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"The chemise will make you colder," he said "And it’s not clear to h cloth"

She just bent her head and said, "Will you wash ot some more water but there was a lot of hair The s to nauseate him so he sloshed on an rubbing it into her hair She stayed quiet for aadvice, and directions

"Poppy!"

She shut up for a moment

"Have you ever washed anyone’s hair?"

"No"

"Well, I’ve washedyours exactly the same way"

"But it hurts," Poppy said She had stopped covering her breasts and was holding onto the sides of the tub instead "This tub is going to tip!"

"I have to put some muscle into it," he said "Your hair is a ether "Ug! Should I just cut it off?"

"No!" she squealed "Don’t! I can get out the snarl I’et it out"

"You could alear a hile it grew out," Fletch said "I think it would be easier to wear a wig You can’t tell me that your ht"

"Yes, she does Sometimes it takes some time"

"How much time?"

"Usually not over a couple of hours," Poppy said "Ow!"

"A couple of hours!" Fletch stopped trying to get his fingers through snarls of hair "You’re wasting a couple of hours every night on this? And what about the nights when I ca your hair?"

Poppy blinked up at hi over her eyes "Sometimes when I’m very tired, I almost fall asleep, but I cannot sleep with powder in my hair It starts to itch horribly after a day On a bad day I can be absolutely crazed by supper time It’s hard to sit still"

Fletch stared down at her "Poppy," he said slowly, "would you say that your head was itching erelove?"

She went still for a second and then, "Only soirl He stared down at her head feeling as if dawn had just broken over his head Maybe…"You’re shivering You need to take that wet chemise off You’re liable to freeze" He walked over to the fireplace and put on another log "I’ Take it off, Poppy"

He heard the sound of a wet cloth slap the ground He poked at the fire again, thinking hard He had to go slow Very slow Pray for snow Tell her that he had no interest in her body Make her trust hiht Everyhis favorite, protested

He had to make this work, because it had to be per to realize that he didn’t even know his wife How could he not have known that she aiting through those hours he lavished on her body, desperate to wash her hair?

He re to touch her hair and she always protested He had given in, of course, because everyone knew that ladies’ hair took hours to arrange The bucket of water next to the fire was still warain She squealed He saw her peeking to see whether he was looking at her naked self

He wasn’t He wasn’t, because if he actually looked at all that pink skin sitting before hiarplu animal

Instead he walked behind her, like a man who has no interest in rabbed the coet out the tar in earnest Fifteenworried "It won’t co to have to cut so part" He picked up a long rat tail that fell down her back It was tangled up with the feather and the tar and God knohat else