39
“Have you seen the king?”
“Nay, lass. Nor do I care to.”
The early-afternoon sun was shining down on the gardens and the meadows beyond, and Malcolm sat in the window-seat trying hard to concentrate on the view. It was quite difficult feigning indifference to the sound of the splashing water behind him. At the far end of the chamber, discreetly hidden by a screen, and with Caddy standing guard looking as ferocious as a she-lion, Jaime bathed happily in the wooden tub that had been brought up for her use.
Never mind the king, he thought. Fancies of throwing Caddy bodily from the chamber and seeing to Jaime’s bath himself were wreaking havoc with his imagination.
“But they are not even watching you?” Jaime’s voice, still sounding weak from her ordeal, conveyed her excitement, nonethe
