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She’d found clean linen bed sheets and towels in one of the closets, but there seemed to be no clothing in this entire house. With one more room to search, Lavinia walked into one of the smallest bedrooms and noticed a trunk in the corner. She rushed toward it, opened it, and was ready to dance in relief. There was a small collection of female clothing.
Granted the selection was limited, but the size was even larger than hers, guaranteeing to fit her comfortably. There were a few nightgowns, a shift, a couple of nightdresses, slippers of a slightly larger size than hers, and a few handkerchiefs.
After digging through more things, and finding a hair comb, soap, and a few other things necessary for human survival, Lavinia revised her initial opinion of the house.
At first, when she’d just woken up, she thought this was an abandoned place the owners had left years ago. Now she realized she’d been wrong. This house was definitely still used by the owners from time to time. It just happened that the owners were not there at the moment. Perhaps they were in London for the Season.
There were no portraits or anything, truly, to indicate who this house belonged to, but she’d wondered if the villagers or the fishermen Sebastian had run into earlier had any idea who lived there.
Sure, Sebastian had made up his mind that William was behind their misfortune, but something didn’t feel right.
This just didn’t feel like a house the bastard of a duke would live in.
Sebastian entered the room and cleared his throat. “Are you ready?”
Lavinia turned toward him and nodded. “Yes.”
She noticed he had a heap of linen in his arms, too. Apparently, he’d found something for him to wear as well.
“Let us go then.”
They made their way toward the stream in quiet contemplation. Lavinia was thinking about the uproar she had probably caused with her disappearance.
Caroline had prepared her carriage to leave… What had she thought when Lavinia didn’t show up? What had happened when they couldn’t find her anywhere?
And poor Annalise! Lavinia closed her eyes and whimpered.
“Are you unwell?” Sebastian asked from her side.
Lavinia shook her head. “I was just thinking how much stress I probably caused my friends by disappearing! Annalise is in a delicate condition, and I worry that I caused her a fainting spell. And poor Miss Gale!”
“Well, I can’t reassure you about your friend, but you can be certain that my household would not let Miss Gale get into any sort of trouble. And don’t worry. Tomorrow I shall find us a mount, and we will be back in no time. Watchet is only a few hours away from my country seat. We were probably only gone one night.”
Lavinia turned to look at him, and she knew that he was just as worried if not more about the people he had left behind, especially Victoria, and she tried very hard to come up with something to tell him to ease his mind, but no words seemed like enough.
Soon they reached the stream, and Sebastian turned toward her with a slight smirk on his lips. “Do you want to go first?”
Lavinia looked at the running stream, and then at Sebastian, and she realized that she had not thought this through at all… She’d have to bathe with Sebastian standing right there on the bank! All manner of thought whirled around in her mind, but she finally decided it would be better if he was preoccupied with drying and dressing himself when she was in the water so he would not have any interest in peeking at her naked, unshapely body.
He was a connoisseur! He spent his time painting perfect, beautiful female bodies with thin waists, shapely breasts, and small bellies.
And although what she should have felt was shame about the prospect of him seeing her undressed, she hoped he would not see her because she was certain he would lose interest in her the moment he did.
She didn’t want to disappoint him.
“Please.” Lavinia waved a hand.
Sebastian shrugged and started disrobing right in front of her. Lavinia gasped and turned around. Although she was unwilling to look at him directly, now that she had her back to him, she became desperate to see his body.
Compared to her, he must have been built like a god. She lowered her eyes and concentrated on her bodice to take her mind off him.
“You shouldn’t be ashamed,” he said loudly over the noise of the stream. “We are to be married, after all. Might as well have a look now.”
Lavinia peeked at him over her shoulder. The idea that he would be forced to marry her still didn’t sit well with her. But the idea of being married to him somehow left butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
He sat on the rock, his front to her. His shirt was off, and he was only wearing his breeches while he tugged off his boots. His shoulders were corded with muscles, and as he raised his torso, she couldn’t stop herself from admiring his flat stomach, the muscles on his chest, and then the V-shaped lines that drew the eye toward the triangle of hair disappearing under his breeches. He put his hands on his falls, and Lavinia immediately straightened, looking away.
He laughed. “You can look. I am not shy.”
