“Enough to understand I’m a counterfeit rascal.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You should have made your presence known.”
Back was his she-dragon.
She lifted the heavy iron kettle off the fire.
He moved to her. “Let me help you.”
She put her hand up and stopped him. His skin burned and her gaze dropped from his eyes to where her palm lay on his chest. She snatched her hand back…lifted her chin so high he could see the dark hollow in her slim white throat.
“No, thank you.” She filled the tub with hot water and it steamed upward.
From one of the ice-cold buckets Eldon had drawn from the well, she refilled the kettle over the fire and then turned to him, her fists plunked on her hips. “If you think Orpha’s implication means more than drawing your bath, you’ve a lesson to learn.”
“I’ve looked forward to a hot bath for a long time. Promise not to look?”
“Ha! I’ve more important things to do with my time. Take your clothes off. I’ll launder them when you’re finished. On the table, there are linens for your use.”
She turned her back to him and dried dishes, dismissing him like a queen would a minor peasant. Joshua chuckled and tore off his clothes, laid them in a pile and eased into the copper tub, letting the warmth soak his exhausted muscles. Water sloshed to the floor. The she-dragon would not be happy. “A cake of soap?”
From over her shoulder, she tossed him the bar where it plunked into the bath, splashing his face. She must have practiced the trick.
“It’s the master’s precious bay rum soap. Now I have to add mopping the floor to my chores tonight,” she said gruffly.
He wanted to know her. Had she thought she signed up for a better life in the Colonies like so many people were fooled into doing? “Why are you here?”
“I’m not expected to explain the entirety of it to you.” Her tone betrayed her unwillingness to do so.
With the sponge, Joshua scrubbed his arms and neck. At Belvoir, he’d have his bath in his chambers attended by several footmen and his valet. Here in the Colonies, he’d settled for the less civilized and lovely view of her backside. He imagined a shapely bottom and long lithe legs. “Trying to make pleasant conversation is all.”
“No, you are not. You want to know if I was a thief or some other vile character transported to the Colonies. I should askyou, why you are really here?”
Treadcarefully, his inklings regarding her were correct. If she were a Loyalist she might report her suspicions.
She pressed her palms into her back, as if to rub away a pain, and her rounded bosom strained against the linen of her threadbare gown. His throat went dry.
“You didn’t answer my question. What are you running away from?”
Did she grow more ethereal in the candlelight? A feast for his eyes and torment for his body. Her question taunted him, reminding him how he had arrived at this miserable point in his life.
Images of his dead fiancée, like an old dream, and all the living and dying and heartbreak that went on continuously in his head. In those flashes of sudden remembrance, the inability to protect his Sarah plagued him. His hands shook…damp and helpless.
He shoved away the memory and resented Juliet for making him dredge up the past. Yet it wasn’t her fault. He decided to make light of the present awkward situation. “I’m trying to place what animal Horace’s hair reminds me of.”
Juliet burst out laughing. “A skunk.”
She hurried to complete her tasks, anything to get out of his proximity. Gently reared, she had not once seen a naked man and being forced into this position irked her.
Silence as thick as mud fell over them. She glanced at the door, waiting for Mary to reappear so she wouldn’t have to endure the frontiersman’s company alone. What was taking her so long?
“You’re ignoring of me is so loud, it’s deafening.”
His amusement rankled her. “Perhaps your dim-wittedness has left you deaf.”
A deep boisterous rumble echoed through the room. “You are not used to bathing a man?”
He wanted to know if this was part of her duties with all invited male guests. Let him think what he wanted. “Done with the same pleasure of handling a sack of cats I want to drown.”
