Page 38 of Almost a Bride
She gave him a smug glance, but found herself distracted by the candlelight flickering across his face and bare chest.
“There’s water boiling in the bake house. I’ll add it to the rainwater in the barrel.”
Thornton continued to frown. Did he think such a simple tub was beneath him? Surely things had not been so easy aboard ship—she well remembered how he had smelled before she bathed him.
When the barrel was little more than half full, he took the buckets from her hand. “Enough!” he said sharply. “You have worked hard enough today.”
She covered her shock with disdain. “Surely if we had married, I would have served you like this. Isn’t that what you demand of a woman?”
“I can think of other ways you would have served me,” he said in a low voice.
Without breaking her gaze, he began to unlace his breeches.
Chapter 12
Roselyn was torn about her role in this farce—should she play the shy maiden and turn away, or boldly watch Thornton disrobe as if she were a wife in truth? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him naked before.
But this was different—he was no longer unconscious, or even badly wounded. He knew what he was about as he began to remove his garments, pausing to look up at her, his mouth quirked in half a grin as if to say,Well?
“You forget,” she said, “I have been a wife.”
His smile died, and she knew with sickening certainty that angering him would not help her cause.
“And Grant did not require you at his bath?” he asked.
“He did not need such help—he was not a child.” She could have also added that Philip wouldn’t bathe more than a few times each season.
She held her breath, waiting for Thornton to erupt because she’d implied that he was a child.
Instead, he grinned. “The man didn’t know what he was missing.”
She was thankful for the dark, so he couldn’t see her blush.
“But you are right,” he continued. “You’re not my wife, and ’tis unfair of me to shock you. Help me into the barrel, and then I’ll remove the breeches.”
“No,” she said firmly. “I only allowed this to go on so long because I thought you would surely realize how impossible a bath is.”
“Lady Roselyn—”
“I will not help you in this foolishness which, should you hurt yourself, would set back your recovery by days.”
By candlelight, she could see the anger and indecision in his eyes. “Very well,” he said abruptly. “I shall wash outside tonight, where I can thoroughly soak myself. But don’t go running off.”
“And why not?” she asked unsteadily, trying to chase away the image of Thornton naked in the yard, with streams of water running down his body. “Surely you want privacy.”
“What if I fall? I don’t want to have to yell when I need you—we mustn’t awaken theHeywoods.”
She glanced longingly at the dark cottage, knowing that he was right.
Softly he said, “You forgot to set the soap within reach.”
Gritting her teeth, Roselyn strode back to the half wall where she’d left the supplies. Keeping her gaze on the ground, she set the linens and dish of soap on the crate beside the barrel. Her hands shook just knowing that he was nearly naked, that he stood so tall and confident, affecting her in ways she didn’t want to contemplate.
She returned to sit on a bench in the courtyard, beneath a black sky freckled with stars. The air was warm, though a breeze ruffled her skirts.
She glanced once at Thornton, then gave a little gasp as his flung his breeches onto the stone wall, which thankfully hid him from the waist down.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he called, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “After all, you tell me you’ve seen all this before.”
