Page 125 of Nine-Tenths

Because I am not completely suicidal, I lower my eyes as demurely as I can manage, a good little romance heroine pretending to be cowed by the villain.

"Alva may have the peninsula, and his little coffee fan club, but he will not have—"

"Frank," Laura laughs, sliding up to us breathlessly, red-cheeked and windblown. "Come, Frank, you simply must fetch Mrs. Simcoe and—oh my." She darts a curious glance between us. "Are you well? You look… peaked."

"Quite well, Mine Own," Simcoe lies badly, struggling to pull himself together.

"Come, come," Laura says, and bustles him away. "You oughtn't let yourself get so affected…"

Dav, who had detoured to the bar, rejoins me and hands me a red wine.

"That is some serious jealousy." I whisper.

Dav makes a little serpenty hissing noise. A glance out at the crowd—more than tripled in size since we arrived—shows Simcoe glaring daggers at his back from across the room.

"He has nothing to fear. What little there was between Laura and I is quite over."

"Oh my god! Did you two used to…?"

"It was a very long time ago, Mine Own."

"That's not a no."

"She was widowed and without protection. I had just come into my majority. It was… mutually beneficial, until she was established in society."

"Oh my god!" I repeat, delighted. "I've been dicked down by the dick that dicked down Laura Secord!"

It takes Dav a second to parse what I mean, and then he laughs. "Nothing so crass! We simply… held a deep affection for one another. But I was too young for a Favorite."

"So how…?"

Dav's face puckers. "Laura was much admired among the Draconic set. If I was unwilling to, ah, offer for her, there were many others who were."

"And she chosethat.Do you think she's happy?"

"It's no longer my place to work for her happiness," Dav says diplomatically.

"That's not what I asked."

"I know, Mine Own." He lifts my hand to kiss the palm.

"Simcoe hates me."

"Of course he doesn't," Dav says. "He deeply dislikes not being in control, and the coffee phenomenon put us outside of his censure and into the limelight."

"For which hewhippedyou."

Dav shrugs, as if those weeks when he was gone weren't the worst of my life since Dad died.

"Frank is arrogant and selfish," Dav allows. "But we are old school friends. My happiness is his happiness."

"Especially if you're too busy with me to go sniffing around Laura."

"It's a grave thing, to trifle with another's Favorite," Dav says. "Besides, why would I ever throw you over?"

"Romantic asshole," I accuse.

"I learned it all from your delightful books—ouch! Colin, that’s my foot!"