Page 24 of Untouched Queen by Royal Command

‘In. But I don’t think they’ve returned. I think these ones were merely absent when Tomas came for the rest. I’m glad they were both away and not just one of them. I think they’re a mated pair.’

‘Do you know what kind they are?’

‘Tomas tells me they’re Great Horned Owls. I sent him photos. Lianthe would say it’s a good omen.’

‘And what do you say?’

‘As long as they stay up there and I stay down here, I say we can probably come to some kind of mutual living arrangement. The bathing pool was filled today.’ It was a change of topic, a change of voice—lighter now, with a faint undercurrent of enthusiasm. He risked a backwards glance and found her standing and somehow changed. More hopeful, perhaps. More relaxed. ‘It really has been a pleasure to see this place come alive again. It’s been over a hundred and twenty years since anyone’s lived here. Don’t you find that just a little bit fascinating?’

Memory conjured up the marble pool room, with fancy tiles, private alcoves and exposed stone benches. He did want to see the transformation; there was no denying it. ‘Show me.’

The dirty grey colours he remembered now glowed ivory, each marble vein shining beneath layers of polish. Sera flicked a switch and lit the area, contemporary lighting, all of it, but it felt as if flame flickered and shadows danced.

‘What are the alcoves full of pillows for?’ he asked.

‘Massage, body treatments, sex. There’s a steam room here too. I know you’ll not use any of it but we went with authenticity. This was its function.’

She had such an easy way of saying sex. As if it was nothing. Just another function of the body. He’d never found it so, endorphins or otherwise. Sex was revealing, and he far preferred to keep his own counsel. ‘And the main pool is heated?’

‘To three degrees above body temperature. Three hundred years ago your forebears and mine used fire to heat the pool. Yesterday, engineers from the High Reaches laid solar strips to the framework of the dome. This part of your palace now powers itself, and then some.’

Her face had lit up and her pleasure at the improvements seemed real.

He’d agreed to modifications to the rooms Sera occupied. He hadn’t specifically agreed to any of this. Under the guise of honouring tradition, it felt as if the power here had been quite deftly wrested from his grasp.

She watched him from the shadows while he struggled with what to do with her in private as well as in public.

‘Would you like to bathe?’ she asked at last—she had to know he wanted more than that. She’d been taught to read people, had she not? Surely she could see the tension and the want in him and not just for warm water. He wanted what the cursed pleasure wheel had told him he could have. He wanted her hands on him, undressing him, washing his hair as he reclined. All those things the bathing picture showed and more, while the light from the wall sconces threw puppet shadows on the walls.

‘I shouldn’t.’

‘Seems a shame to let it go to waste.’

‘Don’t tempt me.’

‘Sometimes a bath can be just a bath.’

‘Say my name.’ He needed to hear it fall from those perfect lips.

She looked at him, as if trying to read his mood and good luck with that.

‘That was an order.’

‘Augustus.’

She made it sound like welcome and desire all rolled into one and he tried not to curse as he shoved his hand through his hair and tried to make sense of both his demands and his resistance. ‘Did they make you practise that?’

They had. Sera knew better than many how to modulate her voice to convey different feelings. But the breathlessness in her voice this time was all hers. She gestured towards a stack of towels and potions, trying to get back on track. ‘Augustus, would you like to bathe? The pool is ready and I’ve had lessons in how to make the experience a relaxing one. I could wash your hair. Oils to soothe, invigorate and everything in between. What is your mood?’

‘You mean you can’t tell?’

‘You’re hard to read.’ She hadn’t been expecting the way forward for her that he’d proposed. A public image to craft and shape. A role beyond those already identified by the tapestry. And nothing but strict hands-off in private. It was the keeping-distance-in-private request she would have the most trouble with. ‘Or you could bathe alone and I can go and read a book in another room. This pool is for your use, Augustus. In any way you see fit.’

She turned away, left him to his thoughts, and approached a small side table groaning with essential oils and liquid soaps. She reached for the sandalwood, bergamot and orange and mixed them in a hand bowl, taking her time. ‘I find ritual soothing,’ she murmured, still not looking at him as she took the bowl to the water’s edge and poured the fragrant oil mix into it, rinsing the bowl three times before setting it aside and rising. ‘But if you prefer less ritual and more distance, perhaps you might cast me in the role of pool attendant. I can pile towels by the side of the pool and leave you to it.’

She didn’t want to shatter the fragile peace they’d created this evening. She wanted it to continue.

‘What does the ritual involve?’ he rasped.

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