Hadvar turned sharply left, and she lost sight of him. She panicked, doubling her pace and darting around the same corner, to see him step into a cave.
Abigail faltered. “Hadvar!” she called.
He must have been too far away, or ignored her, because he didn't turn back. Abigail saw a flare of torchlight from the cave entrance, and he appeared again, jogging back to her. There was a torch in his hand and the buckets were gone; he must have put them down inside, she supposed.
“Come on,” he held out his hand. “I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.”
Abigail regarded him warily. “Think of what?”
He kept his hand out, and Abigail thought she saw his eyes flicker with worry for a moment, but then it was gone. “It's...there's hot pools. As much hot bath water as you want.”
Abigail stared at the entrance to the cave, and Hadvar chose that moment to take her hand in his, urging her forward. “Come on! I promise, it's safe. Used to come here all the time when I was young.”
Abigail's gaze snapped back to Hadvar's, and she studied his face for a moment. Where had he come from? He was like her guardian Aedra, swooping in and saving her from certain death, more times than she cared to remember, all in one day. And now – all she saw in his face was kindness.
“All right,” Abigail said unsurely, still not quite feeling right with this, wondering how she was going to get around the embarrassment of bathing in front of a man.
Hadvar smiled back at her, and they jogged to the cave entrance and inside.
–
The air of the cavern was stifling and humid. Abigail began to sweat almost immediately.
“This way,” Hadvar lead her through a small passage. Abigail watched as the firelight lit up steam filtering up through the rocks.
“What...how is this place..?” she trailed off.
Hadvar turned back and grinned. “Isn't it brilliant? Who would have thought?”
“It's certainly...different,” Abigail responded.
The passageway opened up to a medium-sized cavern, the majority of which was taken up by a pool of water. After lighting two torches from the one in his hand, Hadvar dropped Abigail's hand and crouched, touching the water lightly.
“It's fine,” he rose again, then nodded to her. “Here, you go ahead, and I'll stand guard.”
“Stand guard!” Abigail spluttered, as he moved to re-enter the passage he'd just brought her along. “You said it was safe!”
Hadvar paused. “Unless you'd prefer me to stay..?”
Abigail shut her mouth, realising that he'd been teasing about the guarding. All he'd meant was that he'd leave her to bathe in privacy.
She dropped his gaze, turning away, unsure of where to go from there.
She heard Hadvar chuckle a little, as his steps retreated.
She breathed a sigh of relief. How could she be so stupid? How?!
Moving to one side of the cavern, she stripped off the borrowed clothes, and resumed bathing, not having to worry about the water souring. But she felt stupid, the whole time. Maybe that's what Hadvar meant by referring to her as 'young' all the time; that she was innocent and – well, quite dumb. She didn't feel all that young, at eighteen. She'd been sentenced to an adult's death, not a child's.
Feeling drowsy from the heat of the pool, Abigail let herself soak and drift, lying on her back, loving the feel of her hair, finally detangled, swishing around her shoulders as mild undercurrents from who-knew-where drifted around her. The knotted muscles she'd tensed from the trials of entering Skyrim loosened. She sighed, loving the feel of warm air in her throat as she breathed.
When her fingertips felt wrinkly, she reluctantly left the water and returned to her pile of Hadvar's old clothing. With no towel - she hadn't thought she'd be bathing, just getting more water - she sacrificed the trousers, rubbing herself down briefly, before donning the over-large shirt. It reached mid-thigh, so she didn't feel too exposed in it. Shaking the trousers out, to get rid of most of the water, she laid them out on a rock near a coiling vent of steam.