When her eyes widened and it appeared she was about to put voice to a protest, he grinned. “We can share,” he suggested.
She tittered softly. “You’re obviously not familiar with the bathtub,” she replied dryly. “But I’m willing to try.”
He chuckled as he made his way back to the dressing room. When he reappeared, he was wearing a velvet dressing robe.
“You look rather dashing in that,” she remarked. “And warm,” she added, tightening the lightweight banyan around her middle.
The sound of buckets of water being poured into a tub hadhim peeking into the bathing chamber. “Ah, that was quick,” he murmured.
“Cook is good about keeping cans of water warm when I’m in residence,” Ivy said, joining him at the door. Once the servants had departed the bathing chamber, she hurried in and pulled some bath linens from a shelf. When she turned around, she found her husband standing over the tub, his arms crossed and his face displaying a curious expression. “What is it?”
He glanced up. “I’m not exactly sure which direction I should sit in this one,” he remarked.
“I rather doubt it matters,” she said.
“It does if we’re both going in.”
She placed the stack of bath linens on a nearby chair and doffed the banyan, tossing it on the back of the chair. “Well, we could sit back to back,” she suggested.
“I rather doubt my knees will bend that much,” he said, arching a graying brow. “Nor will I be able to get out when I’m done.” He gingerly stepped into the water and gripped the edges so he could lower himself into the water. “It’s not too hot,” he said as he settled back. “Your turn.”
Ivy was about to defer, but she saw how he had spread his knees to make room for her to sit between them. She gripped his outstretched hand and joined him, but before she lowered herself into the water, she asked, “Do I face you, or—oh!”
He had gripped his hands around her waist and had her back pressed against the front of his chest before she had a chance to finish her query, her bottom wedged between his thighs. She giggled as the water threatened to spill over the edge.
“Do you recall the first time we ever did this?” he asked when she was finally settled and her head lay against the front of one of his shoulders. Like his, her knees were bent and poked above the water line.
“The only time, you mean?” she asked in a quiet voice. “I think we flooded the entire second floor of Gladstone Hall,” she said. “Before we could get it mopped up, the water seeped through the flooring into the room below?—”
“Charity’s bedchamber,” Robert stated before he chuckled softly, his chest vibrating. “What a mess. Left a stain on the ceiling?—”
“Which is why I arranged to have it painted by that Italian artist,” she said with a titter. “I had always wanted a room done in the Italian style,” she added wistfully. “With lots of marble and ornate trims and gilt mouldings.”
“It was quite a project,” he recalled.
“After it was finished, I remembered feeling so disappointed,” Ivy went on. “All that time—the tassels and drops took months to be made?—”
“Cost a year’s profits from the earldom,” Robert murmured.
“—the marble was delayed month after month?—”
“Which cost another year’s profit.”
“—and by the time it was all finished, Charity had been staying in the guest bedchamber so long, she didn’t even want to move back into it.” Ivy angled her head to one side so she could look at him directly. “I don’t recall you ever saying anything about it. Did you ever actually go into that room?”
“I might have peeked in a time or two,” he admitted. “Weren’t all those naked figures on the ceiling supposed to be cherubs?” he asked, glancing down to see that she had turned her head on his chest so she could glance up at him. Her coiffure from the day before, the pins no longer secure, was in danger of coming apart and spilling down the front of his chest and belly. He wouldn’t have minded if it did. She looked like a siren from a Greek tale, as if he had captured her from the ocean’s depths and brought her to the surface. He bent his head and dropped a kiss on her forehead.
She gave him a wistful grin. “Indeed. I didn’t even give the subject matter a thought until Grace and Charity had their friends over one day, and I heard them all giggling,” she said with a grin. “I think they were scandalized at the sight of all those naked men on the ceiling,” she added. “Come to think of it, I think there were some naked women and centaurs, too.”
“Still are,” he said. At the sound of her gasp, he added, “I’ve never had that ceiling redone.” He leaned down and placed another kiss on her forehead. “I recall finding Michael in there one day, lying on the floor and staring up at it.”
“Oh?” Ivy gave a start. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. He loved art, especially Italian art?—”
“He was staring at the naked women,” Robert said, chuckling softly. “But I suppose I cannot blame him.”
“The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was his favorite during his Grand Tour,” she reminded him.
“As I recall, Rome was your favorite on our wedding trip,” he murmured. “All those naked men.”
