Chapter 155: It’s Cold
She leaned back against his chest and closed her own eyes as well. And gradually, she began to fall asleep there.
"Claire." He tapped her gently. "I still have to take a bath."
Her eyelids fluttered open at his words.
Oh. The bath.
She sat up, flustering the water and causing it to spill over the rim.
"I must have fallen asleep." She murmured, wiping her wet hand over her face.
The water was now barely warm, if not outright cold.
Claire felt him stroke her hair. She glanced over her shoulder at him, her hands instinctively rising to cover her breasts.
"I like your hair, have I told you that before?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. He barely ever said sweet things to her, why was he saying them all of a sudden?
"No, you haven’t." She averted her gaze as she spoke.
Colour flooded her face as she had to climb out of the tub to get the wash cloth and bathing brush.
When she was returning, she caught him staring at her.
Mortified, she snagged his robe that was carefully folded on the wooden stool by the tub and drew it over her flushed body.
His brow arched at her actions but he said nothing.
Claire walked over to the tub and knelt beside it.
"Where do I start?"
He just continued looking at her, unblinking.
"Fine, I’ll just do your hair."
She dipped the bar of soap into the water and began rubbing it against his hair. His hair felt so soft in her fingers, reminding her of the tis when she used to wash Aurora’s hair.
He was so silent that she thought he was asleep, until he said, "You don’t plan on washing only my hair, do you?"
Muttering under her breath, Claire scooped water and doused it over his head without a single word of warning. The result was what she expected - he cried out and coughed as it entered his eyes and nose.
"You bloody lady."
A grin cracked through her scowl. After rinsing his hair, she picked up the washcloth to clean his body. While washing his back, she noticed that the wound from the man with the curved blade had vanished.
He was... normal again.
"Why were you bleeding from your nose?" He asked out of the blue.
"I don’t know." She said quickly.
She really didn’t know. Yet, part of her suspected that it had started after she drank the poisoned wine. But of course, she couldn’t tell him that - Redmare would find a way to harm her or her sister.
"You might have to see a healer as well."
"It hasn’t happened again so I have reason to believe it has passed."
"I insist."
"I insist as well." Her voice was low but firm.
He shrugged and fell silent after that.
When she was done washing his upper half, she handed him the cloth to do the rest by himself.
"I’ve done the hard part - scrubbing your back. You can do the rest." She prodded when he didn’t take the wash cloth from her.
"Finish what you started, Miss Stenly."
"I didn’t start this." She threw the wash cloth at him, bent down to gather her wet garnts from the floor and strode out of the room.
Claire nearly slipped in the puddle created by her wet gown.
His guards at the hallway averted their eyes the mont they saw her - for which she was grateful.
She entered her room quietly and closed the door behind her. Only then did her heartbeat begin to calm down.
Over the next few days, they barely spoke or saw each other. And whenever they went to visit the ruins in the town, he rode his horse alongside Andon while she sat alone in the carriage.
And when they were in the Townhouse, he was always busy viewing records and inventories or having long conversations with Andon and so of the hired masons. When he summoned her, it was only to pour him wine.
Most of the ti, he barely looked up from his work, and when he did, it was so brief she barely noticed.
Was he avoiding her?
He certainly wasn’t being cold or standoffish.
One of the evenings when it rained heavily, he summoned her to serve wine.
She had been reading a book she found in the small library downstairs, wearing only her shift and stockings, nothing else.
"Tell the King that I have co down with a certain illness, make up sothing very convincing." She opened the door and whispered to her olive-skinned guard.
He nodded and walked down the hallway in the direction of Yeren’s bedchamber.
She closed the door and sighed.
"In a few days, we would go back to the Capital and I would see Aurora again."
Then she tiptoed back to the bed and continued with her book, grinning at nothing in particular.
She wasn’t surprised when there was a knock on her door not long after.
Part of her had even expected it.
"Co in." She called out in the frailest voice she could manage.
"Do you expect my own guards to lie to ? You could have done much better than that if you were so bent on avoiding , Miss Stenly." He said the mont he entered the chamber.
She pulled the covers up to her chin and stroked her forehead.
"It’s cold."
"You have a wolf now, I believe. The cold wouldn’t bother you anymore."
"Old habits." She murmured.
"I need my wine, Miss-"
"Are you punishing
for not finishing your bath the other day?" She cut him off to ask.
A wave of cold breeze swept into the room through the open windows.
"If I wanted to punish you, I would be rather creative about it, Miss Stenly."
She shuddered inwardly.
"Well, you might as well serve
wine this evening whether you want to or not - because, this is our last night in the Town. We are heading back to the Castle tomorrow to host a trial."
A trial for who?
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