He was weak and feverish, but he needed to be out of his dirty clothing. She started with his heavy boots, pulling them off him with unsteady hands. She wasn’t embarrassed. She was tired. The wheelbarrow had been difficult enough. Carrying him into the castle and to his bed had been the hardest physical labor she’d ever done.
Her main concern was cooling Lord Daniel’s fever. She could tell by touch that it was dangerously high, and he needed to be wiped with a cool cloth. That would be her next task. She would have happily sent for someone to help her, but she had no means to contact anyone. No footman or maid to send with a missive to a doctor who might live miles upon miles away. She was alone here until Mrs. Hocking came tomorrow, and she had never felt the isolation so keenly.
Or such freedom.
She had never touched a man intimately. She had never had the luxury to study the bones and muscles of a mature man. She had never examined what was covered, and now she had no choice.
She began with what she could manage. His boots were off, but now she tugged at his wet stockings until his feet were revealed. The Chinese looked closely at feet, and though she had never thought a man’s feet very attractive, she readily noted that Lord Daniel had strong, healthy bones. His joints were straight, the form pleasing, and…and perhaps even a man’s feet could be handsome.
She focused next on his coat and shirt. He was a big man, and she hadn’t the strength to move him around in order to pull them off. Which meant she had to cut them off his body. And though that grieved her, she knew he was a wealthy man with a full wardrobe. He would understand.
Such were the thoughts she distracted herself with as she found scissors in his workroom before she cut his attire. They did little to absorb her as she revealed his body, and soon she was looking at him as an artist thinks about form.
Broad shoulders created from a broad stroke of collarbone across to the top of the arm. Heavy muscles in his arms like more thick lines that tapered and thinned until the elegant stretch of his fingers. He had scars, she realized. A white line across his right biceps of a wound long healed. One finger had a thicker knuckle, no doubt from an injury long ago, but that did not detract as much as emphasize the beauty in the rest of his hand.
She lay his arms along his torso while her gaze greedily wove around his chest. A fine taper of chest hair emphasized the breadth of body, and she was fascinated by the whirl that circled the flat disc of his nipples. She lay her hands flat upon him, feeling for his heartbeat and measuring the strength of his breath.
Both were fast from the fever. Thankfully, she did not hear much noise in his lungs. And now it was time to cut away the rest of his clothes.
She ran her hands down his sides and beneath his waistband. She was searching for the button fastenings, but instead, found the hard jut of his hips and the narrowness of his waist. There was little fat on this man, and that worried her. He might need the reserves to fight this illness.
She found the fastenings and unbuttoned what she could, but that did not help her pull it off his body. In the end, she resorted to the scissors again. She cut away everything at once. He was becoming restless as his fever climbed and she needed to cool him quickly.
She focused on her task as the corded length of his thighs bulked and released beneath her hands. His knees were like a broad dot of bone that stroked two ways—up to his hips and down to his feet. His thighs, though, added to the upward stroke. His muscles were thickly defined, each a heavy sinew that wound upward.
And here she could see a man fully naked. She noted the wiry hair and his large organ, heavy and straight. Even here, Lord Daniel was broad and strong. A solid line that had weight even in this part of him.
He fascinated her.
She tugged away the last of his wet clothing and then began the work of cooling his fevered body. She trailed a wet cloth across every inch of him. And in so doing, she studied him, she caressed him, and she learned that—physically—he was a very powerful man.
And now, finally, all she had overheard from the women at the Lyon’s Den made more sense. She experienced for the first time how it felt to be attracted to a man’s body. And as she worked, she relived all that she had heard from those ladies. And she imagined herself doing such things with him.
It was enough to keep her wide awake through the long night.
By the timeMrs. Hocking arrived, Li-Na was exhausted. Lord Daniel’s fever had continued to climb. His cough was worse, and he had not kept down the weak tea she’d managed to make. The woman had taken one look, covered her nose and mouth with her apron, and said, “I’ll fetch the doctor.”
Sometime later, the countess arrived. Li-Na was wiping down his lordship’s legs when she heard a gasp. She was slow to turn, her mind feeling dull, when the woman came into her line of sight.
“He should be covered!” the lady cried as she twitched the coverlet over her brother-in-law.
Li-Na pulled it back. “He is too hot. He must cool down.”
The countess drew breath to argue, but another voice interrupted.
“She’s right. Let him cool.” It was Mrs. Hocking, her apron still over her nose and mouth as she stood in the doorway. When Li-Na turned to her, the woman continued. “He’ll be fine for a bit. Doctor’ll be here by nightfall. Though the witch woman is closer.”
“No,” the countess said, her expression stern. “I can just imagine what my father would say about me if he found out I took medicine from a witch instead of a doctor.”
Mrs. Hocking shrugged as if she’d expected as much. “I’ll make some broth. You get some rest.” Then she turned and walked out.
Li-Na stared after the woman, struggling to get her mind to where it needed to be.
“She’s right,” added the countess. “I’m here. You can rest.”
“You’ll keep washing him? He needs to be cooled.”
The countess bit her lip, her gaze jumping back and forth between Li-Na and her brother-in-law. In the end, she grabbed the wet rag and flopped it on top of his member.
