Page 42 of Thief of Roses
XVII.
“That yt ys so temperateys mooste fortunate.”
“If you had told me of a pond earlier,” she chided him in Rivanic, “I could have made use of it.”She had been less than pleased when she found out about it only after expressing dismay at the idea of hauling buckets of water around for bathing now.
“It is warm yet,” he rephrased in her tongue.He sniffed the air.“I think it will be for a while.I am anticipating a mild winter.”
“I hope so.I have every intention of coming here every day I won’t freeze to death.”She kept her hand on his shoulder and her dirty clothing on her other hip.
After his convalescence, Baró tried walking on hind legs.Rivani scolded him for attempting it when he was in no physical condition to do such a thing, especially when it was purely for vanity and pride.The livid, tender wounds on his ankles and legs only complicated his gait.Although he insisted, she outmatched him, citing that the reason he bothered to walk on two legs was for her.And he relented.
The one serious incident, that of acquiring a new gift, spurred a whole new situation of embarrassment and shame although he behaved as if he were immune to these changes.But his face could not lie to her, betraying his humiliation over the addition of a tail.When she suggested making an opening for it in his pants, he glared at her as if she had suggested that he do something absurd.
“I would prefer to hide it,” he told her.
“From whom precisely?”She shot back, her arms thrown out wide to indicate the emptiness of his home.
He relented again.His tail now stuck through the neat opening she made in the fabric.
“You know, Baró,” she said, “you don’t have to wear pants for me.”
“I know,” he grumbled.Rivani did not expect him to say anything else, but he added, “I wear them for me.”
“That’s acceptable,” Rivani assured him.“However, I hope you’re prepared to surrender them.They need cleaning.”
He glowered at her.
“It will afford me a nice backside view,” she teased.And frontside, she didn’t say.She dropped her hand from his shoulder and winked at him.
She moved ahead of him with the sight of the pond and unburdened herself at the water’s edge.Sticking a toe in the pond, she shivered.Cold, yes, but she had taken colder baths than this.And if she were getting choice views of Baró, she admitted that she might need a cold bath, especially if she continued on in this fanciful vein and still intended to preserve his sense of modesty.Baró might be a monster, but between the two of them, she trusted herself less.
After taking cover behind bushes, Baró handed his pants over.Rivani found his modesty amusing since he only did it because of the delicate sensibilities he imagined she possessed.Without her there, Baró would never have bothered with the pretense of clothing.Perhaps that was what had made those absurd fripperies in his wardrobe so distasteful to her.He was a forest god, above such paltry, yet pretentious, human trappings.
“Although temperate, it will grow dark sooner,” she warned him.“If you intend to bathe, do not tarry.Fair warning — propriety will have to go by the wayside as I will be joining you shortly.”
He grunted at her pronouncement and she laughed.
She would scandalize Baró if he learned her full views on the matter.He had been a docile patient when she had tended him, but he drew a hard line between the nudity of the sick room and nudity anywhere else.
