Page 66 of A Convenient Fiction

“Going in the water today, ma’am?” one of the gentlemen driving the horses asked. He was a weathered fellow of indeterminate age, sitting sideways on the horse’s back, with a straw hat pulled down over his brow.

“We are,” Laura said. “You go ahead, Hen. I’ll use the other machine.”

A heavy-set woman assisted Laura up the steps, closing the door behind her. The bathing machine was windowless, equipped with benches on either side, and wooden pegs on the walls. Laura quickly removed her skirts, petticoats, and bodice, and unhooked her corset. She was in the process of opening her bag to retrieve her bathing costume when the machine lurched forward.

Yesterday, she hadn’t expected the jolting motion, and had been tossed from side to side, nearly losing her balance. Today, however, she was ready for it. As the horse pulled the machine out into the water, she braced her body against the wall, and slipped into her bathing costume.

Composed of a knee-length tunic, Turkish trousers, and a belt, the cumbersome ensemble wasn’t ideal for swimming. Nor were the canvas slippers she was obliged to wear, secured with ribbons that laced up her legs.

How much easier it would be to wear only her chemise and drawers! Or to leap into the water in a primitive state as the male swimmers were rumored to do.

But this wasn’t Talbot’s Pond. And she was no man.

She tugged an oilskin cap over her plaited hair and tied it beneath her chin. When the attendant opened the exit door, Laura was ready. “You needn’t dunk me. I know how to swim.”

“As you please, ma’am.” The woman assisted her down, squeezing tight to her arm until Laura was submerged in the water. “Off you go, now.”

Laura waded out from beneath the canvas awning that shielded the steps of her bathing machine from public view. Henrietta was already there, along with several other ladies, paddling in the surf.

“Fine weather today!” an older lady bellowed in Laura’s ear.

“Your first time at Margate?” a younger lady enquired. “Did you arrive on the steamer?”

Laura made polite replies, conversing in what she supposed was the way many genteel strangers conversed when on holiday at one of England’s watering places. “I’m going a little farther out,” she said at length.

“Be careful, Laura,” Henrietta warned.

Another of the older ladies watched Laura with concern. “Are you a strong swimmer, my dear?”

“I am,” Laura said. “My mother taught me.”

And she was a strong swimmer. Though the sleeves of her tunic impeded her arms, and though her Turkish trousers weighted down her legs, she managed to cut through the water with a sure stroke.

Several yards from the other ladies, she dived beneath the surface. All those hours spent strengthening her lungs in Talbot’s Pond hadn’t been for nothing. She was able to dive deep, before turning in the water and kicking her way back to the surface.

“Are you nearly finished?” Henrietta asked after a quarter of an hour had passed. “I’m ready to get out.”

“Go ahead,” Laura said. “I’m going to swim awhile longer.”

“Laura—”

“It’s all right. I’ll meet you on the beach.”

Henrietta pursed her lips, but she didn’t argue.

Laura wouldn’t have heard her if she had. She dived again and kicked away from the bathing machines. She swam until she was no longer surrounded by curious travelers. Until the noise of the beach was drowned out by the sound of the surf. Until she had no thought for romance, or money, or London solicitors.

It was freedom. Glorious freedom. Everything she could have imagined, and more.

It was also exhausting.

The sea was still smooth as glass, but beneath the surface, there was an unmistakable undertow. She hadn’t noticed it at first. It was subtle closer to the shore. Only when she’d swum out far past the bathing machines, did she begin to feel the relentless power of it.

It caught her in its grasp before she recognized the danger. When she did, she tried to swim against it, kicking as hard as she could—so hard that one of her canvas slippers came loose.

How had she managed to drift so far from the shore? Had the current been pulling her out the entire time?

She stroked her arms through the water with renewed effort. They were beginning to feel heavy. So were her legs. Had she pushed herself too far? The shore seemed a very long way away now. And her lungs were burning.