Page 4 of Decorated

“Well, why don’t you tell us as we give Corporal Spears here a tour of the house?”

For a second, Alfie was convinced Blaine would decline the invitation and continue hiding from whoever the man in the hall had been. But then he stood a little straighter, his face lighting up, as though going on a tour was a great idea.

“Sure,” he said, stepping forward to Alfie’s side. “Let’s go on a tour. Let’s go to all the distant, quiet, untraveled places in the house, places people don’t usually go without a very good reason.”

Robert sighed and smirked. “What trouble are you in now?”

“Trouble?” Blaine asked, peeking out through the office glass as if the man who was looking for him would show up at any moment. “I’m not in any trouble. What would make you think I’m in trouble?”

“Because you just said you were?” Robert suggested. He sent Alfie a look. “Sorry about him.”

“No, it’s fine,” Alfie said. “My father went to school here, and I imagine this is the sort of stuff that the boys used to get up to all the time.”

“Probably,” Robert laughed.

“Come on you two,” Blaine said, darting for the door. “The coast is clear. Let’s get this tour started before Dave…before…let’s get this tour started.”

Alfie let himself grin just a little. He had a feeling he was in for far more than an ordinary peek into the past.

TWO

Blaine had,of course, stuffed up everything good and proper. First in his personal life, then in his business, and just now, with the gorgeous soldier who he’d slammed right into, and who he’d like to slam into again.

Or rather, have slam into him.

Multiple times.

In a horizontal position.

Or vertical, he wasn’t picky. It looked like Corporal Alfie Spears had the arm and leg strength to do it standing up. Blaine had never tried it standing up before, but there was a first time for?—

“The original house was built in sixteen-forty-five, smack in the middle of the Civil War,” Uncle Robert said as they crossed the front hall, Blaine keeping as close to Alfie as he could get away with.

Mostly so that he could hide behind the massive man again if Dave came looking for him.

“Our family tried to stay out of it,” Uncle Robert went on, walking side-by-side with Alfie up the grand staircase while Blaine darted and shifted from one side to the other behindthem. “Not that it was possible to be an earl with a new title and to stay out of the war with Cromwell,” Uncle Robert went on with a chuckle. “You’d never think it to look at me, but I’m actually the ninth Earl of Felcourt.”

“You are?” Alfie asked in surprise, giving Uncle Robert a quick once over with his eyes.

Blaine wished he was the ninth earl so Alfie would rake him with a gaze like that. Preferably while he was naked and?—

Those ridiculously untimely thoughts were cut short as Blaine nearly tripped over his own feet as they reached the top of the stairs. He caught a glimpse of Dave walking out of the family corridor with a searching frown.

“Earls come in all shapes and sizes these days,” he blurted, rushing around to Alfie’s other side and using him as a block so Dave didn’t see him. “And they have all sorts of talents. The entire Hawthorne family, cousins and all, are engaged in the arts. Except my twin brother, Baxter. He’s an accountant, the bastard.”

Alfie’s luscious mouth dropped open a little as they turned and headed down the first-floor corridor and the classrooms it contained. “I see,” he said with a perfectly straight face. Something in his hazel eyes sparkled though.

Blaine prayed it was amusement and not irritation.

“We’ve never been your average, conventional aristocratic family,” Uncle Robert went on, watching Blaine with a wry look. “Definitely not in the last generation or two. My father is probably rolling over in his grave at the sheer volume of queerness in the family these days, but as I understand it, he was a massive closet case himself.”

“I…oh,” Alfie said, clearly overwhelmed.

“I’m gay,” Blaine said, slipping into a fae voice and posture. “In case you hadn’t guessed from the shirt. And the jeans. Andpretty much everything about me.” He accidentally giggled and made eyes at Alfie, utterly unable to rein himself in.

Basically, he was ridiculous in almost every way. He was fairly certain he left a rainbow vapor trail wherever he walked, even when he was trying to be serious. He didn’t really mind. Except when no one took him seriously.

So maybe he did mind after all.

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