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She shook her head as she stood. “I’ll only be a minute.”
“Take your time.”
Lilah closed the door to the bathroom with relief. She sagged against it, her breathing off-kilter, her mind swimming. She wasn’t sure what had got into her, but she felt like a young girl on the brink of her first kiss. Which, she thought with a small grin, was exactly what she was.
CHAPTER FIVE
“There are toothbrushes under the sink.” His voice came through the door at the exact moment Lilah was staring at her face in despair. She’d washed as best she could. But the water in the bathroom was as icy as the water in the kitchen, once she finally got it running, and the most she could entice herself to do was splash her face a few times and use a flannel to pat down her body. She was covered in goosebumps, shivering from head to toe.
“Th-th-thank you.” She stammered back, her teeth chattering in a way she’d always presumed cartoonists had invented. Her hands shook as she slipped her underwear on, then pulled the dress over her head. It provided some relief, but nowhere nearly enough.
Lilah hadn’t packed any make up. There hadn’t been any time, and she hadn’t known then that she’d be away from her usual supplies for longer than a few hours.
With a shake of her head, she ran her fingers through her hair, neatening it a little before pinning it into a low bun at her nape. Still, her teeth chattered. She jumped on the spot to warm up and rubbed her hands together.
Nothing helped.
The room itself was right on the edge of the cabin, and the large window overlooking the forest might have been stunningly picturesque in the summer. However on a wintry morning such as this, it acted as a refrigeration panel.
Her fingers fumbled as she opened the cupboard.
There was indeed a box full of toothbrushes, still in the store packaging. There was also some floss, paste, and a reasonably pedestrian looking jar of unopened moisturizer. With a sound of triumph, she unscrewed the lid and rubbed a small amount into her cheeks and forehead, then concentrated on brushing her teeth.
By the time she braced herself to return to the main room of the cabin she was looking much more like her usual self, though she wasn’t sure her internal temperature would ever return to normal.
“Oh.” She paused just outside the threshold, spinning to admire the room. “You’ve done so much!”
His eyes slanted in her direction, and despite the appraisal he wanted to indulge in he was careful to give little away.
“You lit the fire!” She exclaimed, moving towards it quickly. “Thank goodness. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been this cold my whole life. I had no idea what cold really was until now.”
“The fire’ll kick in soon enough.”
“I’m sure.” She stood before it, wishing she could sit on the floor and let the heat wrap around her like a blanket.
“Here.” He stalked towards her with that inimitable style of his – pure laid-back athleticism – a mug in hand. “Why don’t you sit down and have some … tea. Seeing as you have such a predilection for the drink.”
Her smile was a ghostly imitation. “I’ll stand. I’d like to stay as close as possible to the fire without actually being in it.”
He grinned. “Here.”
She took the proffered mug with true gratitude.
“You can just grab a spot on the floor. I swept it all, remember?”
“That’s fine,” she shook her head.
“Right.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess princesses don’t sit on the floor. Let me grab you a chair.”
Something in his tone fired a spirit of rebellion in her gut. “Ordinarily, that’s true. But then again, yesterday was the first time I’ve ever dangled off a high rise from a rope.”
She settled herself onto the floor, folding her legs neatly beneath her. She was the epitome of elegant grace, but positioned as she was, she looked almost child-like.
“I’ve put a tin of soup on to heat. I know it’s not exactly breakfast fare …”
“It will be lovely,” she promised, her stomach making a little groan of complaint. “We didn’t eat dinner.”
“No, we didn’t.”
