I balked.
“N-no,” I rasped, trying to tug my elbow out of Cal’s grip. “I had a bath yesterd—”
Beau sneered, the expression twisting her face into something polluted and ugly. “Daily bathing is a requirement, you filthy little beast. Captain’s orders.”
Bracing, I shook my head. “No.”
“Come now,” Tala hummed, trying to soothe. “The water is warm. It’s aluxury, sister. Especially considering how many men are in Captain Rawlings’ company.”
Feminine laughter rang out, echoing off the walls, but I twisted. Eyes seeking the place I’d last seen Alicia as panic began to bubble in my chest. “Please, don’t—”
A large hand landed between my shoulder blades. With a shove, Cal sent me tumbling over the edge of the pool.
Knees skinned, I went in head-first. Caught myself just before I face-planted into an underwater bench, then came up spluttering with indignant rage only to be jerked to the edge by my neck. The chains in Cal’s hands were nothing more than leverage, an advantage he flouted at a whim.
I coughed, scrubbing water from my eyes. Trying to catch my reflection in the rippling surface, desperate to see if the dye was running. My disguise slipping away as I stood in waist-deep water.
“Hold her still,” Beau said. And, with a wicked gleam in her milky eyes, she produced that accursed soap, slathering it between palms gnarled with age.
Cal yanked on the leash, threatening to hang me should I fight.
Head tipped back, I shivered in the over-warm bath. Felt the old woman’s claws score my scalp as she worked the soap into my hair hard enough to tear the follicles loose.
But I didn’t make a sound of protest.
Didn’t so much as wince at the tearing pain.
I merely dug my nails into my palms and counted the seconds, awaiting Alicia’s return.
Without warning, a bucket of warm water sloshed over my head, ringing my hair and sending soap cascading into my eyes and mouth as it ran all down my front.
“How could there possibly be more filth in that hair of yours?” Tala asked, running a hand through the cloudy water swirling around my waist.
A strangled sob burst from my lips, but that was it.
Alicia wouldn’t be much longer.
She wouldn’t.
And then Beau said, “Again,” lathering yet more of her infernal suds into a froth before she slapped it atop my head.
“I-isn’t it clean enough?” I begged, hating the wet slide of tears mixing with the dirty water tracking down my face. Already, my hair was several shades lighter.
A third shampooing would be my undoing.
And Alicia wasn’t here.
“You’re unfit for the privilege of Captain Rawlings’ company,” Beau replied acidly.
“It’s only soap,” Tala said. “It can’t hurt you.”
At this, I laughed. And—with a slipping sense of reality—had to admit Beau’s malevolent scalp massage actually felt rather nice.
“What do you think of red silks with her pale skin tone?” someone asked, though I couldn’t be bothered to pin the voice to the face. “The captain favors the darker tones, but red would looksopretty.”
I knew the instant it happened.
The very moment Beau learned my secret.
