Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

one heart-stopping moment looked very like a bomb.
    Only Lewis knew how close the poor fool came to getting shot. Jesamine smiled graciously at the beaming assistant, and signed her name in a quick practiced scrawl, while Lewis quietly fought to get his breathing back under control. If Jesamine noticed, she never said anything, but after that she went out of her way to keep Lewis close to her, and require his advice on what she was buying.
    And she bought a hell of a lot. Lewis was at first impressed and then actually staggered by the sheer amount she was accumulating. She would stride down the aisles, pointing here and there with an imperious finger, not even bothering to look at the price tags. (The really good stuff didn't have price tags, of course. If you had to ask, you couldn't afford it.) She ordered dresses by the dozen, shoes and gloves and hats by the hundred, or so it seemed, and any amount of jewelry and gold and silver bangles, many of which were actual works of art and any one of which cost more than Lewis's annual salary. He was beginning to wonder if he could even afford to breathe the store's rarified and subtly perfumed air.
    Jesamine tried to order things for Lewis too, when she saw something she thought would suit him, and was honestly surprised when he kept turning her down.
    "I'm allowed to buy you things, darling!" she protested finally. "You're my fiance's best friend, and my Champion as well as his. And you saved my life in Court yesterday. Honestly, sweetie, it was the bravest thing I've ever seen. Why won't you let me buy you just a little something or two, to show my appreciation?"
    "Gold and jewelry are not little somethings," Lewis said firmly. "Not where I'm concerned. And those . ..
    fashionable items you keep pressing on me would be wasted on me anyway. I have no sense of style.
    Everyone knows that. Any time I wear something good at Court, I look like I hired it. And I'm really not comfortable, having you spend so much money on me."
    "This? This is nothing, darling. I am rich, Lewis, richer than you could possibly imagine. Empirewide royalties will do that to you. Every year my accountants have to invent whole new fields of mathematics, just to keep track of it all. I could buy this whole store out of petty cash, and I just might if that assistant manager doesn't stop trying to peer down my cleavage. Please let me buy you something, Lewis. This is small change to me, darling, really it is."
    "It isn't to me," said Lewis.
    Jesamine looked at him sharply, picking up some of the undertones in his voice. She studied his scowling face for a long moment, and then gestured sharply for everyone else to fall back and give the two of them some privacy. The store staff practically fell over themselves backing away at speed, and even Jesamine's own people found something in entirely different aisles to suddenly be interested in. Jesamine fixed Lewis with a steely gaze.
    "Talk to me, Lewis. There's something you're not telling me. Something I don't know. And I hate not knowing things. What's the problem here? The real problem?"
    Lewis did his best to be evasive, for his prides sake, but Jesamine backed him up against the nearest
    counter and interrogated him mercilessly, until finally he just gave up and explained his current financial situation. Jesamine was honestly shocked, and it only took her a moment to go from blank disbelief to white-hot fury.
    "I'm not having my Champion treated like this! It's an insult! An outrage! Parliament will pay you every penny you're worth, or I will have Douglas . . ."
    "No you won't," said Lewis, just as sharply. "Douglas has his own problems in Parliament at the moment. He doesn't need me muddying the waters. There are those who'd use my . . . ambivalent position as a weapon with which to attack or undermine Douglas's position, and I won't have that. I won't be used to hurt my friend. This is my problem. I'll sort it out."
    "Well then, why don't I ... advance you some money," said Jesamine. "Against your future improved earnings? Just to tide you over?"
    "I don't think so," Lewis said carefully. "I don't think that would be proper. It might be ...
    misunderstood."
    Jesamine sniffed loudly. "Men! Not a practical bone in their whole bodies, any of them. I've never been proper in my entire life, and I enjoyed every minute of it. So; I can't give you presents, I can't loan you money . . ." She stopped, and then smiled brilliantly. "Can I at least take you to the