Julian didn’t reply. He stripped off the rest of his clothing, leaving him naked from the waist up. There was a basin of cold water from the day before so he went to his saddlebags, pulling out a bar of white, lumpy soap that smelled of lavender. Using the cold water in the basin, he proceeded to lather it into a slick froth and ran it over his arms, neck, underarms, chest and, finally, his face.
But he’d gone silent for the most part and Lista was aware of that. She continued to blow on the fire, coaxing forth a healthy blaze.
“Did I bring up a subject you to not wish to speak of?” she asked. “If you do not ever wish to speak of your father, you only need tell me and I will never bring him up again. I am sorry if you thought I was prying. I wasn’t, truly.”
“I know,” he said, overlapping her last word. “I know you were not prying. Since this is a time of discovery between us, you should know that it is not easy for me to speak of my father.”
“You would prefer I did not speak of mine, too?”
He splashed water on his face and neck, rinsing the white froth off. “Nay, sweetheart,” he said softly. “You may speak of your father as much as you wish. I would like to come to know him through your eyes. But my situation with my father isdifferent. It is simply difficult for me to speak on him so do not press me if I won’t. Agreed?”
Lista turned away from the fire about the time Julian pulled out a cloth from his saddlebags to dry off with. “Agreed,” she said. But then she caught sight of his naked torso, illuminated in the weak light of the chamber, and her cheeks flamed. “Oh… goodness.”
Quickly, she turned away because the sight of Julian’s magnificent, naked torso had her heart thumping against her ribs. Naïvely, she hadn’t expected him to strip down and wash up, so she abruptly found herself in a rather intimate position with a man she found quite beautiful.
More beautiful when his clothes were off.
She stood up.
“I will leave you to rest,” she said, heading for the door and trying not to look at him. “I will be in the hall if you need me. Send a servant to fetch me and I will come.”
Julian paused in his drying. He couldn’t help but notice that she was moving rather rapidly for the door. “Wait,” he said. “Where are you running off to? You do not need to leave right away.”
Lista was at the door, her hand on the latch. “Aye, I do.”
“But why?”
She wouldn’t look at him, but she pointed a finger in his direction. “You are without clothing, sir,” she said. “It is not proper for me to be here.”
He grinned lazily. “I see,” he said, tossing the drying cloth onto the table. “You think we are in a compromising position?”
She could hear the humor in his voice. “Do not tease me, Julian,” she scolded. “You know it is not proper. You should have waited until I left before removing your clothing like that.”
“Don’t you like what you see?”
With a growl, she yanked the chamber door open and charged out, leaving him rushing after her. “Wait,” he called. “Lista, I am sorry, truly. Come back!”
She was already halfway down the corridor, heading for the hall. “Nay!”
He started laughing. “Please?”
“You are incorrigible, Julian de Velt!”
He watched her disappear through a doorway and, still laughing, he went back inside the chamber and shut the door. He hadn’t meant to chase her away but he had a feeling she’d run not because she was offended.
Because she was titillated.
It was just a feeling he had.
Going back to the basin, he stripped off his breeches and washed the rest of his body from the waist down with the lavender soap. It wasn’t that he had a penchant for being inordinately clean but more that he couldn’t stand the smell of a stinky body, especially his own. Once he was washed down and dried off, he climbed into the bed with the soft mattress, his thoughts lingering on the beautiful young woman with the sea-colored eyes.
Sleep claimed him before he realized it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“This situation isgoing to work in our favor astonishing well,” Flora said. “Did you see how the earl’s son looked at Lista? We havetwoknights to vie for her hand!”
They were back in their tower chamber. Having burned through the hemp, literally, they were now burning lavender and chamomile, which had a slightly calming effect. They also had at least three pitchers of wine and Flora had already drank her way through one of them. She was very drunk, inhaling the lavender and chamomile, as Meadow sat in the corner with her third cup of wine.
