Because Ophichus had been so sickly as a child Drusilla had become a capital sick-nurse and she dressed herself up as a boy, glared at the Healer and the housemaids, and sat herself down by Abraxas' bedside and refused to leave. She held glasses of water to his lips, forced him to drink potions, even responded to his fevered ramblings as though they made sense which, by and large, they did not.
"You shouldn't sit here," Abraxas said during a lucid moment.
"Don't speak to me in such a nonsensical way or I might become annoyed with you," she said, her hands folded restfully in her lap. "You made more sense when you were raving then you do now."
"It is not your job to – "
"Don't vex yourself," Drusilla ordered him. "You'll relapse. And, besides, it's quite my fault that you're in this predicament at all. It would hardly be delightful of me to leave you to suffer while I traipsed about Paris enjoying myself."
Abraxas tried to prop himself up and glared at her. "You mustn't go out, mustn't let anyone see you. Dru, you mustn't. You'd be ruined." But she patted his hand gently and, worn out by even that small exertion, he fell back against the pillows. "Promise me," he whispered.
"Yes, Lord Nott," she said, her voice as soothing as she could make it. "I'll stay right here. Everything will be fine."
"Don't call me Lord, Dru," he said and he fell back into a fitful sleep as she stroked his hand.
When he woke again she was still there, still looking as untroubled and fresh as if sitting by a bedside caring for the sick was of no import at all. She smiled down at him and he looked up into that untroubled countenance and found himself smiling back. "You are the most irritating girl," he said. "Sitting here when I expressly told you not to."
"I'm afraid my Aunt has complained a number of times that I'm not the most biddable girl ever," Drusilla agreed, "but I'm quite good with the sick."
"Your talents will be wasted on me, I'm afraid," Abraxas said. "I'm disgustingly healthy." He eyed her with some amusement, "Except, of course, when my aide curses me."
She looked down at the floor, a seemingly abashed look on her face.
"Why is that, Dru?" Abraxas asked very quietly.
"Why is what, my Lord?"
He frowned at her very proper use of his title but let it go. "Why do you greet unannounced visitors to your bedroom with a nasty curse?"
"It was nothing more than a mistake, my Lord." Drusilla looked up and he noted the haunted look in her eyes and her firm chin and nodded to himself. "I'm really very sorry. It won't happen again, I promise."
"Indeed," he said. "It won't."
Drusilla searched his eyes at the low tone but he said nothing more on the subject and she didn't pursue his meaning.
He pushed himself upright to a seated position and noted how quickly she plumped and rearranged pillows until he was wholly comfortable. "So, Dru," he said, "how many days am I to be confined before the Healer will let us continue on our quest to find your second cousin?"
"At least two, my Lord," she said and he picked up one of the smaller pillows and threw it at her head. That was quite enough with the 'my Lord'ing. She caught the tossed pillow neatly and, with a frown tucked it back behind him again.
"If you call me 'my Lord' again I shall have to beat you, Dru," he said apologetically though the smirk dancing around his mouth belied his tone. "It's Abraxas."
"Beat me," she scoffed, "You wouldn't dare."
He held her eyes with his own for several long seconds and she began to blush furiously and his smirk grew until he said, "No, not unless you asked very nicely I wouldn't dare at all." Her eyes widened at that and he finally laughed and looked away and she sagged ever so minutely in the seat by his sick bed. "I'm sorry, Dru," he said through his laughter, "that wasn't nice of me at all."
"You're a horrible man," she agreed. "You are not a gentleman."
"No, my dear. I'm only a nobleman," he admitted, trying with only limited success to banish the knowing smile from his face. "Whatever shall we do, Miss Drusilla Black, to fill the two days we have in front of us?"