Chapter 4
Alex was already bored despite Julian's attempts to entertain him with little pushes of feeling about this or that person through their bond, but he'd known it would be that sort of affair and failed to find an excuse to say no, anyway.
Alex was a lot of things, including someone with an unfortunate soft spot for his friends. He wouldn't have left Geoff to fend for himself unless it was a true emergency, not just because of boredom.
Not even for a society party.
"I'm lucky to have you to keep me sane," he whispered into Julian's hair.
Julian chuckled and kissed his cheek, then directed both of their attentions back to where Lucas was raising his cup and gently tapping on it to make it chime.
Everyone turned politely, conversations dying out, until all attention was on their host.
"Thank you all for coming to celebrate a sort of housewarming, the opening up of the refinished west wing where you're all staying, as well as refurbishment of many other areas of the house and grounds to suit.
There will be a tour this afternoon for those interested, but for now please enjoy some light refreshment and enjoy the party! "
Servants streamed out from a hidden door bearing platters of warm canapés and other such treats.
They began circulating among the guests while Geoff and Lucas made their way over to the place that had inadvertently been saved for them by the fire when no one else was brave enough to sit with Julian, Alex, Whitby, and Grover.
"I forgot you know the Chilcotts," said Lucas, settling in on the small settee with a tiny meat pie and a cup of cider, and Geoff by his side.
Geoff also had a treat with his cider, and the two of them looked comfortable together in a way not a lot of other couples did at this soirée.
"How is married life going for you two?"
"I'm very happy being a consort," Grover answered first, after a nudge from Whitby.
"Grover makes me absolutely joyous," said Whitby, face shining with the truth of it. "He lets me care for him utterly, and our life together is quite blissful."
"Ours is, also, when we're not working," said Julian, sounding smug as anything.
Alex chuckled. "We're happy not to be master and consort, but it's nice to see someone enjoying those roles despite not choosing them for ourselves."
"That was practically polite," said Geoff teasingly. "Julian must be rubbing off on you."
"Frequently," teased Julian, making them all laugh. "He's always had manners in there somewhere, he just didn't think most people deserved them."
"You're not wrong," said Alex, kissing Julian's hair. "So, when do you get to leg it back to the city?" he asked Lucas.
"Another month or so," said Lucas. "Auggie's got more business to finish up on the continent, but he's also heartily tired of it all, so he'll be back to his snakes here soon enough."
"Does he have many others?" asked Alex, genuinely curious. He'd always liked snakes, but life with fairy cats wasn't likely to work well with a pet snake, too, so he'd given that dream up with few regrets when the cats arrived at the cottage.
"Oh, there's four more in the east wing where he's got a full suite," said Lucas. "None of those are deadly, thankfully, or the servants might have refused to deal with it. As it is, I'm the one who feeds this one." He nodded toward the beautiful viper lounging along its branch.
"I'll have to write to him about them," said Alex. "I'd love a visit to view them all, once he's back."
"He'd love that," said Lucas, excited and genuine in the way he'd always been, full of smiles and good cheer. "Hardly anyone actually likes them, but he's always adored his pets."
"I'll tell Nat to remind me," said Alex, pulling out his phone to text. Unlike a group of Alex's usual friends, the peerage weren't constantly on their phones, preferring to do their posturing in person.
Alex wasn't sure how he felt about it, but he did put his phone back away once he'd sent the text off.
Now that Lucas himself was in their little conversation group, more people made their way back over to them, rather than the brief stops and subtle shunning they'd had up until now.
Margot and Sylvia Knapweed drifted over, both of them in lovely afternoon frocks that contrasted subtly in pattern and colour, as they were dark and light contrast to one another.
The married couple had a baronetcy, Snowdrop, and were known to be somewhat wild when given the opportunity, in the way of the peerage.
Despite their feminine looks, they had very masculine hobbies, and would definitely hunt if the weather let up enough for one.
Alex would not.
"My dearest Baronets," said Lucas cheerfully. "How are you enjoying my fête?"
"It's a little quiet for our tastes," said Margot, the dark one with the sharp grin.
"I'm sure you knew that, though," said Sylvia, blonde and sultry with an amused air about her wry little smile.
"Well, this is just the opener," said Lucas. "But I do admit, my plans are more to my tastes than yours. There's going to be an artist to draw caricatures, and an illusionist to do some tricks later."
"No hunting?" asked Margot, looking sharper now.
Lucas glanced at the covered windows. "Weather is not really cooperating for that, I'm afraid, though there's some games and such to make up for it."
"Oh, games!" said Sylvia, somehow managing not to sound snarky about it. "Well, you always had good taste in card partners."
Her eyes cut to Geoff with a sly little look, but then the sunshine smile was back on her tastefully pink lips.
"There's always the option of sneaking back to our rooms," said Alex, tone full of suggestion for what one might do alone in one's rooms.
"We just have to remember that Lucas doesn't have magical overflow wards," said Julian, feigning innocence.
"Aren't you naughty," purred Sylvia. "Making magic in your rooms, hm?"
Alex had a brief moment of worry they'd mistaken his joke for a proposition, but then Sylvia's hand slid around her wife's waist and he relaxed. "Well, if one is otherwise unoccupied, why not?"
A server came by with a tray then, and the conversation paused for everyone to get canapés.
Alex was already feeling hungry, this far from the Source and with his magical senses pinging uselessly off of the personal magics of a room full of people with the money for magical everything.
He shamelessly took a handful of the treats, and Julian as well.
"I always forget how you can pack it away," said Whitby with a chuckle. "The two of you are both so lean now, it seems a contradiction."
The women looked interested, but Alex just shrugged. "Magic takes energy," he said, popping some kind of spinach puff in his mouth.
"Food gives energy," added Julian, nibbling a little more politely at his own treats.
"Enviable but unable to be copied," said Grover, who was gorgeously soft, just the right sort of sweet thing for a master-husband to care for, in Alex's opinion, anyway.
"You're fine as you are," said Alex.
"I agree," said Whitby, only a little sharp. "I like my darling consort a little soft around the edges."
"Alex finally has a little meat on his bones, now that we're out by the Way," said Julian, clearly talking just to his friends now.
"Yes, it's a small miracle," said Geoff. "I swear, he got skinnier there for a while during your Courtship, and there wasn't much to lose."
"You always were a beanpole," teased Lucas. "Terrible for any sort of sport, really."
"My aim is improving these days, anyway," said Alex, just a little dangerously.
The women drifted away, having forgone the treats and used that as an excuse, though no sooner was the server gone, another person approached them.
"Chudleigh, you're hardly mingling," said the woman, Tsukiko Nonami-Finklewick. Her husband, Lord Ronald Nonami-Finklewick, was over with a group of women being apparently charming. The Asian woman didn't appear to care, though of course peerage learned to hide their feelings quite young.
"I'm having a little break with some friends," said Lucas. "Do you know everyone here?"
There followed some introductions, which she seemed as disinterested in as everything else, though Alex politely kissed her hand when presented. "You've chosen so many of us boring married couples, there won't be as much gossip this time."
As Alex had no idea what last time had brought, he kept his mouth shut, though he sent Julian a little burst of confused humour, and got a poke back through the bond that made him smile to himself as he contentedly ate the very good hors d'oeuvres.
"I wanted to celebrate the house, not cause a scandal," chided Lucas, though it was still with the good humour he put into everything. "You'll have fun, anyway, there's at least two people here you can talk pottery with, including Chilcott here."
"Oh? I didn't know you were interested in pottery," said Tsukiko.
"Oh, yes, it's quite a hobby of mine, though mostly English pottery. I do dabble in things from the Far East, but I'm not nearly so knowledgable there." Whitby looked delighted, however, and Grover amused and resigned.
"Well, we will have to chat later. I'm always happy to discuss my hobby with someone who also enjoys it.
" She glanced over the party guests and her eyes landed on an unassuming little man.
"Jared Walthrop also shares our passion, though he's often too busy climbing ladders to be distracted by cups. "
"He won't have too much luck here," said Geoff, amused. "I'm pretty sure our Viscounts are the highest rank at the party, and they hardly care about that sort of thing."
"It's true, the titles were thrust upon us," said Alex dramatically.
Julian poked him through the bond again.
"They don't often come up, honestly. We aren't active in the social set the way some are." Julian looked earnest and sweet, and Alex gave him a poke right back and got effervescent humour in return.
They were all playing a part this weekend, even if the most important bit was as Lucas and Geoff's friends.
"I know them from my work as a doctor," said Geoff cheerfully, watching Tsukiko's eyes flicker and tense at the mention of work, though she relaxed at doctor.
The gentry often allowed such people as part of their number, if only for the entertainment value.
Not to mention the value of having a doctor on hand should a hunting party go awry.
"Are you often ill?" she asked, eyes hungry for gossip.
"We consult with the Agency, where he's their resident doctor," said Alex. "I'm afraid he's mostly treated me for magical exhaustion and the occasional work-related injury."
"If you weren't so healthy at your baseline, you'd never survive the things you put yourself through," scolded Geoff good-naturedly.
Alex shrugged. "Thus, the food," he said, shoving his last spinach puff in his mouth and crunching it obnoxiously.
Tsukiko actually flinched a little, and Julian poked him to remind him that this was not the right crowd to appreciate him being boorish for fun.
Alex looked sheepish as he finished chewing and swallowed. "Sorry, I'm poorly trained."
Tsukiko sniffed back a little smile. "Perhaps your husband ought to see to that."
"I do what I can," said Julian with a little shrug. "He got a bit feral while he was out being a professional."
Geoff snorted a little laugh at that, and Lucas, too, let out a chuckle. "The training takes time and effort, I've heard," said Geoff.
"You do fine," said Lucas. "You always had perfect manners with me."
"I'm much worse than Geoff," admitted Alex, who was still being amused at the idea of himself as a feral mage.
Geoff sighed. "You're not as bad as you used to be, anyway."
"It's true, I haven't traumatised a tech in years," he agreed with an evil smirk.
Julian poked him with his actual elbow this time. "That's because I've softened you up. It turns out being happy makes it hard to be cranky all the time."
Another of the wives had drifted over and was giving Tsukiko an excuse to leave. There was one group of husbands all together in a self-selected single-sex circle, laughing heartily and looking, to Alex's mind, rather absurd.
The wives gathered around Tsukiko's husband weren't any better, really, though there were a few singletons in both groups. Alex didn't know if that made it worse or better.
"Chudleigh, what can you possibly have planned for us in this weather?" said the woman, who Alex couldn't place.
"Dear Lady Johanna, do you doubt my ability to keep you entertained?" said Lucas. This time, he let himself be drawn out into the main room to do his job as host, though Geoff decided to stay by the fire.
"I should really be mingling, too," said Whitby, looking out at the ever-moving crowd of partygoers. "I do have that business thing coming up and I need to look lively if I'm going to get investors."
"I'll stay here and keep Julian company," said Grover, giving Whitby a small, sweet kiss. "It might take two of us to keep Alex from being too feral."
Whitby laughed at that and stood, straightening his clothing and marching out as if for battle, though he immediately let himself be drawn into a smaller conversation circle with a laugh that Alex suspected was fake.
"So what have you been up to?" asked Julian, turning to Grover.
"Oh, I'm learning to keep up the household, not the work, you know, but correspondence, answering questions from the chatelaine, that sort of thing.
He hasn't got a proper butler through some kind of family tradition, nor a secretary, so I've been helping him out and it's really nice.
Plus, you know, he takes good care of me. "
"I can see that," said Julian.
"It's good to know I didn't make a mistake, matching you two up," said Alex with a wink. "You're practically glowing."
"As if you two don't radiate it," said Geoff, though it wasn't bitter at all this time, given his own happiness.
They gave up on polite nonsense and talked instead about their real lives, their days, and let that carry their small group until the next person came by to see what they were up to, or warm themselves by the fire, and the next.
Soon enough a chime sounded and Lucas smiled. "Ah, it's time to move on to the tour! Those who don't wish to join us may stay here, or retire to your rooms. The servants can show you the way."
Alex perked up. He'd been dying to see the finished work, as had Julian, so this was finally something of real interest. Talking to friends was all well and good, but the constant interruptions had made it less than ideal. A tour would be just the thing to cheer them up before tea.