4
Jay
“Ineed to be out of pocket for a few days,” I said, not looking up from the ledger I wrote in.
Luke lounged on the chaise across from my desk, a hand behind his head and his feet crossed at his ankles. He didn’t look surprised by my announcement. He knew I’d been traveling a lot lately.
“Up north again?” he asked.
Luke didn’t try to pry into why I had been going north so much recently. He knew that I’d tell him if and when I was ready to.
I nodded in confirmation, closing the leather-bound book I was writing in and then placing it in a drawer in my desk.
A piece of paper appeared in the wooden inbox on my desk, sent there by one of the few scriveners left with magic whom I still trusted. The constant influx of correspondence I received was a painful reminder that my powers were not what they once were. If I still had my full powers, such written bits of information would have been superfluous.
I grabbed the note without reading it and shoved it into the interior pocket of my dark sapphire-blue suit jacket, knowing that whatever the message was, it wasn”t urgent. Anything pressing would have been delivered in person.
“Look after Alarie while I’m away?” I asked.
“Not a problem,” Luke replied, a little too eagerly, sitting up in his chair.
“Luke,” I admonished, standing.
Luke looked back at me, his golden eyebrows raised, feigning innocence.
“I know how much you and Rhett love fresh… faces at the High Court,” I noted wryly. I made my way to the front of my oversized dark oak desk.
Luke and his best friend, the son of High Lord Rein and a playboy to boot, could be seen around the Court with a new young woman on their arm at each and every event.
“But not Alarie,” I said, meticulously straightening my cufflinks. “Ok?” I added, forcing some modicum of friendliness into my voice, making it seem as though it were a question—although we both knew I wasn’t asking.
Luke stood as well, making a show out of pulling at a nonexistent wrinkle in his crisp white shirt while he considered his options.
“I think she may be a good fit for the House, Luke,” I continued, my tone edging toward sternness.
Luke and I usually saw eye to eye on things. I usually didn’t have to make him come around to seeing my point on things.
“I don’t need you two scaring her off,” I added.
I had not accepted a liaison for many years. I had neither the time nor the desire to train them. For the last fifteen years or so, Luke had worked for my House and had filled a role none of my other agents could fulfill. But I knew that eventually Luke was going to have to leave House Vitruvian. Luke’s parents severely underestimated the value of his set of skills at the High Court, but they would eventually realize his true worth.
Luke’s particular repertoire of skills was particularly useful for me. As Contra and spymaster to the King, I was in constant need of information. With my diminishing powers, I now found myself relying upon a network of eyes and ears as my source of insider knowledge of the High Court happenings. And when Luke smiled at someone—lord or lady, it didn’t really seem to matter—information flowed more freely. Just having Luke in the room at every court function had reaped bounties for me over the years. Once his parents realized how mistaken they were about him, I had no doubt that Luke’s resources would be turned to House Bellamy’s benefit.
It was too soon to tell, but I was feeling optimistic about my decision to take on Alarie as a liaison this year. I’d expected her to be intelligent, based on her grades alone, but it was her cunning nature that I was most pleased by when I thought of Alarie as mine to mold. Given enough time and training with me, Alarie may even have the skills to replace Luke when it came down to it.
Luke acquiesced to my reasoning on Alarie. He knew she would be around for at least one year, which was longer than any relationship he had had in the last several decades.
“What about you, Jay?” Luke asked suspiciously.
Although I was married, Lady Vitruvian and I had an arrangement of sorts. She stayed away from the High Court most of the time, by her own preference, and I was free to roam as I saw fit. I was judicious, but Luke knew that, as much hell as I gave him and Rhett about their serial dating, I was no stranger to nighttime visitors of my own. I gave Luke a sideways glance.
“I’m not blind, if that’s what you’re getting at,” I replied, making my way to the door of my study.
I reminisced on some of the tantalizing ideas I’d come up with upon first seeing Alarie before I’d realized that she was my liaison.
“But I’m not that stupid, either,” I said, shaking my head, as if that would remove my thoughts of her lips from my mind.
And that was as much of an explanation as I was willing to give Luke.
“I’m assuming you can control that friend of yours as well,” I said, referring to Rhett.
I walked out of the study without waiting for an answer to my last question that, again, was not truly a question.