Page 21 of Tashama
They pushed her to sit, then as one helped her off with her shoes, another poked at her bra. Tashama reached behind her to unhook the fastener. She pulled it off and covered her naked breasts with her hands.
“And those.” One of the ladies pointed at her jeans. She unfastened the belt. The lady touched her jeans button to her annoyance. “I can do it!” But the ladies soon had unbuttoned and unzipped the zipper despite her protests. She pulled off her jeans.
The ladies stood back to study her lace bikini-cut panties. Tashama turned her back to the women, slipped her panties off her feet, and then hurried into the bath. “Oh.” She dove under the blanket of roses, dipping in the water with the waves she’d made, then she resurfaced. “It’s so warm.”
“She can swim like a water sprite,” the one whispered, and the others nodded.
“Shampoo? Soap?” Tashama asked.
The ladies leaned over a wicker basket and pulled out a bottle of jasmine-scented soap. One of the ladies handed her the container. Tashama ran the slippery, sweet-smelling fragrance over every inch of her skin. She lathered her hair with a rich,golden soap and rinsed it thoroughly. Studying the shape of the bath, she observed bubbles bumping the roses in one corner.
Slipping beneath the rose petals, she swam the length of the pool to the corner of interest. She surfaced and touched the bubbles with the tips of her fingers, smiling. Melting into the built-in seat, she lay against the jets, forcing the warm water onto every inch of her back. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the pillow attached just above the water line.
Her mind drifted to thoughts of the prince as his fingers touched her arm lightly. He ran his hand through her hair, but he’d never done such a thing, and she opened her eyes in surprise.
Carissian and the ladies stood near the entrance of the bath. His pale gray eyes studied Tashama’s thoughts. He was touching her. Not the prince.
Angered, she imagined a blank sheet of paper and wrote across it in heavy black ink: GET OUT! He shook his head and motioned for the women to dry her skin. He vanished in a puff of white mist, and they lifted towels from a basket.
Tashama jerked one of the towels from the lady’s grasp. “What kind of a sorcerer is he to witness a lady bathing? He’s a bad one, I can tell you!” Not seeing her clothes, she said, “Where are my things?”
“You must wear these, then you must have an audience with our prince.”
“Once in a lifetime was enough for me.” They held a sheer, pink silk, sleeveless gown out to her. “There’s to be more than this for me to wear, surely.”
The ladies giggled. One grabbed a miniature fan and shot the air into Tashama’s hair. “They say the clothes you came here in are just as revealing. But there is an undergown to go along with it.”
“Hogwash.” Tashama considered the gown.
“It has been said,” one of the ladies replied, as she pulled a pink satin slip under the sheer one, “our lord had you monitored every minute of the day at the prison camp.”
“Oh?” Tashama pulled her hair out of the dress. “And what do his spies say?”
“You move the men like no general can. They were afraid of you, miss. They said no good would come of your being there.”
Tashama smiled. “True.”
“They say, Carissian cannot read your thoughts. He fears you may be as powerful as he is. I’ve never seen him so concerned over a mortal before.”
“We want to know how you did it.”
“Did what?”
“Moved the men, miss.”
“Don’t let them rule you, for one. I mean to say, you can let them think they do, but in the end, make sure you have your own way.”
Two of the women giggled, but the third remained silent. “And the sorcerer?”
“I’m not mortal.” Tashama smoothed out her skirts. “But then I imagine, Carissian already knows that. He has been forewarned.”
One of the ladies pulled a blended, pastel-colored sheer, lacy overdress over the satin one Tashama wore.
“Can I not have my undergarments?” Tashama touched her bodice. She examined the other ladies’ gowns. “The style of your gowns sufficiently covers your bodices.” She looked at hers and frowned. “I’m revealing much more than I want in this.” She touched the silky edge. It barely covered her breasts.
“The gown is as His Highness wishes it.”
“I will not see him then.”
