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cold air penetrated through the wet dress and nipped cruelly at her skin.
    “What are you doing?” Seth yelled as he recovered from his near fall on to the ground.   He grabbed the bucket fr om her hand and tossed it aside , and a firm scowl set on his face. “If you hadn’t crept up on me,” he accused, “ T hen t his needn’t ha ve happened.” 
    Myra was too startled for speech or in defend ing herself , and so she stood silent .
    “Then again, considering y ou are a thief, I assume sneaking up on people is what you do best.”
    “I didn’t sneak up on you.”  She rested her hand on her hip and pursed her lips.  Albeit a difficult task, she held her anger in check.  She wondered who he w as to be yelling at her about something he had cause d .   “I was bringing a pail of water to help quench your thirst, t’was all,” she returned, annoyed.  “ And I’ m not a thief,” she declared with less exuberance.
    Seth looked at her dress and offered a n expression of pity .  He swept a slow, sensual glance over her body and the act made e ach one of the fine hairs on her body stand on end.  A shiver touched her skin and radiated in to parts within her that she didn’t yet know existed until that moment.
    “You're cold,” he needlessly s tated when she shivered.               
    He removed his Cassock coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. A gesture of good faith , she thought. She didn’t expect such thoughtfulness from the brute he ’ d often p rov ed himself since her arrival .  This was the same man who frequently found duties for her regardless if she was already occupied , and ot hers sat idle and readied for t he task s at hand.  He had become such a contradiction and she wasn’t sure what to make of him .
    His current display of protect iveness challenged her usual observation of him .  S he wasn’t prepared for it.  Thoughts of casting the coat off her shoulders and into his face entered her mind .  But its warmth and the faint, sweet aroma of his scent still lingered and gave her pause .  Myra turned the collar upward against the wind that bit at her cheeks.  She inhaled deep breaths of air and calm ed herself, but the fragrant scent of him accosted her senses. Dear Lord, she nearly sighed aloud!
    “Go back to the house and change into something else before you take ill,” he softly ordered.
    Myra turned her head from him, uncertain by the sudden change in his demeanor .  Gadzooks, he almost sounded concerned! “I—I can't, ” she stammered out nervously.   He r dress looked indecent in its wet state, and s he tugged the j acket’s collar down until it wrapped modestly around her chest .  “I have naught to wear but this , ” she said , embarrassed, and then remember ed the numerous gowns she left behind at Brunnington .   S adness quick ly filled he r heart.  She thought about the pink gown her father had purchased the prior day of his death.  She had planned to wear it to a formal affair hosted by the court at the Palace of Westminster , and hop ed she’d gain the envy of all th e young ladies of London .  Myra wondered what Seth would think if he saw her in such opulen ce .   He wouldn’t snub his nose at her then , she figured.   In fact, s he ’d even wager a guess that he ’d have probably asked her father’s permission in receiving him .
    “Come with me,” he said gently.  He took her by the crook of her arm.  “I’m sure Margaret will have something suitable .”
    She set her feet determinedly into the ground and pulled back .  She refused to let him take her further.  “But—but, I cannot.  Your sister’s clothes are too refined for m y wearing with such task s I do.”
    Seth didn’t persist, but kept his hand placed up on her arm.  A smile graced his lips and Myra felt that she’d melt into the ground along with the previous night’s snow.   H e was the most handsome man she’ d ever seen and that made her feel uneasy