They had finally overcome the youth’s objections and been rolled out. She and Betsy had thrown off their clothes down to their shifts and Betsy pushed open the door. There was a ladder set for their convenience so they might elegantly enter the water. Daisy looked at Betsy, Betsy smiled back. They held hands and jumped in.
The water was, at first, a shock. It always was and Daisy knew that it would only be a matter of minutes before she adjusted to it and it only felt pleasantly cool.
As they splashed around, a rowboat passed by. Daisy glanced in its direction and then quickly looked away. Lord Dalton was being rowed to the deeper sea. He wore only a thin shirt over his trousers, just as she’d sometimes seen him sitting out on his bench in the mornings. Though they had supposed no gentleman would be out of bed and making their way into the sea, it seemed Lord Dalton was to be the exception.
She was quite certain the lord had noted them, for it would be hard not to as they were the only other two persons in the water.
“He’s a handsome one,” Betsy said, “if a little grim for my taste.”
“Betsy,” Daisy said in as scolding a tone as she could muster, “I am quite sure it is wildly inappropriate for a lady’s maid to comment on a lord.”
Betsy pushed off the sand and floated on her back. “Aye, I know it. At least, I ought not say it above stairs. Though, all sort of talk does go on between the servants and always has. Nobody likes to think it, but there it is.”
“I see,” Daisy said, allowing herself to float alongside her maid, “and what is said of Lord Dalton, exactly?”
“Well, let’s see, about Lord Dalton,” Betsy said, staring up at the clouds, “we’ve managed to squeeze a word or two out of that old fellow Bellamy. He keeps things rather close, but we’ve discovered that the lord saw something terrible at Quatre Bras. We was teasing about Lord Dalton’s grumpy disposition and now we find out that somehow it’s all connected. Bellamy says he used to be a deal more lighthearted.”
Daisy was not unaware that some men came back changed from war. Some even came back entirely broken and subject to nightmares. It was hard, though, to imagine that Lord Dalton had ever been other than what he was. And certainly not lighthearted.
“What was it? What was so terrible that he saw?” she asked.
“That’s the mystery, Mr. Bellamy won’t say. We’ll keep workin’ on him, though. Mrs. Broadbent scolds us for prying but we do it anyway. Anyhow, one of the kitchen maids said all Lord Dalton needs is a good wife and you would a thought she wished a plague on the fellow, the footmen did take it that hard. They don’t ever want a mistress and they say their master ain’t never gonna marry anyhow.”
“Oh yes, he’s quite renowned for saying so,” Daisy said.
“As you are, too,” Betsy said. “Look at that, two people who won’t never marry. P’raps you could marry each other and live in different houses. Though the talk in the servants’ hall is you could do better. Lord Burke is said to be a prince—Sissy, one of the maids, has a cousin who knows somebody who works in his house in town, and it’s said he’s a generous sort of person with days off and duties. He might do, after all.”
“Andthat, is quite enough,” Daisy said.
Before she could scold her maid any further, which she had a great mind to do, Daisy heard shouting from behind her.
She turned her gaze out to sea and saw the oarsman on the rowboat that Lord Dalton had recently been on. The fellow was shouting and waving wildly. Lord Dalton, however, was nowhere to be seen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Charles had found himself aggravated to find Miss Danworth and her maid in the sea so early in the morning. What was the lady thinking? Surely, she must know this time was only for gentlemen? What lady rose so early anyway?
As itwasthe time for gentlemen, he’d planned to swim as he always did, with not a shred of clothing to weigh him down. Now, though, he’d have to keep his shirt on at least, for propriety’s sake. He doubted Miss Danworth would stare at him, nor would he care if she did, but one never knew what sort of nosy Nancy had parked herself at a window with a telescope. If Miss Inquisitive wished to get a glimpse of his person, she was welcome to do so. However, it would not be well for that prying lady to get a glimpse of his personandMiss Danworth bathing anywhere nearby at the same time.
For all his outrage at being observed, he could not claim with any honesty that he had avoided hisownobserving. He was rather surprised, as he pulled off his trousers, to find that Miss Danworth did not seem to require the services of a dipper. She and her maid appeared exceedingly comfortable making their own way in the water, as evidenced by the fact that he’d seen them fling themselves into it when he’d got into his boat and now they floated easily on the swells.
Perhaps he had observed the scene for a bit too long, as his rower finally said, “Shall you go in, my lord?”
He nodded and dived into the sea. The cold shocked him and he rose to the surface. As he did every morning, he swam away from the bobbing boat, preferring the feeling of being out in the sea alone. It was not so comfortable as usual, as he’d got his shirt on and the wet fabric exerted no small amount of weight.
Once he had come near to exhausting himself, he stopped. He would tread water for a few minutes to catch his breath and then make his way back.
As he took in a deep breath, he was suddenly grabbed by the ankle and pulled below the surface.
For a moment, as he was pulled down, his mind went blank. But, just as in the war, his wits returned and things began to move as if time had unnaturally slowed.
He could not see what had pulled him down, only a shadowy outline appearing five or six feet in length. The thing had him by one leg and he used the other to kick at it. The strength of the kicks proved ineffectual, the water slowing them too much.
Feeling as if he were close to running out of breath and fighting the inevitable terror that came from realizing one was about to take in water, he used his free foot to angle it against his attacker. He allowed himself to be pulled closer to get leverage, and then pushed off the thing as hard as he could.
He broke free and bolted to the surface. As much as he’d tried to resist the urge to breathe while under water, he had taken in a gulp. He broke the surface and heaved, trying to clear the water out of his lungs. He forced himself to swim toward the boat, each second expecting to be pulled down again. His boat was being rowed toward him at a fast clip.
The rower reached him and hauled him over the side. “There, my lord, that was a close one. P’raps don’t swim so far away if you ain’t used to it.”
