"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."
