Chapter 13 #2
He could prove she wasn’t his, and that he didn’t want her, in short order.
“What do you think you are doing?” he bellowed, not caring how it sounded or if it startled her.
Elena immediately folded her arms over her chest, scanning the trees for the voice. He stepped into the morning light, glaring at her thunderously.
Elena’s scowl was just as dark. “I am bathing, my lord. And I am covered, so do not cry impropriety to me.”
“Bathing,” West repeated, as though that were not evident. “In a frigid lake this early in the morning. Why?”
“To get clean?” she told him in a drawling manner as she started towards the shoreline. “The usual reasons for bathing.”
“In my lake, Elena,” he ground out furiously, his hands clenching by his sides. “This early.”
She rolled her eyes, pausing in the water when it was just at her hips. “Turn your back. I don’t trust you not to gawk inappropriately.” She made a gesture with her finger for him to do so.
Huffing, West turned. “Answer me, daft woman.”
“Yes, neanderthal man,” she replied, the sounds of water sloshing and dripping accompanying her snide remark. “This early because it is less likely that I will be disturbed while tending to my bodily hygiene. And the frigid lake because this is where I bathe.”
“Why?” he demanded, feeling rather stupid for talking at the trees. “There are bathing tubs in the house, you know this. We are not so far gone here as to require bathing in bodies of water.”
He heard her loud snort of derision as though it were a thunderclap. “We. As though you know anything or have suffered anything.”
West turned his head ever so slightly, looking towards the water, not the shoreline. “How dare you. This is my land, my house, my inheritance!”
“My blood and my sweat and my tears,” Elena yelled back. “And tell me, with your keen powers of observation, have you seen any sort of well, cistern, or working pump? Anything resembling those at all in the vicinity of the house?” She exhaled noisily. “You may turn.”
He did so, slowly, as her words hit him. His mind raced from thought to thought, image to image, looking for any indication that she was mistaken.
It was not there.
Of course it wasn’t. This was something she would know far better than him, and it galled him to admit it.
He looked at her then, wrapped in a blanket securely, with a small bucket in her hand. Her dark hair, damp and loose, hung around her shoulders like a shawl, and her complexion was bright. She had to be freezing, but he detected no shiver in her frame.
She was stronger than he would ever give her credit for.
“But . . .” West stammered, panic catching in his chest. “But I had a hot bath in the house not two days ago. The water was there when I had it.”
Elena’s mouth curved into an unamused smile. “And who do you think hauled the water to the house, bucket by bucket, to save Mrs. Havens the humiliation of having to tell you the state we were in?”
Humiliation was exactly the word for what he was feeling at present, the dreadful heat lighting his cheeks, his ears, the back of his neck, the pit of his stomach. It twisted him inside, made him feel ill and aching, devoid of solid ground beneath his feet.
“You didn’t,” he whispered as he staggered towards her, pleading for her to tell him this was a cruel jest. “Please, Elena . . . Please tell me you did not turn into some sort of donkey hauling water to the house so I could bathe like a spoiled child.”
Elena shook her head slowly. “I cannot tell you that. I did so. I do so for Mrs. Havens, and Worsley, too, as they are not comfortable bathing in the lake. I am the youngest and strongest, so I must do it. Before I came, Worsley did the work. But he is growing older, and I do not feel comfortable letting him do so now.”
West ran a hand through his hair, feeling how his fingers shook against his scalp. “Elena . . . Ellie, I didn’t . . . I couldn’t . . .”
She sighed and moved closer to him. “You did not know, my lord. There was no reason you would have been informed of the situation, and Leonard never saw the need to reply when the concern was brought up. Rokesby Jr. certainly made no efforts towards it, and by the time Williams came, there were greater concerns.”
West blinked at her. “What greater concerns than having water at hand in your home, Elena?”
She tilted her head slightly. “Ensuring the estate did not default on its loans, that the tenants had food, that we had food, that everyone and everything would survive for another season.”
“Your own money, Elena,” West rasped as he reached out to seize her hand. “You used your own money and put it towards the estate rather than ensure there was water at hand at the house. Why are you like this? Why would you do this?”
Elena seemed almost startled by the question.
“Because I can tolerate a little inconvenience and additional effort for the good of others. It’s not sacrificial, it is logical.
I knew the day would come when we would have some sort of water at the house, but until that made sense fiscally, why rush the expense just for my comfort? ”
She tried to gently pull her hand away, but West held it firm, the cogs of thought in his mind catching and falling into place firmly and neatly, settling him into a certainty he hadn’t felt in some time.
Possibly since he had arrived.
“I have money,” he told her quietly.
One of her brows quirked, a small smile appearing on her previously unremarkable but now curiously adorable pink lips. “I should hope so.”
He ignored that, her sarcasm and wit clearly not dimmed in the slightest. “I’ve been trying to meet with Williams to determine the best and first course of action with the inheritance I had been granted before whatever Leonard has left comes to me. Or we sell his things and get more.”
“Now that sounds like an occupation I should like to engage in,” Elena muttered on a laugh.
“But now I know,” West went on, laughing as well.
“We are going to get water to the house. I am going to invest in the most efficient and durable well, cistern, or pump we can get for a house this size. I have to go to London to see my solicitor anyway, so I might as well take care of this issue as well.”
Elena’s eyes widened before she laughed once more. “Why? So you can continue to bathe like a spoiled child without my having to haul water for you?”
West growled and stepped closer. “I will haul my own damned water, Elena, if I want to take a bath like a spoiled child. You are never carting water for me again.”
Her breath caught and her eyes widened, making West’s throat tighten.
“We . . . we could make Fred cart the water,” Elena whispered.
West grinned, nodding fervently. “Even better. He should make himself useful if he is going to eat our food.”
Devil take it, why did it sound so good to say “we” and “our” with her?
He was supposed to be proving that she wasn’t his, but all this was doing was drawing him further and further into her circle.
She wasn’t a goddess; she was a siren.
And he was rather merrily being led to his death.
Without thinking, West reached up and brushed his thumb over Elena’s lower lip, which was turning the faintest shade of purple and trembling without tears. “I don’t want to see your lips this shade anymore, Elena. You must never be this cold while I have power to change it.”
Her breath raced past his thumb, tingling the skin deliciously, but pulling him from the moment with a sharpness that stole his own breath.
His hand dropped to his side as he collected himself, clearing his throat of a nonexistent blockage.
“Could you help me to get a meeting with Williams?” he asked Elena in a low voice.
“He seems to be markedly unavailable for me, and I need to work, to get my hands dirty, to put forth some effort into this place before I lose all sense and reason. I want to learn from him, partner in a way so that we have two minds working the lands instead of one. I have spent the last several years learning everything I could about agriculture, farming, management, and the like. I never dreamed I would get to turn that education into something for Fenmore, but now . . .” He laughed almost breathlessly.
“It’s the biggest, most important task I’ve ever dreamed of, and we are starting from the worst possible position I could have imagined.
Would have been far worse than that without Williams. And you. ”
To his surprise, Elena blushed. Gads, what a beautiful sight!
She swallowed twice. “I will communicate with Mr. Williams on your behalf. Of course. He, erm . . . is not always accommodating for these things, being so dedicated to the work, which I admire. It may take some time to convince him. Perhaps you should go to London first?”
West nodded quickly—too quickly—and stepped back. “Yes, that would be excellent. If all goes well in London, I will have a much better idea of what our resources are and how things are laid out.”
“You may come back to find the rooms shut up again,” Elena warned with a laugh, a shiver visibly racking her body.
“Come,” he said at once, gesturing towards the house.
“Let’s get you home before you freeze.” They started to walk side by side, an odd companionship lingering between them.
“And I did not open the doors and windows specifically to spite you. I only meant for natural light and air to see the true state of each room, and what will need to be mended or refurbished or completely renovated in order for the house as a whole to be truly restored.” He rubbed the back of his neck almost anxiously.
“I could have told you that, but I did not. And I have made a poor start of it, just as I have of everything.”
Elena made the softest tutting sound but said nothing.
“Would you, perhaps, consider taking that task up while I am in London?” West asked, knowing with a certainty that she would do a better job at the matter anyway. “Take stock of the rooms and how they stand? And then, when I return, we could . . . start afresh? On everything?”
Elena remained quiet for a long moment, then exhaled almost harshly.
“I am not starting the room analyses afresh when you return, my lord. But I will show you the lists I craft and give you my very frank opinions on their priorities. And as for everything else . . . yes, perhaps starting afresh would be wise.”
West hid a smile at her answer, loving the manner in which she could not let him have his own way. Sparring with her was rather invigorating, when he was in the right frame of mind.
Starting afresh might not be wise, considering how he was feeling about her this morning, but it would certainly be revealing.
He simply was not certain who, or what, would be revealed when they did.