Page 52 of Unwilling Wolf

“Well, you hear too well. It’s obnoxious.”

“For you and me both, woman. Go get in the tub before it gets cold. God…damn, have you ever done this before?”

“Well, no! Aunt Elizabeth had maids that heated the water.”

“Of course she did,” he mumbled.

“Oh, like you didn’t have heated baths in the dormitories in Georgetown? I did my research, sir.”

“Oh yeah? Did you research the living facilities of the men who were staying in the cheapest dormitories? I took freezing-cold baths once a week using the dirty water of ten men before me.”

“Oh.” Eliza frowned. “Well, that’s much more unsavory than I imagined. I wrote to you, you know. You could’ve explained how college was in a return letter.”

“You wrote to me?” The confusion on his face seemed genuine.

“Of course. We were friends.”

“Where did you send the letters?”

“Here, of course. I didn’t know your whereabouts in Georgetown. The only reason I knew you went to college there was because Roy told me in a letter.”

Garret stood there like a statue, just staring at her.

“You never responded,” she pointed out.

“Because I never saw a letter from you.”

“Oh.” Well, that was different than she thought. “I thought you weren’t responding because you were so angry with me, so I kept writing, determined to make you forgive me for leaving.”

He stared at her for three seconds more, and then jammed a finger at the bathtub. “Get in the tub, Eliza.”

“I can’t with you here! That is scandalous. I can’t remove my clothes in front of you.”

“I’m your husband.”

“Whom I’ve never engaged in forbidden acts with.”

“Forbidden acts?” Oh, hang his stupid smile.

She puffed up like an angry chicken. “I’m not an easy woman.”

“Clearly. You let a man get you drunk and you wouldn’t even go into the gardens with him.”

“Garret Shaw!” she griped.

He was laughing now, and pointed his finger at the bath again. “Get in the tub. I’ll go get another bucket of water. I won’t look.”

She crossed her arms over her nightgown. “You promise?”

“I swear,” he assured her.

A swear was very serious, so she told him, “Okay. Give me a full minute before you come back in here.”

When he left the bathing room, she scrambled out of her nightgown faster than she’d ever moved in her life and plunked down into the lukewarm water. She hugged her knees up to her chest and covered her nethers, so the most he could see was her bare back and shoulders, which was still far too much skin for a man to see.

But…he had made a fair point. He was her husband.

Feeling absolutely exposed, she waited in mortification as he made his way back into the washroom with a bucket of steaming water. True to his word, he kept his eyes downcast, set the bucket by the tub, and gave her his back.

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