Garden of May - Chapter 49
Chapter 49
My vision blurred, then cleared. I must have lost consciousness for a moment. My body, still tingling with the afterglow, felt sensitive to the slightest touch. Vanessa forced her heavy eyelids open.
“I want to leave.”
“Just a moment.”
“Liar… cheat… you… swindler.”
Even in her languid state, her spirited accusations made River Ross chuckle. Vanessa rested her weary head against the bath. His face, she realized, was the root of all this. No matter what he did to her, no matter how far he went, one look at him and her anger dissipated.
“Stay still, Vanessa. Don’t move.”
“Why are you… being so… tender?”
“Anyone would be, seeing you looking like you’re at death’s door.”
He replied easily, gently washing her limp shoulders and arms with a sponge. It felt good, yet embarrassing. And yet, she wanted to stay like this with him, just a little longer….
Just as a flicker of deeper feeling ignited within her, a vague sense of danger, instinctive and sharp, pricked at her. Impulsively, she reached out and grasped River Ross’s wrist.
“I’ll do it.”
“Why? Don’t you like it?”
“No. It’s just… I’m fine now. Give it to me.”
“Alright, then.”
River Ross stood up without a fuss. He neatly arranged the sponge and towels within her reach, then wiped his own hands dry.
“Finish washing up and come out.”
Before turning completely, he let the curtain fall back into place. Beneath the swaying fabric, she watched his shoes retreat. With each step, reality returned.
She was in a neglected garden shed, with its worn floorboards, its sagging ceiling, a wooden tub, mud-caked boots and shovel handles, pruning shears and a watering can.
The fleeting sense of triumph vanished, replaced by a strange, pervasive guilt at what she had done. And….
Vanessa sighed, resting her head against the tub. Her empty stomach ached.
‘I’ll make a bet with you, then?’
The echo of past conversations, like phantom whispers, reached her tired ears. His voice, his laughter, the very air of that day, all came flooding back. What had she, so confident then, replied to his provocation? It hadn’t been so long ago. But now…
Vanessa touched her trembling fingertips to her damp lips. Her heart raced, pounding with the lingering presence of River Ross.
***
“So, cousin.”
Theodore, gazing out the carriage window, shifted his gaze. Edgar, seated opposite, crossed and uncrossed his sleek legs, then sighed dramatically.
“You’re really comfortable living in a place like this?”
“It’s… tolerable.”
“I truly don’t understand.”
Edgar sighed again, shaking his head. The unusual sheen on his flushed face confirmed the rumors of his satisfying affair with the opera singer—and the rumors of his aunt’s furious reaction, involving a hurled paperweight.
His cousin wrinkled his nose, faintly bruised from a recent altercation, as if the very air of Bath offended him.
“It’s shabby, small, and dirty everywhere you look. Especially compared to Lyndon.”
Theodore shrugged, letting his cousin’s scathing critique wash over him. What city wouldn’t seem like a backwater compared to the glittering capital? But his cousin’s exaggerated disdain for Bath had an obvious motive. He was an emissary, bearing some implied – or explicit – directive from the old woman of Battenberg.
Theodore regarded his cousin as one would a particularly effective tool of his grandmother. Even without that consideration, Edgar’s face was always irritating. Being related to this annoying man was one of the few misfortunes in his life.
“It simply doesn’t make sense. I understand why your grandmother is livid.”
“Edgar.”
