Free Lady In Waiting by Kathryn Caskie

hem. "I fear I must take my leave, fer I have some matters to attend to."
    A dual sigh fell from the Featherton sisters' mouths.
    "Shall we meet again, my lord?" Lady Viola asked sweetly. "We are taking the waters tomorrow noon, a little later than usual. Mayhap we will see you then?"
    Callum's mouth lifted into a crooked smile. "Perhaps, my lady. Perhaps indeed."
    And, as seemed to be his way, he departed abruptly with nary another word.
    Good riddance, Jenny thought. She wasn't about to have her life ruined by a blue-blooded rogu e — t he way her mother's was. And the longer he remained in her presence, the more likely that became.
    If only he wasn't so damned handsome.
    Chapter F ive
    Im possible! Gentlemen and ladies, all bathing...... together? Jenny wondered if her mother knew about this. Or Mr. Edgar! Maybe if he was aware that the ton saw nothing wrong with bathing together, then he'd stop threatening the kitchen girls with the sack just for kissing the footmen.
    Dressed in what Jenny took to be the appropriate bathing uniforms, baglike marigold frocks cord-cinched beneath their bosom, she and Meredith wheeled Lady Letitia to the steps, helped her down into the steaming water, then eased into the blissfully warm water themselves.
    Though the bathing gown she'd borrowed from Meredith was itchy upon her skin, the hot bath felt grand, especially on a day as bitingly cold as today. Though, Jenny had to admit, she felt a bit silly strolling chest deep in the Roman baths with a flat basket of medicinal herbs and flowers floating before her, anchored by a wide ribbon about her neck. And to polish the ridiculous look, she was still wearing her best bonnet atop her head. All the ladies were. And most of the gen-
     
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    tlemen wore their beaver-skin top hats. The whole event was just a hair north of idiotic if you asked her.
    And this "treatment" was supposed to cure what ails you? Bah! What folly. Someone was a having a grand joke on the ton and they were actually paying for the privilege.
    Still, without fail, Lady Letitia made her way to the baths several times a wee k — f or her gout. In fact, it was the very reason they'd packed up the London house and come to Bat h — f or the supposed medicinal waters.
    Eating a little less would make for a far better cure, Jenny decided. It couldn't help the mistress toting all that weight around.
    The wake from a passing couple nearly upset Jenny's •floating tray, but she remembered her ladies' instructions and remained as serene and genteel as if she were standing in the Upper Assembly Room s — i nstead of chest deep in water that smelled like boiled eggs.
    A warm hand pressed against her back, almost caressing her, and Jenny smiled expecting to see Meredith as she turned. But halfway around she saw the young miss now sitting at the water's edge, splashing her feet in the water and annoying everyone around her.
    "I like the way yer wet gown hugs ye close, lass. Makes it easier to imagine ye as the Good Lord made ye."
    "You," Jenny snarled. She whirled around, causing a tight whirlpool to encircle her and raise her hem about her thighs. She shoved her gown back down into the murky depths.
    "We did agree ye'd call me Callu m ," he whispered in her ear.
    "Leave me. Please. The ladies are bound to see you."
     
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    "And I would think they'd be quite pleased. It canna be a secret to ye that they desire a love match between u s."
    "So they might, but you, my lord, have absolutely no intention of offering for me." She glared up at him. "I am not as naive as you would believe me to be. I know your true intentions, and they involve a bed, not a ring."
    Callu m grinned at that, but her accusation did nothing to urge forth the gentleman inside. Instead, one wide hand cupped Jenny's bottom. She gasped, unsure what to do, as he pressed her forward through the water, at such a rate that a wake spread out behind the m , until they reached a wide column near the corner of the bath.
    Then,