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‘It nearly always is,’ Mark said, turning to her with a chuckle. ‘There is nothing between Cromer and the Arctic, except sea. But at least that is calm today. Would you like to go bathing? It is supposed to be beneficial and there are machines down there if you would like it.’ It was early in the summer, though a few brave souls were taking a dip.
‘No, I do not think so,’ she said. ‘I shall be content to watch.’
‘It must seem even colder to you, Mr Ashton, after the heat of India,’ Isabel said.
‘Oh, I am a hardy soul, Miss Isabel. I might take a dip myself. What do you say, Mark?’ There were men in the sea a little further along the beach, but the girls would not go near them, for they nearly always took to the water naked, unlike the women who were hampered by voluminous clothing and did not stir far from the bathing machines where they changed.
‘I think I should stay with the ladies,’ Mark said. ‘But do you go if you have a mind to.’
Drew would not go alone and all four made their way down a cliff path on to the sand. The beach was not crowded and they walked towards the water’s edge. Jane was more inclined to stride out when they reached the firmer wet sand and Mark kept up with her. Drew, behind them, stooped to pick up a flat round stone and threw it into the sea in such a way it bounced along the waves two or three times before it disappeared.
Isabel clapped her hands. ‘Oh, how clever of you, Mr Ashton! Do show me how to do it.’
He picked up another stone and put it into her hand. ‘You need to throw it quite hard and keep the trajectory low,’ he said. ‘Set it spinning flat as it leaves your hand.’
She tried and failed and tried again. ‘No, do it like this,’ he said, taking her hand and closing her fingers round the stone. Mark and Jane, who had gone a little ahead, turned to see why the other two were not close behind and were greeted with the sight of Drew with his arms about Isabel, trying to direct her aim. And they were both laughing.
‘Oh, dear,’ Jane said. ‘Isabel has no sense of propriety at all. It is as well there is no one on the beach who knows us.’
‘It is not her fault,’ Mark said. ‘Drew sometimes forgets he is not still in India where no doubt such familiarity is allowed.’
Jane did not know how accurate that statement was, but it was so like Mark to see no harm in his beloved. She hurried back to her sister, followed by Mark.
‘Drew has been teaching me how to make a pebble bounce,’ Isabel called to them. ‘Do come and try it.’
Jane could not rebuke her sister in front of others, but as they walked further along the beach she contrived to draw her out of earshot of the gentlemen. ‘I hate to scold, Issie, but really, you should not have allowed Mr Ashton to put his arm round you, nor should you have referred to him by his given name. Surely, you know better that that.’
‘Oh, don’t be such a fusspot, Jane. There was no harm in him showing me how to spin a pebble and Mark always uses Mr Ashton’s given name. It just slipped out.’
‘I am sure it did, but do try to be more careful.’
‘You are a fine one to talk. You have been seen in the village with Mark’s arms about you. Sophie had it off her friend, Maud Finch. Mrs Finch saw you with her own eyes.’
Jane had a vague memory of seeing Mrs Finch talking to Mrs Stangate when she met Mark and Drew on the village green. ‘I stumbled and he prevented me from falling,’ she said. ‘You may trust Mrs Finch to make a mountain out of a molehill and Sophie should not have repeated it.’
‘You have quite ruined my day with your scolding.’ Isabel pouted. ‘I was having such fun.’
But it was not long before she was holding her skirts up in her hand and racing over the sand to the water’s edge, laughing as the waves rippled over her kid shoes, which would undoubtedly be thrown out when they arrived home. Jane felt unhappy about the rebuke. It had made her sound a killjoy and she had not meant it to be like that at all. Her concern was for Mark. He had said nothing and even tried to excuse Isabel, but underneath he must have been feeling hurt. And if Mrs Finch’s gossip reached his ears he would be doubly embarrassed.
Further along the beach they watched some fishing boats unloading their cargo of crabs and Mark bought two for the girls to take home for their cook and then they returned to the promenade for refreshments in the Red Lion. A short walk along the cliff top followed when they all used Drew’s telescope to scan the beach and the horizon.
