AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Thanks for the candles.’ Her mind seemed to have drifted somewhere else. ‘They’re a nice touch.’
Jack couldn’t stop himself from smiling. There was so little he could do for her. ‘Wish I could have done more.’
‘Cherubs? Or perhaps a few perfumed clouds hovering about...?’ She laughed quietly.
‘Both. Every cherub needs a cloud.’
‘Ah. And a glass of champagne.’
‘Why stop at a glass?’ Jack smiled as he soaped himself, feeling the tension ebb from his shoulders. ‘Want some caviar with it?’
‘No. I’ll take a burger. Home-made, with extra cheese. And chips. Plenty of salt and vinegar.’
‘Of course you will. Anything else?’ What would he do if she said the one thing he wanted to hear? It was a nice fantasy, but in reality he’d probably pretend he’d got soap in his ears and was temporarily deaf.
‘Mmm. I’d normally say a mud mask, but actually I think I’ve had enough mud for one day. Someone to get the knots out of my shoulders.’
Jack didn’t comment on that, for fear of sounding too interested in the position. ‘And...?’
‘A manicure. After I’ve had the burger, of course. What about you?’
Jack chuckled. ‘Three or four handmaidens. One to hand me my towel and one to hold my champagne for me.’
‘That’s two spare. Send them in here, will you, I’ll be needing some help with the after-bath beauty thing. And the swirling silken robes, of course.’
‘Yeah. Naturally.’ He stepped out of the shower and switched off the water, dabbing at the abrasions on his chest and arms. ‘What about the musicians?’
‘Nah. Tell them to wait outside; it’s getting a bit crowded in here.’
Jack pulled on the clean clothes that Martin had found for him and unlocked the cubicle door. The image of Cleopatra, rising from her bath and being dressed in silks and jewels, was doing nothing for him. Cass, wrapped in a towel, tired from the effort of saving a young boy’s life, was far more entrancing.
When he heard her get out of the bath and pad over to the row of lockers by the showers, Jack kept his eyes, if not his mind, on the task of clearing away the shampoo and wiping the basin. A pause and then she appeared. Pink-cheeked and dressed in sweatpants and a sleeveless T-shirt, a hooded sweat top slung over her shoulder.
‘I...thanks. For the bath.’ It seemed that fantasy was only permissible when they weren’t actually looking each other in the eye.
‘My pleasure.’
She shrugged awkwardly. ‘I might go and lie down now. Close my eyes.’
Her hand was on the door handle before he remembered what it was he’d been meaning to say to her. ‘Hey, Cass. Wait.’
‘Yes?’
‘Do you think we made today count? Enough to justify staying behind?’
She smiled suddenly. ‘Yes. We did.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
CASS HAD BEEN opening out her camp bed when Sue intercepted her. Jack had apparently just happened to walk over to the vicarage and mention that Cass was going for a lie down and Sue had a comfortable, warm nest all prepared for her on the sofa in her kitchen. Far nicer than a rickety camp bed in one of the chilly communal rooms behind the church hall.
Warm and relaxed from her bath, she fell asleep until Sue woke her for an evening meal. It seemed that Jack wasn’t joining them and after waiting in the vicarage kitchen for two hours, not daring to betray her interest in him by asking Sue where he was, she went back to sleep on the sofa.
She woke early the following morning. Everyone in the house was still asleep and she donned her jacket and boots and crept out of the back door and to the kitchen in the church hall.
‘Sleep well?’ A voice behind her interrupted her thoughts and Cass jumped guiltily, sending a teacup rolling across the worktop. It seemed that even thinking about Jack could summon him up out of nowhere.
‘Yes, thanks. What are you doing up?’
