Chapter 130: Leave !
By the time Samantha was done taking a warm bath and stepping out of the bathing chamber, Ivan, who waited for her as he stood at the foot of his bed, gestured for her to turn around so he could have a quick look at her back. To his relief, she no longer smelled of blood but instead, a very pleasant familiar scent of oily lavender that reminded him of his own scent.
Hesitantly, Samantha turned around for Ivan to see. Her lithe figure was adorned in a delicate cloth that was carefully tied at the back, slightly above her waist, and Ivan could see the prominent marks that had become more visible after the bath she had taken. If only he was given the power to take her pains away as much as he could cause it, but unfortunately he was not entitled to such.
"Come, I need to apply the ointment for you, and you must rest after that." He advised before letting out his hand for her to take, but when he noticed how she pursed her lips with her eyebrows creased into worry, he knew her tongue was itching to say something to him. Rather than giving in to her own purely wild thoughts, she accepted his outstretched hand and quietly let him lead her to her own mattress, as if she had no say.
Lying on her front while looking the other way that gave her a view of the glass window, she could feel the edge of her bed sink down as Ivan took his seat beside her. When he reapplied the same ointment he had used on her earlier on, his fingers brushing against the thin red welts that criss crossed her beautiful back, he could see her shoulders tense in reaction as she let out a soft hiss, as though she had not expected it to sting the way it just did.
"Hurts!"
"I know, but you have to bear it for your body’s sake." He persuaded her softly, sounding seemingly understanding as he has been in her position before, but when he lowered his finger so he could apply the ointment, he didn’t fail to catch her fears due to how her body trembled, her heart had picked up speed, and when he bent slightly to steal a peek at her face, he could see her eyes were already turning moist, and that forced him to stop applying it.
"Is there something you want us to talk about? Anything at all?" Ivan asked in a gentle tone that his little lamb was yet to familiarize herself with. Since she had her mind focused on the pain, Ivan knew he had to distract her attention from it, somehow, and he guessed the conversation idea worked cause his little lamb, who presently paid more attention to him, settled her upper body’s weight on her arm that rested on the surface of the bed, as if to comfort herself, and she asked inquisitively.
"How did you learn to treat wounds?"
"It would be a shame on me if I didn’t." Ivan paused for a moment, then he said. "There were times when my injuries had become too severe, or too deep, most especially on the battlefields, I had to run to all the ointments if I wanted to heal quicker, sooner..." as he indulged her in a conversation, he carefully proceeded to apply the ointment, and when she hissed out in pain, he stopped.