From the far side, muffled: "Learn all the tricks so you can pamper me later."
"Shameless!" Luna laughed.
"Okay, Darling!!" Calypso was ready. "Miss Maiden, please teach me everything!"
"Let me see if everyone else is situated first," Yunohana offered, smiling softly.
Two stools down, Bastet had washed herself with the efficiency of long practice, every motion economical, not one drop wasted.
Yunohana, passing, offered her a slim vial. "Camellia oil. A drop, warmed in the palm. For the ears."
Bastet regarded the vial, then accepted it as tribute, and her tail gave her away, again.
At the end of the row, Alexandra had claimed Alice's hair. She worked the lather through it in long patient strokes, the black half and the white half gathered together over one shoulder. Alice sat with her eyes closed, humming something tuneless and happy, her head tilting wherever the fingers steered it.
"Rinse," Alexandra murmured.
Alice leaned forward. The humming survived the bucket.
