Caroline looked at the white water crashing in rhythmically and thought that would indeed be a trick. Or a miracle. Bemmy was only wide-eyed.
“Ah, there is the good lady now,” the duchess said.
Having seen Mrs. Gunn prior, Caroline well knew it was she that stood next to a bathing machine. While she looked stoic in the weather, the fellow who held the horses looked rather less so.
The footmen had opened umbrellas ready for them to come out, which did strike Caroline as rather ridiculous. Whatever was to happen, they would be soaked to the skin in the very near future.
Bemmy had been left in the carriage and would meet them in the sea bathing machine with the dry clothes once they came out of the sea. Caroline was very much hoping theywouldcome out.
She and the duchess had been hustled into the bathing machine by Mrs. Gunn, who climbed in after them. “We’ll want to know how we’re goin’ on in this kind of sea,” the matron said. She turned a critical eye on Caroline. “Do you swim well, girl? I won’t be takin’ no delicate flowers in there today, so if you is the screamin’ and flailing type, come out with it.”
“I can swim the distance of my father’s lake,” Caroline said slowly, “two hundred yards, I think. But of course, I have no experience with waves.”
“Can you hold your breath underwater?”
“Yes,” Caroline said, though she’d never tried out exactly how long she could do so.
“Right,” Mrs. Gunn said, “I’ll take the duchess out first as she’s got experience and I know I can leave her bobbing on the swells while I come back for you. Then, we’ll get close to the breakers and duck under them quick as you like. Push yourself forward underwater and I’ll pull you. Then, it’s all easy as you please.”
Caroline did not know if anything about this venture would be easy, but it seemed it was going to happen, nonetheless.
Mrs. Gunn signaled out the door and the horses went forward with a lurch. Caroline held on to a hook meant for hanging clothes to steady herself. The machine stopped and Caroline could feel the water washing up against the floor of the compartment.
They waited while the man unhitched the horses, who were no doubt eager to get out of the sea on such a day. Caroline could not imagine convincing one of her father’s horses to perform such a feat.
The man and the horses were gone and out of sight. The duchess threw off her pelisse, which Caroline caught and hung up.
“Let us proceed, Mrs. Gunn,” the duchess said, as if she were ordering a battalion forward into battle.
She watched with trepidation as Mrs. Gunn and the duchess made their way into the water. Though Mrs. Gunn had said she would hold Caroline’s hand, she did not do so with the duchess. Surprisingly, the duchess dove under a breaker of her own accord and swam out of reach and into the swells. She looked positively delighted with herself.
Mrs. Gunn came back for her with alarming speed. Caroline had little time to think, which was perhaps best. They were down the steps of the bathing machine and into the water in a trice.
“Here we go, duck down and push forward!” Mrs. Gunn shouted.
Caroline did as she was told and found herself in a maelstrom in which there was no up or down or forward or backward. The water was icy and sent prickles all over her body. Mrs. Gunn pulled her arm.
And then suddenly, the maelstrom dissipated, and she popped up into the swells.
“Well done, Miss Upton,” the duchess called from a dozen feet away.
She had done it. Or rather, Mrs. Gunn had done it.
The swells rose up and then dropped down and then up again as if she were rolling up and down hills. The rain splattered down around them and the water began to feel less cold. The salt in the water buoyed her up and she barely had to tread—so different from her father’s lake of fresh water. It was glorious.
As she floated up and down, she spotted Bemmy hanging out the coach window. Her poor maid had clutched her hand in the carriage and whispered, “Don’t do it. Don’t go.”
To assure Bemmy of her safety, Caroline kicked herself up and waved to her vigorously with both arms. Then she squinted. Why was Lord Bertridge there?
Chapter Sixteen
Richard had notbothered to wait for the carriage to be called, nor had he told anybody where he was going. He stormed out of the house and headed toward the sea.
If that eccentric duchess and her nonsensical butler with his ephemeral storms caused any harm to Miss Upton…well, he could not say what he would do.
The beach was empty but for one bathing machine at water’s edge. Of course it was, any rational person had called off their plans for sea bathing in this weather. In the distance, beyond the breaking waves, he saw three heads bobbing. They would appear, and then disappear. What were they doing out there?
What washedoinghere?
