strength in a healthy, deep sleep. Fluffy and Princess, flanking her on left and right, watched the easy rise and fall of her breathing.
An hour ago Emma had declared that she would spend the whole night in her big brass tub. She had begun to heat the water, but Matt had shooed her out of the kitchen and insisted on doing that chore himself. He owed her far more than a hot bath, but it would do for now.
Emma had worn herself through with nursing Lucy. It was a wonder that someone living in such a petite frame would have the energy to go on and on.
Of course, he’d known all along that Emma was a wonder. Even though she might deserve to spend the whole night long in the tub, the water would soon grow cold.
He hadn’t heard a splash or a sigh in over half an hour. It wouldn’t do for her to fall asleep and catch a chill. She might not like to have him peeking into her private bath, but who better than a husband to see to it?
Especially now that she had spoken her heart and he had spoken his. She was right about everything changing. He expected that he would hear an earful when she found out what those changes were going to be. He could only hope that she would keep her promise to stand beside him.
His Emma was not the type to go back on a vow, although she might consider it once she discovered that he had also made a decision.
Matt walked through the kitchen toward the door leading to the bathroom. Emma’s blue-checkered apron hung on a peg beside the stove. A vase of late-blooming flowers sat square on the table.
He paused in the middle of the room and glanced about, noting the care with which she had placed all her treasured things. The scent of peppermint tea lingered in the lace curtains at the window.
He couldn’t leave this place. The moon would fall smack out of the sky before he’d expect Emma to do it.
Matt opened the bathroom door and stepped inside. Just as he’d expected, Emma had fallen dead asleep in the water.
Her hair hung over the back of the tub, shimmering in the soft glow of the turned-down lamp. One arm was draped over the copper edge with a wet cloth mounded on the ground beneath her fingertips.
He felt a song rising in his throat. It seemed a lifetime ago that he had felt like singing, but the seduction of her body, reclining so bare and pink in the cool water, purely inspired him. He kept quiet, though, reluctant to wake her.
Lamplight flickered over her moist limbs, glinting where her flesh pebbled with a chill.
He knelt beside the tub.
“Emma,” he whispered. She sighed. Her breasts seemed to swell and shimmer in the dim, lustrous light. “Darlin’, wake up. The water’s grown cold.”
Words didn’t seem to rouse her, so he touched her face where a loop of hair twisted over her cheek.
“Darlin’?”
He leaned forward and kissed her mouth, lingering longer at it than would be required to wake a sleeping beauty. Once more, her sigh lifted her bosom. Her cool, firm nipple grazed his arm where he had rolled his shirtsleeve up.
For all that she looked like a simmering feast, a treat he was willing to risk his life to get a taste of, she was beginning to shiver, even in the depths of an exhausted sleep.
“Come on, then, darlin’.”
He plunged his arms into the water without remembering to shove both sleeves up past his elbows. He lifted his wife and gathered her close, then walked through the kitchen. At the hall, he turned toward Emma’s bedroom.
Bathwater trickled from her flesh and dampened his pants and shirt.
Missing all the fussy clothing that women stuffed themselves into, she felt as light as a bag of dreams. It took no effort to peel back the flowery quilt and hold her snug to his chest at the same time.
He didn’t want to put her down. Her thighs felt smooth under his coarse fingertips, like rose petals. She smelled like a rose, too, with nothing between her flesh and his nose but a little bit of air.
Laying a wet woman between the covers of her bed didn’t seem wise, so he went to the bathroom and brought back two towels. He put one on the bed, then laid Emma gently down.
He dried her hands and rubbed the water off her arms. He