When she ran aground on a high bar of land, she nearly threw herself from her seat with the jolt of impact. Both of her oars shot from her hands and immediately began their own trip along the current. Fern stared as they drifted away then took in her surroundings, having missed the main route of the Thames as it curved around a bend, and was now obscured in a small cove, hidden from view and completely at the mercy of the water. A sob escaped her throat.
“Fern!” The voice startled her. She looked up to see a punt entering the cove, Alex standing at the helm. He had abandoned his jacket and stood tall in his fawn trousers, his broad shoulders straining in the sleeves of his white shirt, his waistcoat shifting across his chest with his motions. His blue eyes were wide with concern as he pulled up alongside her, nearly tipping himself out of the boat as he hit the shore. “I saw you pass by so quickly, I couldn’t keep up. What happened?”
“I’m stuck,” she spat out.
Alex, blast him, laughed. His mouth opened broadly, flashing a dazzling array of white teeth, his eyes creasing as laughter escaped him. “So I see.”
She huffed, crossing her arms tightly over her heaving chest. Alex pursed his lips together to stifle his amusement. “Did you toss Rose overboard?”
Fern looked at her hands, watching her fingers tap on the seat of the boat. “She did not want to come with me,” she murmured, suddenly ashamed.
“Oh,” Alex breathed.He must be so disappointed, surely he will leave too—
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” he said warmly, and Fern looked up. He knelt on the bow of his boat, nearly at her eye level, watching her. “Are you all right?”
The sympathy in his voice brought the knot back into her throat with a vengeance. She swallowed hard against it, steadying herself as she met his gaze. “I’m fine,” she replied. “And I’m sorry I didn’t bring you Rose.”
He shrugged. “There’s nothing to be done about it now.” He looked around her and the rowboat. “Where are your oars?”
She pointed down the river, where her oars had become stuck along the bank some fifty meters from their location. “Well,” Alex said with a sigh, “it appears I will be performing a rescue after all.” He stood to his full height, rolled his shirtsleeves up his forearms, and extended one hand out to Fern, looking at her expectantly.
Fern did not anticipate electricity to rush through her when he took her hand. The warmth of his body shot through her like lightning, so sudden she nearly pulled her hand away. Her gaze flew to his. The blue irises appeared brighter, pupils larger, and she wondered if he felt it too.
He must have felt something, for Alex’s cheeks flushed as he cleared his throat. “Are you coming over?”
She bobbed her chin and allowed him to pull her to standing as she gathered her skirts in her arm. Alex led her over the water between their boats, his free hand wrapping around her waist to stabilize her as the boat wobbled. She fell to her seat on the punt with a flop, breathing quickly. Alex, noting she was safely in place, began to push the boat away from the bank.
Or at least, he attempted to. “It’s stuck.”
Fern raised an eyebrow. “I told you so.”
“No,” he retorted. “My boat is stuck.”
“Well, unstick it then!” Fern shot back, feeling panic rising over her.
Alex pushed at the shore with his pole with increasing force, but the punt did not budge. “Can you help me?” he huffed.
She looked at him aghast. “How am I supposed to help? I got stuck too.”
He shot her an impatient look over one shoulder. “I don’t know,something!”
Fern grabbed an oar from his punt and leaned forward, pressing her chest against the smooth wood of the boat by his feet, and pressed the oar along the shoreline. Together they heaved, pushed, and jammed with all their might to dislodge the punt, until perspiration stuck their clothing to their skin. Alex stood tall, pushing a damp curl from his forehead. With surprising grace he leaped to the shoreline, leaving Fern alone on the bow.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked, jumping to her feet and bobbling about before finding her balance again.
Alex tossed her the pole, and she dropped the oar with a clatter. “I’m going to push.” He pulled off his boots and socks and tossed them into the punt before rolling up the hems of his trousers. “You use the pole to push us from shore, and I’ll jump back on when we are free.”
“I don’t think that will work.”
He looked at her with a wry smirk, his expression making her want to giggle for some untold reason. “Do you have a better plan?”
She shook her head and gripped the pole tightly, ready to direct the boat away from the shoreline as soon as they were free. Alex screwed up his face with effort as he shoved against the bow. A loud squelching sound cleaved the air, and the boat lurched into motion, caught in the current pulling away from the shore.
“Jump!” Fern shrieked as she floated away from her would-be rescuer.
Alex set into a run, his feet slapping on the mud before throwing himself through the air towards the departing punt. He collided with Fern, his arms flapping around her until their chests pressed together, his momentum and her complete lack of grace sending both of them tumbling onto their rear ends into the shallow, murky waters of the Thames.
Fern burst to the surface sputtering, pushing her hair from her face as she gasped. Alex, just inches away, looked similarly astounded to have found himself up to his waist in water. He turned slowly to face her, blue eyes wide in shock. She let out a moan, then grappled with her skirt pocket, extracting a completely sodden copy of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
