I realised as I was towelling my hair that we hadn’t discussed how to handle things between us while around the Fortescues. He’d implied he was available to Steven, which meant we’d have to hide that we were together. Hopefully our absence last night hadn’t been noticed.
When I went searching for Alex, I found a few dragons talking desultorily in the drawing room, but Alex wasn’t among their number. The patio doors were open on this unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon, so I slipped outside and lookedout over the city.
The mellow stone of Bath’s historic buildings glowed in the sunshine, making the whole place beautiful and welcoming. Or perhaps it was my happiness making me think so, because I remembered how much I’d hated it on my return. My dragon luxuriated in the sunlight, letting me know he too was happy and satisfied, though he’d be even more so when Alex was here, and we could curl around one another again.
“Nate.”
I glanced round to see Mrs Fortescue sitting on one of the patio chairs, a cigarette in her hand and a glass of something on the table next to her. “Come and talk to me.”
I sat in the chair beside her. “Thank you for last night,” I began.
She abruptly waved me into silence. “Where’s Charlie?”
“I haven’t seen him today.”
“But you did see him last night? Where did he go?”
I shrugged. “He was going out. I don’t know where he goes these days.”
The end of the cigarette glowed as she took a deeper inhalation than my news warranted. Then she expelled the smoke slowly from her lungs, and a pungent cloud briefly surrounded us.
“I explicitly asked you to spend more time with Charlie,” she said. “I’m disappointed in you, Nate.”
It hurt, hearing that. “I’m sorry,” I said reflexively. “It’s been difficult because he’s so rarely here.” He’d probably bought himself a bolthole somewhere the family didn’t know about. Well, if spending time with Charlie was the price for staying here, I’d just have to suck it up and pay it. I wasn’t ready to leave Alex, not when I’d only just found him. “I’ll do what I can,” I promised.
She stubbed out her cigarette and rose to her feet, patting my shoulder on her way past. “Good.”
I’d missed this, being part of a family. And then guilt swamped me as I realised what I was doing, deceiving them all.
ALEX
The drawing room had become the unofficial centre of the house for our group. Fiona, Sam and Jenna were sitting together, nursing what looked like stupendous hangovers.
I was about to go over and greet them loudly and enthusiastically when Margaret intercepted me.
“Just the dragon I’ve been looking for,” she greeted me. “All damn day, by the way.”
It had never occurred to me to let her know when she could expect me back. I’d been too caught up in Nate to think of anything else.
“Sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “What do you need me for?”
“To take me to see some of Jane Austen’s Bath. I hear you’ve become quite the expert.”
“Alex!” Nate’s voice. I’d know it anywhere. But he wasn’t in the room—that had been the first thing I’d checked. Then I realised the balcony doors were open, and he was sitting out there, beckoning me over. Hell, no. I wasn’t going out there, not even for Nate.
“I’m taking Margaret out to see Jane Austen’s Bath,” I called back, and he looked disappointed.
Unlike the drunkards three, who looked distressed. “Could you do it more quietly?” Fiona begged.
With a grin, I offered Margaret my arm, and we left them to their headaches.
The day was so warm that we ate ice creams sitting in a parkbeside the river.
“The younger Fortescue son’s been pestering me,” Margaret said. “He really is a brutish prick, isn’t he?”
I snorted. “Understating it a bit. Sorry, it’s probably because of what I told him last night.”
“He wanted to know what would happen to the leadership of our family if I were to adopt a child as I’m evidently too ancient to have one myself. Impertinent sod. I told him that the crown was tied to blood, not name, and he then wanted to know how much I’d sell you for.”
