Page 109 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“Thank you,” Olea said as she passed me on her way to the kitchen. She was small and stout but walked with a purpose. With a flick of her wrist, her long brown hair twisted itself into a bun atop her head. I was still admiring her convenient magic when she turned back to her friend.
“All right, Tansy.” She rubbed her little hands together before grabbing an apron off the wall hook between the stairs and the kitchen. She quickly tied it around her waist to protect her clothes—well-fitting pants and a jerkin shaped for her round figure. More the gear of a blacksmith than a country peasant.
Tansy wore a similar getup, although hers was much tighter and left no curve to the imagination. Her breasts threatened to burst from her top as she, too, tossed up her hair with a magical twitch.
“I’ll prepare the tincture; you draw the bath,” Olea charged Tansy, already pulling things from cupboards.
“Straight away,” Tansy agreed, snapping fingers.
I jumped back as the floorboards by my feet slid into nothingness, revealing a wine tub full of water beneath the wagon. Her eyes falling shut, Tansy uttered the wordteas,and the tub’s still water bubbled and steamed.
Tansy glided around the tub to one of Olea’s cupboards. “What oils do you prefer?”
“Oils?” I squeaked, still amazed by the tub. What heated it? I didn’t smell a fire.
“Scents,” Tansy clarified, peering at me over her shoulder.
I shook my head. “Thanks, but I don’t use scents when I bathe. They make me itch.”
Olea shook a jar of desiccated herbs onto her wooden counter. “Use essence of chamomile on her. Add a shell of ground oats as well. Both soothe delicate skin.”
Tansy added these ingredients to the ever-bubbling bath, creating a scintillating hiss.
“No cars or computers in the fairy world,” I remarked. “But at least there are Jacuzzis.”
Neither beyn asked what I meant, though they looked confused.
“Anyway, what would you like me to do?”
“Just have a seat.” Olea gestured toward the dining table. “We’ll have this sorted in a lick.”
So, I eased my aching bones on a stool at said table, admiring the basket of mauve eggs placed atop it until Tansy glided my way. To unknot my cloak.
“Something wrong?” Tansy asked as I stiffened in the realization that she meant to undress me. Was privacy when bathing rare in this world?
Flames lapped my cheeks. “Well—I—where I—you know—”
“Are you embarrassed of your courses?” Sympathy undercut Tansy’s dispassion. “Don’t fret. Pete told us all about your troubles.”
Of course, he did! The fricking big mouth!
“We’re happy to help. It’s nothing what we haven’t seen before. All beyns are blessed with the same monthly scourge.”
I managed a grimace of appreciation, then stood so she could remove my cloak. As she did, my hands rose to close my torn bodice before both beyns got a gander at my left boob.
Olea’s grave eye assessed my garb as Tansy pared the layers off me. When I stood completely bare before them, shivering from awkwardness more than cold, Olea sniffed and returned to her tincture. “Might as well throw those rags into the stove,” she told Tansy. “They’re worthless in that state.”
I squelched a complaint when Tansy swept my soiled garments off the floor.
“We’ll see you attired again,” Olea chuckled at my bereft expression when Tansy lit a giant match on the wall and tossed it into the stove with my dress. The fabrics caught immediately, the heat from the blaze flaring through the wagon.
I observed my hostesses. One petite, the other voluptuous. I doubted either of them owned a single article of clothing that would fit my string-bean figure.
“Now, please do settle in,” Olea requested, grinding her herbs. “Try to relax.”
I was stepping into the tub when Tansy giggled. “My word, where’s the rest of your arse?”
I would’ve scowled had the milky water not already loosened my weary legs, effervescing like Alka-Seltzer. Instead, I feigned dismay and twisted to look at my non-existent booty. “Well, damnit, it must’ve fallen off again.”
