Finally, she decided that she could at least try her hand at learning to cook. She hadn’t needed the expressions on Reese and Dante’s faces the one time she’d tried it to tell her that she was very bad at it.
Since then, she’d been discontinued from the roster of cooks.
The service ‘bot that kept the household running hadn’t been designed to teach, but it had the ability to speak and respond to speech. Deciding it was worth a try, she summoned it to the kitchen and ordered it to explain the workings of the equipment. Once she thought she had a fair grasp of how each appliance worked, she demanded a list of the dishes the ‘bot had been programmed with and immediately hit a snag. Apparently, the men didallof the cooking.
She paced the kitchen, thinking that over. “Can you jack in and download the additional programming?”
“Affirmative. I am capable of jacking in and downloading. Limitations. I have only 150 meg available.”
Amaryllis chewed her lip, but she couldn’t imagine that cooking programs would take up a lot of storage space. “Then do it.”
“Parameters?”
Amaryllis stared at the ‘bot for several moments, feeling perfectly blank. If she said ‘everything’ the ‘bot would simply download until it ran out of storage and it could be downloading anything at all, including a number of dishes that she either couldn’t handle or wouldn’t be able to find the ingredients for. “Quick and simple main courses. Quick and simple side dishes using ingredients readily available in Gallen.”
“Affirmative.”
She followed the ‘bot from the kitchen and down the main hallway to the room Reese had referred to as ‘the study’. She stopped dead in her tracks when she entered the room behind the ‘bot and discovered that Cain was seated at the desk, leaning back in the chair with his long legs propped on the desk top.
He turned to stare at her when she stopped, but otherwise gave no indication that he even realized it was she who’d stopped on the threshold. A full second passed. Slowly, he blinked, as if coming out of deep thought. Reaching up, he removed the jack he’d been using to download—something.
One dark brow rose questioningly and Amaryllis felt color flood her cheeks. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you were here.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Instead of commenting, however, he asked, “You needed something?”
Amaryllis sucked her lower lip self-consciously. She hadn’t precisely wanted to surprise everyone with a new found ability to cook. It was more that she was embarrassed that she didn’t know how, and didn’t have the ability that they had to simply download it. That was just the sort of thing guaranteed to make her appear incompetent and inferior in the eyes of the cyborgs.
“Permission to download information requested by the mistress,” the ‘bot volunteered promptly.
Amaryllis glared at the ‘bot, resisting the urge to kick it with an effort.
Cain’s feet came down from the desk. “What sort of information?” he asked sharply.
“Instructions for preparing ‘quick and easy main courses’ and ‘quick and easy side dishes’.”
Amaryllis felt like her face had caught fire. “Never mind,” she managed to say through gritted teeth. “It isn’t important. I can do this another time.”
Amusement entered Cain’s eyes. “I would imagine the level of importance would depend upon who is to eat the ‘quick and easy’ dishes.”
Asifshe wasn’t embarrassed enough! Asifshe didn’t know her skills in the kitchen were pretty much non-existent! Without another word, she turned and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind her.
He caught up with her in the foyer, grasping her arm and jerking her to a stop. She turned and gave him a ‘drop dead’ look. “You have an ungovernable temper,” he said flatly.
“And I suppose you think you don’t!” Amaryllis shot back at him.
Something flickered in his eyes. “I generally manage to control mine—not allow it to control me.”
“No, you’re just mean and nasty and insulting. You don’t have to lose your temper when you’re pissed off. You make everyone else lose theirs and still get the fight you wanted to provoke in the first place!”
He studied her in tightlipped silence for several moments, but finally the anger in his eyes was replaced with wry amusement. “I’ll be a far better teacher than the ‘bot,” he said finally.
It took Amaryllis several moments to realize he was suggesting that he teach her how to cook. “Thanks, but no thanks!” she said nastily.
His brows rose. “You have someone else offering to instruct you? Something of far greater importance pressing?”
Amaryllis glared at him. What she really wanted to do was to go off somewhere and sulk and go over every single little snub he’d given her over the past couple of weeks, real and imagined, so she could really get herself worked up. It was purehellbeing a human being and having to live with a race of beings that never allowed emotion to overrule logic and reason!
“You were busy,” she said sulkily. “I don’t want to interrupt you.” Her eyes narrowed when she made the last comment. In vain, she waited for the snide remark he’d made to her before when she’d interrupted their game--‘you already did’.
