Chapter 113 - Playing Nursemaid (1/2)

Illness spread through the castle as the weather changed drastically. My immune system was much stronger as Catherine du Pont than it had ever been as Katie Pullman so I was perfectly fine. Al was not so lucky.

He put up such a fuss you would have thought he was legitimately dying. It looked to me like nothing more than a cold.

”Katie,” he m.o.a.ned. ”I'm freezing. Come keep me warm.”

Sweat beaded on his forehead and he was shaking slightly. He had the chills that came with being sick. I was quite familiar with them. A quick forehead test showed that he was pretty warm but not hot enough to be truly concerning.

Getting back into the warm, cozy bed was tempting but I was slightly concerned he would sweat on me. That would be really, really gross.

He did look pretty pitiful though so it was hard to refuse him. I sighed and crawled into his arms. He buried his face in my chest and let me stroke his sweaty hair. It crossed my mind that he had probably never been taken care of when he was sick before.

He had been so young when he lost his parents and then was taken to this cold, loveless place. Having a nurse attend to you is different than being taken care of by someone who cares.

When I got sick as a kid my mom would let me lay my head in her lap and tuck me under a blanket to watch a movie of my choice. I always fell asleep during it as she gently petted my head. When I woke up, she would make me chicken noodle soup.

As much as I didn't like being covered in someone else's sweat, I couldn't deny Al the love he clearly needed right now. Everyone deserved to be taken care of when they're sick but especially people like him who had spent so much of their lives alone.

We snuggled for a while until he fell asleep. That was when I wiggled my way out of his embrace to go take a bath. I felt disgusting.

The warm water helped me relax even though I was still worried about what Sigmund and Duke Orla might be planning. When I got out I sat down by the fire and read a book about mountain plants, wanting to know as much about my soon-to-be new home as I could.

I had been on a research binge for a while whenever I had the time, which was more often now that court had ended for the season. I tried learning everything I could about this world's minerals, flora and fauna, and crops.

Based on how many mines were rumored to be in the mountains, I had no doubt that we would be able to support ourselves using that as an export alone. After doing a little research on the mining industry on this continent I learned a few things.