The Hidden Route Picked the Friend novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Bath
The servants' bathhouse sat under the east wing, cut into the rock, fed by a hot spring.
Once the kitchens closed, it belonged to no one.
Steam hung in the vaulted dark.
A single lamp burned on a ledge, and a long pool of green water lay beneath it, with five wide steps leading down.
Briony shut the iron door behind them and dropped the bar.
"Nobody comes here after the kitchens close," Sevrin said.
"You've checked."
"Four times."
"Good."
She set her lamp on the stone bench and began to unpin her braids.
He watched her do it.
The ball was two days away, and neither of them had said so tonight.
She let her hair fall, and unbuttoned the grey dress, and let it drop on the bench.
Her shift followed.
She stood bare in the lamplight with steam beading on her skin, twenty-two years old and not hiding anything.
"In," she said.
Sevrin undressed in a few swift motions.
He walked down the steps into the water and turned, waist-deep, and held out his hand to help her.
The water was hot enough to sting, and then to melt.
She sank to her shoulders with a long sigh.
"Come here.
Stand in front of me."
He waded to her.
She took a cake of soap from the ledge, lathered it between her palms, and set both hands on his chest.
She washed him slowly.
Across his shoulders.
Down his arms, one and then the other, over the long scars and the hard cords of muscle.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Hidden Route Picked the Friend are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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