“What has happened to change your mind?”
Alex sighed. “She has a sister.”
Henry groaned. “As I understand it, she has several sisters. Which one is causing the problem?”
“Her twin, Fern.” Alex swirled his remaining whiskey and a took large sip. It burned even less now but had not dulled the ache in his chest.
A delighted laugh escaped Henry’s lips. “Rose Waverly has atwin? Good God, how has the world been denied this glorious knowledge until now?”
“She’s…different,” Alex replied, watching as Henry’s brows furrowed.
“Different how?” Henry asked.
Alex paused to consider the question, struggling to reconcile how he had first seen Fern, how dismissive and rude he had been to her the day they met in the library, with the woman he had been unable to resist kissing earlier that night. “She’s brilliant, eerily brilliant in fact, and it makes her…eccentric.”
Henry leaned forward, draining his whiskey and pouring himself another before topping off Alex’s glass. “Eccentric how? Collecting pet birds eccentric or screaming obscenities from the rooftops eccentric?”
Alex scoffed. “Neither of those. She hates social situations and would spend all day in the library if she could.”
“Are you certain you’re not describing yourself?” Henry asked, arching a brow.
“No, it’s more than that.” Alex leaned his head back against the chair. “It’s like she doesn’t entirely understand what’s happening around her, but at the same time is sensitive and empathetic to a fault. And what she says and what she thinks…” His mind recalled her profound explanation of how she sees numbers, feels mathematics. “Her mind is beyond anything I have ever experienced before.”
“And how do you know all this about Fleur? Did Rose tell you?”
“Fern.” Alex shifted, a weight settling in his stomach. “She asked me to help her get a spot in the maths program at Oxford, She…” He cleared his throat. “She offered to help me court Rose if I helped her prepare.”
“That seems…nice?”
“I thought it would be.” Alex ran his hand roughly through his hair. “And then I got to know her, and she stopped being so strange and became…” He looked up at his friend and gave a nervous smile.
Henry sat back with a long, low whistle. “I… Wow,” he said, shaking his head. “So you have feelings for Fawn?”
“Fern, for God’s sake. Her name is Fern.”
“Fern,” Henry repeated. “Has anything happened between you and…her?”
Alex nodded slowly. “Tonight. Quite a bit.”
Henry raised an eyebrow as Alex buried his head in his hands. Henry did the same, then picked up his glass and drained it. “Good lord, Alex, you’re living in a bloody romantic novel. Do you think Fern will tell Rose what happened between you?”
Alex shook his head with enough force to make his neck crack. “She wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt her sister. She loves Rose above all else.”
Henry nodded once with conviction. “Good, that simplifies things. Does Fern have feelings for you?”
Alex hesitated. Yes, she had responded to his touch, but then shut him out. Had he just been imagining a mutual attraction? “No.”
“Then chalk this up to a bad case of nerves,” Henry said, lounging back again as if he had solved all the world’s troubles. “You wanted a last taste of bachelorhood before you committed yourself. Choosing the sister for your dalliance was ill-advised, but you’ll survive it. Within a year you’ll have forgotten it ever happened.”
Alex said nothing. He stared into his nearly empty glass, eyes unfocused and unseeing. “I don’t know if I can forget her, Henry.”
Henry sighed, cursing under his breath. “Well, that does complicate things.”
Fern’s hesitant footsteps echoed through the empty library hallway as she wound her way to the deserted basement carrel they used for their study sessions. Her fingers tightened around the note she had received that morning.
Fern,
I’m sorry for my ungentlemanly actions last night. I acted deplorably and would like to apologize in person. Please meet me in the Bodleain at 4:30. This work is too important for me to simply walk away. I need to see you.
