10. Zeth
Zeth
“Ow! Zeth, are you trying to sprain my ankle again?”
“Of course not,” I grumbled at Millie, half listening to her complaints while helping her dress the next morning.
Trying to get her injured foot into an everyday skirt should have been child’s play, but here we were in Mum’s old bedroom with Millie balancing on one foot while I squatted to hold the skirt low enough for her to step in.
It didn’t help that I was distracted. Ever since seeing Amby’s round ass strutting in front of me yesterday in the Ivory Room, with those perfect hips, I couldn’t think straight.
And his blissed out expression after I called him a good boy…
Fuck, he got me heated. I never realized how thrilling it might feel to take control over him and also take care of him.
I longed to wrap Amby in a warm towel to dry his wayward curls while also wanting to spank his ass for being such a brat.
Millie’s fingers dug into my shoulders like an eagle’s claws to draw me back to the task, damn her.
I grunted and nudged her injured foot into the circle and hefted the skirt’s waistband over her thighs.
Although we bought the skirt last month, the waistband strained at her hips, and I needed to tug and wiggle the fabric up to her waist. Millie snorted softly at my efforts.
I was glad my actions didn’t offend her. I stood and stepped around to her back, tucking in her shirt as I went. Then I pulled the waist strings tight, looped two rabbit ears, and tied the knot snug. It felt good to succeed at something so domestic and nurturing, to feel needed.
“You could have just tossed the skirts over my head, you know. It’s easier,” Millie teased, unappreciative. All domestic bliss went out the window.
“How the fuck would I know that? I don’t have hips,” I snapped. Huffing my way around her again, I ignored her and straightened her blouse tucks. Millie was trying to annoy me on purpose because she was my little sister who showed love through making my life a living hell.
Once I reached her front, I eyed her fiercely. “I’ve not dressed you in skirts since you were six. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
Her brown eyes sparkled with mischief as she answered, “It was fun to watch you struggle.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’ve been in such a grumpy mood since the picnic, I thought you could use a distraction. Tell me again what happened yesterday while I was passed out.”
“Nothing. We went fishing. Me, Anna, and Amby. Anna caught a fish.”
The crease in her forehead told me she knew that wasn’t the whole truth. “Then why were you wearing those frumpy old clothes when you helped me home? And why did Anna’s servant deliver your laundered suit to our door at first light this morning?”
I opened my lips to tell her… what? That I baited Amby to get angry, and when he did, he pushed me into the lake?
Heck, I went too far. Amby wasn’t the one who deserved a soaking.
And here was Millie, pressing me to succeed with Anna, while I was stripping wet socks off my old lover and drooling with visions of sucking his big toes.
He had the handsomest toes, knobbly with traces of red hair.
And I still couldn’t believe that Amby told me he’d been heartbroken and mourned my loss for years. Years. I thought he didn’t care. I thought my love was one-sided. So I returned to Everdeen with bitterness and acted like an ass. Amby was right to reply with rudeness. I deserved it.
“Zeth?”
Millie. I closed my eyes from her inquisitive gaze and inhaled deeply.
Old hay from Mum’s mattress and the faint smell of wet plaster hit my nose, good reminders of our situation.
We needed to get out of the laundry, so I needed to marry.
And there was the problem. That was the only way to put a roof over our heads that didn’t leak, and food in our mouths.
Resigned to my tasks, I fetched the rickety chair I’d found downstairs and positioned it by the bed. I tapped it as a sign that my sister should sit already. She huffed over, careful of her injury, and plopped down.
I rewarded her with an answer. “I fell into the lake. Alright? Please let it go.”
“You fell—”
My stern look thankfully cut off her teasing.
“That’s right,” I continued. “So yesterday was a disaster. Even Anna’s staff couldn’t clean out the mineral stains from my clothes. Now we need a new suit and a new way to woo Anna, and we don’t have money for either.”
Millie fidgeted her toes on the warped floorboards as she started plotting a new devious plan out loud about going horseback riding, because rich people love horses.
That reminded me of her sprained ankle, which was touching the floor as she sat on the chair.
Doc Light had told her to keep it elevated.
I decided to fix that by grabbing both edges of the chair from the back.
I hefted it up with her still in it, and she squealed.
She held onto the seat, half-grabbing my hands, but it was quick work to spin her toward the bed and set her down.
I fluffed some blankets and carefully lifted her leg to settle the bruised ankle on them.
“How are you so strong?” Millie exclaimed with wide eyes.
I sat slowly on the bed, facing her with a shrug. “From moving furniture for the past nine years. It didn’t get into the auction house by itself, now did it? But I’ll need help moving the dresser downstairs so I can display it in the window to sell, and you’re in no shape to assist.”
“Mum’s dresser?”
I didn’t like the sound of disappointment in her voice, so I ignored it. “Aye. Needs to be sold. We won’t eat otherwise. And I want food in my belly again.”
“I guess,” she pouted with her cute cheeks. “Seems a shame. Maybe Amby can help?”
Help put food in my belly? I imagined Amby holding a cracker with cream cheese and popping it into my mouth, his thumb entering too as I licked the cream free. I cleared my throat and tried to remember what Millie asked of me. She suggested that Amby help… “Help with what exactly?”
“Moving the dresser, of course. What were you thinking?”
“Oh, yes, well, what were you saying about horses?” I circled back a few topics to distract us both. My fixation on Amby was consuming me.
It was Anna I should be fixating over. Anna on a horse.
Pretty, with her teacher’s expression… and that did nothing for me.
Amby wasn’t the only one lying about his attractions.
Still, I had to press on. I leaned back on my arms and looked at Millie.
Her button nose rose with excitement, so I gave in, “So where should I take Anna for this horse ride?”
“Around her expansive land holdings, obviously. Admire them. Let her see you as a possible lord for her land.”
I sat up to boop her nose. “You sound ridiculous.”
Millie eyed me seriously. “I’ll go in case you need a witness. You know… for a courting kiss. Once you see how well she sits on her horse, you might be tempted to be ungentlemanly.”
“Ah yes, excellent idea for you to attend,” I agreed while rubbing my neck. I doubted I would be tempted to do anything, but I should make our courtship official. The sooner the better, for our plan.
“With such a strong will, Anna’s bound to be a fine rider. You’ll be distracted by her bun, wanting to unravel her hair and see how her lovely blonde locks fall on her lily white shoulders…” She sighed. “You won’t be able to resist her enticing lips.”
Millie’s talk was meant to get me going, but my interests sat on one man’s shoulders my whole life, unfortunately. He would be the one to tempt me into kissing him under a tree. Heck, Amby would probably dare me, like the first time he dared me to kiss him.
I nodded agreement to her silly talk about Anna, and Millie’s face brightened with flushed enthusiasm for her plan.
Riding with Millie and Anna wouldn’t be too bad, once Millie’s leg was better. And escorting Anna around was a good idea because Amby wouldn’t be there. We just needed to keep our rented horses to a trot. Unlike Anna, I wasn’t a fine rider. I didn’t want to fall in front of my future spouse.
Feeling a bit doomed to do just that and embarrass myself like yesterday, I stood with a foreboding heave off the mattress. “I’m going to clean the windows now to display the dresser. We need the money, especially if we’re paying for horses again. You gonna be good here?”
“Of course. You see this wonderful view, don’t you?” She motioned across the bed to the dusty window. It was about the only thing she could look at from her angle. “What more can I ask for?”
“Shush, Sassy Cat.” I chuckled and left her for the first floor, taking the stairs two at a time to feel the rush. I sorta liked cleaning and was in the mood for manual labor, to sweat things out. I needed to cleanse myself of these lingering desires for a certain redhead.
Grabbing a bucket and a cloth I borrowed from the neighboring store, I pumped some cold water from the well and went up front to remove the curtains.
I set them aside in big piles to launder later and rolled up my old shirt sleeves.
Then I got to work scrubbing the big shop windows from the outside.
The first wash mostly moved around the layered dirt in heavy streaks. Soap would have helped, but we were out. By the second wash, my shirt was damp in the front, but the glass was finally clean. I moved inside and repeated the process.
Now, if only Amby could be wiped from my mind so easily.
I even thought I saw him strolling along Main Street.
The man there had a carrier bag strap across his chest, hands tucked into his pants pockets to keep them still, and his capped head hung low.
It could be him. Or it was any number of young men in this town. I shook my head at getting so bothered.
The cleaning didn’t help as much as I hoped, as working alone only made me think about Amby more.