Sleeping indoors seemed like a true luxury after so many weeks of dozing on and off in a tree while trying not to fall down or get eaten by some vicious, bloodthirsty monster.
Grat seemed surprised by my eagerness but also pleased.
He nodded. “Taking a bath will do you good. And you should get rid of that smelly hide too. Who knows what nasty bugs are living in there?”
My skin itched even more from his mentioning the bugs.
“I’ll bathe. I want to bathe. Please,” I said again, reaching under the hide to scratch.
Grat filled the wide wooden barrel above the stove with water from the creek. When it got warm enough, he brought out a towel, a bar of burgundy soap, and a stack of clean clothes.
“This is mine,” he said, laying out a giant cotton tunic on the wooden stool next to the tub. “It’ll be big on you, but I don’t have anything in your size here, and there is no way I’m letting you keep that filthy fur after getting you clean. Take it off.”
“Um…” I fidgeted with the end of the rope that tied the bear hide to my body.
My hesitation to get naked in front of him had no reason, however. It was obvious that Grat had no interest in me as a woman, which was refreshing and relaxing. This huge orc I barely knew, made me feel safer than most human men before him.
He mistook my hesitation for inability to manage the knot.
“Here. Let me help you.” He grabbed his hunting knife from the sheath strapped to his left arm and cut through the rope.
Fresh air caressed my skin as the hide loosened from around my body, but I held on to the fur.
“Now, be a good girl and climb into the tub,” Grat rumbled in that deep voice of his.
I suddenly wished that he would see me as a woman, not just as a pathetic, starving stray he’d rescued out of kindness. The wish came over me in a flash, making me momentarily forget about modesty, and I did something I’d never done before. I slipped the hide off my shoulders deliberately slowly, as if undressing for a lover.
I angled my head a little to give my neck that elegant curve I was told looked good in portrait poses. I extended my leg gracefully as if in a dance across a grand ballroom, allowing the hide to fall open around my thigh before dropping the fur to the ground.
Now I gave Grat a sultry look over my shoulder to see his reaction.
His eyes opened wide, giving me a boost of satisfaction. His jaw dropped, then…his thick eyebrows moved in an expression that looked disturbingly more like a scowl than awe, or admiration, or at least some interest that I’d hoped for.
“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath, then promptly ripped his shirt off over his head, yanked his pants down, and kicked his boots off.
He disrobed quickly, as if rushing to deal with an emergency, and by the looks of it, that emergency wasn’t him being suddenly overcome with passion for me.
“What’s going on?” I mumbled, utterly confused.
“Into the bath with you, wild thing. Now.” He grabbed me under his arm and climbed in the tub with me.
Maybe I should be alarmed when swept away like that by a huge, naked orc who clearly intended to share the bath with me. Except that I sensed no sexual interest from him. He seemed concerned, not aroused.
“When did you get into the sweet reeds, Khala?” he asked sternly, plopping me into the water.
“What reeds?” I grabbed onto the edge of the tub, bracing against the wave he made when sitting down into the water with me.
“The long, pale, blue grass that often grows by the ponds around here,” he said. “It tastes sweet, so kids chew on it sometimes, mistaking it for a treat.”
“I didn’t eat any grass,” I assured him.
I most certainly would have eaten it, had I known it was sweet and edible. I’d been so hungry for so long, I would’ve eaten anything.
“I stayed away from the ponds,” I said. “The one time I came close to water, I got attacked by some rodents with lots of legs and tails.”
“Spider rats?” He reached for the soap. “They have eight legs and three tails.”
“Nasty creatures.” I shuddered, scratching my chest.
