of
soap,” agreed Alex.

Chudleigh looked Alex over. “You’ve had
your fair share of problems,” he said, glancing down at the cane.
“Will you dance okay with that?”

“I’ll be fine for a
five-minute song,” said Alex, hoping it was true.

Chudleigh nodded. “I know I’m not the
favourite, really, but I like Julian and I’m glad he included me.”

Alex was surprised, but he nodded anyway.
“I never expected to be in the running, not really,” he said.

“Front of the pack, now,” said
Chudleigh. “Though I think Willoughby’s breathing down your neck.”

Alex searched the crowd, taking a moment to
find where Willoughby was talking to the foggy Duckworth. “It’s a wonder
his family let him show up at all, though,” teased Alex. Chudleigh may
have needed a bit of cheering, but Alex wasn’t sure enough of him to do more
than idly gossip about their rivals.

Chudleigh chuckled. “I think I’m gonna go
get an up-close look at the bubble man,” he said. “Thanks for letting
me see yours.”

“If I see you later, I can show you how it
turns on and off, it’s kind of cool,” said Alex. “The whole thing
folds down all sleek.”

“I’ve seen the video,” said
Chudleigh, patting his pocket where presumably his phone resided. “Those
Guardians of yours aren’t just for show, huh?”

Alex sighed. “I’m afraid not,” he
said, shaking his head. “That bit’s already up, too?”

“Oh, yeah, you’re on the hot list,”
said Chudleigh with a grin. He slapped Alex on the shoulder and wandered off,
toward where Barnes and his sparkling fountain was deep in conversation with
Chilcott’s green man and Winston-Smythe’s bubbles.

“This party is
surreal,” said Alex, shaking his head.

Jacques chuckled. “You said it,” he
agreed. No one but the Suitors had costumes half so elaborate, but there were
some amusing combinations swirling on the dance floor, fox and quail, butterfly
and cat, morning glory vines and a hummingbird. Alex rather wanted to see the
bird with the cat, but he suspected it wasn’t going to happen.

Alex let himself be drawn around the floor by
the motion of the crowd, making polite noises at anyone who tried to talk to
him, though thanks to his Guardians he was left largely alone. At some point he
surrendered his empty drink to a waiter, and then he found himself right next
to Willoughby himself.

“Your costume is quite clever, is that an
illusion that makes the mask seem to move?” asked Alex.

Willoughby turned, and Alex saw something in
his eyes for a moment that gave him real pause, but then it was gone in the
swish of wings, replaced by a bland amusement. “Of course, just as it’s
illusion that makes you seem to give off sparks. Quite clever, was it your idea
or your designer’s to come as magic itself?”

“Oh, the designer’s,” said Alex.
“He had his heart set on it, so I caved immediately when I realised it
meant I could wear black.”

Willoughby chuckled politely. “What do you
think our young Julian will do, at the end of his Masquerade?” he asked,
the question of the night that no one had yet voiced.

“Oh, I think he’ll pick his seven, he just
wanted a bit of fun first,” said Alex lightly. He honestly wasn’t sure
what Julian intended, and had been trying very hard not to think about the
possibility that he might end up engaged — or worse, watching Julian get
engaged to someone else — in just a few hours.

“He has been quite warm with me, and kind
to put up with the vagaries of my relatives,” said Willoughby. It sounded
a little bit like bragging, and a little bit like he was trying to buck himself
up and Alex’s presence was incidental.

“He’s a very warm young man,” said
Alex. “Even if the face of each new loss.” Another of those strange
looks passed over Willoughby’s face, but again a sweep of those moth wings
reset him to blandness.

Alex slipped his hand in his pocket and was
just about to give Willoughby’s magic a good, long listen when the perfectly
mundane music stopped. Alex’s heart contracted to watch as Julian, giggling,
leaned in and managed an awkwardly sweet kiss for his hedgehog Suitor.

He was at least comforted that Willoughby
didn’t look any more pleased about it than Alex felt.

They stepped away from one another and up to
the front of the crowd again, the eleven remaining Suitors once again
presenting themselves for Julian’s choices. Julian would get a break between
every third dance, though his final set would be only two, one with the last
Suitor and another with Emmeline. No one, however, was likely to leave, as
Julian would then retire with his sister for a time, and then emerge to announce
his intentions for the rest of his Courtship.

Julian smiled as he turned, and Alex was too
far to really see if it was reaching his eyes yet. Finally, he walked over to
Grover Barnes and the crowd sighed as the two of them stepped out into the open
space and, as the musicians struck up another song, began to dance.

Alex considered moving back to talk to
Willoughby again, but the man was moving away in the crowd while Phineas
O’Connor was making his way toward Alex. As soon as their eyes met he smiled,
and Alex sighed and resigned himself to letting Willoughby go, for now.

He’d forgotten that O’Connor was actually an
interesting conversation partner, and the two of them chatted all through the
next song. Alex did spare a moment to check O’Connor’s magic, but his music,
too, was nothing like the constructs. Solidly earthbound with just a hint of
dreaminess, O’Connor’s personal magic made Alex think of practical work-songs
by day and evenings spent reading fantastical literature. The book that made up
Phineas’ mask tended to show facts related to the conversation at hand, and
occasionally even word definitions, and Alex wondered where the spell was
getting its information.

Between the costume and the conversation, Alex
was actually surprised when the dance came to an end and Barnes got his sweet,
chaste kiss. O’Connor chuckled and moved away, and James muttered quietly,
“Not our culprit, I take it?”

Alex shook his head.
“Definitely not.”

“Stolid,” commented Jacques, not
unreasonable given their conversation had once again been largely about
practical things.

Alex chuckled. “Not too bad, though, he
makes it all seem so interesting just by how much he cares.”

The Guardians chuckled, too, but Alex couldn’t
seem to tear his eyes away from Julian, who had gone to the little table set up
beside the musicians, where Emmeline was waiting with drinks and a little
snack. Waiters circulated through the crowd as well, and Alex snagged a glass
of water for himself, drinking it off and handing the empty to the next available
waiter.