Bad Nerd Rising (30 page)

What would happen to him?

Fear gripped his insides
and threatened to turn them inside out when he realized he had
nothing to offer Tia now. If he wasn’t who he had always been told,
he couldn’t ask her to marry him. He couldn’t supply an heir, if
his own parentage was in question.

He had to find a restroom, fast.

Tumbling Tia off his lap
wasn’t the plan and he hoped she understood when he exited his
office at a sprint and headed for the nearest toilet where he
emptied the contents of his stomach.

He was feverish and
nauseous, and restless, and once he was honest with himself,
depressed. After he flushed the toilet, he trudged over to the sink
and washed his hands and mouth. But even as he stared at his
reflection in the mirror, he couldn’t see a glaring resemblance to
either man who might have sired him.

Aleksi thought he looked
like himself. Like
Aleksi Kristian Henri
Maksmillian of the House of de Leos. This is who he was. But was
the House of de Leos part of his name a farce?

Even as he thought that, his knees went weak
and his stomach threatened to revolt again. Sweat broke out along
his lip and across his forehead. He felt dizzy and discombobulated.
What was happening to him?

Thoughts of his bed rolled through his
brain, a casual train of thought that he hopped on. He left the
water closet and made his way to his bedchamber. The dim coolness
of the interior enticed him as only Tia could. Until now.

He stripped off his suit and crawled between
the crisp sheets, thankful for something that felt right. Maybe he
wasn’t the prince of his own principality any longer. Maybe he
couldn’t have Tia. He had no idea what he would do tomorrow. Would
he have to move? One thing he did know was that this bed felt
exactly like the place he needed to be, and he wasn’t budging from
it.

At least not today.

Chapter
22

Dr. Mahon slid between the
doors of the paneled drawing room and peered at those assembled.
Tia wanted to leap from her chair and wrap her hands around his
neck. Instead, she played at being the refined lady. It was a
stretch for her.

“What’s wrong with Aleksi?”
Her voice sounded calm, modulated, and totally alien to how she
felt.

Aleksi’s mother grasped her
hand in a death grip. Like she couldn’t handle much more in the way
of distressing news. Tia’s heart went out to her, because the woman
had fallen apart, and was as devastated by the bomb she dropped on
Aleksi this afternoon as he was.

“He’s got a stomach virus,
I believe.” The good doctor shuffled some papers before peering at
them over his glasses. “It’s a good thing someone realized he was
missing and checked his bedchamber.” Again, the little man glanced
at her and Emerson over his glasses.

Aleksi’s disappearance had
caused a palace-wide panic. But somehow she and Emerson had decided
they should check every room in the palace before they caused an
uproar. One of the maids had finally thought to check his
bedchamber and discovered the feverish prince in his own bed. Their
frantic haste to locate Aleksi had bonded Emerson and Tia like
nothing else could have.

They called in Dr. Mahon
immediately.

“So he has the flu?” Tia
asked, impatience at the man’s drawn out processes making her want
to run him over with a truck. Preferably of the dump
variety.

He again peered at her over
those ridiculous glasses. Like he couldn’t believe she’d have the
insolence to question him. Ha. This was Aleksi they were talking
about. She planned to fire him if he wasn’t clearer.

“Miss...” he checked his
notes. “Morrison,” he started, and she cocked a brow at
him.

“It’s Dr. Morrison, and I’m
a microbiologist. I have an extensive knowledge of bacterium and
viruses. I’m certain we’ll understand your diagnosis.” Her voice
could have cut glass, and the little man straightened to his full
height, which still wasn’t impressive. Not when she nearly topped
six feet.

The room had gone deathly
silent, and Tia realized even Emerson was staring at her like she’d
invited bats into her belfry, whatever a belfry was. She didn’t
care.

She pinned the inept doctor
with her most professorial glare, the one she used on freshmen and
cleared her throat. Loudly. He apparently caught on, which she had
to credit him.

Short of tapping her
fingers, on his head, she waited, impatiently. “I’m sorry, Dr.
Morrison. I had no idea you cared so much about our
prince.”

She bared her teeth and
might have growled because even Emerson straightened in his seat
across from her and Aleksi’s mother, who squeezed Tia’s hand in a
show of solidarity. “Mahon, spit it out,” he ordered in a voice
nearly as impatient as hers.

“I suggest we fire this dipwad,” she said to
Emerson.

He nodded and turned to glare at the
doctor.

Who hastily checked his
notes again. “The prince has a viral infection, one that has been
going around. It constitutes a high fever, nausea, aches and pains
which are likely associated with the fever, in addition to
weakness, dizzy spells, and fatigue.” The little man snapped his
folder shut and peered at them expectantly.

“Thank you, Isaac,” Gracia said, and
indicated to the butler to show him out.

“I thought you said Dr.
Mahon was competent.” Tia all but accused Emerson. She remembered
the Dr. Mahon she met as being so, in fact.

“The real Dr. Mahon is
competent. That’s his brother, who believes he’s a gift to the
world of medicine—”

“But is instead a, what do
you Americans call it, a
joke
,” Aleksi’s mother finished for
Emerson.

“Yes, I’d certainly call
him a joke. Why did we allow him to treat Aleksi?”

“He knows viruses. Besides,
at the moment, there is no one else,” Emerson replied and swiped a
hand over his face.

“The real Dr. Mahon is where?”

“He’s taking a rest, the
first he’s had since the well problem broke out,” Emerson
answered.

She noticed Emerson could probably use a
break, too.

He didn’t add, nor did he
need to, that the well problem hadn’t been fixed, even though it
should have been. She already knew that, of course. She just didn’t
have a clue as to what to do about it. They had cleaned those wells
– had them professionally cleaned, in fact. There was no reason why
they shouldn’t have responded. Yet the data didn’t prove their new
cleanliness.

“What do we do about Aleksi?” Gracia
interrupted her musings, for which Tia was grateful.

“If he truly does have a virus, the only
thing we can do for him is make him sleep and drink plenty of
fluids.”

“That’s it?” Gracia sounded
horrified. “What about an antibiotic?”

“Antibiotics only work for
bacterial infections. Not for viruses. A virus simply has to run
its course. So, we let him sleep and drink fluids, and if he wants
aspirin or a pain killer, we give him that. If he wants some cold
medicine, we can give him that, but I suggest we let him
sleep.”

“How long do you think this
will last?” Emerson all but chewed on his fingers.

“He’ll probably be really
sick for the next couple of days. But in about three or four days,
he should start to feel better, but he won’t feel normal. By seven
to ten days, he’ll feel like himself.”

“Seven to ten days? This
principality can’t run itself,” Emerson said, horror and panic in
his voice.

“With Aleksi so sick, it’s
going to have to,” Tia said grimly. “He needs sleep far more than
he needs to be worrying about Rurikstan.”

“I can assist with his
duties,” Gracia said. Her voice was so quiet, Tia nearly didn’t
hear her.

“You, Aunt Gracia?” Emerson
couldn’t have sounded more dubious.

“Of course. I assisted my
husband often. I do know most of what goes on here.”

“You need to return to London for your
treatments,” Tia reminded her.

Gracia shook her head. “My
son is ill. He cannot run Rurikstan, nor can I from London. I have
arranged to continue my treatments here. My sister is bringing in a
team for me.”

Tia nodded. “That’s
probably the best solution for now.”

“I agree,” Emerson said, and sounded
relieved.

“Between Emerson, and Maks,
and me, we should be able to fulfill most of Aleksi’s duties,”
Gracia said. She turned to Tia. “How long do you believe you will
need to figure out why the wells are not clean?”

“I honestly don’t know,”
Tia admitted. “There’s no reason why they’re not clean now. Unless
there’s another source of contamination.”

“What we’ll do is tell
everyone to continue to boil their water until this influenza virus
that has struck the prince has passed through,” Gracia
announced.

Tia stared at Aleksi’s
mother. “Gracia, that’s brilliant.” Okay, technically they were
lying, which is why she didn’t suggest it, but it would
work.

“Thank you, I thought so.”
Gracia grinned at her, which lit up her face and revealed a glimpse
of what Aleksi’s mother must be like without all that lead in her
system.

Emerson laughed. “Between
the three of us, I believe we can run Rurikstan. But we should not
mention there is continued trouble with the wells. The boiling is a
precaution.”

“I think that’s entirely plausible, although
the virus won’t come from the wells, it comes from human contact
and through the air.”

“We know that, but we’re
just trying to be careful. Besides, you have only finished one day
of testing since the cleaning, correct?” Emerson asked.

“Yes, that’s
right.”

Gracia stirred. “That’s not
enough evidence, yet, so we’re being cautious. Which is something
we should be all the time. These are people we all care
about.”

“Yes.” Gracia and Emerson
exchanged a glance Tia didn’t quite understand but that she
appreciated nonetheless. They did care about the people of
Rurikstan and she wasn’t going to let them down.

She stood. “I’d better get
back to work.” She turned to Emerson and Gracia. “Make certain
someone is pushing fluids on Aleksi. He needs to drink as much as
he can stand.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Emerson said.

“I’ll help,” Gracia
added.

***

Aleksi rolled over and
bumped into the wall. He couldn’t remember the last time he had
done that. He cracked open an eye and peered at the wallpaper. Yes,
this was his bedchamber. So what had brought him this far across
his bed?

Tia. He’d been dreaming
about her. But she kept eluding him. Kept slipping out of his grasp
and taunting him about not being able to have her. His frustration
levels had risen to new heights, and that’s when he hit the
wall.

Were his dreams mimicking life?

Because now that he was
more awake he realized she had slipped from his grasp. All due to
his mother’s revelations... when? What day was it? And why was he
in his bed?

Squinting at the clock on
the bedside table, he stared at it, not comprehending why it said
eight o’clock but the sun wasn’t shining. Shouldn’t the sun be
shining at eight? And
why
was he still in bed?

He should have been up an
hour and a half ago. Peering closer at the drapes covering the
windows, he saw they were definitely open. So if there was sun, it
would be shining through.

Then he realized he felt
awful. Sweaty and nauseous – he noticed he ached, too. Why was
that? His throat hurt, while his head pounded, in addition to the
muscles that didn’t seem to want to work properly. He was certain
he was directing them to move.

Only they wouldn’t. Well,
not without a lot of effort on his part. Just covering the expanse
of his mattress expended far more energy than it should have. Now
he lay panting on the edge of the bed and wondered if he’d be able
to make it across the expansive carpet to the washroom.

He also remembered various
people urging him to drink. Darn them. Darn them all. If they’d
have left him in peace, he wouldn’t have to use the toilet on the
other side of the world. Why did his water closet have to be so far
away?

After his first unsteady
steps across the room, Aleksi managed to find his balance. What was
wrong with him? Hubert and Nadia could walk better than this when
they first started walking.

When he finally entered the
room and located the toilet, Aleksi made the easy choice to stay
there for a while. No sense in expending more energy than
necessary. He washed his hands and lay on the floor. The tile was
cool and not that uncomfortable.

Yes, he decided stay right
here. Maybe he’d figure out what was wrong with him while he was
here. Was this what lead poisoning felt like? New thoughts of
sympathy for his mother crossed his mind, right before he fell
asleep.

***

“What do you mean he’s missing again?” Tia’s
head jerked up from the data she still couldn’t figure out to stare
in astonishment and disbelief at Emerson.

“The maid we sent to force
more liquids on him couldn’t find him in his
bedchamber.”