Stands a Calder Man (Calder Saga 2)

“No one knocks at The Homestead.” Webb dismissed that idea and looked intimately at Lilli. “We’ll simply have to learn to be more circumspect.”

“I’d like us to be friends,” Lilli stated with an openness that Ruth found difficult to dislike. “May I call you Ruth?”

“Of course,” she agreed. But she needed time before she could handle that kind of relationship.

“You came to speak to me about something?” Webb realized he hadn’t asked the reason Ruth had come to the house.

She used the excuse she had made ready. “I only came to let you know Abe was doing better.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’ll look in on him later,” he said.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m sure you’d rather be alone.” Ruth’s voice nearly broke. Neither raised an objection, saying the normal phrases of parting before she left the room.

A brief silence followed the closing of the front door. Webb’s hand rubbed absently along the curve of Lilli’s waist while he looked thoughtfully at the open doors of the den. Lilli couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

His glance swung around to run warmly over her features, a caressing sensation in his look. “No. The only way things could be better is if you were already my wife.” His arm tightened around her, then relaxed to let her go. “I’ll bring your things in and show you where you II be sleeping.”

The main bedroom was larger than the one-room shack. A large bed with an elaborately carved headboard was covered with a goosedown quilt. Besides a dresser and a chest of drawers, a pair of chairs and a small sofa covered in rose velvet were grouped to create a sitting area around the fireplace. When Webb set her worn satchel on the floor, Lilli was forcibly reminded of its shabbiness compared to its new surroundings.

“While you get settled, I’m going to check on Abe Garvey,” Webb stated. “Through that door, there’s a private bath. I stoked the heater earlier, so there’s hot water if you want to freshen up before dinner.” He noticed the way she was looking around the room, taking in everything. “Do you like it?”

“Who wouldn’t?” Lilli countered with a wry smile.

His gaze lingered an instant on that smile, but he refrained from kissing her. “I’ll be back,” he promised huskily and walked to the door.

Alone in the room, it all seemed unreal to Lilli for a moment. She was reassured by the sound of his footsteps descending the stairs, and the large room claimed her attention again. She moved around it, exploring, opening up drawers that would swallow her meager wardrobe, testing the softness of the mattress and sitting in the chairs. She paused at the window that faced the south, like the front of the house, and watched Webb walking to one of the buildings. When he disappeared inside it, she let the curtain drop and turned back to the room.

Lilli crossed to the inner door Webb had pointed out to her, turned the brass knob, and pushed it inward. Her eyes rounded in dazzled amazement. There was a porcelain sink with brass faucets for running water, hot and cold, and a white porcelain toilet complete with a chain connecting to an overhead flusher. Lilli tested both of them out, laughing in delight. After so many years of carrying water and heating it on the stove, as well as emptying chamber pots, this was the height of luxury.

She ran her hand along the smooth edge of the large white cast-iron bath, supported by clawed feet, and remembered the small tub she had bathed in when there was enough water to spare. It had been so cramped, her knees poking into her chest, but here, she could stretch out almost full length.

Her eye was caught by the bottles on the marble-topped stand next to the sink. Opening one, she dipped a finger into the creamy lotion and rubbed the dollop into her hand, feeling the silken texture it gave her skin. With her curiosity heightened, she unstoppered a crystal decanter containing fragrant salts. One whiff and Lilli turned to the bath, a totally feminine light shining in her eyes.

Minutes later, the rubber stopper was in the drain hole and the faucets were turned on to fill the porcelain bath with water, water that bubbled with the fragrant salts shaken into it. And Lilli was shedding her clothes to take the first luxurious bath in her life. A toweling cloth hung from a brass ring on the wall, and there was a large sponge on the sink and a bar of scented soap, Lilli could only guess that these feminine toiletries had been the late Mrs. Calder’s, Webb’s mother. They were a temptation she couldn’t resist. Besides, they had obviously been left there to be used by whoever occupied the adjoining room.

When she submerged her naked body in the mounds of scented bubbles and felt the relaxing heat of the water against her skin, she doubted that anything could be so blissful. Stretching out full length, she braced her toes against one end and rested her head on the curved porcelain back. She closed her eyes to savor the sensation and soaked for a long time until the water became tepid.

Uninhibited, Lilli played with the bubbles, scooping some into her hand and blowing them into the air, laughing silently to herself. With her toe, she caught a drip of water dangling from the hot-water faucet, then let her toes play a game of hide and seek in the scented foam. Finally she reached for the sponge and soaped it to wash herself, humming a tuneless melody of contentment and splashing a little.

When Webb didn’t find Lilli downstairs upon his return to the house, he climbed the steps to find out what was keeping her. The door to the master suite stood open. He walked in and saw the satchel sitting on the floor where he had left it, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Lilli?” He started to raise his voice to call her a second time when he heard the faint splashing sounds from the bathroom. An inner pressure directed his feet to the connecting door, aroused by a stronger force than his sense of proper conduct.

The doorknob turned silently. Lilli wasn’t alerted to his presence until the motion of the door swinging open caught her eye. She turned, her lips parting to round in a small o. A split second later, she recognized Webb and her brief alarm faded. A vague self-consciousness took its place, since bathing had always been a strictly private activity in her experience. The layer of bubbles concealed her nudity from his gaze. For some reason, she found it difficult to summon a genuine protest at Webb’s invasion of her privacy.

“Do you always walk right in when a lady is bathing?” she challenged.

“When you weren’t downstairs, I came up to find you.” His voice had a husky pitch that sent out its own disturbing message.

“Now you’ve found me, so get out,” Lilli ordered, still in a bantering tone, trying to make light of the situation even though her pulse had begun to accelerate. The deep brown of his eyes had darkened to nearly black with the intensity of his gaze. When he took a step toward her, she did something that she knew would provoke him. It was totally instinctive. “Webb Calder, will you get out of here?” She tossed the wet sponge at him, splattering drops on him and the floor, while a breathless laugh came from her when he ducked to avoid it.

“Now you are coming out of that bath,” he growled a mocking threat.

For a few seconds, it was a playful game as Lilli scrunched down in the tub and splashed water at him to fend him off. The instant his hands caught her wet wrists, the laughter left both of their faces. There was a moment when they stared at each

other. Then the steady pressure of his grip urged her from the water. She stood up slowly, strangely unembarrassed by her own nudity.