"Nightshade, someone fed our Alex your namesake," said Julian, ignoring the question. "It didn't agree with him."
She let out an offended meow and snuggled up closer, shoving her little face up under his chin to huff and then relax over his entire left side. This was followed by the other kittens finding very in-the-way ways to cuddle him, trapping his arms and keeping him still unless he wanted to dislodge a determined creature with five pointy ends.
"That is one way of making you rest," added Julian, trying not to laugh.
'"I guess," said Alex, giving in and relaxing back into the pillows. "I'm not sure this is how I envisioned being tied to my bed."
"Good thing it's not your bed," replied Julian tartly. "Besides we both know you're too controlling for that."
Alex chuckled, making all three cats jiggle. "You're not wrong. And it's not as if our very magical sex life needs spicing up."
"That, we can agree on," said Julian. He scooted onto the bed next to Alex, staying on top of the covers in anticipation of food. "We'll have to examine all the food and drink, and hope our murderess hasn't made it down to the kitchens."
"They'd kick her out," said Alex. "Chudleigh's staff is quite offended by the whole thing at this point, and are confining us all to our rooms for more than one reason. Any nobles caught wandering will get ratted out to the cops, I bet."
"Let's hope McGuinness and Gallowglass are smart enough to leave off for the moment, then," said Julian with a giggle. "I don't think anyone else was feeling frisky at this point, but you never know."
"Even I'm not feeling frisky anymore," said Alex dolefully. The cats grumbled at him and shifted, weighing him down even further.
Julian couldn't help but laugh.
"The lot of you are absurd," Alex protested, getting more grumbles as he shifted again. "I'm going to have to move to eat, you know."
Cinnamon yawned with all her teeth.
Julian snuggled in closer and started petting the cats, his head on Alex's shoulder. "They just want you to rest, love. As do I."
"Well, I don't want to rest," said Alex, sulky and contrary now that he was being properly coddled. "I want to ward this room and go hunting for our murderess."
"We're both pretty sure it's a woman now?" said Julian. "Mainly because we're pretty sure it's not Smithson."
"It's not Smithson," agreed Alex.
His phone rang over in his jacket, and Julian jumped up to retrieve and answer it. "Hello, Murielle. Alex is trapped under the cats, so I'm putting you on speaker."
"Hello to Alex and the cats, then," said Lapointe, sounding amused. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," said Alex. "My eyes are almost back to normal, the poison dilated them and that was weird."
"So, update me on how things are going," said Murielle. "Let's start with a description of all three events?"
"We weren't there for the second one," said Julian, "but we have the gist from the gossips."
He and Alex tag-team explained all three incidents, then, not just from their perspective but including some things other people had observed, appropriately credited for more than one reason.
"In the end, our murderess is very good at flying under the radar," said Alex with a huff. "You won't want to let anyone leave until you've figured out which of our suspects it is."
"So you've eliminated Smithson," she said.
"Yeah, he just didn't do it," said Julian. "He wasn't near the second incident, and he's just, I don't know. I don't feel like he's a person who would risk his entire future to off some noble he didn't like."
"Julian's right," said Alex. "Plus, he never pings me as the least bit magical, and the other servants say he has no interest in the gardens."
"Someone could theoretically sneak some magical belladonna into the flowers and plants here, though there's nothing indoors," said Julian. "I'd have noticed."
"All right, and we're pretty sure Winterson didn't poison herself, nor you while unconscious," said Murielle, "which leaves us with Knapweed, Halliwell, Periwig, and Berkelshire."
"All of whom you will have to address as Miss to keep from offending, though Knapweed uses Lady or Sir," warned Julian.
