have any, they need to be gotten rid of. Can you understand that?”
Again, she nodded her head.
“It would be best to do it outside.” Dez looked up. “It looks like we have another hour of daylight. That’s good. We’ll use it.” He rose. “Stay here.”
Minutes later, he returned with a box he’d filled with what he would use, along with a chair that sat on the cottage’s porch. He had also removed his coat, waistcoat, and cravat and rolled his shirt’s sleeves to his elbows, knowing he would get wet in the process.
“Sit here.” He reached out his hand and she took it. He thought it important to continue to touch her. Any touch she was used to had been threatening and hurtful. He wanted to emphasize over and over to her that she was safe with him.
Anna took the chair, hunched over. He eased her shoulders back.
“I will tell you everything I plan to do. Nothing will be a surprise,” he promised.
She jerked her head up and down and he supposed she was agreeing with him.
He retrieved a bowl and set it in her lap. “Hold this, please. It’s cheese whey.”
She frowned and he said, “It is the liquid that remains after milk has been curdled and strained.”
Dez fetched the vinegar and poured it into the bowl before taking a wooden spoon and placing it into the bowl.
“Here, you stir this together. Mix it well.”
A small smile appeared briefly and he supposed it was the first time she had been allowed to do anything other than sit. She stirred slowly at first and then gleefully.
He brought back a small can. “This is lamp oil,” he said. “It will smell something terrible but it is effective at killing the lice. May I have the bowl?”
She looked puzzled.
“Once I apply the lamp oil to your hair and scalp, I will rinse it with the cheese whey and vinegar.” He smiled. “I learned about this in army. Trust me.”
Her guileless, sky-blue eyes searched his face and then she nodded. Dez wanted to dance with glee, feeling he’d cleared a major hurdle with her.
She offered him the bowl with the mixture and he set it aside on the ground.
“Tilt your head back. It will burn, so be prepared.”
Anna did as asked, squeezing her eyes shut. He slowly poured the oil over her head, saturating it, then massaging his fingers along her scalp. Her face screwed up at first, the pungent smell overwhelming, but his fingers appeared to calm her. He continued longer than he needed to merely to keep touching her. Then he picked up the comb he’d set down and ran it through her hair. It took a good while because the short tresses were so tangled.
Once he finished it, he moved to the bowl and brought it back, pouring small bits of it into her hair and using his fingers to work it into her scalp. Then he combed through her tresses again, the lice falling away.
“One last thing,” he told her. “Honey.”
He picked up the jar of honey and emptied it into her hair, again massaging it into her scalp.
“I might have to repeat this process again in a few days. We’ll see how successful we were at ridding you of the lice.”
Anna nodded, her face turned up to him as she kept her head tilted back. Her features were now relaxed and he could see bits of the girl she had been.
“Stay here. I need water to rinse out all of what I have placed in your hair.”
She shivered.
“I will mix cool with hot.”
She nodded.
Dez brought back two buckets and slowly rinsed her hair, pausing several times to run a new comb through it. When he finished, she raised her head.
And smiled.
It was a smile the Anna of old would have given him. Sweet. Playful. It tugged at his heartstrings.
“I think we did a good job,” he praised, wanting her to think of them as a team.
She nodded, her enthusiasm obvious.
“Now, we need to repeat some of this and let you bathe.”
Dez explained that he would need to remove what she wore. She didn’t seem to react to this and he thought she might be desensitized to nakedness.
“Can I bring the tub out here? No one is around. It would make things easier.”
Anna nodded eagerly, like a child wanting to please a parent.
He went into the cottage and dragged the wooden tub back into the small clearing and then made several trips, filling it with water of different temperatures