The next item in the basket was carefully folded in tissue paper. It was the gown. It was gold silk with an empire waist. It was trimmed in a white embroidered vine design around the round neckline. The sleeves puffed at the shoulders then gathered tightly and stopped at the elbow. She kept wiping at her eyes as she looked at it. Her eyes wouldn’t stop filling with tears and blurring her vision.
“It’s so beautiful. I’m going to hate to give it back.”
“You can keep it. That was from two years ago so I know Imelia doesn’t wear it anymore. She had another baby six months ago and she’s still nursing so it doesn’t fit at all—or so she said.”
Charlie hadn’t heard Jaxon step out of the tub. But suddenly, he was standing next to her with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“I know I’m being silly. You just don’t know what this means to me. No one ever asked me if I wanted to be a boy, they just started dressing me that way.”
“You’re going to look beautiful.”
He put his hand in her hair and kissed her. “If you hurry with your bath and getting dressed, I think we can make it to the dressmaker before they close.”
“Truly?”
“Hurry.”
She reached for her shirttail to pull her shirt over her head. “Turn around.”
“I can stay?”
“If you don’t look. I trust you.”
It was true; she trusted him. In some ways, she wished he would look just to have the embarrassment of that moment over with, but she knew he wouldn’t look until she offered him an invitation.
Jaxon crossed the room to a tallboy and pulled out a pair of his drawers. He pulled them up before discarding the towel.
“May I have your razor?” she asked.
“I don’t know if we have time.”
“I’ll be quick.”
He walked backwards to the tub and handed her the straight razor.
“Thanks,” she said as she unfolded the blade. “How does your leg feeling?”
“You did a great job. It really feels better—not, I hurt it today and it feels better—but better than it normally does.”
“Oh, good. We’ll put hot towels on it every day after the message.”
She tried not to rush through shaving her legs, but couldn’t stop herself before she cut her legs several times.
“Damn. I’m going to get blood on my new stockings.”
“It’ll wash out. Besides, I plan to buy you enough silk stockings to last a lifetime.”
As Jaxon finished dressing, she quickly finished washing including washing her hair.
“Jaxy,” she cooed.
“Jaxy?”
“Would you bring me a towel?”
“Only if you promise never to call me ‘Jaxy’ ever again.”
She laughed. “I promise.”
A moment later, Jaxon stood a foot and a half from the edge of the tub. His kept his eyes closed as he held the towel in outstretched arms. She stood up and lifted her foot over the edge of the tub, her eyes never leaving his closed ones. She noted, because the tub was raised on feet, she was nearly exactly his height and decided to kiss him while his eyes were closed. As she leaned forward, her foot suddenly slipped out from under her. Charlie squealed and grabbed at his arms. His eyes flew open as he tried to grab her. In a blink, they were frozen in place until she could get her balance restored. This time they held each other tightly as she stepped out. They nearly knocked heads together as they both reached for the towel on the floor where it had been dropped.
Jaxon got it first and wrapped it around her and continued to hold it in place.
“I should have warned you how slippery that tub can be. Are you all right?”
Her face burned scarlet and she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“I banged my knee, but I’m fine.”
“I can feel your heart. It’s racing."
“Aye,” was all she could manage. He could tell she was fighting tears. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“That I have such a manly body. I’m too skinny and my muscles show. I know men like round hips and big breasts and I don’t have either.”
“First of all, I barely saw anything. But what I saw I was very nice—very nice, indeed. If you can keep a secret….” He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “I’m hard as a stone for you.”
She didn’t think her face could get any hotter, but it did.
He pulled the towel tight and tucked one end into the other, securing it. “I’ll wait in the hallway until you get the chemise on then call me and I’ll help you with the rest.”
19
Twenty minutes later, they were running down the street hand in hand. Charlie had found a pair of shoes in the bottom of the basket, but had to put tissue paper in the toes to make them fit. She thought they must have been quite a sight to see with Jaxon’s pronounced limp and her losing her shoes at least twice on every block. Neither one could stop laughing the whole way.