As he stepped soggily out of the water he heard a woman's voice address him and he looked up. Instantly he baulked at her appearance and averted his eyes. He'd obviously interrupted her bathing in the lake, and he wouldn't embarrass her further by staring or staying any length of time.
"My sincerest apologies for the intrusion, madam," he said to the ground. God, he could feel the water trickling all down his back, and his boots squelched with every little movement. How humiliating. "I must have taken a wrong turn in the road," he explained. And now his horse had bolted, so he was going to have to walk back the better part of five miles drenched through like a bloody fool.