Free The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans by Amy Crook Page A

with any of
it,” he declared, locking his phone and setting it aside. He slid back
down under the covers for kisses, then rubbed noses with Julian and asked,
“Alys’ cooking or breakfast out?”
    “Eat in,” said Julian. “I want to
eat in my pyjamas and drink too much tea and check on all the houseplants, and
then we can get dressed and face the world.”
    “Lazy morning in it is,” said Alex,
looking very pleased.
    “I wonder if Alys stole our pyjamas
again?” said Julian, poking his head up to look around for them. Rather
than crumpled on the floor they’d been neatly folded on a chair, but at least
she hadn’t taken them away entirely. “Nope, must not be laundry day.”
    “I’ll get them, you wallow.” Alex kissed
him one last time then got up, putting his own pyjamas on and then bringing
Julian’s over to the bed. He vanished into the bathroom while Julian got
dressed and found his slippers, though it was too warm to need a dressing gown.
His own phone had a message light as well, and he checked that it wasn’t from
Emmy before deciding to ignore it until later. He took over the bathroom after
Alex, and they emerged into the sunlit living room together.
    “Tea’s almost ready,” said Alys from the
kitchen, “What would you boys like for breakfast?”
    Julian smiled and shuffled into the kitchen,
pausing to say hello to their butterfly fairy and its thriving fairy flower
plant. “Something substantial, please,” said Julian.
    “A good fry-up, then, you like the fried bread
and things, and I’ve some fruit to make into compote for you as well. Peaches
and berries over flapjacks will give you good energy,” said Alys, humming
to herself as ingredients began to float around the room and settle on the
counter near her in neat groupings. Julian was always impressed that she never
knocked anything over or smacked anyone with the food, even though she rarely
bothered to watch what she was doing.
    “That sounds perfect,” said Alex, going
over to check the window-wards for visitors. They’d been thinking of putting in
some sort of pass-through that the butterfly fairy could activate so she could
visit the window box safely, but he’d not yet figured out a way to make it
secure enough for everyone’s peace of mind. “Been a couple of fairies
around, your window box is popular,” said Alex.
    “There aren’t a lot of healthy fairy flowers
in the city,” said Julian. He gave the one inside a bit of water and a
trickle of sleepy morning energy, feeling its gratitude like the gentle warmth
of the sun on his skin. “It’s about time for me to divide all of these up,
do you think we could put another window box in without giving anyone a heart
attack?”
    Alex laughed; the sudden appearance of flowers
seemingly suspended in midair outside Alex’s 7th-story window had given their
landlord a bit of a fright. “Perhaps we’ll warn him this time,” he
teased. “If not, maybe we’ll take some to the cottage once the renovations
are done.”
    “Well, we’ll do that anyway,” said
Julian, “but that’ll be months from now. I need to use the extra clover
for Master Stephen, and I wanted to give some to Mary Margaret, so really it’s
just the fairy flowers and ward thistles anyway.” He sent a bit of magic
into these flowers, too, feeling them strong and happy, bolstered against the
vagaries of life in the city by Julian’s regular infusions of magic, not to mention
water and nutrients as needed. Alex had even set up a deflection spell to keep
them from being blown about too much.
    “I can use the ward-thistles, maybe,”
said Alex, looking thoughtful. “Let’s give the fairy flowers to our
friends at the agency, they’ll be okay on their desks, won’t they?”
    “Oh, that’s brilliant, I can get desk-pots
from Mary Margaret when I go back to work,” said Julian. “We might
want to wait until after Fischer untwists his knickers, though.”
    Alex laughed, going to sit at the table and