Ellie stood next to her bed, looking for something else to throw. Granted, the overbearing sheepherder would be too far away to hear it, but hurling that metal basin across the room had felt wonderful. She’d had nothing but frustration lately and felt herself long overdue for a good venting.
Whether he truly deserved it or not, Caden MacAlister had been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
That man’s attitude was just absolutely…Ellie started her pacing again, searching for the appropriate adjective to fit the object of her ire.
“Male!” she fumed, halting in the middle of the room.
And like all the other men she’d dealt with in her life, this one irritated the living daylights out of her.
“Him with his big ol’ shoulders and his silky voice, rolling those r’s every time he talks. Doesn’t give him the right to…”
Her words trailed off as a shiver ran down her spine at the memory of his hand possessively clamped on her rear end as he’d carried her to her room. His touch made her feel…
“Pissed!” she yelled at the closed door, stamping her foot for good measure.
Pissed. Angry. Not all hot and bothered, not needy and certainly not like she wanted those massive arms around her again. Not at all like she wanted to be flattened up against that wall of muscled chest with his breath feathering over her face.
Ellie shook her head to clear those pictures.
“Oh, this is so not good.”
What she needed was to get her act together and find her way home. She needed out of here and away from that infuriating man. Besides, if she didn’t get back soon, Ray would have settled himself in to the ranch and there’d be no getting rid of him. Ever.
Her stomach lurched at the thought of Ray living in her home. He’d be scarring up her mama’s furniture with his dirty old boots, dropping his cigarette ashes all over the rugs, trashing the home she loved. The very idea had her anger flaring anew.
A quiet knock interrupted her mental rant. She stormed across the room and jerked open the heavy door, more than ready to give Caden a piece of her mind.
“S-sorry, milady.” The young girl at the doorway hastily stepped back.
She should have known. Caden would never have rapped on the door so timidly.
“What?”
The sharp word had barely left Ellie’s mouth before guilt washed over her. This poor child cringing away from her hadn’t done anything to warrant such treatment. Ellie huffed out her breath, letting go of her hold on the anger.
“Let’s try that again.” She smiled down at the girl. “You haven’t done anything wrong so you don’t need to apologize. That was totally rude of me to snap at you like that and I am sorry.”
The girl’s face paled and she shook her head, her blue eyes so large they seemed to take up her whole little face.
“No, milady, I do deserve yer wrath. Cook sent me to get yer dress and to bring it to you at the bathhouse.” Her chin started to quiver and she blinked rapidly but continued on, her words gathering momentum, rushing out one after the other. “But Angus—my brother, that is—he found a bird’s egg and I wanted to help him hunt for the nest where it belonged and then I forgot all about the dress until I heard the fuss in the garden and saw himself carting you up here and now I dinna ken what I can do to make it up to you and cook is going to be so verra angry with me.”
As if the torrent of words had taken everything the child had to give, she hung her head, her eyes firmly fixed on the floor.
The big tears rolling down the girl’s cheeks only made Ellie feel worse. Now what was she supposed to do?
What you do to make pup cry?
Missy padded through the doorway, slowing to rub against the girl’s leg before crossing the room to lie down in front of the fireplace. Once there, she fixed Ellie with an accusatory stare.
Just what Ellie needed. Guilt from a dog.
A dirty, flea-ridden dog at that.
Ellie felt a smile growing as another thought struck her. Perhaps she could solve two problems at the same time.
“What’s your name?” she asked, reaching out to tuck one of the child’s wild red curls back under the scarf from which it had escaped.
“Anna,” the girl sniffled without looking up, her hands worrying about each other.
“Well, Anna, cheer up. I think I know something you can do to help me that will more than make up for what you didn’t do. And don’t you worry. Cook will never even have to know about the whole dress thing. It’ll be our little secret. How does that sound?”
Anna’s head snapped up. “Truly? I’ll do anything you like, milady. Just tell me what you want of me.”
“First we’ll need to drag one of those big wooden tubs out into the garden.” Ellie glanced across the room to where Missy lay. “You ever give a dog a bath before?”
Missy stopped in midscratch, her ears perking up. Bath? Don’t need bath.
“That’s what you think,” Ellie muttered.
“Not a bad day’s work if I do say so myself.” Ellie grasped the wet hem of her skirt and wrung the water from it as she surveyed the muddy mess around her.
With Anna’s help she had changed all her bedding and then set about the day-long task of rounding up a large wooden tub and two suddenly elusive dogs for bathing. The crowd of giggling children they had drawn quickly made it apparent to her that dog bathing was a previously unknown form of entertainment in this time.
With the help of Anna’s friends they had at last managed to wrestle first Missy and then Baby into the large tub to wash them down with the same soap Ellie had used to rid her own body of the fleas this morning.
Was that only this morning?
Ellie stretched her aching back and wiped a hand across her face, feeling the mud encrusted there. The whole dog-washing operation had worn her out, but it had been well worth it.
“Looks like yer the one who needs a dousing now.” Anna’s eyes sparkled with merriment.
“Looks like,” Ellie agreed as she unrolled her sleeves. It had done no good to put them up. They were soaked. Just like the rest of her. Wet and muddy.
“You’ve likely missed the evening meal, mi…” The girl stopped and ducked her head shyly. “Ellie. Would you like me to bring something up to yer room for you to eat?”
Ellie smiled down at her little helper. It had taken the better part of the day to get the ten-year-old to use her name.
“That would be great, Anna, thank you. It’s just as well I missed eating with everyone. I don’t think I have the energy left to carry on a decent conversation. Oh!” She paused and wrinkled her nose as the memory of an earlier meal struck her. “None of that wine stuff.”
Anna laughed and shook her head. “You got some from the barrel gone bad, eh? No worry. I’ll make sure you get a better serving tonight.” With that, Anna turned and raced off toward the kitchens.
Ellie followed more slowly, opting to take a side entrance from the gardens that led into the hallway rather than going through the bustle of the kitchen.
When she reached her room, she found Missy and Baby waiting patiently in the hallway. Ellie could almost swear they were smiling at her.
“I see you’re none the worse for your afternoon.” She reached down and scooped Missy up in her arms before opening the door.
Don’t need carried.
Though the protest rolled through her mind, Ellie noticed the little dog made no effort to get away as she scratched behind Missy’s ears. She plopped the animal on her bed and grinned when Baby hopped up next to the little dog, the two of them almost completely filling the bed.
“And where do you think I’m sleeping tonight?”
Missy looked innocently toward the fireplace and back again.
“Don’t even think it.”
You dirty.
Ellie looked down at her soggy dress. The dog had a point. As tempting as it was to simply peel out of her dress and fall into bed, she’d worked too hard at cleaning everything just to dirty it all up so quickly.
With a deep sigh of resignation, she gathered a clean shift and overdress and headed back to the bathhouse in time to see the sun setting behind the horizon.
Once there, she chose the tub behind the rock wall farthest from the door and filled it as Caden had showed her earlier. When the tub was ready, she undressed and tossed everything into a pile on the floor next to the bench where she’d laid out her drying cloth and change of clothing.
She stepped behind the wall and into the bath and sat down, enjoying the caress of the hot water on her sore muscles. After a quick wash, she leaned her head back against the wooden tub and relaxed her whole body, letting her mind run free while the warm water lapped around her.
What an amazing turn her life had taken. Here she sat, hundreds of years from home, her closest confidante a bossy little terrier.
She had to smile in spite of herself. To think she’d fought the whole psychic talking-animal thing for weeks. Now, after only two days of allowing them to flood her mind with their thoughts and pictures, it felt as natural as having a conversation with a person.
“Weird,” she murmured into the silent room.
It was so quiet out here, the crackle of the fireplace and the gentle noises of the little stream the only sounds other than the gentle slosh of water when she moved.
“I’ll just soak here for a minute more,” she murmured as her eyes drifted shut.
“Rider at the gate!”
The yell from high atop the wall walk shattered the evening silence.
Caden dropped the bundle he carried and raced across the inner bailey and up the stairs leading to the wall walk. As he burst through the doorway, the guards-man on duty stopped him with a shake of his head.
“Sorry, Caden. It’s only one of the shepherds coming in. I heard his mount but couldna see him until he reached the light of our torches.”
Caden nodded, steeling his face as he held his emotions in check.
It had been more than a fortnight since the lone rider had approached that very same gate bringing news of Colin’s capture and the ransom demanded for his release. More than a fortnight since Blane and his small party of men rode out those same gates to pay the ransom and bring Colin and Alasdair home. More than a fortnight with nary a single word about either his cousin the laird or his youngest brother and the friend who’d been taken with him.
Caden stooped to retrieve the bundle of clothing he had dropped before continuing on his original path toward the bathhouse.
He’d missed his morning soak. After all these years, he realized he rather enjoyed the practice and felt his day was incomplete without it.
Though he’d given up his chance this morning for a good cause. He felt a grudging smile grow as he remembered the look on Ellie’s face when she realized fleas from her beastie herd had infested her as well.
Then he thought of her as she’d looked outside, the thin drying towel falling away to reveal more and more. Thought of how she’d felt under his hands, warm and firm.
Oh yes, he needed that bath. But he wouldn’t need to spend much time heating the water. In fact, the colder the better.
Ducking his head as he walked through the doorway, Caden entered the bathhouse. He dropped his bundle by the nearest tub and pulled his shirt off over his head, dropping it at his feet. Only when he sat down on the bench to remove his boots did he notice the clothing already lying there. And the dirty pile on the floor.
That’s fair odd.
There weren’t a large number of regular bathers here at Dun Ard. His family had all acquired the habit, but the majority of the people who worked and lived there hadn’t.
Reaching a tentative hand down to the garment on the floor, he fingered the cloth, recognizing the mud-spattered overdress. He’d seen Ellie wearing it as she’d comically chased those damn beasties of hers around this afternoon, a whole gaggle of laughing children following in her footsteps.
Why would she leave her soiled clothing out here? And more important, why was her clean clothing laid out here as well?
Caden cocked his head to the side, listening intently. At first he heard only the crackle of the fire and the bubbling of the stream that passed through the bathhouse. Concentrating harder, he picked it up.
The slow, quiet rhythm of breathing.
He stood and walked over to the fire, glancing around the wall separating the bathing tubs as he passed.
Ellie lay in the tub. He could just see her face resting on the edge and one lovely arm draping over the side.
By all the Fates!
The confounding woman was asleep!
He picked up a water bucket and swung, smacking it into the side of the great black cauldron with a resounding thud.
Ellie awoke with a start, jolted by a loud noise from her pleasant dream into a place that was cold and uncomfortable. It took an instant to remember where she was.
How could she have fallen asleep in this stupid tub?
Every part of her body felt stiff and cold as she sat up, the chilled water sloshing around her. She lifted her hand up to rub her neck but froze when she heard someone clear his throat behind her.
Slowly she turned, pulling her body snug up against the tub as she looked that direction, the dread in the pit of her stomach telling her who she would see before she looked.
“Have you decided now to make this yer new bed?”
Caden.
He stood by the fire, a large bucket in his hand. But it wasn’t what he held that riveted her attention. He was dressed in nothing more than the plaid wrapped around him. The flickering light of the fireplace danced off his bare chest. Surely it was just an optical illusion that made him look so large. So muscular. So appealing.
Why, why, why? It felt as if she’d saved up every stupid mistake throughout her whole life just so she could commit each and every one of them in front of this man. She swallowed hard, stalling, trying to gather her thoughts, feeling at a distinct disadvantage.
“I guess I fell asleep. I was really tired when I came out here.” She steeled herself for the lecture she knew would be coming.
Instead he turned from her and dipped his bucket into the huge steaming cauldron before carrying it past her to the other side of the wall, splashing the water into the other tub.
“What are you doing?”
He barely spared her a glance as he made a second trip to and from the cauldron, once again emptying his bucket. “I missed my morning bath because of you. I dinna intend to forgo this one.”
She shivered as she watched him lift the steaming bucket, the muscles in his back rippling with minimal effort.
She had to get out of here.
Unfortunately all her things, her drying cloth and her clothing, lay on the bench in the room. Out past the divider wall.
Crap.
There was no discreet way to get to them.
“Um…would you mind tossing that drying cloth over here?”
Caden put the bucket back on its hook and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her from across the room as if considering what she asked. “No. I think not.”
He crossed to the other side of the partition and she heard the splashing of water.
Oh. My. God. It sounded like the man was getting into his bath. The sudden visual she had of all those rippling muscles climbing into a tub less than six feet away from her—buck naked, no less—tore another shuddering breath from her.
“No?” she squeaked. “All you have to do is toss it over here.”
“You can get it yerself. You did tell me this morning that you were responsible for yer own self, did you no?”
More splashing.
The water she sat in felt like ice now and her teeth were beginning to chatter. Pride or no pride, she really couldn’t hold out much longer.
“But I can’t get to my things without walking in front of you.”
“That should no be a problem for you. After all, yer the one who told me there’s nothing wrong with the human body. I wouldna want to be thought mede-val.”
She could actually hear the smirk in his voice. “Medieval,” she corrected absently, wishing she could take back everything she had said earlier. Her grandmama used to have a saying about using care with your words in case you had to eat them later.
Crap. She’d really let her mouth—and her temper—get her in a fix this time.
“Okay. Maybe I was a little hasty this morning. I was angry with you treating me like I’m stupid all the time.” She paused, waiting for some response. When all she heard was more splashing, she began to feel desperate. “I’m really cold over here, Caden. Please.”
Just great. Now she sounded like some whiney, begging little girl.
“Verra well.” His arm appeared at the end of the partition, the drying cloth clasped in his hand. A little toss and it landed only a foot from her tub.
Shivering, she climbed out and clumsily wrapped the cloth around herself, her fingers so cold it was difficult to tuck everything properly.
“Are you decent now? As decent as you get, that is.”
“Yes.”
She barely had the word out before he appeared around the partition, a scowl on his face. Grasping her shoulders, he shuffled her toward the fire.
“I never thought you stupid, Ellie. And I dinna intend to treat you as such. But you dinna seem to realize that you need to think before you act. I’m only concerned about yer welfare. It’s an unsettled time in our land. We’ve men working here who are little more than strangers. I canna vouch for all of them being trustworthy.”
He stood behind her, his hands rubbing rapidly up and down her arms as she faced the fire. “You’ve no a bit of warmth left to you, lass. What were you thinking to stay in the water so long?”
She shook her head, unable to think of any good answer. The fact that what he said made sense didn’t help at all.
Allowing him to turn her around so the fire could warm her backside, she realized he was still dressed in his plaid and completely dry. “I thought I heard you get in your bath.”
He shrugged and resumed vigorously rubbing her arms. “A bit of deception on my part.”
She didn’t even care right now. The heat radiated off his body and she leaned into him, resting her cold cheek against his warm, bare chest. He stilled for only an instant before his arms came up around her, enfolding her into an embrace.
She lifted her hands to his chest and the wall of muscle jumped under her touch. She probably should feel guilty, but she just couldn’t. It felt wonderful here in his arms. She looked up, intending to apologize for what must have felt like two ice cubes she’d pressed against his body, but his expression stopped her words before they formed.
He was going to kiss her. She was sure of it. And, to her surprise, she wanted him to. He dipped his head toward her and she closed her eyes, eagerly anticipating what was to come.
“Caden!” Steafan’s voice echoed from somewhere out beyond the door. “Caden! Are you out here?”
Caden pushed her away and over to the partition. “Stay here and be quiet. It would no do at all for us to be found out here together. When I’ve left, I want you back in the keep. Will you do that?” He waited for her to nod her agreement before he scooped up her clothes and shoved them at her. Then he strode toward the door.
“Aye,” he called out. “I’m here.”
Ellie backed into the shadows clutching her bundle.
“There’s a problem in the pastures. One of the shepherds has come to fetch you. They need you up there.”
The men’s voices grew faint as they left the bathhouse.
Ellie quickly slipped on her shift and overdress, giving Caden more time to draw Steafan away. She waited until she could hear nothing at all before starting back to the house, knowing that the shivers going through her body now had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with what she had just experienced.
How could one man make her feel so angry one minute and so exceedingly far from angry the next?
A shiver raced up her body, leaving a trail of goose bumps raised on her skin.
She really had to figure out what she needed to do to get home and do it. Fast.