Page 103 of A Contracted Spouse for the Prizefighter

“I don’t know about scandalous,” she mused, “but it is certainly unconventional. The last time I shared a bathtub would have been with my siblings, in infancy,” she added hastily. Clem grinned and ran a flannel over his shoulders.

“I think you should draw me naked next time,” Theo said, soaping her arms.

Clem made a muffled noise. “Now this is what I am talking about,” he complained. “Your sense of propriety makes no sense to me. You turn prim over a practical time and money-saving practice such as sharing a bath. Then in the next breath, you suggest something truly outrageous without so much as a blush upon your lovely cheek.”

Dora snorted but looked thoughtful all the same. “Perhaps because my family is artistic?” she suggested.

“Perhaps.”

“Nudes in paintings and sculptures are practically respectable after all. My uncle let us run amok in museums and art galleries growing up and we were allowed full run of his library.”

“You were fond of your uncle,” he observed.

“Oh yes,” she enthused. “Life with him was chaotic and wonderful. It was never dull.” Clem nodded.

“You still have not yet introduced me to your uncle,” she observed lightly and noticed the way his expression turned evasive.

“I only visit him every four weeks,” he admitted after a moment. “The second Saturday of the month.”

“Are you fond of him? I think you said he was good to you when you came to London.”

He leaned the back of his head against the edge of the tub. “He was,” he agreed, closing his eyes.

“Yet you are not close?”

“Not really,” Clem admitted. “He’s a quiet type. My Aunt Nancy did all the talking. He was sort of in the background. Then too, I only lived with them for twelve months before I took lodgings of my own.”

“It does not sound like you take much after your mother’s side.”

Clem’s eyes sprang open. “I’m nothing like my father,” he said abruptly. Theo jumped at the vehemence of his words. The soap slipped through her fingers, and she groped about the bottom of the tub to retrieve it.

“My mother’s brothers were all big and burly like me,” Clem added after a moment in a more reasonable tone. “Honestly, Uncle Danny was the quietest of the bunch. My Uncle Miles was rowdy and loved a drink. My Uncle Mickey had a quick temper and got killed in a bar fight when he was only twenty.”

“Do you remember your mother at all?” she asked gently.

“Just occasional flashes. I remember her singing on washing day.”

Theo nodded, carefully balancing the soap on the edge. “It’s nice to have something to remember them by. I don’t remember my parents much, but I recall my mother’s scent and how my father looked up when she walked into a room.”

Clem was silent at her wistful tone, then he said suddenly, “My father was a clerk and always wanted to better himself. That’s why he sent me off to school. He thought to give me a better start than he had in life.”

Theo was surprised. “Well, that sounds pretty admirable,” she said hesitantly. For some reason, she had not formed the best impression of his father before now. She cudgeled her brains to remember what Clem had said about him.

“He always thought he’d married beneath himself by all accounts,” Clem said, as though she had spoken her thoughts aloud. “He was always in and out of work and they had crippling debts. My mother was a laundress,” Clem said, stretching out his legs on either side of her. “I remember she was always cheerful and full of life. Until she fell sick, that is, but that happened fast, and I don’t remember much. My uncles came to our lodgings and wanted to take me away to stay with my Aunt Nancy. My father refused though.”

“Why did he refuse?”

Clem’s smile twisted. “At the time, he thought I was bound for better things than a stevedore.” At her puzzled frown, he added, “To work the docks, as they did.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t remember much of that time. Except that there was a punch up at the funeral. My Uncle Danny laid my father out.” He shrugged. “Which is not that unusual at an Irish funeral.”

“Laid him out?”

“Punched him. Knocked him out cold.”

“Why did your quietest uncle punch your father?” Theo asked in surprise.