Page 22 of Iron Unicorn

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” I stated. Another cough tore through me, and I cleared my throat before blowing my nose. “I can help make certain Prince Ian feels the appropriate obligations to go to California for a while. If I can get a briefing on what he’s going to be doing in California, I can nudge him a little harder.”

“I’ll keep it a secret until you’re back, then you can play at tipping him off after just having learned the details yourself.” My queen smirked at me. “I’m onto you, Terry. I’ve figured out how you operate.”

Despite understanding I might trigger another coughing fit, I laughed. “Just now, my queen?”

Queen Jessica howled her mirth, slapped her leg, and declared, “He got you good, Rachel!”

My queen giggled. “He’s good at that. It’s my litmus test to see if he’s feeling tolerable. You know he’s bad off if he isn’t being sly like that. He wants me to feel comfortable. And I am. Ethan promised I’ll be heartily coddled once I’m done here.”

Well, nobody in the RPS would need to worry about the New York monarchs for the rest of the day, as my king would reduce my queen to a contented puddle unwilling to leave bed for the rest of the day. “Is there anything else you need, my queen?”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m sick. I’m not dying. And if that status changes, Olivia will notify the appropriate parties. She has access to my headset.” Knowing the princess, she would use it ruthlessly if required. “Considering we are next door to a hospital, I do not foresee any problems. I will take any medications as prescribed without complaint.”

My queen hopped to her feet, whistled for her tigers, and bounced to the door. “Then I am off. Feed my agent, Pat. Clearly, he might be starving.”

“Shouldn’t I be giving him remedial lessons on how to eat without storing leftovers in his lungs?” King Patrick complained.

“That, too. Call me if there are any issues, Olivia—or if you need a break from babysitting him. I can take over while you take a breather. Trust me, I’m well aware of how hard it is to take care of an invalid. I was one for longer than I care to think about.” She opened the door, checked the hallway, and yelled, “I’m not an invalid anymore, you hovering freak!”

Outside, I heard King Ethan burst into laughter. A moment later, he peered into the room. “I hope you’re feeling better, Terry. I’m going to take my wife back to our room so she can work out some of her energy. I made the mistake of letting her have a coffee with extra sugar this morning. It did not induce a crash like I hoped for. As such, you did not get peace and quiet. Sorry about that.”

I waved off the king’s concern. “Quite all right. Have a good day, and if she’s still energetic, take her to the gym and challenge her to a race.”

With luck, both monarchs would be wiped out and the RPS would have a restful afternoon and evening.

“Good idea. Come along, Rachel. I coerced the Texans into getting us some new games to try.”

With her tigers hot on her heels, my queen fled the room, slamming the door behind her in her hurry to chase after her husband.

“I would be sorry about that, but I’m really not,” I said, smiling over the evidence my queen had made great progress overcoming her emotional traumas. “When does she go back to New York?”

Queen Jessica chuckled, got up, and went to check the pot on the stove. “She’s here only because you have pneumonia. Once the physicians are confident you’re on the road to recovery, she’ll be headed home. We decided to conduct some legitimate business while she’s here, but really? She was okay with the concussion, but once that death cough started up, her last line was crossed.”

“They really do not like the death cough,” Olivia informed me. “The RPS agents who insisted on monitoring you kept turning green. I am sorry to say that to keep the whining at a minimum, I’ve been letting the worrywarts into the room while I’m sleeping. They seem okay with me handling most of it, but theycannothandle the idea of someone not being in the room to make sure you keep breathing.”

The Texan monarchs laughed, which warned me the princess spoke nothing but the truth. “Do you want me to talk with them?”

“Hell no. This is fun. You have the whole lot of them wrapped around your finger. You probably don’t remember this, but when you were coughing stuff out, you got out of bed with the intent of making yourself tea to help purge the evils from your body. You had a five-man team to make you a cup of tea!”

King Patrick bowed his head, and after a moment, he snorted. Then he gave up trying to contain his laughter. “You’re notorious, Terry. You were asking fortea.”

“Coffee is great, and I’m not against tea. I just don’t drink coffee when my throat is sore. Tea with honey and lemon works the best.”

King Patrick continued to chuckle, and once he calmed, he said, “You know that, I know that, my wife knows that, and Olivia knows that. The RPS? Your dossier says coffee, sir.”

I joined the king in snickering. “Did they have trouble figuring out how to operate a kettle, Patrick?”

“Yep. I’ve already informed them that they’re getting remedial lessons on nursing sick people back to health. That’s going to be my evening, honestly. The whole lot of them, rather than clue in I was yanking their chains, accepted with distressing amounts of gratitude. They might have killed you trying to make youtea.”

“Do you need me to help you show them how to operate a kettle?”

“No, but you’ll have to deal with agents making you copious amounts of tea once they’ve been corrected about it. If Olivia has to do it again, we might lose her due to how hard she’s laughing over it.”

“It’s akettle. We even have both types in here. But do you know what happened the first time it whistled? Theyfreaked. Over the kettle whistling. I thought the whole lot of them was going to have a heart attack. Well, that’s when I found out my nose really is fine, because I was on the floor rolling after that. It took me three tries to actually make you tea. Fortunately for us all, while you’d left the bedroom, you’d passed back out on the couch and missed the whole thing.”

Damn. In a way, I regretted having been so out of it I’d missed such good entertainment. “Did you at least explain to them how honey and lemon work?”

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