Private Tales A Weekend in the Country

[Renzo D'Agosta]

Renzo, on the other hand, did exactly as was expected.

The moment she rolled?

The hot water was requested. Bath tub was filled. Clothes discarded and he almost LEAPED into the water. It was exactly as amazing as expected. No, it was better. Much better. The only way it could be better was with an ale in hand, or some wine. He should have ordered that... but now he'd have to get out of the tub. Which was the last thing he wanted to do.

Instead he scrubbed.

Scrubbed.

Scrubbed some more again. And then eventually soaked after a change of water. By that time the wine was long forgotten. Instead there was the haze of hot water and steam. Half an hour passed without trouble in that context.

Cecilia's arrival was met with a slow blink.

"Um, what was stolen?" He asked quizzically as he stretched. Standing up right now was ill-advised, maybe he shouldn't have been laying about for that long.

"And who stole it? And where?"

 

[Cecilia Fyg]

The young lady of Aleseberg stopped in the doorway for a moment, her eyes peering at the tub stood in front of the roaring fireplace. The water was just cloudy enough that the man was a vague shape in the hot water. For a moment she didn't move and stood framed in the inn doorway, blue-grey eyes wide like saucers, before she absent-mindedly groped for the door behind her and shut it, lest anyone get any funny ideas.

After a few moments' silence, Cecilia was suddenly aware that she had barged in on the man in the buff and, as he stretched, she panicked and dropped her bag, turning around to avert her eyes. She thought that he was going to get out of the tub! Not, it had to be said, that the male physique scandalized her, particularly - she had been a married woman, after all - but this was a different kettle of fish altogether. She bit out a curse under her breath and crouched to gather her sundries before they rolled away.

Without turning back to him, she stuffed the things back into her bag, trying to remember what had her so hot under the collar as to burst in like that. Then it raced back to her like a thunderbolt. "Oh! My circlet, of course!" Lia huffed with irritation. "My gold and sapphire circlet, which was too big for me to hide in my clothes, so I had to leave it behind. It should have been taken back to Aleseberg and returned to my brother; it belonged to our grandmother! Aunt Liberta gave it to me as a wedding gift!"

She began pacing, first towards the bed where she placed the bag and then back, turning back to the tub and then immediately away again as she was reminded why she had turned away in the first place. "The goons my brother hired to escort me to the next man - " she shivered violently at the thought " - must have taken it and sold it. They'll say I stole it and pocket the coins themselves!" Her small hands balled into fists and she looked for a moment as if she might cry, her blue eyes lightening to the shade of a clear morning sky. Then she ejaculated: "Sod that! If I'm going to get blamed for it, I might as well do what I'll be accused of."

Lia turned back to the tub and then threw her hands up in front of her face. "By the gods, at this stage, it must be that you've been naked more than you've worn clothes!" She rushed past the tub and went to the window, kneeling on the chair nearby, leaving Renzo in her wake. She opened it and gazed out, down the street and opposite where the shop was. She couldn't make it out, but she knew that the circlet was gleaming in a display case inside the shop, under the watchful gaze of the shop owner. "It must be worth a lot of gold!" she snapped irritably, her fists balling up again in tiny, impotent rage.