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Then had to get up numerous times in the night to throw up.
By morning she was distinctly unhappy and stayed in bed, curled up under the covers, shivering. Sassi seemed entirely too distraught for a bot and was hovering.
Of course Drake walked in.
“What’s happened? You’re sick?” He came closer, dumping guns and a folder of papers, other things she didn’t have the energy to look at properly. Then he sat on the edge of the bed. It sank under his weight. “Do you need a doctor? Have you asked for one?”
“It’s okay,” she croaked, when he bent over. “I will recover.”
She’d hidden the potion bottle, thankfully. The clothes had been whisked away by Sassi. She was safe.
Safe.
It was funny and not funny, how his presence made guilt surface. If he knew about her actions, what would he think of them? Nothing good.
The worst of it? With her stomach so upset, she could not tell if the potion had worked.
“What has happened?”
“Stomach.” She grimaced.
“I’m getting a doctor. This is ridiculous to lie there ill and not send for one.”
She lifted her head. “Sassi!”
When the bot walked in, Drake looked from him to Calli. “This is Sassi? The last functioning bot, correct? A novelty, an antique,” he mused.
“Yes. He’ll get a doctor for me.”
“No.” Drake held up his hand. “Both of you stay here. I need to talk to your bot. The guards at the door can fetch a doctor.”
He strolled out and she heard him speak to the guards, and the whole time she was wondering why he wanted to talk to Sassi. When he returned, he nodded to the bot.
“The doctor should be here soon. But first, while I wait, I wish to know why you sent your bot into the city dressed in your clothes. My men had to intercept it.”
“Oh.” She resisted the urge to worm deeper under the sheets. “I’m sure I don’t know why that would happen.”
The lie slipped from her tongue and it was only his stare that made her halt, rethink, and realize she had done what she hated others doing—lying.
“And can...” Drake tugged off one black glove. “Can Sassi lie?”
She stalled in the middle of drawing a breath. Her stomach chose then to gurgle and hurt, and she groaned softly. She also hoped he’d forget the question, but his eyes were solidly fixated on her. He pulled off the second glove then came over and sat on the bed again, laid the gloves on the quilt. They looked like an evil punctuation mark on the whiteness of the bedding.
“Have you lied to me?”
Ugh. How had he turned things around? It had been her doubting him that’d caused this.
Sassi wouldn’t lie, if allowed to talk to Drake about this, and not unless Drake was perceived as an enemy. Somehow, she doubted he’d approve of her advising the bot that he was a bad person and not to be trusted.
She sighed, frowned up at Drake. “This is my palace, remember. My bedroom.”
“Ours. Do I have to ask again?”
She could go down screaming or go down politely. “I lied, accidentally. No, on purpose, but I...” She ran down, sure that explaining this was getting her deeper into trouble.
“Lies are fine when talking to another politician, but that’s not us. Are you sorry?”
Not. Us. Except she had been thinking of escaping from him. “Yes. I guess so. Yes.”
