Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 4

The smell of freshly cooked eggs brought me out of my slumber. I felt well rested as my dreams were filled of thoughts of a happy reunion with my wonderful husband. Now that I was awake and remembered where I was, as well as what Zachariah had told me; I felt very unsure of things. I swung my legs to the side of the bed as my stomach grumbled at me. Yes, I get it, you need food and I said to myself. I followed the smell of eggs. Zachariah stood over a wood burning stove with a cast-iron pan, frying eggs.

“Oh, good you are up!” He slid two eggs onto my plate.

I raised a finger to tell him...

“They are over medium, just how you like them.”

That was weird. How did he know how I liked my eggs? I stared at him a bit uneasy. Maybe I had told him at some point. I could have just forgotten it’s not a big thing. He sat down to join me. I took a bite. SOOO good! It felt like I had not eaten in years. I quickly finished my plate. I noticed that there was also now fresh fruit on the counter.

“When did you get the fruit?” I asked.

“While you were sleeping. I went into town. We will not be able to do that for a while though. The place was crawling with castle guards.”

I cringed. That meant they were not too far away. This cottage seemed pretty secluded and Zachariah did not look the least bit worried they would find us. It reassured me a bit. He gathered up our plates from the table. He looked a little bit uncomfortable.

“I got you some clothes while I was out and I warmed up a bath for you.”

I did feel disgusting so a bath sounded really nice. Zachariah led me to the bathroom where lied a wooden tub, it lacked a spigot, and was filled with steaming warm water. He must have heated the water and filled it while I slept. 

“So, I will leave you to it then,” he said almost nervously as closed the door behind him.

I was wearing what appeared to be a nightgown that went to my ankles. In the rush of the night I had not taken my clothing into account. It was something I would have seen in a medieval movie...so was this tub...and we came from a castle. It was like I had gone back in time or something. I still did not understand what was happening. My mind was just trying to rationalize everything. Ok so maybe the fact there was no running water here was because we were trying to stay off the grid, which would also explain the wood burning stove that Zachariah had been cooking on. My clothes, maybe this was the new trend? Modesty can be cool. I still did not know why I woke up in a castle, with Zachariah who I had not seen in years, trying to help me escape. I tried to calm myself down. I will just take this bath and calm my mind. I tried to take the night gown off but the back had been laced up too tight. I tried to reach around back and get it but my nerves were shot. I could not undo it.  I peeked out the door and called to Zachariah.

“My gown thing is stuck.”

He came into the room and started to untie the knots. He loosened the strings and the fabric began to drape down my shoulders. I had to hold it up to keep it from falling. I turned to face Zachariah. His blue eyes scanned my body, lingering at my exposed shoulders and slightly bare chest. My breasts pressed up with my arms, just trying to keep the garment from falling off my body now. There were only a few inches that kept our bodies apart. He took my face in his hand and caressed my cheek with his thumb. 

“You are truly the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.”

I began to blush. This was a very compromising situation and although I did not want to offend him; his compliment made me very uncomfortable. As if he could sense my discomfort, he lowered his hand and took leave of the room closing the door behind him. I let out a sigh of relief and then climbed into the bath. The water felt so good on my skin and I was finally starting to feel human again. I occasionally glanced over at the door just to make sure, Zachariah was not peeping. Not that I thought that he would. It was just that encounter really put me on edge. Why would he say something like that? I really needed to get down to the bottom of everything that was going on here. I had too many questions and I knew he had answers. It felt like he was postponing telling me though. After this bath I was sure to get the answers I desired though! 

Once my muscles felt relaxed enough, I started to scrub the dirt off of my body with thick bristled brush that seemed to be made from some coarse animal hair. There was dirt under my fingernails, twigs still in my hair, and I am sure sweat everywhere. I was a disgusting mess. Zachariah had to be out his mind for calling me beautiful. He probably could not even see me behind the wall of dirt that was layered on my body. After some intense scrubbing I finally felt clean. I checked the door again before climbing out of the tub and found a stack of towels sitting on a small table. I dried my hair and my body before wrapping the towel around myself. I looked around a bit for the clothes Zachariah had said he purchased in town for me. Unfortunately, those clothes seemed to be nowhere to be found. I looked down at the night gown, it was absolutely filthy. There was no way I was putting that thing back on again after I worked so hard to clean myself up. Ugh! I would have to go and find them now.