“Well, couples usually have a period when they are engaged to each other, during which they are left alone for a bit longer, and that helps them get more…acquaintedwith each other,” he said, but then frowned and added, “which you perhaps already know, since you’ve been engaged.”
“Which you were aware of when you cornered me in that cloak room,” Elizabeth said defensively.
“I was.” Talbot nodded and then shook his head as if amazed at something. “I’m just finding myself enraged by the idea that Harding might have kissed you.”
Elizabeth blushed.
“He did nothing of the sort. He did touch my lips with a flower once,” she admitted, without knowing why.
Talbot’s elbows were now on his knees, his whole body tense and leaning towards her.
“Was that all?”
“Aye.”
“What about your friend’s brother? The sailor?” he asked feverishly.
“Thomas? He was too busy kissing Sarah Baker to even think about me,” Elizabeth responded, genuinely confused by his intensity. “Are you worried about...?”
“Nothing like that,” he shook his head vehemently. “I’m sorry, I got carried away for a moment. Go ahead, take your bath, I shall not look.”
*
“I like the smell of your soap,” he said from behind the screen where Lizzie had banished him.
She smiled to herself. “Thank you.”
“It is deceptive in its sweetness, though. It lulls a man into a false sense of safety when he is near you.”
She didn’t say anything because she wasn’t sure she understood.
Afterwards, Colin bathed while she was getting dressed, and then, when the tub was emptied and taken away, they both cleaned their teeth. She was glad Nicholas had gifted her the toothbrush with the ivory handle because Talbot’s was even more extravagant. It even (unnecessarily, in Elizabeth’s mind) had his initials on it. His curiosity regarding her toilette was seemingly endless.
“And what is that?” he asked as she applied theMilk of Roseson her face.
“It’s a lotion,” she handed him the bottle, and he curiously examined every detail on it.
“What is it made of?”
“I don’t know. Roses and milk?”
He sniffed her face, and Elizabeth almost burst out laughing.
“Itdoessmell of roses.”
“Mhm,” she managed as she applied the last dabs of the milk onto her chin.
She then proceeded to take out the pins from her hair one by one. Talbot soon joined in.
“This is a very soothing task,” he remarked.
“Not if you have to do it daily,” she answered.
“We shall see,” he said as he smoothed out the last strands of her long hair, which, Elizabeth realised, he was now seeing down for the first time.
He kept running his fingers through it reverently, and Lizzie felt like a lazy cat being stroked. She picked up her brush, but he took it from her and carefully started brushing her hair.
“It’s so soft,” he said in a quiet voice.
