“Does the keep’s hospitality include a tub?” He directed the question to Rabbie, who seemed to have made the most inroads with the local lasses.
“Aye,” Rabbie told him with a grin. I’ll have one brought up after ye eat.”
“Now, Rabbie. Bhaltair can bring food to me here. Likely we’ll be summoned before the Keith laird today.”
Rabbie left on the run. Jamie was certain he rushed to do Jamie’s bidding so he could still meet Neve.
“Aye, ye have been summoned,” Bhaltair told him, pulling his attention from Rabbie. “But I told the steward, with the laird’s forbearance for yer long day’s travel and long night with Niall, ye would meet with him later today.”
Jamie nodded. “Good thinking. Thank ye.”
Bhaltair left on his errand.
Jamie moved to the window and leaned against the wall. The view gave out over the bailey to the curtain wall and hills falling away to farm land beyond. This should be a prosperous clan. Why, then, did they lack a competent healer?
Jamie left the question for another day as a knock sounded on the door. He opened it to be met by four strong lads carrying a large copper tub. They set it near the hearth and left, but in moments, lasses filed in to fill it with buckets of steaming water. The last one, bearing a stack of drying cloths and small pot of soap, gave him a saucy wink.
“I’d be pleased to bathe ye, my laird,” she told him.
“Thank ye, nay. I can do for myself.”
“But ye must need someone to wash yer back, at least?”
He gestured toward the door. “I prefer to bathe alone.”
She pursed her lips. “Very well. But if ye need anything at all…” She paused as if to let her implication sink in as she placed the towels on the bed. Bending forward and showing off her considerable assets, she set the pot by the tub. Then she gave him a smile and shrugged, making her breasts jiggle beneath her kirtle. “Ask for Maddie,” she added. “I’ll do anythin’ ye wish.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jamie told her as he handed her out the door and closed it behind her. Shaking his head at her brazen offer, he stripped and stepped into the still-steaming tub. The heat melted away the last discomfort in his leg and he sank down as far as he could into the hot water. He dunked his head, then reached for the pot of soap and cleaned himself everywhere he could reach, ruefully realizing he would have enjoyed Maddie scrubbing his back. But he was certain there would have been no stopping her if he’d allowed even that small intimacy, and he neither wanted nor had the energy to spare for dallying with her. Finally, he sat back and let the heat penetrate, knowing he would suffer again when he next treated Niall’s leg, so he might as well enjoy this now.
The chamber door flew open and Aftyn rushed in, her gaze flying around the room. “Jamie, Fearchar needs ye. Oh!”
She stopped where her headlong rush carried her, at the foot of the tub, and froze, staring at the surface of the water. No, below it. Jamie grinned and stood, reaching for a drying sheet, amused to see Aftyn gulp and turn her back.
“Ye say ye are a healer. Have ye never seen a naked man before?”
“Of course I have.”
Jamie grinned at her back, enjoying her virginal reaction to finding him in his bath. She’d crossed her arms, which pulled her kirtle more firmly against her back and revealed the curve of her waist. Jamie was tempted to reach for it, to smooth a hand over it and down to the lush curve of her arse, but he held himself in check. Not only would Aftyn not permit such a liberty, but his body had tightened at the thought of touching her so familiarly. Without needing to look, he knew a certain heaviness would be entirely visible if she glanced around.
“Ye dinna act as though ye have.” Jamie dried his hair, letting the sheet drape over his shoulder to cover the part of him revealing his wayward thoughts. “Face me, lass, and tell me what Fearchar said.”
Aftyn glanced over her shoulder, raked her gaze down the sheet covering at least some of the front of his body, gave a small sound suspiciously like an ‘eep,’ and looked away. “He said Niall is awake.”
Jamie swore and stepped out of the tub, drying himself with quick, vigorous strokes, his momentary arousal forgotten. “Why didn’t ye say that first, ye daft lass?”
“I… I wouldha,” she said, still talking to the door, “but I didna expect to find ye… as ye are. Were. Ye surprised me.”
He dug out a fresh set of clothes from his travel pack and donned his léine.
“Ye can turn around now. I’m decent enough.”
She sniffed and stayed put. “I’ll leave ye to finish dressing. I wish to see Niall, too.”
Wrapping the kilt around his middle, he belted it, not bothering to pleat it properly. He frowned, recalling her “care” of his clansman, but he needed another minute. And Fearchar was there. “Go, then.”
She wasted no time leaving him alone, not even bothering to close the door.
Jamie pulled on his boots and grabbed his bag as Bhaltair entered with another tray of food and drink. Jamie’s stomach rumbled so he grabbed a bite of cheese and swallowed most of a cup of cider. “Niall’s awake,” he told Bhaltair when he came up for air. “Aftyn just delivered the news.”
