"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."
"Alex is going to be hard at it once breakfast is over, I'm sure," said Winterson, rallying for him.
Despite her kindness, Gallowglass did not look mollified as she moved away. Perhaps she, too, had been a fan of Wicket's party tales.
Julian arrived with his plate, then, and traded it for their teacups without bothering to sit. "Everyone wants to know how it's going," he said, exasperated. "They're gossipy as fishwives."
"Nobles are worse," said Alex dolefully.
Julian chuckled and left for more tea, which Alex desperately needed and therefore forgave his absence.
"You needn't defend me, I mean, you can, but I can hold my own," said Alex. "I haven't been afraid of offending people in years."
She giggled again and went back to her food, finally giving him a moment of quiet to really make inroads into the food in front of him. He had a feeling he wouldn't have such an easy time of feeding himself later in the day, and he wanted to make sure he had a good start even if he got hungry before the next meal was served.
Julian returned with tea and sat, giving him a soft kiss. "I don't know how you gave Gallowglass's nose a tweak, but she's no longer a fan of yours."
Alex laughed. "I just blew her off when she said I should be working, as though food isn't a necessary human requirement."
Then he drank off half his fresh cup of tea in one big, greedy gulp.
Julian snorted. "You're ridiculous, and yet, I'm sure she deserved whatever you said."
"It's not my purview to coddle the feelings of every nosy parker who wants to get in on the gossip," said Alex, before stuffing more food in his face. He thought he might go back for a third round just of sweet things, once he got a solid base of meat and veg inside him.
