Persia never had one as grand. Better than any lady could ever dream of.”
He gave her one of those smiles that was meant to charm, and it did. The hot bath a few days before had been wonderful, but there had been no opportunity to wash since. The hike had left Cate hot and sticky, her shift stuck to her ribs under her stays. Filled with regret and embarrassment and touched by his concern, she hoped he didn’t notice her eyes were beginning to brim as she nodded. But, of course, he did. He missed blessed little.
With his usual elegant grace and a gesture reminiscent of Mr. Al-Nejem, touching his fingertips to his lips and heart, Nathan bent and swept a hand toward the pool. “M’ lady.”
Nathan moved to a discreet distance. Cate went behind a fern, its massive fiddle-heads nearly head-high. She struggled out of her laces and peeled away the sweat-dampened layers of clothing. Wary of the slippery rocks, she probed the water’s shallows with a cautious foot until the drop-off was found, and slipped in.
The hot spring had been glorious, alive with fine bubbles. The water here was coolly refreshing, the swirl like caressing arms, massaging her body and limbs. With glee bordering on childishness, she rolled again and again. She dove to lie at the bottom like a trout on a summer’s day, and then broke the surface in a sputtering explosion of air. Floating on her back, she allowed the eddies to take her under the falls and back around. On one pass, she caught a glimpse of Nathan through the greenery. She heard the scratch of his voice, but the water’s rush drowned the words, and so she floated.
###
Nathan took up a post at the pool’s edge, near enough to bear an eye, and yet far enough to allow Cate privacy. Well, aye, it meant close enough to catch an occasional glimpse through the ferns. Blessed eternity it was between the sightings of the ivory blur of her body.
He had lost track of Princess Pain-in-the-Ass. Could fall off a bloody cliff, for all he cared.
Might could just prop up the body and collect the ransom. ’Twould be that much more delightful for Lord-on-Highness Creswicke to pay for what was already dead.
By a certain way of thinking, he could be doing the wretched wench a favor: putting her out of her misery, before the suffering began. And suffering she most certainly would, wed to His Haughtiness. Plaques might be issued in his honor for the magnanimity of his humanity for saving the soul from such tortures.
On the other hand, no one deserved misery more than the one who inflicted it. Suffering came in many forms, and she had managed to exploit a heretofore untold number. As the sages are known to say, turnabout is fair play, or misery enjoys company, or some such rot.
His hand brushed his cheek.
The Devil burn me! I forgot to shave.
Cate preferred when he did so, the green eyes going to blue, a sure sign of pleasure. Those eyes were a port to what went on inside that maddening tangle of mahogany. Cross her and risk waking the jaguar. Hard and green they would go, fit to separate a man’s gullet from his craw. Please her, and they would go the color of the reefs. Bloody rare sight it was, hence a judgment based on brief observation.
Nathan moved to the pool’s edge, near enough to Cate to be the alert, and yet far enough not to be seen. There he knelt over his reflection, drew his knife, and to set to scraping the growth from his jaw.
A flash of yellow caught Nathan's eye. He looked up in time to see Princess Pain-in-the-Ass skulking about the bank. Swearing under his breath, he allowed a brief fancy of the blade he held in his fist pressing at her throat.
Belay that! Cate would never abide it. I’d never hear the end of it.
It was no great deed to catch up said wench, clap a hand over her mouth, and drag her away from the water and, more importantly, Cate’s hearing.
“Where the bloody hell do you think you’re going?” he demanded in a hoarse whisper after depositing the noisome wench neatly on a rock.
She gave a prominent display of lip. “I was just going to—”
“I don’t care if your skirts are on fire, you’ll not disturb her.”
Prudence sprang back up. “I just need her to—”
“Nothing! You have had her at the beckoning crook of your