Gar sighed heavily. “It has nothing to do with your sister,” he said. “She is just a woman I do not know. I have no feelings toward her one way or the other. But I have a life, and a vocation, and a wife does not fit into either right now.”
Maksim understood, but still, given that the subject in question was his sister, he struggled not to be offended by Gar’s attitude. He looked at Gar again, from head to toe, seeing the filth and the dirt and the disheveled appearance. He gestured toward him.
“Is this truly your natural state?” he said. “Or was this part of some plan to offend my sister so terribly that she would beg my father to break the betrothal? Because no man is this filthy, Gar. Not even a warlord on the Scots border.”
Gar looked down at himself. “I do not have a wife telling me what to wear or to clean myself,” he said. “I am what you see, Maksim. I am sorry if that is disappointing.”
Maksim simply shook his head as if disheartened by the entire situation. “As I said before,” he said, “she has been looking forward to this for ten years. If you are to discourage her, do not be cruel about it. She does not deserve it.”
The manservant chose that moment to return, followed by men bearing a big copper tub and still more men bearing buckets of steaming water. As Maksim quit the knights’ quarters, Gar finished stripping off his clothing and the tub was filled up. He climbed into the bath, hissing because the water was so hot, and the manservant pulled out a cake of white soap that smelled of pine needles along with a horsehair brush and went to work.
And Gar let him.
CHAPTER FOUR
Winchester was tiedup.
It wasn’t usual that Mattie tied her dog up, but unfortunately, he had earned it. He kept looking at her with sad doggy eyes, whining because he was restrained, but Mattie ignored him. He’d done something so terrible that she couldn’t even look at him, horrified in a way that she had never been horrified before. She could still see her dog hanging on to Gar’s breeches, tearing the whole back side into shreds and exposing the poor man’s taut buttocks to the world.
She wasn’t sure she would ever be over that.
Lady Hensingham was equally appalled even though she hadn’t witnessed the event. Agnes had told Lady Hensingham, quite gleefully, and Lady Hensingham was suitably mortified. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see to the man who had been offended in her bailey because she was busy with the man’s father. As chatelaine, she had to focus on the most important person in her home—and that happened to be Troy.
It would be up to Mattie to apologize for her dog’s behavior.
That was the message that Agnes had given Mattie and the woman had been beside herself with embarrassment andindecision. Gar had gone off to the knights’ quarters with her brother and Mattie wasn’t entirely sure that he wasn’t going to lambast her for her disobedient dog. Not that she didn’t deserve it, but the last thing she wanted was for Gar de Wolfe, her betrothed, to be angry with her.
She simply didn’t know what to do.
Her first and only decision at that point was to tie the dog up so he couldn’t wreak further havoc, but after that, she contemplated the course of action to take. As Mattie paced around in her chamber, wringing her hands with worry, her gaze fell upon her sewing kit. She came to a halt, looking at the kit and realizing that she could repair the torn breeches if Gar would allow it.
There was only one way to find out.
Rushing into her mother’s chamber across the landing, she went to a big chest against the wall and began to rifle through it, looking for scraps of fabric that could be used to repair Gar’s breeches. Agnes lent a hand and the two of them found several large pieces of sturdy linen that might be of service. Gathering those scraps, and her sewing kit, Mattie made a dash for the stairs but Agnes was right behind her. Perhaps a little too eager to see bare buttocks again, or so Mattie suspected. Agnes tended to be a little man-crazy at times. Forcing Agnes to remain behind was probably more difficult that trying to keep Winchester off Gar, but eventually, she triumphed. Agnes returned to her chamber to sulk alongside the dog as Mattie made her way out of the keep and over to the knights’ quarters.
Truthfully, she never came to this part of the bailey because this was where the men were lodged, both knights and soldiers. It wasn’t that she wasn’t allowed here, but it simply wasn’t a good idea for a woman to be in this particular area because of all the men. Still, she had a job to do, a peace offering as it were, and she was determined to go forward with it. Carrying the fabric,and the big sewing kit, she walked up to the door of the knights’ quarters.
Then, she paused.
She couldn’t very well go inside. Well, not really. She shouldn’t. It was a men-only establishment. As she stood there, indecisive, she began to hear water splashing. Each chamber in the knights’ quarters had small windows for ventilation, and they were just above her head. She couldn’t see in, but she could hear more splashing and some grunting going on. At some point, someone cursed softly and demanded his skin not be scrubbed off his body.
Taking a deep breath, Mattie summoned her courage.
“My lord?” she called up to the window. “Sir Gar? Is that you?”
She was met with silence. Then, she heard more splashing and she called out again.
“Sir Gar?” she said. “This is Matilda. Mattie. Is that you?”
“It is.”
Suddenly, there was a face in the small window and a deep, bone-rattling voice had replied. In fact, it had startled her. With a gasp, she jumped back a little, looking up to the window and seeing a nose and eyes.
She recognized the pale green eyes.
“I… I am sorry to disturb you,” she said, suddenly nervous. “I came to apologize for my dog and to offer to repair your breeches. I have brought a sewing kit.”
She lifted it slightly, showing it to him, and his gaze moved to the rather elaborate box. But there was awkwardness in the air, something not missed by either of them. A good deed was turning into an odd moment as Mattie wondered if he was even going to accept her apology.
