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Alek frowns, but Casimir tugs me with him before the other men can ask any questions. “Enough work from you, Ivy. You’ve had to deal with more than you could have been prepared for already. Let me take care of you a little.”
I don’t know how to argue without sounding totally unreasonable. And now I’ve told them the only part of what I learned that they can act on right now.
Maybe if I go along with Casimir, the others will back off on insisting we get some kind of retribution against my supposed attacker. At least until it doesn’t matter anymore.
“Yeah,” I force myself to say. “That would be nice.”
As the courtesan ushers me toward the wall with its hidden staircase, I realize I have no idea where he’s actually taking me.
Twenty-Eight
As soon as we’ve been swallowed up by the darkness on the conjured stairs, I give a private refusal a half-hearted try. “I really am feeling totally recovered now. It’d be enough just to go back and relax in Stavros’s—”
Casimir cuts me off with a short chuckle. “Oh, no. You’ve run yourself ragged. I’ve got just the cure for that.”
Iamstill wiped out from my magic’s punishment. A faint ache remains in my lungs, and any hunger I once felt has been burned up by my stomach’s churning.
Partly out of a lack of energy to argue and partly out of curiosity, I let Casimir guide me down the hallway in the opposite direction from the library entrance.
“We’ll take the back staircase,” he says. “It’s not likely we’ll run into anyone there.”
He ushers me up the narrow flight of stairs and a short distance down the third-floor hall that must hold the dorms for the companionship division. His fingers skim over a few doors that are carved in a simple but elegant style with Ardone’s favorite things. Roses sprout from leafy stems, salmon leap from rivers, and swans soar on lakes.
The godlen of love and beauty would feel right at home.
Something about the doors must tell Casimir which he can use. He presses his fingers against the fourth in a swift pattern, and it swings open to admit us.
The room he leads me into is definitely not a dorm, though it’s nearly as large as the common room in Julita’s. Pale marble tiles line the floor and walls, gleaming under the bright glow of the crystalline light fixtures overhead.
On the far wall, someone’s painted the tiles with a mural of the All-Giver’s raising of the godlen. Taking the idea that the Great God “lay with” earth, sea, and sky in a much more literal fashion than I’ve generally seen it portrayed.
With a flush of my cheeks, I jerk my gaze to take in the rest of our surroundings. Shelves built into the walls hold towels, sponges, and an assortment of bottles and jars. A sweet floral scent laces the air.
And in the middle of the room, next to a thick white rug, stands a claw-foot bathtub.
Gold-plated pipes rise from the floor to the faucet at one curved end of the tub. Casimir walks straight over with his usual assured grace and starts the water running.
As steam wafts from the warbling current, the courtesan turns to the shelves. He opens a jar full of glinting pink crystals and sprinkles a handful under the running water. Bubbles foam in their wake.
A crisper scent reaches my nose that somehow seeps into my muscles to release some of the tension wound up there. But even as my shoulders start to relax from their defensive pose, my stomach knots tighter. “You’re running me a bath?”
“I can’t think of anything better for soothing the nerves and escaping the day’s stresses.” Casimir flashes me a smile and ambles over to join me.
Stepping behind me, he brushes his fingertips along the collar of my gown. But the flare of heat isn’t enough to stop me from stiffening when he reaches for the lacing at the back.
“Casimir, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“I’m the expert. You don’t trust my judgment?”
I don’t trust his reaction if he sees all of my body exactly as it is. I can’t keep my undershirt on in the bath.
No doubt he’s seen dozens of nude women before. My gawky body wouldn’t be a particular thrill.
But it does have one unexpected feature—or lack thereof.
“Maybe a bath would be nice,” I hedge. “But I generally prefer them to be private. You’ve set everything up perfectly. Am I not allowed to use this room alone?”
Casimir pauses with his hands halfway down my back. The loosened dress slips over the peaks of my shoulders, and I fold my arms across the bodice to ensure it doesn’t drop.
