Chapter 16
Alex woke to a paw in his face, which was normal.
Cinnamon gave a little chirruping meow and licked his nose, then nudged at his chin with rather more force than he'd been expecting.
"Yes, all right, I'm awake!" he said with a laugh, stroking her head. "Are you hungry?"
The cats were still in bed with them, or in bed again more likely, atop them in languid poses that still left plenty of room to bother their now-awake humans.
Alex let himself cuddle closer to Julian, who'd ended up right up next to him overnight, and used his free arm to pet Cinnamon, while Julian got both hands free for Nightshade and Sage.
The three kittens shared affection surprisingly well, allowing for human frailties like only having so many hands, rather than getting jealous over who got what petting.
It wasn't long before there was a polite knock on the door and a maid said, "Food for your cats, m'lords?"
"Just a moment," said Alex, getting up and belting on a dressing gown before going to answer.
The rooms they'd been given weren't large, though they were nice, just a big bedroom with some chairs and an ensuite bathroom, allowing privacy but no sitting room or other means of entertaining guests.
Which, to be fair, Lucas knew they didn't require, so it suited them just fine.
Despite cats around his ankles, Alex managed to open the door and motion the maid in. The cats peeked outside but didn't venture, mindful of the warning that they were possibly in danger from accidental poisonings out there.
In here, a quick whistle confirmed the food was uncontaminated, at least by any magical means, though he couldn't imagine why anyone would poison the cats on purpose. Most of the guests were barely aware they existed at all, which Alex was determined to keep that way.
"Thanks for taking care of them," said Alex. "They'll be trapped in here just in case, so any time anyone wants to come pet them would be appreciated. Uh, servants only, though, no guests please."
A slow grin blossomed on her face as he talked. "I'll spread the word, m'lord. They're very popular!"
"They're good cats," said Alex fondly, watching them sniff around the bowls and eventually decide who was eating what. The sensation of them negotiating it was a familiar one to him these days, and it felt a bit like home.
Not that he needed to be getting maudlin after one day away, but it had been a fairly eventful day.
"Anything else I can do for you, m'lord?" she asked politely.
"No, no, go on," Alex said with a big yawn. Julian stayed resolutely under the covers for the whole conversation, smart man.
She closed the door after her, and Alex planted himself face-first back on the bed next to Julian in a dramatic flop. "I don't want to talk to anyone today," he whined.
"I know, love," said Julian, emerging enough to stroke Alex's messy hair. "We'll manage. We have each other."
Alex made an indistinct noise into the blankets.
Horace flew over and landed on his shoulder to preen a different part of his hair than Julian was petting, which actually helped.
He sighed deeply and let himself enjoy the attention for a few more minutes before the eating noises started to slow, then levered himself upright before he ended up licked by freshly-flavoured cat tongues.
"Share a shower?" he asked, giving Julian puppy eyes.
Julian grinned. "Yeah, love, share a shower."
Once they were refreshed and ready to go, this time in a dressed-down version of their nice daytime clothes, with waistcoats but no jackets, sleeves rolled up, and collars open with no cravat, they made their way out into the chillier hallways and down to the dining room, where the sideboard was laden with food as fresh as anyone could want.
Alex was suddenly ravenous, and he could feel it redoubled through their bond. Horace was perched on his shoulder and trilled happily, garnering a few strange looks, but he did not care. All he cared about was getting himself a giant plate of food, and then, when that was gone, refilling it.
He and Julian went for the end the plates were at and started going methodically down the sideboard, taking everything that seemed like it was going to give the most energy for later.
Pastries and meats, soft cheese and bread, crumpets and jam and honey, and more breakfast meats, along with some fried tomatoes and mushrooms in a separate little bowl.
Once he had all he could reasonably carry, Alex found them a spot at the big table and went back for tea for them both, finding a giant carafe of it already made up as though some servant had read his mind.
When he returned to sit, Julian was just settling in with juice for them both, fresh-squeezed and smelling like an orangerie. Alex couldn't help but kiss him, no matter who was watching, before sitting and handing over his tea.
"We might survive today," he said, "if we can eat enough before they pack it all away."
"Lucas told the servants to keep feeding us whenever we ask," said Julian. "One of them told me last night."
Alex chuckled. "Trust Lucas to be a good host even to hungry mages. All right, so, what do we have to do today?"
"You should go listening in the drawing room," said Julian. "It'll be all muddled now probably, but no one's been in there since last night, hopefully."
"Lucas will want it open later, probably, so I should clear it for him," agreed Alex. "Okay, that's enough to start with."
He turned his attention to the food with great concentration, methodically and neatly making his way through the whole plate full before coming up for air to find Julian wasn't far behind.
"I'm going to go get more," said Alex, kissing Horace's head where he'd transferred himself to Julian's shoulder. "Want anything?"
"Nah, I'll go again in a minute," said Julian, tilting his face up for a proper kiss. "I can really feel that we're muffled from the Source today, all that snow."
"It's a wet blanket, for sure," agreed Alex, going back along to the somewhat-depleted sideboard for another giant plate full of goodies.
"How's the investigation going?" asked Leslie Winston-Smythe, sidling up to him at the buffet.
Alex disguised his eyeroll by looking away to get another big slab of bacon. "It's going," he replied with a shrug. "I can't really discuss it."
"It's not like you're really an agent," said Winston-Smythe, still prodding. At least it was only verbally.
Alex chose not to dignify that with a response, skipping the rest of the meats and moving down to get more of the delicious tomatoes and mushrooms, which he slathered on his plate this time as he'd also skipped the pastries in favour of the more sustaining savouries.
Winston-Smythe didn't pursue him, but when he came to sit he found Renee Winterson on Julian's other side.
"So, I was thinking that you two could interview all the servants to see who's been acting suspicious," she said, clearly a big reader of detective novels.
"Nope," said Alex, popping a bite of fried bread in his mouth.
Julian chuckled. "Don't mind him, he needs at least two more cups of tea before he's fit for company. But he's right, we don't have the energy and expertise, nor do we want to distract Chudleigh's staff from their duties."
"Oh, I suppose that's a consideration," she said, digging into her much smaller plate of food. "I keep going over it in my mind, but I can't think of any specific moment anyone was near Wicket's drink, you know?"
"You'll only drive yourself mad that way," said Alex dolefully, before eating yet more food. "Julian, will you bring us more tea when you're up?"
"I don't know why you didn't," said Julian with a fond look, "but of course I will."
Alex sighed and swallowed. "I got latched onto by Winston-Smythe."
"Oh, have I, should I go?" asked Winterson, fluttering now.
"No, no, you're fine," said Julian. "Alex, caffeine, remember?"
She giggled and settled. "Right," she said. "And I like to think I'm more pleasant than that... man."
"Definitely," agreed Alex, unwilling to bother being polite when he'd been given an easy out. "Nicer, too."
"Oh, well, thank you," she said, fluttering again a little but in a different way. Alex looked back at his food and concentrated on that while Julian took over the conversation again.
"I'm going to go get another plate and some tea, can I bring you anything?" asked Julian.
"No, no, I've got quite enough," said Winterson.
Alex yawned and ate another big bite of his food. Everything was very solidly tasty, nothing special but all well-made and delicious enough, as he expected from a visit to Chudleigh.
Julian got up and abandoned them to one another, taking his plate with him.
"You did a lot of interviews yesterday, I guess," said Winterson, sounding sympathetic or possibly apologetic for her inability to let him eat in peace.
Alex shrugged and swallowed. "More than I've ever done before, that's for certain. I'll have to tell Lapointe her part's hard, too, she'll be smug for ages."
"Oh, who's that?" asked Winterson.
Alex drained his juice before answering. "Agent Lapointe, she's the one that calls me in on cases. Not quite a partner, but a friend nonetheless."
"I suppose you would have friends in the Agency, having worked there so long," she enthused, sounding as if it was all just a bit romantic or heroic or something. Fictional, at any rate.
"I have a few, less than you'd think." He chuckled to himself. "I was a prat before Julian tamed me. Well. More of a prat." Then he stuffed more food into his mouth to shut himself up.
Winterson giggled at that, which was gratifying for how tired he was.
Someone loomed on his other side, and Alex took a moment to shovel in more food before looking up to find Gallowglass looking back down.
"Hard at work, I see," she said dryly.
"Everyone needs food and rest, even in my line of work," said Alex. "It's not as if I'm going to magically solve it overnight if no one saw what happened."