Chapter 22
Nobles, it turns out, are terrible at following rules.
They were nearly done with their meal when another knock came at the door, this time in the form of Lady Gallowglass with a guilty expression.
"I know you know that magical belladonna can be taken in a controlled way for prophetic dreams," she said by way of hello.
"So you had some, but now you don't?" asked Julian shrewdly, keeping her over by the door and away from their food.
"So I had some, and now I don't. I still have the milkweed potion I use to keep the nausea away, but the bottle of belladonna extract is missing." She showed them the tiny chest with one bottle nestled in velvet, and an empty spot for a second, smaller one.
"Did you have anyone in your rooms?" asked Alex, though he stayed right where he was rather than struggle up from under the bed tray and the cats still piled around him.
"No, but I didn't lock them," said Gallowglass with a shrug. "I mean, who does?"
"Not even us," admitted Julian. "We weren't keeping poisons around, though."
"I hardly think of it as poison, it's just illicit dreams," she protested, but it was weak.
"Keep the box in your rooms and bring it up to the police," said Alex firmly. "Do not tell anyone else about it."
Her face looked guiltier.
Julian sighed. "Who all have you already told?"
"Well, everyone knows about my poison gardens now," said Gallowglass. "I was talking to McGuinness and a few of the girls about the various poisons and that a few had real uses but most are just deadly and decorative."
"And you don't know which girls?" asked Alex, despairing.
"They kind of drift in and out of his orbit," said Gallowglass. "I don't pay much attention."
"All right, well, the police will question you properly," said Alex, tired all over again. "Don't mention it to anyone else, especially that it's been stolen, okay?"
"All right," she said, closing up the box and tucking it away under her arm. "Uh, thanks for not suspecting me, I guess?"
Alex chuckled. "As was pointed out earlier, you'd offer for a duel or just stab someone, not bother with the faff of poisoning them."
Gallowglass laughed. "Oh, you've got me pegged. The garden's for show, not for murders. You'd be surprised at how far I can get with a noble lord on the tales of it."
"I probably wouldn't," said Alex dryly. "Men aren't that hard to get a leg over with."
She laughed again, clearly delighted by his dry humour. "You're not wrong."
"But he is convalescing," said Julian.
"Ah, yes," said Gallowglass. "You're very protective of him."
"He's protective of me, too," said Julian, "but I'm not the one that got attacked this time."
Alex sighed, deeply and with great feeling. "This time."
"Oh, hush. It's you more often than me," said Julian crossly.
"I'll stay out of that," said Gallowglass. "See you at dancing, maybe!"
She slipped out and Julian closed and locked the door again pointedly.
Alex sighed and shoved another sandwich in his mouth, though they were mostly down to the sweets and making good inroads into those, as well. "It's because I'm the obvious threat, I think," said Alex. "You're still mostly someone who comes along, rather than a paid consultant."
"It's true, I should start charging," said Julian tartly. He flopped very gently onto the bed, barely disturbing the less-full tray. "I don't want them to attack either one of us."
"That's the job now," said Alex with a sigh. "Charming and Guarding and Ways, but also helping when we can, because we can."
Julian made a face. "It's stupid."
"Yeah," said Alex. "But it makes us happy when we let it."
Julian moved up the bed, taking care not to upset their remaining tea. "You make me happy. The rest is dressing."
Alex kissed him, sweet and slow, and the cat on that side made itself scarce so Julian could awkwardly cuddle up.
"Let's call our Guardians," said Alex, after a few more kisses. "They'll have advice, maybe, or they'll just make us laugh, if they're not on a job."
"Yeah," said Julian, sitting up and grabbing Alex's phone from where it lay. "They'll give you plenty of shit about being poisoned so I don't have to."
Alex huffed a laugh while Julian dialled. "There it is," he said quietly, kissing the side of Julian's hair.
"Alex, what's up?" came James' voice from the phone.
"It's both of us, you're on speaker," said Julian. "You guys got a minute to chat?"
"Yeah, hold on," said James, and there were moving noises and whatnot and then Jacques' voice could be heard in the background, and then louder as they got the speaker on. "Is this good?" asked James.
"Perfect," said Alex. "So, I got poisoned."
"What?" came the chorus, and then Jacques said, "Alex, you're supposed to be at a party! What did you eat?"
"It was an actual poisoning," said Julian, "third person here, second to survive it. Magical belladonna stolen from another guest, who had it for recreational purposes."
"Recreational?" said James, disbelieving. "I mean, I sort of get the prophet-priests who use it, but for fun?"
"She's got some other potion to keep from throwing up after," said Alex. "I was, unfortunately, not given any."
"Poor baby," said Jacques, almost sounding sympathetic. "Did your prophecy have anything fun to say?"
"Just that our power issues away from the Source are growing pains and will even out," said Alex. "We're having trouble with magical exhaustion, not badly, but I won't be doing any more big spells while I'm out here."
"So that's valuable knowledge that in no way helps you with the murder thing," said James.
"It hasn't been the same poison each time," said Julian. "The first one, the person milked a snake that Chudleigh's brother has and used its poison, some kind of super-lethal magical thing."
"Iridescent Western Viper," said Alex. "Very rare, slim chance to get ahold of one and know how to handle it."
"You'd think that would be something really probative," said Jacques, "but how would we even know someone's got snake training?"
"Maybe they did some advanced bio in uni and learned for the lab section," said Alex. "Maybe they have their own pet snakes and collect the venom for personal, poisonous reasons."
"Maybe they collect it to sell to potions makers," said Julian with a shrug. "Maybe they volunteer at a zoo."
"No way to know now," said James. "Do you want us out there?"
Julian sighed. "I don't know."
"What he means is, of course we do, but we're not sure it's worth the effort on your part to get assigned," said Alex.
"We should be allowed out of here tomorrow," explained Julian. "We are not suspects, and Alex has done all he can already."
"We'll call again in the morning, then," said James firmly. "We can get the assignment, you got poisoned already, so that's not the issue."
Alex sighed and then went with his heart instead of his head for once. "Then come out? Lapointe will know when the roads are passable. We'd love to see more friendly faces."
"It's been nothing but snobbery and suspicion since we got here," said Julian disgustedly. "There's a few agreeable people, but they all feel like they're trying to figure out whether we're worth cultivating, even the nice ones."
"Sounds tedious," said James. "We'll come out. It'll be nice to see you two, and we can go to the house with you and hang out for a day or two afterward."
"Sounds perfect," said Julian. "I'm going to call Lapointe and warn her, and text Chudleigh, too, so he's not surprised."
"See you tomorrow," said Jacques, and then they hung up.
Alex sent off texts to Geoff and Chudleigh both first and then he was just about to call Lapointe again when someone knocked at the door. Again.
"My turn," said Alex, getting up and only swaying a little as he got his bearings. He made sure he was decent enough and answered the door, hoping he didn't look as annoyed as he felt.
Either way, it melted into welcome as he saw it was Geoff himself.
"She's awake," said Geoff. "She asked for you two."
"Do we have time to dress?" asked Julian.
"We weren't supposed to have to see anyone," said Alex, only a little crossly.
"Just come as you are," said Geoff. "Winterson doesn't seem the type to stay offended when she learns you were also poisoned."
"All right," said Julian, pocketing his own phone as they headed out. They locked the door, since there was still a bit of food and drink waiting inside, and headed down the hall after Geoff.
There were far too many people in the room already, between Alice and another maid, and two of the other ladies who had somehow found out Winterson was awake and descended upon her.
"Out," said Geoff, entirely in doctor mode. "Both of you, out. For fuck's sake, one of you is still a suspect!"
Halliwell and Applewhite looked shocked to be so addressed, but meekly allowed themselves to be evicted from the room.
"That was indeed suspicious," said Julian. "Right?"
"I have no idea anymore," said Geoff honestly. "Alice, will you go get her a tray of sick foods? Tea, broth, that sort of thing?"
"Of course," said Alice.
Alex went over to the glass of water at her bedside, but he couldn't sense or hear any magic about it. "I'd avoid this even though it seems fine," he said.
Winterson sighed. "Thank you for getting rid of them," she said. "They came in all aflutter and then I couldn't have any water because there were people and now I'm just so tired."
Alex sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand. "I know. Me, too, honestly, it's all so exhausting."
"Alex got a dose of belladonna," said Julian, coming up behind him to subtly support him should he need it. "She's got to be running out of poisons by now."
"I still wonder where the baneberry came from," said Alex with a sigh. "We found the source of the belladonna, at least."
"Oh?" said Geoff curiously, carefully covering up the water glass and carafe with a bag so no one would mistakenly offer them to Winterson.
"Someone had it for recreational purposes," said Julian. "They came by earlier to confess it had been stolen."
"So not much of a lead after all, with everyone leaving their rooms unlocked," said Geoff with a sigh.
"Not so much, but it's still something," said Alex rather grumpily. "Anyway, sorry about us. You're tired, and want rid of us, too, I bet. What did you want?"
"I wanted to say that I hadn't seen that man, the bartender, at all. He's not to be a suspect for me." She was firm in a weak, wan sort of way.
"That's very kind of you," said Julian. "We'd already eliminated him, he was working in another part of the house at the time."
"There's just four suspects now, which is still three too many," said Alex. "You're also relieved of suspicion, between one thing and another."
She looked down at her hands and said, "I hear you saved me again."
"We helped Dr. Geoff perform a magical procedure, yes," said Alex. "As would any mage with ethics and power enough."
She chuckled and then gave a sad little cough. Her chest probably hurt from all the cardiac issues, poor girl. "You would think that, but I know that's not necessarily true among nobility."
"Well, they suck," said Julian, being deliberately crude to make her smile and sending Alex a wave of love with a hint of his disgust that anyone would refuse to help save a life if they could. "We're happy to do it."
"I'm lucky, thank you." She sighed and gathered herself a moment, then met Alex's gaze and said, "I'm afraid I've no idea who might have passed us by while I was busy not drinking my tea and chatting. I'm not used to having to care about such things."
"It's all right," said Alex, squeezing her cool hand before letting go. "Lapointe will care more tomorrow, but for tonight you can just rest and not worry about anything but getting better."
"There shouldn't be any permanent effects as long as you follow your doctor's orders," said Geoff pointedly.
"Promise," she said.
Alex stood. "We're going back to hide in our rooms, but make her comfortable, okay?" She was still wearing her shoes, which seemed absurd to him.
"Of course," said Geoff. "We'll get her settled properly in bed now that she's awake to help."
They took their leave with a few more goodbyes and went back to their rooms to report in to Lapointe about the new developments.
At least this time, the news was good.