Page 244 of Historical Hotties
She sighed heavily, still looking at the ground. “I… I do not know,” she said. “I must think. Let me… think. Please.”
Thor knew it had been a lot to take in, especially for someone who had come from a marriage where she had been treated like an annoyance. What he was offering her was foreign at best.
A fantasy? Maybe.
But it was a fantasy he wanted.
“You can think all you wish,” he said. “I simply wanted to tell you what my expectations were. However, what I do want to settle is the fact that when I go to Stafford, you will go with me because I really do need your help. Will you at least accompany me there?”
She hesitated a moment before nodding. She didn’t speak, but she nodded.
That was all Thor needed.
Standing up, he headed for the chamber door. “Good,” he said. “You have my thanks. Now, I will summon a bath for you and find some ladies to help you dress for the day.”
Her head came up. “Did you not hear what I said?” she said. “I do not have anything finer than what you see.”
He paused by the door, winked at her, and opened it. After stepping through the panel, he shut it quietly behind him, leaving Caledonia feeling disoriented, confused, but also the slightest bit… giddy. She’d never had a man wink at her.
You idiot!she thought to herself.
But that didn’t stop her from smiling.
The day, as Thor had planned it, was in motion.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“There is soapin my eye!”
Caledonia squeezed her stinging eye shut as a maid poured water all over her head and face, rinsing off the slimy soap that smelled of lavender and rose, something that had been scrubbed into her skin and hair until everything was fresh and tingling.
All of it under the direction of a rather dictatorial young woman.
After Thor had left Caledonia with a wink and a smile, he’d returned a short time later with a beautiful young woman at his side. She was petite, with luxurious red hair and the same bright blue eyes that Thor had. It didn’t take a genius to figure out they were related, even before Thor introduced her as his youngest sister, Lady Nicola de Reyne.
It was Nicola who took charge of preparing her brother’s bride, from dresses she brought with her to a bathtub that had been filled with hot water and floating rose petals. Nicola had brought three servants with her, women who moved efficiently to their mistress’ orders, and that had included stripping Caledonia of what she was wearing and nearly drowning her in the bathtub she currently sat in. Lots of soap, lots of scrubbing,and the final insult was rinsing her hair with flat ale that stung her eyes and did nothing to help her aching head.
Meanwhile, Thor must have been standing outside of the chamber door, because Nicola kept going to the panel and talking through it. It seemed that they were debating about what dress Caledonia should wear, as if she didn’t have a say in the matter, and when she was finally scoured within an inch of her life, she was pulled out of the tub and plopped in front of the hearth that had a steady fire in it. The wood crackled and popped as she was vigorously dried, all of which aggravated her aching head, until Thor passed something through the door to Nicola, who brought it over to a table near Caledonia. It was a basin that contained some kind of liquid, and Nicola made a compress out of the rag that was in it. She had Caledonia lean forward as she put a cold compress smelling strongly of mint on the back of her neck.
It was enough to elicit a groan of relief from Caledonia.
After that, she didn’t much care what Nicola did to her. Her head was forward, the compress was on her neck, and the servants went about drying her hair in front of the heat. Nicola gave the order to remove the tub, and it was promptly withdrawn as Thor stood in the doorway and supervised. But his gaze soon moved to his betrothed as she sat in front of the fire wrapped in several towels. It wasn’t improper because she was covered up, but Nicola kicked him out and shut the door in his face once the tub was removed.
She could hear her brother complaining through the closed panel.
“He asked me to help, so I am helping,” Nicola said as she approached Caledonia. “Now he wants to come in and bother us, but we do not need his help. He can wait until the final product is presented.”
Caledonia’s head was still down, but she assumed that Nicola was speaking to her. “You have been most helpful, my lady,” she said, though she felt as if she’d been beaten on a rock like a pile of laundry. “I hope it was not too much trouble for you.”
Nicola knelt on the ground next to Caledonia so she could look her in the eye. “It was no trouble at all,” she said. “I was already at Westminster.”
Caledonia could see her from the corner of her eye, as it was difficult to turn her head with the compress on her neck. “Are you visiting?”
Nicola shook her head. “I serve at court,” she said. “My mother sent me to the queen two years ago. I do not think I have ever seen you, my lady. I hear you are the Countess of Tamworth and Stafford.”
Caledonia’s initial impression of Nicola, aside from her being rather bossy, was one of kindness. Strangely enough, it was. The woman was decisive and gave orders, but she also had an easy manner about her. Even now, in speaking to a woman she didn’t know, she smiled and seemed very interested in her. That put Caledonia at ease somewhat.
“I do not travel in the same social circles that you do because my husband was not part of that crowd,” Caledonia said after a moment. “Do… do you like it at court?”
