Reborn, I Let My Sister Take the Poisoned Crown novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: No Touching

"Here are the terms," the king said.

He had put me in the chair by the fire and taken the stone seat across from me, with the hearth between us.

"You are the Healer," he said. "As far as this palace knows, there is one Healer, and she is you."

"Your Healer is lying in a bed in the tower."

"Then she stays there, and nobody sees you beside her. Not the physicians, not the Council, not your brother. Nobody sees two of you."

I nodded.

"You sleep in the north wing, behind the old linen room. Nobody has gone up there since my father died. The captain keeps the only key, and he will be told nothing."

"And if I'm seen in a corridor?"

"Then you are Sorrel Fenwick, and you curtsy, and you do not look anyone in the eye."

"I'll practice."

"One more." He held up a finger, and his hand was still steady. "No touching."

I stared at him.

"Your hand on my wrist, and on my chest if the healing needs it. Nowhere else, and never because we want to."

"You held my hand for a quarter of an hour."

"Then it is a rule for the future," he said.

I almost laughed.

It was the first time in two lives that I had wanted to laugh in that room.

"Agreed," I said. "And you keep your hands where I can see them."

"I was not the one who walked in with a hand held out."

I had no answer to that, so I looked at the fire.

The captain brought a supper tray at ten.

He set it down without looking at me, and the king did not explain, and the captain did not ask.

The captain's scarred jaw worked once, and then he was gone.

I ate half a pie and the king ate nothing.

At midnight, he put a hand on the table to stand, and it slid off the edge.

"Majesty?"

"A moment," he said.

His lips had gone the colour of ash.

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