To Have & To Hold

Chapter 14 - Bath Time

After the amazingly successful dinner it was time for the bath which Stella had so graciously arranged for him earlier in the day. Stella had accompanied him to the bathroom to show him where it was and had then gone back down. Even though she was blind it was naturally still improper for a young lady to be near an undressed young man.

Jaiden wondered if she had stuck around when her female pets bathed. Perhaps they got the full pet bathing treatment. Not that he would want that as it would be even more embarrassing than the whole fork thing from earlier but he wouldn't put it past her.

The water had already been scented and a thick layer of foam sat on top of it. It smelled strongly of lavender. Pushing some of the foam aside to peer in to the tub Jaiden wondered if soap was all there was in there. He had noticed at dinner that everyone got to choose their own quail, pick their own roast potatoes and scoop up their own salad. So if they had any intention of poisoning him at dinner then they would have to be very crafty to get him to pick exactly that one poisoned item among the regular ones the others would get to eat.

The breakfast tray showed something similar. Everything was placed on a tray and it was shared between Stella and him. Unless Moira went absolutely careless and had her daughter poisoned as well as her pet he thought it was safe to say that, at least for the time being, any food that was also fit for Stella to eat would be alright to touch.

That meant there had to be other ways in which they could get to him. Some poisons could enter through a person's skin. Would she be so devious as to try to kill him off within two days of his arrival? Had she done so before? Jaiden knew that Stella had had many pets before but he wasn't sure how long she had had them for before they sadly passed away.

Perhaps they hadn't been here for long either...

But then he recalled Stella's remark that chauffeur Blake preferred female pets which could only mean so many things. The most obvious one of which was that the driver liked to amuse himself with Stella's pets at night time. Unless he was very quick about it he wouldn't have been able to work up to that point if the pets were only alive for a day or two. That gave him some hope that he would get more time than that.

Still, the water looked suspicious.

He decided to use a piece of cloth, dip it in the water and use that to wash himself with. It would greatly reduce the amount of chemicals touching his skin if the water did turn out to have been meddled with. On top of that he would actually get clean and smell of the soap as proof that he had at least come in to contact with the water. This was important as, if the water did turn out to be safe, he wouldn't want Moira to think that he was so suspicious of her that he didn't even dare to bathe in this house.

Not that he cared for her feelings. Rather it would show to her that he was wary of her, perhaps even scared, which would give her the upper hand in the situation. He had to keep cool and stay on her good side, at least for now.

The last thing he wanted was Moira thinking that she was getting the better of him. He'd only been here for 24 hours. Cambles were way too stubborn to give up so easily.

He imagined what his father would do in a situation like this. Most likely they would arrive to similar conclusions and actions though his father did have a bit of a proud kind of arrogance that made him less likely to fear being poisoned by something as silly as a lavender bath.

In his world there were no such things as dishonorable as bathtubs laced with arsenic or some other toxin. People whom wanted to hurt each other did so in public and above board. The fact that people existed that disagreed with him had never seemed to phase him; they simply didn't fit in to his world narrative and were beneath his consideration.

Jaiden, on the other hand,  knew that people that were beneath you could be just as lethal as those whom you considered to be equals or superiors. Perhaps even more so as they were not above making their hands dirty.

In this case they made their hands dirty by trying to make Jaiden's clean, if his suspicions were correct.

Grabbing a small guest towel he dipped it in the warm, scented water. It came out looking slightly purplish. Using it to wash himself he made sure to be thorough. He couldn't smell of anything other than soap else he'd have another bath prepared for him before long.

Now he only had one problem to deal with and that was time. If he had soaked in the suds it would have taken about an hour on average. At least the few times he had managed to bathe at his grandparents' house he had always spent much longer in there than he would in any shower.

Speaking of which; not only would it take more time, he would also have to appear much more relaxed coming out than he was going in. Rubbing his skin with a moist cloth wasn't quite as calming as a tub full of hot water so there was that issue to deal with.

Looking around the room he collected a few large towels which he spread across the floor. There was no bench in here so the floor was all he had. He tried to get as comfortable as he could. Perhaps the scent of the water as he tried napping would be enough to simulate the effect? Using a smaller towel as a pillow he draped his shirt across his chest to act as a blanket so he would be both comfortable and warm.

He let his mind wander as he lay there. It passed by all of the events that had taken place over the last 24 hours and beyond. Mostly beyond. It traveled back to the day he had taken the test back at the Hub center. Not the crazy woman and the photo this time, though. Instead it rested on the events of that evening how his father had mentioned Mr Beasley considering him to be management material.

'How different everything could have been.' He mused. He wondered how different exactly.

If he had stayed in Faro he would have remained living at home for at least a few more years to come. He would have continued to do a good job, impressing his seniors and one day probably joining them. It would have enabled him to earn well enough of a living to buy a house similar to dad's. Maybe even a slightly larger one with a bathtub like grandpa had.

He might have met that girl on the tram again. If he had then maybe they would have become a 'thing' at some point. He would  have gone steady with her for a few years before proposing to her (because that's how things were supposed to be done) and announcing their engagement to both of their families.

They would have gotten a standard wedding as he never cared for elaborate parties and was sure that she could be convinced to keep it small. After that they would have moved in to his 'potential bathtub' house, had a few children some time after that and things would just keep on keeping on. Nothing fancy.

Eventually his sister and his brother would get married too and have a few kids of their own. The kids would play with each other and they'd all get together for holidays and family reunions. The kids would grow up and go to school. Dad would get older and maybe need to move in with one of the three siblings for care.

Margret would probably take dad in but if she couldn't for whatever reason then Jaiden's be OK with bringing him in to live with them. Provided his wife didn't have a problem with that or had one of her parents already living with them making it harder on the household.

He got a lump in his throat that he wasn't expecting imagining his father's golden years. Not that it would be so much different for his old man now with one less son to be there to take care of him. No matter what happened Margret and Joseph would make sure he would be OK. They'd work something out between the two of them.

No, it was more the fact that he wouldn't be there to see  it he now realized. That was, he didn't think there was a set amount of time for this 'gig' of being a pet. At the very least all of his predecessors died young and Jaiden had never heard of anyone returning from the Hub once chosen.

The letters were the only line of communication that remained between them.

Perhaps he could send them gifts on special occasions like weddings and baby showers.