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He brought it over to her and held it up, nodding "Excellent palette for your coloring, my little Italian pastry Did our Biffy help you order this?" Without waiting for confirmation, he continued his previous discussion with studied casualness "Your Professor Lyall is one of those"

"One of the indifferent ones?"

"Ah, no, petal, one of those who has no particular preferences"

"And Boots?" Alexia held very still as the vampire an lacing up the back of the skirt

"Boots is another one"

Lady Maccon thought she understood what he was trying to say but was deters were as clear as possible Lord Akeldama may enjoy prevarications and euphe coy "Are you telling me, my lord, that Boots enjoys the company of both men and women?"

The vampire came back around to the front and cocked his head to one side, as though more interested in the fit of the jacket than their conversation "I know, peculiar of hieon? But I and mine, possibly e the predilections of others" He bent forward to tidy the fall of the bow at Alexia’s neck Then he had her sit while he fussed with stockings

"Well, I should never venture to question your assessment of Boots’s taste, but really, you must be mistaken in Professor Lyall’s nature He’s in the oodness’ sake!"

"I take it you have heard very little on the subject of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy?" The vampire er fit into any of her boots,dress with dancing slippers!"

"Well, it’s not as though I walk all that much anymore But, my dear lord, I can’t believe it Not Professor Lyall You must misconstrue"

Lord Akeldama became motionless, his head bent over one of her kid slippers "Oh, little lilac bush, I know I do not"

Lady Maccon stilled herself, frowning down at the blond head bent so diligently at her feet "I have never seen hiht it was a part of being Beta, to love the pack at the expense of every other romance Not that I have met many Betas It is not a personality trait, then? Has he not always been so reticent?"

Lord Akelda to toy with her hair

"You arrange a lady’s ensemble rather well, for an aristocrat Don’t you, inally, buttercup, even us vampires Of course, your Professor Lyall and I have never run in the same circles, and until you came into our lives, I must admit I never paid hienuine disfavor crossed his beautiful face "This ht As bad as that brief period wherein I becareen overcoat" He shuddered at the unpleasantness of the memory

"Surely it cannot be so awful as all that It is only Professor Lyall of e speak"

"Exactly, my plum puff So few of us can be so easily dis They say he never quite recovered from a broken heart"

Alexia frowned "Oh, do they?"

"An e affliction in an immortal, brokenheartedness, wouldn’t you say? Least of all in a ave her friend a sharp look through the looking glass as he pinned one of her curls into place "No, I should say instead poor Professor Lyall"

Lord Akeldama finished with her hair "There!" he pronounced with a flourish He held up a hand mirror for her to look at the back "I haven’t our lovely Biffy’s skill with the curling tongs, so a siize for such ineptitude I should add one or two rosettes or a fresh flower, just here"

"Oh, si is better than what I could do for myself I shall take your advice about the flower, of course"

The vampire nodded, took the mirror back, and placed it on the armoire "And????how is Biffy?" The very flatness in the vampire’s words alerted Alexia to the importance of this oh-so-casual question

"He is still upset at having to give up snuff" Lord Akeldahtheartedness, so Alexia adopted his serious tone "Not as well as he could be My husband thinks, and I a him back Pitiable, for Biffy did not ask for the lupine afterlife, but he must learn to accept it"

Lord Akeldaiven to understand there is a matter of control He must learn to master the shift rather than allow it to master him Until he does, there are all sorts of restrictions He cannot go out during the day or he ed, he es around thedistance It’s all quite tragic"

Lord Akeldah she had never answered his question "Ah, well, I irl I have my own toilette to see to There is a , and I have a alia" Hee left

Lady Maccon was not fooled

"My lord" Alexia’s voice was soft and gentle, or as soft and as gentle as she could enerally in command of such feminine wiles "On our subject of brokenheartedness, should I now be saying poor Lord Akelda that with a reply

Lady Maccon lowered the balcony drawbridge and made her way into Woolsey’s town hoplank when one cannot see one’s feet was a tad nerve-racking, but Alexia Maccon was a woht character and firm principle, not to be defeated by a mere fat belly She encountered Felicity, obviously recently returned from one of her unmentionable jaunts, for she was once more attired in knitwear They had no chance for idle conversation, thank goodness, for the house was in a veritable uproar

Still, Felicity would not allow Alexia to pass without some commentary "Sister! What is that tremendous ruckus in the back parlor?"

"Felicity, you did knohen you prevailed upon my hospitality, that this was the den of olves, did you not?"

"Yes, but to behave like animals? Surely that’s not polite"