Chapter 36

Ara finished pouring the large pot of boiling water into Nameless’ bath in his room. The bronze basin steamed with hot water, and she headed back downstairs to the living room. Nameless was snoring softly on the floor in front of the hearth while he held Dog to himself tightly. Lucky dog, she thought to herself with a small smile. “C’mon Dog, time to head back outside,”

The large, scarred up, black dog looked up and scooted out from under Nameless’ arm without waking him. He was so well trained, she had no idea how Nameless had done it. But, to ask Nameless, he hadn’t done much. He just considered Dog to be very obedient, but that hardly explained how Dog was able to follow commands he’d never heard before. She opened the door and Dog headed back out into the cold where he began sniffing over the massive load that Nameless had somehow dragged all the way from the woods by himself. He’s not a particularly large man, but he is obviously quite strong.

Ara closed the door and headed back over to Nameless, crouching down next to him. She shook him by his well muscled shoulder. “Nameless, I’ve prepared your bath,” she said. He mumbled something unintelligible but didn’t move from his position. She shook him a bit harder. “Nameless!” His eyes opened blearily. “Your bath is ready, you don’t want to wait or it’ll get cold.”

“Huh?” he rubbed at his eyes and smeared blood across his face. Honestly, men. “Oh, sure. Thanks a lot Ara.” He smiled up at her and she couldn’t help the blush that came over her face in response. She helped him to his feet and he made his way tiredly up the stairs.

Ara followed him up, saying, “I’ll take your clothes while you bathe and give them a quick wash to get most of that blood off them.”

He smiled over his shoulder at her as he entered the room and saw the steaming basin. “Thanks, Ara. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He took off his cloak and considerately tucked the bloody fur inside itself as he folded it up with the relatively clean leather on the outside as he handed it to her. Then she felt her eyes widen as he stripped off his shirt and socks and placed them on top of his cloak. He undid his sword belt holding his sword, axe, and knives and hung the belt over his room’s only chair, then he removed his pants’ belt and stripped them off too, adding them to the top of the pile in her arms. He strode to the bath unconcerned by his nakedness while she felt herself blush to the roots of her hair, but she couldn’t look away. His back. What had happened to this man to give him such scars? Most of the terrible scars covering him from neck to waist looked to have been caused by a whip but not all of them. How does a man this young survive something like that when it must have happened when he was little more than a child?

She shook herself to tear her eyes away as he sat down in the small tub with his knees hanging over the edge on one side and his head leaning back on the opposite side. “I’ll be right back with a rag to clean you up with. You’re just blood all over Nameless,” She sighed as if exasperated but couldn’t help a feeling of excitement. She’d never seen a naked man before, but Nameless just treated it like it was nothing.

She moved down the stairs quickly and left his clothes next to the washbasin in the kitchen. She’d clean them later. She grabbed a clean rag, and with a moment's thought grabbed her father’s old robe out of his unused room next to the kitchen. Nameless would need something to wear while she cleaned his clothing.

Ara rushed back upstairs to find Nameless rubbing his face with water that came away tinged pink. She closed the door behind her, she couldn’t describe the level of embarrassment she’d feel if Hammer or Knick were to walk in just now.

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She came in and walked behind him, pushing on his muscled shoulder a bit as she crouched down behind him, “Lean forward, I’ll clean your back,” Ara could hear a bit of huskiness in her voice that she didn’t recognize.

He looked at her, a bit curious, but did as requested and tucked his feet into the basin so he could lean forward. She scrubbed his back and removed the small amount of blood that had somehow even managed to find its way there through that beautiful cloak of his. As she finished his back he reclined in the bath again, and she slowly cleaned his shoulder all the way down to his fingertips, which actually took quite a bit of scrubbing to remove all the blood on and under his fingernails. She cleaned his other arm just the same. Then she found herself cleaning his chest.

Ara ran her fingers over a deep scar that appeared to have been sewn up judging by the small dots lining both sides of the wound. “How did you get this one? It looks like it was quite deep.” The words came out of her mouth before she could consider them.

Nameless glanced down and smiled at the scar, “See that sword over there?” he pointed with his chin to the sword hanging on his chair a few steps away. “The swordmaster that originally wielded it tried to stick it through my heart. That scar is how close he got.” He chuckled to himself, then his attention seemed drawn to her hand as it continued to touch the scar. “What happened to your finger?” he asked, referring to the clean bandage she’d wrapped around it earlier today.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just cut my finger while I was making lunch for myself and the others earlier,” she smiled wryly at her own clumsiness.

“Well that’s no good,” Nameless reached out and took her hand in his.

She felt something emanating from his hand. Like a comforting warmth stabbing pleasantly into various points in her skin, it reminded her of the feeling of smoothing out warm clean sheets on her bed, but somehow it was her flesh that was being smoothed. She gasped as the pain she hadn’t even realized she was feeling from the cut faded to nothing. She tentatively removed the bandage and stared at her finger. There was a small amount of blood where the cut had been, but the cut itself was completely gone. Healed in moments.

“That’s better,” said Nameless with a bit of pride in his voice as he gave a satisfied nod.

“You’re a lord?” she asked, incredulous. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were a lord?!” Ara smacked his chest lightly.

“Huh, what’re you talking about?” asked Nameless, confused.

“That is obviously magic. Anyone who can use magic to affect the world is a lord by law. So why didn’t you tell me you were?” she asked exasperated. She was also a little bit disappointed. She had been thinking that maybe she could someday marry Nameless, but lords only married noble ladies to try to have children that had magic of their own.

Still, this offered other opportunities as well. A woman could do very well to attach herself to a great lord, even if it was just as his attendant she could find herself living a very good life, and there was a chance that any children they had, while bastards, could have magic of their own, becoming lords or ladies in their own right and be declared his natural born children, elevating the attendant that bore them to the status of wife. She paused for a moment, it also meant she didn’t have to save herself for marriage.

She smiled brightly as she came to a sudden decision. “Well, since that means I can’t marry you. I suppose I’d be happy enough settling for being one of your attendants, and since we wouldn’t have to wait until marriage in that case…” she grabbed the front of the new dress she had made and stripped it off over her head. She wasn’t wearing anything beneath it. She placed her hand back on his chest. “Would you be willing to take me on as one of your attendants…my lord?” she smiled as she brought her face down to his. His surprised eyes looked up from her suddenly bared breasts that he’d been staring at, and she kissed him deeply. She felt him kiss her back and she took his hand and pressed it to her breast. She gasped as he squeezed. She felt her breath coming more raggedly as she ran her hand down his chest, over the rippled muscles of his stomach, and then she was grasping his manhood lightly. He was hard in her hand, and she stroked him lightly like Mera had told her men liked. She squeezed gently, and he gasped with pleasure. “Should I take that as a yes, my lord?” she asked playfully with a smile. He growled with a grin of his own as he stood splashing up from the basin, picked her up, and carried her to his bed as she laughed.