Nicholas had left before she’d awoken, and when she’d asked Private Fitchie where he’d gone, the boy had claimed not to know. Worried about Nicholas and feeling more than a wee bit cankersome, she’d asked Private Fitchie to bring water, soap, and a brush so that she could clean the floor, only to have Minna and Goody Wallace enter, arms full, to do the job for her. When she’d tried to help, they told her to sit and have some tea, saying that Nicholas would be upset with them if they allowed her to do anything strenuous.
Minna had stood firm. “We owe you both our families’ lives, so please dinnae argie wi’ us.”
In short order, the room had been swept and scrubbed from one end to the other, and the bed linens had been stripped and replaced with new, sweet-smelling linens Annie had sent over from the trading post.
“A gift from yer husband, a thoughtful man and a brave one,” Goody Wallace had said as she’d made the bed. “I’ve ne’er seen a man so in love wi’ his wife as your Master Kenleigh.”
Her words had made Bethie smile, though it still bothered her that she and Nicholas were allowing these good people to believe a lie.
By the late afternoon, she and Belle were all that remained in need of cleaning. ’Twas then she learned she would have to bathe her daughter in cold water, as Captain Écuyer had recently ordered the rationing of firewood. Though Bethie thought the water felt heavenly when pressed against her throat with a cloth, Belle, who’d been fussy all day, had shrieked in protest when Bethie had dipped her in the bucket. By the time Nicholas walked through the door, Bethie was close to tears herself.
“I can see I’ve arrived just in time.” He strode through the door, a smile on his face, his shirt stained with sweat.
Annie came through the door behind him, a bundle beneath her arm, followed by two soldiers carrying what looked like a horse trough with legs, a third carrying firewood and a fourth carrying dinner from the officers’ mess.
“What is all this about?” Bethie stared in amazement.
Nicholas grinned. “I heard you wanted to take a bath.”
“She should eat her supper before it grows cold!” Annie dropped her bundle on the bed, scooped Belle from Bethie’s arms. “How is Auntie Annie’s little Isabelle?”
As abruptly as they’d arrived, the soldiers left, Annie behind them with Belle in her arms.
Nicholas gestured to the table. “Sit and eat, love. It’s not much, I’m afraid.”
Bethie sat, lifted the cloth from her plate. Boiled beef and some dearly won greens. “Will you join me?”
“Aye, after I get this fire started. Young Fitchie should be back with water at any moment.”
“Fire? But I thought—”
“That it’s against general orders to burn wood in the barracks? Aye, it is. But Écuyer is letting me break the rules tonight. It seems he owes me.”
Soon their plates were empty, and the bathtub—for that’s what it surely was, a proper bathtub—was filled with steaming water and floating sprigs of lavender, which Nicholas admitted to have stolen from the king’s garden and which filled the room with their heady scent.
“Fit for a princess.” Nicholas set a bar of soap on a chair beside the tub.
Bethie felt almost giddy with excitement. “I’ve never had a bath so grand!”
Then Nicholas reached out, cupped her cheek, drew her near. “I want this to be a new start for you, love. It’s over. Sorley is dead. He was executed early this morning.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. “Richard is... dead?”
’Twas such momentous news she barely knew what to feel. Grief? He’d been her stepbrother. Happiness? He’d all but ruined her life. But then one emotion stood clear from the rest: relief.
“There’s more.” Nicholas looked gravely into her eyes. “I was on the firing squad. I fired the shot that killed him.”
“You? You killed him?”
Nicholas nodded, his lips a grim line. “I wish I could say I felt some compassion for him in the end, but I didn’t. I was happy to pull that trigger.”
Unsure what to say, Bethie laid her head against his chest, stunned by what he had done for her. ’Twas no small thing to take another man’s life.
He kissed her hair. “Your bathwater is getting cold. I’ll be right outside the door if you need me.”
As he released her and turned to leave, it dawned on Bethie that somehow Nicholas had known. Somehow he’d understood her need to wash all traces of Richard from her bed, her home, her body.
“Nicholas, stop! Dinnae go. Bathe with me.”
