The Beautiful Ones - Silvia Moreno-Garcia Page 0,117

demanded a first-class bathroom. When he started out in Iblevad, he’d been forced to content himself with water that was often icy cold and a landlady who begrudged him every single bath he dared to take.

This bathroom was generous and had green and white tiles, with the usual brass fittings, the added luxury of a fireplace and a claw-foot tub. Nina had climbed into the tub and piled her hair upon her head, and she was humming a tune he’d once heard when he was younger, a rhyme about a sailor who’d gone off to sea.

He saw her from behind, saw the curve of her neck, and extended a hand to brush a stray lock that fell down her back.

She jumped at his touch, splashing water, and turned her head over her shoulder in surprise.

“I should have announced myself,” he said quickly, realizing this was likely an embarrassing moment for her. He did not want to seem like a lecher. “I’ll let you be.”

“It is fine,” Nina replied, and stretched out an arm toward him.

He took her hand and planted a kiss on the back of it and she smiled prettily. He scratched his head, not knowing what one should say in this situation. He’d learned etiquette from a manual, but there had been no chapter on the matter of women.

“Do you always sing when you bathe?” he asked.

“The place an intelligent person sings is in the bathroom. One sounds better. Did I wake you?”

“Yes. It does not matter. I’ll make you breakfast, come.”

Nina slid down under the water, until only her head was showing, and bit her lower lip. “Hector, do you think you might lend me a bathrobe?” she asked.

“A bathrobe?”

“I could fashion myself one out of your bedsheets if you can’t bear to part with it.”

“I guess I need to buy you proper clothes,” he said. “I suppose it’s not what people mean when they say a trousseau, but things are what they are.”

Nina gave him a look of displeasure, and it confused him. He was attempting to be considerate.

“You do realize I am going to marry you,” he said, as it suddenly occurred to him that he had not mentioned the legalities before.

“It’s customary to ask rather than assuming a positive answer.”

“Well … one would think,” he mumbled.

“One would.”

She shook a hand, sprinkling his feet with water, and looked up at him.

“You might propose,” she said.

That was what was bothering her.

A proposal, yes. Did he have to kneel? In his robe, by the tub? He decided he’d look less ridiculous if he stood and clasped his hands behind his back, not wanting to accidentally send the green and blue bottles sitting on a shelf stumbling to the floor due to a careless expression of his talent. He ordinarily did not lack self-control, but then again, he was nervous.

“I have money, you shan’t be concerned about our finances. No name to speak of, but I’m certain you know that already,” he said. “I am not the easiest man to live with, and I am sure more than one person might say I am rather bothersome, but I will try to be the best man I can be for you.

“With that taken into account, perhaps you’d marry me?” he asked her.

Young women expected flowers and florid speeches, or so he had been told, and thus he feared it was not enough. But when he looked at her, he could tell she was content, even if her eyes were downcast in an odd gesture of demureness.

“I suppose I could spare your reputation,” she said.

“My reputation is dear to me. Now, let me lend you my bathrobe so you can get out of the water and give me a good-morning kiss.”

Nina held on to the edge of the bathtub and pulled herself up. She blushed but looked distinctly pleased as she stood before him, naked, sliding a hand up his neck. He bent down to kiss her.

“Good morning,” she said.

She did not have the ease of the consummate flirt, but there was something rather endearing about her, and he laughed and kissed her a second time, feeling terribly happy. Each word she had spoken to him since they met, he thought, had been like kindling, until in wonder, he had to admit he was on fire, and now that he looked at her in the morning light, he could not understand why he had not realized this truth sooner.

He found and handed her his bathrobe and went to the kitchen,