Excerpt: The Adonians

‘James, do you not want me?’ The pout was audible.
‘I have to leave.’ He spoke without really looking at her, one hand still playing with the half done cravat.
‘No. ‘ She sat up, and then moved to all fours, putting her face close to his and arching her back.
‘You cannot leave me. We are so good together.’ She drew out the o’s in the good, using the sound to mime the deep kisses she gave.
James kissed her, lightly on the cheek. ‘I’m afraid my work calls me my dear. I told you it would only be for a little while.’
‘You said you loved me’
James spluttered. He started to laugh before turning it, unsuccessfully, into a cough. He was sure he’d never said he loved her. Not seriously anyway, he might have called her love but he wouldn’t have professed undying passion.
‘My dear, ‘ He slid one hand under her chin, pinching the skin underneath and drawing her face up so her eyes had to meet his ‘ I have only loved cats and ..’ he paused, uncertain suddenly about the direction his thoughts were taking. But Carmella had already opened her mouth and he knew that he would need to shock her, not simply joke his way out of this. ‘ one man.’

She spat at him, he ducked too late to avoid it. He did manage to fall off the bed, and by the time he’d wiped his face Carmella had armed herself with a variety of objects from the bedside table. Standing he was hit by a hairbrush, and then a perfume bottle which broke, soaking him in a overpowering wave of vanilla musk. He gagged and was still choking when Carmella threw a large book which knocked him back onto the floor. James decided that he was better staying still.

‘Sodomite! ‘ Carmella’s astringent tones made him look up. She was kneeling on the edge of the bed. The look on her face suggested that she’d considered simply crying, but rage had won out.
‘I didn’t say he loved me back.’
‘Bastard’ Carmella lifted another book and James raised his arms to block as she attempted to hit him with it.

*****

It was early evening when the coach pulled up outside James’s townhouse. He was tired and unhappy, having spent the whole day in close quarters with enough vanilla to supply a small bakery. The thought of being home, after a month in the wilderness that was Chester during the season was almost unbearably good.
‘My Lord’
‘Horton’ The butler took his coat and let his nose wrinkle slightly as the smell of vanilla hit him. ‘Will you be requiring a bath my Lord?’
‘Yes.’ James was so relieved at the suggestion he didn’t even scowl at Horton’s presumption.

‘You shouldn’t buy them such expensive gifts.’
Alex was hovering in the doorway of the study that they shared. James felt his throat catch slightly at the sight of him, blonde hair and blue eyes, a classic combination but no less handsome for all its clichéd nature. Alex was a few inches shorter than James and small in build as well, he was also perfectly capable of killing a man twice his weight with his bare hands. James forced himself to smile.

‘If I had known I would be wearing it I might have bought a smaller bottle. I hadn’t noticed that your frugality worked better with women.’

Alex straightened. ‘I don’t dally with them James, and if I am frugal it would be because I have my wages to live on rather than the incomes from numerous estates and investments.’

James watched him stalk from the hallway and vanish back into the study. He almost felt relieved. His obsession with his blonde partner was proving annoyingly distracting. It was also very inconvenient. Had Alex been a woman he’d have had him in his bed by now, but Alex was male and James had no wish to lose his head because his partner was not that way inclined.

The bath was wonderful, although even once he’d soaked and washed and scrubbed he could still smell faint traces of vanilla. He applied his own scent liberally, using it to chase away all traces of Carmella . Thornton tied his cravat properly and admonished him for the state of his clothes. The comforting monotony of his valets complaints reassured him that he was home. The work in Chester hadn’t been difficult, just tedious and he’d missed Alex’s presence. Alex, he grimaced slightly as he remembered the look on his face after he’d stalked off. James wasn’t usually insensitive enough to really annoy his partner, no partnership could survive constant friction between the parties, but he knew that his comments had hurt. Alex was not thrown into the company of women enough to take advantage of them in the same way that James did, and he was too fastidious to resort to the same whores that were the standby of other gentlemen in a similar position.

James wandered downstairs and pushed open the door of the study. The room was lined with bookcases which contained a select library of works on various countries, individuals and areas of interest, It was an esoteric collection and one which James with his reputation for frivolity, wasted no opportunity on blaming on his ‘secretaries’ constant efforts to improve him. Since Alex posed as his secretary nobody had any difficulty in believing the lie, the neat studious Frenchman seemed just the type to try and force his habits on unsuspecting employers.

The main furniture in the room was the two desks, one facing the door with it’s back to the window, the other at a right angle to it, offering a view of both door and window. James had the desk by the window, whilst Alex commandeered the other one, although in truth neither of them would have worked at James desk without the other being present in the room. No spy would knowingly work with his back towards a window or door unless he knew it to be well covered. James saw, with something approaching relief but veering into guilt, that his desk was clear of the mountain of paper he had left there. Alex’s desk, on the other hand, seemed to have been colonised by the stuff. It was not haphazardly arranged though, but piled neatly with small notes on top showing what was still to be done with each pile. In the midst of these hillocks Alex sat, his head bent over another report, affecting not to have heard James enter. James knew that were he to leave and close the door behind him Alex wouldn’t object, but would let him go and not mention it, he cleared his throat.

‘Alex.’
The blue eyes didn’t move from the paper
‘Alex, I’m sorry for earlier.’
‘Sorry is your habitual state these days James. I don’t suppose you see anything that might explain my current annoyance.’
Alex sat back as he spoke, his eyes met James gaze and James let his wander over the papers on the desk.
‘I meant to do them, but once Silver decided I was going to Chester..’
‘Indeed. Some of these reports are old enough that Aspern felt it necessary to take an interest in their completion.’

James blanched. When Silver had originally partnered him and Alex he had complained no end about the regard in which the Frenchman was held. Very few people in the organisation trusted him and Alex tried hard to stay inconspicuous and inoffensive. For James’s negligence to have resulted in Aspern accusing him of negligence must have been unbearable.
‘I’m sorry, Alex I hadn’t thought, I’ll speak with him tomorrow.’
‘You will do no such thing. It is bad enough he thinks me a lazy and inefficient operative without him also thinking that I am incapable of doing anything other than running to you and asking for your protection’ Alex spat the last word at James as though it burned him.
‘I doubt even Aspern would think you in need of my protection.’
‘James.’ Alex sounded tired. He closed his eyes and rubbed the top of his nose with his fingers for a moment. ‘The general opinion of my abilities is that I am a small pretty thing well suited to seducing people into bed but incapable of actually hurting anyone.’
‘That’s not true.’
‘Really? Our colleagues do not think me effeminate and weak?’
‘You broke George’s arm in training just before I left.’
‘True. But already it has been decided that I was lucky or that George was unlucky, it would hurt English pride far too much if I were actually that good.’
‘You are that good though, and they do know it. Alex, I can assure you, whatever they say, there isn’t anyone there who’d offer to duel with you or who wouldn’t be scared of meeting you in a dark alley.’
That got a twinge of a smile from Alex. James smiled back. ‘I am truly sorry about the paperwork.. I’ll finish what’s left tomorrow if you’d like.’
‘It would be appreciated.’ Alex gave him a proper smile that time and James laughed.
‘Very well.’
‘How was Chester?’
‘Boring. I have no idea why Silver wanted me out of town form the month, he could have sent a trained dog on the assignment and the results would have been the same.’
Alex nodded ‘Perhaps he expected difficulties of some kind.’
‘Perhaps. It may just have been a punishment for my last expenses form. Although since I will be claiming the suit Carmella ruined for this assignment if he was trying to induce me into more frugal ways he’ll hopefully think again.’
‘So the name of your paramour of the vanilla scent was Carmella? She sounds delightful.’
‘She was, until she took my leaving badly and upended her scent bottle.’
‘I suppose she wasn’t very beautiful then?’
It was on the tip of his tongue to say ‘she wasn’t half as beautiful as you’ but James couldn’t. He was not about to start flirting with his partner, not when he was certain that his advances would be so unwelcome. He sighed and passed a hand through his hair in a distracted movement.

‘Sorry’ the soft French accent intruded on his confusion ‘I hadn’t realised you actually like her this time, usually you aren’t particularly upset when things end badly’ Alex looked concerned and a trifle worried. James shook his head.
‘It’s not that, it’s just been a trying few weeks and having a bottle of cheap scent dumped on me put the seal on it. ‘

‘Would it help if I said you now smell like your usual expensive self?’