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balance perfectly."
Marmaduke sniffed. "I'll wager the young man beside
you would have a different answer."
Julian turned his head, concern replacing flippancy.
"Pippin? You owe money? How much? Why did you
not tell me?"
Alex gave him an exasperated look. "I don't! I buy
books, yes, but apart from that& I'm not trying to keep
up with the latest fashions and bewailing the fact my
doublet is jade green when the latest shade is sea-green."
"I wasn't bewailing anything! I merely pointed out
there was a subtle difference between the two and said I
thought sea-green went better with my new cloak."
Julian raised his eyebrows. "So if you do not owe money,
then& "
"I have savings, yes." Alex felt oddly defensive,
which was ridiculous. Every sensible man set aside
money to safeguard against an uncertain future. "Not
Spoken from the Heart - 277
much, of course. I've only been here four months. I save
a quarter of what I make, if I can."
"There," Marmaduke said with satisfaction. "There's
a sensible man. Though I doubt that you have it invested,
hey?"
Alex squirmed in his seat, pinned by an accusing
glare. "Well, as to that& "
"I thought so."
"What is the purpose behind this?" Julian asked, his
irritation plain. "Get to the point, I beg you. I have to
visit my tailor, and Alex is quiveringly eager to
investigate a new bookshop that's just opened on
Terrance Lane."
"The rest of your father's estate went to me."
"I'm aware." Julian brushed at his breeches, affecting
a disinterest so palpably false it verged on caricature.
Alex reflected that on stage Julian would never have
been so transparently obvious -- unless the script called
for it.
"We had both arranged that if one of us died whilst
our children were young, the child would not be
burdened by an inheritance they were ill-equipped to
handle."
The faade of indifference vanished. Julian's head
came up, and he fixed Marmaduke with a glare Alex
never wished directed at him. "I was of age!"
"In years, yes." Marmaduke was unruffled. "In the
sense that you were mature, responsible& no. Before
you bristle and denounce me, that no longer seems to be
the case, despite your lack of savings. You've
demonstrated a selflessness that would have pleased
your father, though -- and again, I mean no disrespect --
he would not have looked with favor upon young Alex
here."
Spoken from the Heart - 278
"Yet another subject upon which my father and I
would have disagreed."
Alex was gratified by Julian's response, but the white,
pinched look on Julian's face worried him. On the
subject of his father, Julian was rarely capable of a
detached objectivity.
"Alex, though charming, is a peasant."
That struck a little too close to home. Alex cleared
his throat and proceeded to correct that misapprehension.
"My father's farm is one of the largest in our area, and
he is a respected member of the community--"
"I'm sure that's so, dear child, but he's still a farmer."
The dismissive, kind tone was like a slap.
"I could walk in a straight line from the farmhouse
door from sunrise to nightfall and not leave his land,"
Alex said, indignation and a fierce pride filling him. "At
harvest time, a score of men are needed to clear the
fields. He is not wealthy in your eyes, perhaps, because
in the Westerlings no one makes a show of their riches
or wastes them on large houses, new clothes for the sake
of it, or strawberries in winter, but he's no peasant."
A silence fell, broken by a low, rich chuckle from
Julian. He brought his hands together, applauding Alex.
"Oh, well done, Pippin! You've silenced Master
Stellforth and put us both in our place."
Alex ducked his head, shame at his boasting
replacing his indignation. "I should not have said that.
Even if he was a peasant, it's no matter, after all. Honest
work makes every man a king in the Lady's eyes."
"So it's said, but few give it more than lip-service."
Marmaduke nodded his head slowly. "Well. Not so
paltry a prospect after all."
"Oh, I am," Alex said in some surprise. "I inherit
none of it. I'm not firstborn, you see. I'll always have a
Spoken from the Heart - 279
place there, a roof over my head, work and food, but I
won't inherit."
"Oh," Marmaduke said flatly.
Julian gave a crow of laughter. "Hopes dashed! Never
mind, Marmaduke. I love him for more than his
expectations."
"Julian!" Alex protested, but he was smiling as he
said it. To have Julian declare his love so easily, so
openly, yet still with that touching note of sincerity&
"If we could return to your affairs," Marmaduke said,
with a pointed cough. "I've held the monies left to me by
your father in trust, and I fancy I've done well with the
investments, as he'd have wished. The trust winds up
when you're thirty--"
"Thirty!" Julian leaned forward, his hands gripping
the arms of his chair. "That is a full year away."
"But I have the power to dissolve it whenever I see fit,
and I do," Marmaduke finished with a serene smile.
Alex watched Julian's face register a series of
emotions and wondered how many of them were
genuine, unguarded reactions to the news that Julian was,
presumably, now a rich man and how many what Julian
thought he should look like at such a moment.
Reproving himself for his uncharitable thoughts -- and
really, he'd grown accustomed to that side of Julian -- he
waited for Julian to speak.
When he did, it was from his feet. Julian rarely
delivered a dramatic speech from a seated position. "I
cannot thank you for giving me what is mine, but I do
thank you for what I'm sure was a most scrupulous
caretaking."
Marmaduke sighed resignedly. "I thought you would
take this amiss."
Spoken from the Heart - 280
"How else am I supposed to take it?" Julian breathed
in sharply, color rising in his face. "To be told I was
considered a child, to have monies withheld that at times
I've stood in sore need of& Because I lacked funds, I
became the lover of a man prepared to pay to share my
bed. Do you think my father would have approved of
that? Or would the fact that the prick plowing my ass
was noble make all right?"
"Julian!" Alex was on his feet in a moment, clutching
at Julian's arm. To hear such crude language in this
office, weighed down with age and the useful clutter of
decades, seemed shocking.
"Your dealings with Lord Marcus were& regrettable
in many ways, but I never understood them to be
actively distasteful to you."
"As to that& " Julian removed Alex's hand from his
sleeve, but with a grateful squeeze that told Alex his
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