Not that I could blame her. From what I'd seen so far, Brigid was an imminently practical woman. My own mother had been wonderful, sweet, soft, and somewhat ornamental. She'd played the part of the alpha's omega well, hosting events with the region's prominent betas and omegas, taking baskets to the poor and elderly on holidays, and orbiting beautifully around my father. She'd never been spotted covered in dust with an apron around her waist, sweat on her brow and a determined squint in her eye.
I'd wanted to both kiss Brigid's rough knuckles and rumple her already untidy skirts when I'd left her earlier.
No doubt she'd waited exactly five spare minutes before sitting down and enjoying her own dinner. Hopefully, there'd besome cold cuts on a tray for me in my rooms…unless she was the punishing sort.
Strangely, that idea brought a grin to my face.
But it was not a cold covered tray I found in my rooms, or even the absence of one.
Brigid was bent, pouring a kettle of hot water in the largest copper tub I'd seen outside of the one in my parent's personal rooms. She looked to me in the doorway as she poured, and her lips twitched.
"I heard you were rolling about with the animals, but I thought they exaggerated," she said, an attractive crackle in her low voice that made me shift in place.
She straightened and set the kettle aside, gesturing to the tub. "Undress. I'm playing handmaiden."
My hand clenched on the doorknob of the bedroom, and for a moment my thoughts flooded with heat, a senseless hunger. But my vision cleared, and I caught the subtle twist of Brigid's fingers before she hid her hands behind her back.
"I'd offer to help, but then we'd both be covered in muck and the tub's really only big enough for one," she said, voice rising brightly.
I could've argued that point. I would certainly have been able to find a way we both might fit—tangled together—but I cleared my throat and turned to shut the door behind me.
My mind tripped over stray questions. What exactly was she offering? What motivated the offering? My body flicked the questions away, desire demanding the majority of my attention. Not all of the lust I felt was even for the woman waiting by the tub. I was sore and dirty, I stank, and there was a steaming tub of hot water ready and waiting for me. I wanted to be soaking in that steam as soon as possible.
I reached to my collar and then had to force myself not to startle as I found Brigid at my shoulder, unfastening the plackets around my wings, stirring warm air over my skin.
"I take it you're staying," I said, holding my suddenly restless wings still so they wouldn't knock into her.
Her hands faltered in their work, knuckles brushing at my spine, a shiver of pleasure at the careless touch racing up to raise the hairs at the nape of my neck.
"Unless you'd prefer I go," she said.
I'd been managing my own baths just fine for forty-odd years, and Brigid was virtually a stranger. But she'd done more for the care of the keep in a handful of hours today than anyone had bothered with in a year. She was my omega. We'd have to grow used to one another soon enough.
"Stay," I said, reaching for the front of my trousers. "Tell me about your day."
"My day? Yours looks to have been more exciting."
"I wrestled three sheep who'd found themselves a hiding spot up by the crags, got knocked into shit, and perhaps broke a toe," I said, shrugging free of my shirt with her help. I pulled away and sat down, reaching for the heel of my boot and then raising a hand as she stepped forward, expression gamely serene and ready to help. "No, you're clean and let's keep it that way."
"Careful of your toe. I'll take a look at it once it's had a soak," she said. "Are the sheep back with the flock?"
"They are, though this isn't their first escape."
Brigid snorted at that, and I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she stirred some sort of oil into the water with her hand.
"I ordered fresh linens for the nest," she said, and I grunted as I managed to free one foot from a muddied, mucked boot. "And I sent a boy to speak to the local thatchers for the roof. Iconsidered putting maids to work on the rooms that have been damaged by the leaks, but..."
"It's sure to rain tomorrow," I said, and she murmured an agreement.
The moment struck me strangely hard, domestic and awkward but somehow easy too. Had she spoken with Barr like this? But that wondering burned in my chest, and I nearly growled, swallowing the sound down quickly before I could startle her.
"There's food, if you're hungry."
I was starving, but I rose to the sideboard at the far side of the room and washed my hands and arms before nudging my loosened pants and smalls down my hips. There was a hitch of breath by the tub, and a small smile curved my lips. I wanted to turn and see where she was looking. Was she still staring at me, or had she blushed and turned away?
I spun to face her and found her kneeling by the tub, a cloth being wrung to a rope between her hands and a shock of color across her cheeks that darkened as I approached. Otherwise, she looked perfectly calm, her eyes focused on my face, pointedly fixed above my bare hips.
Which was good. Hopefully, she wasn't noticing my cock stirring just at the thought of her looking fully at me. Was this a seduction? It didn't seem like one, but it was doing the trick all the same.
