Chapter 10

She needed a bath but couldn’t very well do that with him in the room, or could she?

“Look at you!” she said, making her point by poking at the space between them. “Why are you making this arrangement so difficult? All I need to do is take a bath and go have a bit to eat to start my day, and then we can talk. But you are preventing me from doing that. Saya has promised to show me around, and now she has to wait because I’m in here shouting at you!”

This time, he gave her a full smile, bent down, grabbed the bucket from her hand, and dumped it in the tub. He then proceeded to walk around to where the other bucket chilled, brought it back, and dumped it as well. She stood and watched his every movement with her hands tightly on where she knotted the quilt. He then approached her and pried her hands away from the quilt with one of his large hands. She could feel herself start to panic.

“What are you doing? Mr. Hurston, you don’t strike me as the kind of man who would