Page 13 of His Betrothed
“Then let me take care of…certain areas.”
Roselyn waited outside in the darkness, her back against the cottage, hugging herself against the night wind. The stars overhead seemed distant, cold, and she had the strangest feeling of exposure. She closed her eyesand tried to pretend that she didn’t feel watched.
When Thornton called for her, she stepped inside and closed the door quickly. He had a towel wrapped tightly about his hips.
After wringing out the cloth in the soapy water, she washed carefully about his bandages, holding his long arms while she soaped them. When she looked up into his face she realized with a start that he was again watchingher.
He gave her a crooked grin. “I don’t suppose you’ll allow me to return the favor someday.”
A slow heat burned her face. How dare he tease her after he had rejected her? But he didn’t remember her—and she had rejected him in the end.
She managed to look coolly into his face while she worked soap into his short beard. “Shall I shave this for you?”
His smile fled, and his eyes narrowed,leaving her with a strange chill.
“Why would you ask such a thing?” he said in a low voice. “Do not most men of your acquaintance wear beards?”
She had seen him without one two years before, and merely made the error of thinking he still wore it that way. Why did he take offense?
“I did not know if you wore a beard. I was merely granting you the courtesy of asking.”
She didn’t break his gazeuntil he finally smiled and shook his head.
“Forgive me. I am not used to being so…coddled by a woman.”
“Have you no wife, Mr. Thornton?”
“No. The uncertainty of war delayed any thought of marriage.”
She longed to see some signs of guilt in his face, but he showed nothing. She placed towels about his head and proceeded to wash his hair, trying to quell her unease at this strange intimacy.
