Page 105 of Bride of Ice
“What about the bath?” He nodded to the tub full of water that had gone cold.
There was no way to empty it quickly.
“You go on. Tell Hallie our parents have arrived. I’ll take care of the bath.”
He hesitated, wondering if the determined lass might try to carry the thing to the garderobe to empty it herself.
“Go!” she urged.
As he snagged his crutch and limped to the door, he heard a splash behind him. Isabel had plopped herself into the bath, clothes and all. She sat shivering in the water with a forced flippancy, as if taking a cold bath in her leine was something she did all the time.
Shaking his head, he stole out one bedchamber door and into the next, where he was surprised to see Hallie dozing in unsuspecting bliss.
He closed the door softly behind him.
“Hallie,” he whispered.
There was no reply.
He took two steps forward and tried again. “Hallie.”
Still there was no answer.
He crept to the foot of the bed. Not wishing to alarm her, he gently placed his hand atop her blanketed thigh. And almost lost his head.
She sprang up as fast as a jack-in-the-box. She had a dagger in her hand—from where, he had no idea—and murder in her eyes.
Thankfully, she was half asleep, and he was wide awake. He instinctively yanked his head back and took a swipe at her wrist, dislodging the dagger and sending it flying across the room, where it skidded across on the floor.
“Colban!” she demanded, her shoulders relaxing. “What are you doing here?”
For an instant, he couldn’t answer, stunned by her transformation from sleeping maid to murderous warrior and back to drowsy angel. The idea that he might actually wake up beside this lovely vision every day was hard to believe.
“Isabel sent me.”
She cast a quick glance around the chamber. “WhereisIsabel?”
“She’s safe. She’s in the laird’s bedchamber. She told me to tell ye your parents are here.”
“What? Here? Now?” Her eyes went wide. “Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay.” She leaped from the bed, opened the chest at its foot, and began rifling through the contents for something to wear.
“Ye told Isabel about us?” he asked.
“She…guessed,” Hallie replied, dragging out a woad blue kirtle that matched her eyes. “But she hasn’t told anyone else, has she?”
“I don’t think so. She told me to hide in your chamber.”
“Good.” She shimmied into the kirtle. “You should be safe here.” She scoured the room and finally found her shoes beside the bed. “Oh! What about the bath?”
“Isabel is…in it.”
“In it?”
He nodded.
Her brows creased. “I suppose ’twill have to do. She’ll come up with some explanation.”
She snapped up an ivory comb from the table beside the bed and hastily untangled her hair, then tied it back with a blue ribbon.
