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“Exactly so, ma’am,” agreed Finn. “I think a Moroccan style would be appropriate and was only telling the master so this morning.”
“Yes!” said Elizabeth. “There should be colourful sheer curtains and hanging lamps with perhaps a few cushions lying around. You must give Finn a free hand!”
Darcy rolled his eyes. “Finn may decorate it any way he wishes if you approve, as I can hardly care. I only have one stipulation—that he makes himself scarce now. I will ring if I need you, Farley and Finn.”
After settling Darcy on the top step of the pool and helping to remove his stockings and slippers, the two servants exited speedily.
“What do you intend?” asked Elizabeth, beginning to feel a little nervous, but shucking off her own shoes and stockings to sit beside him and dabble her feet in the water.
“If we are in Morocco, will you be my odalisque?” murmured Darcy, finding Elizabeth’s ear and nuzzling it.
“You know, my father always said that term is misused; that it actually refers to the chambermaids of concubines rather than the concubines themselves. He imagined them fully clothed in long robes with dusters in their hands. Besides, they are in Turkey, not Morocco.”
“Your father is ruining my fantasies,” retorted Darcy. “Come now, let us have a swim.”
Elizabeth eyed the pool dubiously. “How deep is it?”
“About chest deep.”
“Chest deep! Why, I will be under water! Are you so sick of matrimony that you try to drown your wife within two weeks of marriage?”
“Surely you can at least dog paddle?” asked Darcy incredulously.
“Oh! The arrogance of men! I have been as far as up to my knees in a pond! How am I to get any further when, as a lady, I am not permitted to take my clothes off in public?”
“I see your dilemma. Allow me to teach you how to swim.”
“You are serious?”
“Absolutely.”
“Very well. I am game.”
“Excellent. Take off your clothes.”
“You are not proposing that we go swimming stark naked?”
“It allows the most freedom of movement.”
“I cannot do it!” exclaimed Elizabeth. “Allow me at least to keep on my chemise!”
“As you wish,” conceded Darcy as he shucked off his coat, subsequently removed his waistcoat and flicked his shirt over his head.
Elizabeth watched goggle-eyed, wondering if she would be asked to help remove his pantaloons. But Darcy moved himself down the steps with his arms, and after floating out into the pool, peeled off his pantaloons with the aid of the buoyancy of the water. He threw them with a slosh onto the tiles surrounding the pool. Although the refractory properties of the moving water could not allow her to be certain, Elizabeth was fairly sure that her husband was, as promised, now quite naked, or clothed only in the dark hair that surrounded his nether regions.
“Well?” he said, stretching out his arm towards her. “Are you down to your chemise yet?”
“No!” replied Elizabeth. “You have been distracting me!”
Darcy smiled, before deciding to tease her. “You are perfectly safe. I cannot see you, you know.”
Elizabeth began to undo the bib of her gown.
“I will just swim up and down a bit,” coaxed Darcy, “so you can be perfectly private.”
He began to swim about in lazy circles, first with a frog stroke and then with an overarm action.
Peeling her gown over her head, Elizabeth removed her lazy stays, which she liked to wear when travelling. Clad only in her chemise, she took a couple of steps down into the pool until she was immersed to her navel.
