“See.” Lucy gestured toward the water.
They made their way over to the edge.
“I would have never known this was here,” Derek said.
Shadows played off the wall, and the light from the pool made rings around the room. They glowed brightly and then faded depending on the movement of the water.
Lucy took a deep breath. Removing her gloves, she bent down and skimmed her fingers over the surface of the pool. “No one knew it was here for so long. It’s amazing to think how long it went undiscovered.”
Derek slid his hands into his pockets. “Yes, hundreds of years.”
Lucy stood and tilted up her chin to look at him. “Do you have a coin?”
“A coin? Why?”
She smiled. “They say if you toss a coin in this pool, your wish shall come true.”
“Do they?” Derek’s look could only be described as skeptical.
“Yes. But you cannot tell anyone what you wish for or it may not come true.”
He poked his cheek out with his tongue. “You believe that?”
She shrugged. “No use tempting fate.”
He pulled a small pouch from an interior pocket of his coat and fished out a coin. He handed it to her. “Here you are, my lady.”
“Thank you, kind sir.” Lucy took the coin from his hand, trying to ignore the warmth of his bare skin. She squeezed the coin in her fist, closed her eyes, and whispered her wish to herself.Let everything work out the way it is meant to with Cass and Julian and Derek and Lord Berkeley. Oh, and myself. And Jane and Garrett, too.Was that too much to wish for? Too late. She tossed the coin in the pool, watching as the little piece of metal slipped beneath the surface. Ripples spread out from the spot where it had vanished.
Lucy turned to Derek. “Now it’s your turn,” she announced.
“I’ll keep my coins, I think.” He stuffed the little pouch back into his coat.
Lucy crossed her arms over her middle. “Not a believer, Your Grace?”
“On the contrary, I believe in many things, my lady. For instance, I believe that sound decision-making causes better results than tossing coins into a pool.” The way he looked at her made Lucy very aware of the fact that they were alone together in the hushed little room. The footman and the groom had stayed outside with the coach.
She pushed a wayward curl behind her ear, intent upon changing the subject. “Do you believe the waters truly have curative effects?”
Derek smiled. He slipped his hands back into his pockets. “I’ve no idea, but I cannot think it would hurt to try them. I’ve heard that people bathe in the hot springs.”
Lucy gulped. She nodded. An image flashed through her mind, one of herself in a wet, clingy bit of fabric in the hot water of the springs with Derek, his lips at her neck, his hands on her thighs, his…
“The Romans were truly amazing,” he said, snapping Lucy from her wayward thoughts. She pressed a hand against her throat and shook her head. “Y… yes,” she managed to choke out, still actively picturing him without his shirt.
“I studied their battles extensively at university,” he added.
Lucy’s head snapped to the side to face him. “You attended university?” The words were out of her mouth before she had a chance to examine them. Oh, God. She wanted to kick herself for the rudeness of her question, not to mention the awful tone in which she’d asked it. As if there was no possible way it could be true. She briefly considered jumping into the pool to hide. No. Too idiotic. Plus, it would ruin her clothing. On the other hand, Derek might jump in to save her. And that presented a tempting possibility.
“Does it surprise you that I went to university?” The hint of a smile played upon his distracting lips.
“No. No. No. Of course not.” But there was no going back. Her babbling denial was useless.
He arched a brow, telling her without a word that he thought she was protesting a bit too much. “There is much to learn from history books and the armies of the past. I wasn’t only trained as a soldier. I studied all the greats, Charlemagne, Hadrian, Genghis Khan.”
Lucy stared unblinking into the pool. She nodded slowly. It had been unfair of her, truly unfair, to believe he was merely a brute soldier, not a gentleman. She hadn’t known anything about him really. She’d judged him entirely on his status of not having been born into the aristocracy. She swallowed, unable to peel her gaze from the brownish stone of the floor of the bathhouse. The guilt was really beginning to compound today, wasn’t it?
“Cass should be here,” Lucy blurted out, thinking for some reason that inserting Cass back into the conversation was the right thing to do.
