Cold Hands

9

Benjen smelled the cold air, that it smelled different on the southern side of the wall, than from the north side. He stood outside Izzy's door and raised his hand to knock on the door but lowered it, at hearing her voice raised in song. She was either cooking or bathing. He knew it to be the latter, owing to the fact that there were no wonderful cooking smells coming from the stone chimney.

He knocked on the door and reached for the latch, opening it.

"Welcome home, Ben," she said in a low voice, a long splash of water followed.

"Aww, I wanted to do that," he joked.

"I could wait no longer," she replied knowingly.

He removed his cloak, tossing it toward a chair, watching it slide to the floor, hearing her weary sigh and he immediately knew to pick it up from the floor. "Just once, I'd like the damned thing to stay put."

He heard her giggle as he sat down to remove his boots. Her dog came over and placed his head in his lap. The fingers on his right hand scratched at the dog's ears as his left hand reached for the cup of her handcrafted wine that she had set out for him.

"Don't get drunk," she warned.

"No," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper. "Have to keep my wits about me tonight, don't I?"

"True that. Have you told him yet?"

"No, I haven't seen him. Mormont keeps him pretty busy, doesn't he?"

"I think he'll be a wonderful commander. He's a natural."

"He hates it though."

"I realize that," Izzy said. There was another splash as she stood quickly.

Benjen turned to watch the water slide down her curves, her body glistening in the candlelight, eliciting a deep sigh of longing from him. He rose from the chair noting where her gaze was...the water over the fire, now heated to a boil was finally ready to be added to the bath. "I'll get it love," he said.

He took the lantern with him as he crossed the floor toward the hearth, looking for the cooking gloves. He located them on the nearby cutting counter, donned them and picked up the heavy steaming cauldron. Crossing the floor again, he waited until she stepped out of the large tub and poured the hot water in, adding a little bit of heat to the water already in there. He set the cauldron on the floor, removed the gloves and took her hand in his and helped her step back in. He quietly replaced the cauldron to a spot near the fire and returned to her, unbuttoning his shirt on the way. He knelt by the tub and took her bathing cloth in his large hand and dunked it into the warmth of the water and squeezed it out over her back. She teased him that she was the only female he'd done that for.

"No one else I want to do this for," he replied quietly.

"Good," she cooed.

Soon it was his turn and rather than her withdrawing from the tub, he climbed in with her, the water level nearly rising to the rim of the tub; any sudden movement would send water onto the floor.

"Should have brushed out your hair prior, Head Ranger," she teased. "You've a hefty rat's nest in the back."

"I know," he groaned. "Can't really reach it."

She shook her head in mock sympathy and continued to work at it with her fingers slowing pulling at his matted hair, garnering gasps and hisses of pain from him.

"You're so tender-headed..."

He held his breath and nodded slightly, then gasped again and then holding his breath.

Soon enough though, his hair was free of knots and she tenderly massaged the soap onto his scalp, knowing that his eyes were closed and judging by his breathing, he was very nearly asleep.

"Do you want a hair cut?"

"Wot," he asked sleepily.

"A hair cut," she chuckled as he leaned back into her. "Do you want one? Or I can just braid it and be done with it?"

"Can't I just stay here and you can brush it out everyday..."

"A lovely dream, my darling husband. But you know as well as I do, that Mormont will send Thorny to fetch you. And...That my love, isn't a pleasant prospect, is it..."

Benjen sneered.

"When do you think you will return home to me?"

"The mission is for at least two weeks..."

She nodded quietly and he could feel her sigh at his back, the total sum of his body nearly blanketed beneath the cooling water.

"Well, you have to come back home to me you know..."

"For the sake of argument, why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because I said so."

He chuckled and nodded. "As you wish, my lady."

"Good."

He was grinning. "Far be it for me to deny my lady..."

"Now you're pushing it..."

"Not at the moment, but it can be arranged..."

He rolled over and slid up her body to playfully nip the skin of her neck.

"Watch it wolf boy. You'll leave a mark..."

His teeth grazed her skin again. "That's the idea..."

He rose from the tub and cast his gaze toward her and then he frowned.

"It'll be alright..." she said.

"This is why we are to take no wives..."

She nodded. "Well we certainly botched that up, didn't we?"

"Truly."

"Look, we've managed this long."

He nodded, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "What I really want to do is to fetch Jon and leave this place."

"You can't do that, Ben. You'll betray everything you hold dear."

"I don't..."

"You do care."

He shook his head. "I've a bad feeling, Izzy."

She held out her hand and let him pull her up, quietly gazing into his blue eyes. His eyes scanned the front of her body finally resting at her belly.

"That better not be what it looks like?"

"And if it is?"

"Then we're fucked, you and me."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well? Who's to say it's yours anyway?" She watch his one brow raise high as his lips pursed then his head shifting to the side in a manner of disbelief.