He leaned back against the wall, watching her as she resumed her bath. “Simply put, it means I am a spy,” he said. “I have spent two years in the Scottish royal court, as a personal guard of William the Rough. That is why I do not live at Foulburn. I go where The Marshal sends me and on the rare occasion that I am home, I stay at Pelinom.”
Slowly, she resumed her bath. She set down the pitcher she’d been pouring water with and picked up the soap. “A spy?” she repeated. “Cole, are you serious? You are a spy for William Marshal?”
“Aye.”
She resumed scrubbing her arms. He could smell the scent of the lavender soap as she rubbed it all over her skin. “Oh,” she said simply. “This is quite… surprising.”
“I know.”
“How long have you been a spy?”
“For ten years.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment and he watched her figure as she rinsed off her arms and torso. “That is a long time,” she said. “But ten years of serving The Marshal as a spy? And the past two years in Scotland? You’re not even Scottish.”
He smirked. “Chan fheum mi a bhith Albannach airson seirbheis ann an Alba.”
“What in the world did you just say?”
“I said that I do not need to be Scottish to serve in Scotland,” he said. “My Gaelic is perfect. I speak without an English inflection, so no one suspects that I am not Scots. Had it not been for me and Addax and Essien, we would have never known about The Rough’s plans to invade England with the help of the Earls of Orkney. This entire army is because of me and a few brave men, doing our duty for our country. My work is important to the safety of England and I do not take it lightly.”
“I should think not,” she said, washing her torso and legs. “It does seem very important.”
“It is.”
“And you like this work?”
“I do.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, rubbing her hands over her wet legs. “And… and this is something you intend to do forever?” she asked. “Even after we are married? It is very prestigious work, I think.”
He moved his chair so he could lean against the wall. “It is only prestigious to those who know about it,” he said. “But there are very few, which is why you must never tell anyone. If it becomes known, my service with him would be ended. A spy is no good if everyone knows he is a spy.”
She rinsed off her torso and body. When she sat straight, he could see the silhouette of her breasts, full and round and firm, and it was far more of a show than he had been anticipating. The gentlemanly thing to do would have been to tell her she was casting shadows on the thin wood, or leave the room altogether, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to do it. It was the experience of a lifetime as far as he was concerned, and given what was going to happen tomorrow, possibly his last. He wasn’t one for morbid thoughts, but Corisande had been right when she had said at least give me this memory to reflect on.
He needed that memory, too.
Of her.
But watching her breasts against the screen was arousing him, so he looked away, trying to think of something other than her silky, nude form.
“I would never tell anyone, I swear it,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “I think what you are doing is a fine and honorable thing. You are protecting all of us from those who would see us come to harm. But you did not answer me.”
“Answer what?”
“Will you continue serving The Marshal after we are married?”
He paused a moment before answering. “Serving the man as I do, it is well and good because I have no dependents,” he said. “Spying is not for married men. Take my mission to Scotland, in fact – I was there for two years, only coming home on rare occasions. I do not think I could be away from you for two years, Cori. I do not think I could be away from you at all.”
“I do not think I could be, either,” she admitted. “What you do is very dangerous.”
“No more dangerous than being in an unmarried lady’s chamber while she is bathing and her brothers are nearby.”
He heard her giggle. “I shall not be unmarried for long,” she said. “When this battle is over, promise me you will speak to your father about Lady Audrie. Tell him that he must tell the Earl of Teviot that you do not wish to marry his daughter.”
“Nay, I do not wish to marry her,” Cole muttered, watching her stand up in the bath and collect a piece of linen to dry off with. He couldn’t look away any longer. “I wish to marry you and I shall, no matter what.”
He could see her drying off her legs, her arms. “Cole, this may be a strange thing to say, but it is how I feel,” she said. “I am rather old to be married, you know.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty years and three.”
“Christ, an old maid,” he said. “Is that what you wanted to tell me? That you’re old for a bride? I am twenty years and eight, so we are not so far apart in age, you know. I suppose that makes me an old maid, too.”
He was snorting, but she found no humor in it. “That is not what I wanted to tell you,” she said. “What I wanted to say is this – ever since Auden left me, I truly never thought I would marry anyone else. I did not look for anyone and the suitors who did approach my father were turned away. I simply wasn’t interested until I met you, but if you leave me tomorrow, there will be no one else. I have given my whole self to you, Cole. There is nothing left to give to another.”
He wasn’t smiling anymore. She came out from behind the screen, her hair wet and her body wrapped in the drying linen, and Cole could see that there were tears in her eyes. He stood up and went to her, putting his enormous hands on her shoulders, but the moment he touched her, the tears spilled over and he pulled her into a crushing embrace.
“You have made me the happiest man in the world,” he whispered into her wet hair. “The gift of your love is more than I deserve, Cori, but I swear to you that I shall never take it for granted. I will strive every day of my life to show you just how greatly I appreciate it. And you.”
She pressed herself against him, damp from her bath, but wanting desperately to be close to him.
“This may be the one and only time I feel such things,” she murmured tightly. “I have seen battle, Cole. I know what can happen. I know that by this time tomorrow, I may have lost the man I love because I have seen men die before my eyes. I know how precious life is and I know how precious love is. Love me, Cole. Love me as if tomorrow will never come.”
His face was pressed into the top of her head. “I will always love you,” he whispered. “You need not even ask.”
Sniffling, she stood back and looked up at him. She was looking him in the eyes when she let the towel go and it fell in a pile at her feet, leaving her nude and soft and clean. Reaching out, she grabbed his hands and pressed them to her breasts.
“This way, Cole,” she whispered. “Love me this way.”
Cole’s control left him. Her soft breasts against the palms of his heated hands undid him. He didn’t think about her brothers or father, or his father, or anyone else. He didn’t think about the rightness or wrongness of it.