Catching Her Heart Pt. 2

Chapter 71

"And there they are," Hickory said as Oliver and Hermione came in.

"Are we late?" Hermione asked.

"Nope," Hickory replied. "Although she was about to send Cherry out to look for you."

"Oh, I was not!" Juniper called from the kitchen. "Hickory, stop teasing the poor girl!"

Hermione laughed as Hickory looked at her with a faux grimace, his eyes wide and his expression caught between a grin and a scowl. It was like someone who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and not only expected it, but thoroughly enjoyed it.

"I better skedaddle before I get in too much trouble," he said with a grin and winked at her.

"Oh, dad," Oliver said, causing his dad to slide to a halt and backpedal in his escape. "Thanks for taking care of the other horses, Hermione's really good with maths and said it could have taken us five hours otherwise, and that was just with the grooming."

"Ah, don't worry about it," Hickory said and patted Oliver on the shoulder before he turned and hurried off with a wave when he heard Juniper heading their way, and Hermione giggled as she saw him duck into the library.

"You have plenty of time before dinner," Juniper said, coming around the corner. "To get in another shower, or a bath if you prefer," she finished, looking at Hermione.

"Thank you," Hermione said and headed down to her room to get a change of clothes and headed back to the Hickory and Juniper's bathroom because she figured Oliver's mum would send him back to the shared bathroom.

Hermione couldn't get over the size of the bathroom . The bathtub, which she only half filled, still felt like a swimming pool with a deep end. She stayed in and languished in the warm water and massaging jets for a good twenty minutes, allowing them to ease the building tension in her muscles from cleaning out the three stalls and carrying a heavy bucket of water back and forth earlier in the day.

"Hermione?"

Hermione jumped, causing a splash in the water.

"Are you all right, dear?" Juniper called, and knocked on the door.

"Um," Hermione said, her mind racing to catch up, realizing that she may have fallen asleep as the water had cooled considerably since she gotten in the tub. "Yeah," she called, and turned the jets off. "I - I'm just getting out."

"Oh, all right, dear," Juniper called, and Hermione sighed in relief when she heard the woman's footsteps retreat.

She was still for a moment, her eyes closed as she tried to calm her racing heart from the scare Juniper had given her, and trying to determine how much time she'd really been there. She lifted her hands from the water and ran them up over her face, and through her wet hair before opening her eyes. She didn't know how much time she lost, there was really no way of telling other than the cooling of the water, and it wasn't exactly cold, just cooling, but it wasn't really warm any more either.

Sighing and shaking her head, Hermione got out and began to towel off and get dressed. She drained the tub then headed back to her room and knocked on the door to the bathroom, but after receiving no reply, opened it and went in to use the mirror, grabbing her brush on the way and brushed out her hair before heading upstairs to dinner.

"There you are," Oliver said when she came around into the kitchen. "We were wondering."

Hermione looked at him in confusion before looking to Juniper and then Hickory who was already sitting at the table with the food already to serve.

"H-how long was I gone?" Hermione asked.

"About forty minutes," Oliver said. "Mum went to check on you because she thought you might have fallen asleep in there, and she wanted to make sure everything was okay."