Olive watched the women in aprons move behind the painted wooden screen and listened to the sound of them pouring water into the unseen tub. Someone tossed a bath towel over the screen and then the women exited as quickly as they had entered.

Bath!

Olive threw off the cloak and took her bundle of new things behind the screen, quickly disrobing and dropping her filthy pajamas into a pile on the floor. She unwrapped the soap and comb Franny had given her and stepped carefully into the steaming water, sighing.

"I've never taken a bath in a wooden tub before," she said, hissing through her teeth as she sank further into the water, goosebumps crawling up her body. She shivered with delight.

"Do… do you need me to leave until you're done?" Mathis asked.

"I'm a modern woman, Mathis!" she said. "I've got more important things on my mind than whether or not a man hears my bathwater move around."

He chuckled. "Like what?"

She rubbed the soap between her wet hands. "Like how wonderful this soap smells."

"That is important, I agree."

"Good." She held her breath and sank below the water, shaking her head until she was satisfied her matted hair was wet all the way through. She reemerged and set to scrubbing, pulling leaves and sticks out of her hair and bathwater and tossing them onto the floor.

She combed through her hair before rinsing it, cursing and complaining about the tangles and the pain of ridding herself of them until she was finished. Then she scrubbed the rest of herself with the cloth that had been left for her until she was pink all over, her usual tawny skin inflamed from both the heat of the water and the extreme scrubbing.

Her hips were trying to lock up, as they often did when she got in the bath after a long day of moving around. But her sore feet weren't throbbing anymore, so that was nice. A yawn that she felt throughout her entire body escaped her and she knew she had to get out or she was going to fall asleep in the warm water until it got cold.

She lifted herself out of the water and shivered, reaching for the thin towel and buffing herself dry with it. It was well used but it was clean. She wrapped her hair up and found her new folded underthings, holding them up in front of her and chewing on her lips as she silently went over Franny's brief lesson in how to put them on.

Chemise. All right, she could do this one. It was just a fancy nightgown, that's all.

Drawers. They looked like very baggy boxers, and it took her a moment to figure out which side was the back. Then she had to tighten it around the waist with the laces.

No corset. Those were for rich ladies, she had been informed, and she was glad

Olive stood in her underthings and kicked her legs around. She wished her own bra and panties were clean. She felt too airy between her legs. Her breasts felt too loose.

She'd clean them in her bathwater and let them dry so she could travel with them put away. Then hopefully she could properly wash them later and wear them again.

Stockings so she could wear her boots. Then her actual dress, even though she had basically no skin showing at all by the time she was ready to put it on.

Franny made her take a blue frock that looked like something out of Pride and Prejudice crossed with whatever Fiona was wearing in Shrek.

It weighed the same as a small child, but Olive managed to pull it up and slip her arms into the proper places after stepping into it. Then she set about fixing the laces on the bodice, thankful that this wasn't one those ridiculous things you needed more than one person to put on.

"You doing all right?" Mathis asked. "You got quiet."

"Just concentrating," she said, finishing up. "It takes three times longer to get dressed with all this stuff than what I'm used to."

"You're night clothes did seem minimal."

"Yes, and comfy!" She bent and buffed her hair dry with the towel, hanging it back up to dry and finding her comb again, working at her new tangles. She straightened once more and moved back around the screen, feeling fresh faced and tired, combing her wet hair over her shoulder. "Tada! Not a rascal anymore, am I?"

Mathis looked up from whatever he was doing, seeming to patch the toe of his boot. He shook his head at her, incredulously. "You have a shape! I was beginning to just imagine you were bell shaped under my cloak."

Olive looked down at herself. "Does it look like I'm wearing this right?"

"Give us a turn?"

She held her arms out and twirled.

"Very pretty. No one will be able to tell you're a magical creature who's crossed dimensions."

Olive stopped and looked at him. "I'm a what?"

"Oh yes, that's what I've decided. You're a fairy or something. Or a sorceress."

She laughed in surprise, moving to drop onto the foot of the bed. "Really? Is that what you're going to tell people now? 'I found this magic woman in the woods, that's why we're traveling together.'"

He looked at her smugly. "Yes. I've thought it all out. And anyway, it's the only way I'm going to be able to get you into the palace to show you the maps. They're valuable. Not anyone can go see them."

Understanding dawned on her. "Oh. Strategic lying. Well what if someone expects me to, I don't know, actually be magical? I'm just a woman who curses and just learned to dress herself."

He shrugged. "We will cut that three down when it's finished growing. Until then, I'm a knight and my word is honorable. And for now you are tired from your vast travels."

She opened her mouth and then closed it again, looking thoughtful. "I thought you said knights aren't supposed to lie."

He grinned, dropping his boot on the ground and bending to stuff his foot into it. "Knights aren't supposed to get caught lying, Lady."

She chuckled, taking a step forward and then dropping face first onto the bed. She sighed tiredly. "Therein lies the wiggle room," she added.

He cocked his head to one side. "'Wiggle room.' That's a fitting term for it, isn't it?"

"Common phrase from where I'm from," Olive said, yawning, eyes fluttering closed.

"Oh, Olive, you haven't eaten yet-"

A soft snore escaped her. He leaned back in his seat. Well, that could wait.