as she noticed the stormy look on his face. Involuntarily, her gaze transferred to the scratched wooden surface. Surely he wasn’t serious?
Noticing the direction of her gaze, he growled, and half hauled her out of her chair. “You think I wouldn’t?”
“Of course, you wouldn’t!” she flung at him, but even she could hear an element of doubt had crept into her voice. “It would be vastly uncomfortable for us both, I imagine!” she added desperately striving for calm.
“No,” he disagreed in a low voice, turning her around and shoving her forward against the table. A big hand planted in the center of her back, pushing her down so she was leaning over the surface. “You’d be on your front, like this, and I.” He stepped up neatly behind her, caging her in from the back. “I’d be here, between your legs. Taking you from behind.” She felt the hard press of his body on the back of her legs and felt a surge of panic and something else.
She braced her palms against the tabletop. “Nye!” her voice rang out, shocked, with the tiniest hint of fear. It pulled him up short. “You’ll be master in the bedroom,” she said quickly. “But not here, please not here.”
He stepped back at once and Mina drew a quick steadying breath before she turned to face him. She couldn’t quite bring herself to meet his eyes. Suddenly, his hand was under chin, forcing her gaze up to meet his. He was silent a moment, as he gazed searchingly into her eyes.
“I came on too strong,” he said gruffly, releasing her chin and drawing her into his body. His hand shifted up and down her spine in a comforting gesture.
“Perhaps a little,” she agreed shakily.
“I sometimes forget,” he admitted exhaling. “How untried you are.” He paused. “It’s that bold mouth of yours. It leads me astray.”
“I lead you astray?”
“Yes, you.” He moved his head forward to rest his brow against hers for the briefest of moments.
Mina heaved a great sigh of relief when he turned abruptly on his heel and left the kitchen. She could only hope and pray that he never realized the fear she had felt was not of him, but of her own reaction to him.
14
Mina spent a good three hours scrubbing away at the porcelain tiles in the bathroom and was inordinately pleased when the black and white floor tiles shined up as well as the mingled green and patterned tiles on the wall.
She was exhausted by the time she turned her attention to the enormous roll top bath. Along the bottom lay a thick layer of dust and she could only guess that since the number of maids had so drastically reduced, no-one ever bothered to use it anymore as it would take an age to fill. Doubtless everyone simply used the smaller hip bath, as she had done also on that previous occasion.
Gritting her teeth, she finally turned to the pretty matching washstand and forced herself to finish the job. The palms of her hands felt raw from the abrasive suds and she was just swilling the last of the soapy water from the basin when the door squeaked open and Edna appeared with two buckets of steaming water.
“I’ve been boiling water for your bath,” she said, carrying them in.
“Oh Edna, you’re a treasure,” said Mina thankfully.
“You’ve made a lovely job in here, Mrs. Nye,” Edna responded looking around admiringly.
“Thank you. No, not in there,” Mina interrupted her when Edna made for the large bath. She pulled a face. “I can’t face the thought of how many journeys up and down the stairs that would take.”
Edna smiled grimly. “It’s a monster of a tub, and no mistake,” she agreed. “We all just tends to use this ‘un.” She emptied the buckets into the smaller hip bath.
“I’m not surprised.”
“I’ll fetch another two up and that ought to do it.”
“Are you sure, Edna? Did you finish stripping the rooms?”
“We only had two overnight guests last night,” Edna assured her before scurrying out.
By the time Mina climbed into her tub she wasn’t fit to do much more than soak, though she just about mustered the energy to wash her hair before the water turned cold.
She spent a quiet afternoon in the parlor, letting her hair dry before the fire with a bunch of mending at her feet. She had mended the tears in her skirt from her cliff mishap and was just darning the heel of a stocking when she heard the