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Miss Balfour tapped her finger against her chin. “Your Mr. Taylor is handsome,” she said. “Mightn’t any of you consider him?”
“I would expect he needs to marry more money than any of us have as a dowry, given that he has been disinherited by Jacob,” Caroline admitted, feeling a pang of guilt. But it was an interesting prospect. If they could trust him, and she had to admit that he had shown no evidence to the contrary, then he would be a fine suitor for Susan. That wasn’t a bad plan at all.
“What about Mr. James Martin?” Miss Balfour asked.
Miss Linfield bit her lip. “If I may, I would like to stake a claim—my mission from Lady Edith’s mother is to see her engaged to Mr. Martin by the end of the summer.”
“Better her than my sisters,” Caroline said with feeling. “I have the unfortunate impression that he would courtmeif I gave him any encouragement. But worry not, Miss Linfield. I do not hold him in any sort of esteem.”
“Well, he has a brother, hasn’t he? Maybe he would do instead?”
“And don’t forget my Alice for Jacob now, mind,” Mrs. Harris said with a wink at Caroline.
“All this talk of gentlemen is tiresome,” Arabella cried, startling Caroline, “when there isnatureall about us!”
They stopped, and Mrs. Harris opened the door to reveal the sea swirling around them. She dropped a ladder into its depths but simply leapt out herself, followed by Mrs. Green. “Come now, ladies. Two at a time for the dipping.”
Miss Balfour gave Caroline a little push. “You invited us, so you get the pleasure of going first.”
Miss Linfield nodded, her face pale. “Yes, do show us how it’s done, Miss Reeve.”
Caroline looked at Arabella. “Shall we?”
They drew off their wrappers, and Caroline saw Arabella’s lush figure in her bathing dress before she disappeared into the water. The sea was gloriously cool, splashing up to Caroline’s breastbone andArabella’s neck. Arabella had left her spectacles back at the bathing house with her day clothes, and her eyes were larger than ever without the glass over them. Her eyelashes glittered with sea spray. She was giggling with Mrs. Green as she was tipped back and under, shaking her head after she emerged and blinking the water from her eyes.
She was gorgeous in her unfettered joy.
Caroline wanted to be the one to hold her like that. She wanted her own arms around Arabella’s waist, with nothing but ocean all around them and pleasure on their minds.
But it was a bad idea. Arabella was too dear to her. And even if she were not her best friend, she wouldstillbe off limits. Caroline could never afford the blow to her reputation if her desires were discovered.
If her sisters were considered vulgar because of their wild flirtations, what would people think ofherif they discovered her true inclinations?
Mrs. Harris put a strong hand on her shoulder. “Time to be dipped, if you’re ready,” she said, and Caroline allowed herself to be led down under the salty water, the coolness reaching between every finger and toe and strand of hair, deep in a world where sound was dimmed and feeling was heightened and only this very moment existed. She was raised up and out at the moment that her lungs were wanting air—Mrs. Harris had been doing this for many years—and was dipped several more times before she and Arabella climbed back into the carriage and Miss Balfour and Miss Linfield took their turns.
“People think us vulgar?” Caroline asked as they settled themselves, watching Miss Balfour throw herself into the dipper’s arms, laughing uncontrollably, which made Miss Linfield relax and laugh too.
Miss Linfield came up from her dip, sniveling a little, eyes wide, hair escaping from her cap.
“I may have heard the same,” Arabella admitted, shifting on the bench. “I hope you are successful to get a sponsor from Mr. Taylor’s family.”
“All I wish is for Betsy and Susan to get their feet wet in the shallows of Inverley society, where things are safe enough if they misbehave, before we remove to London.”
“London?” Arabella said sharply.
“Jacob is set on it, and none of the family wishes to be apart right now.”
* * *
Arabella had lost all pleasure in the morning.
Before the dipping, the day had been full of laughter, and she had been delighted with the new friendship of Miss Balfour and Miss Linfield. She had nestled beside Caroline in the bathing machine and enjoyed the closeness of her body.
But then Miss Linfield had mentioned Mr. Worthington in her list of suitors. It hadn’t been a name she had expected to hear.
Now all four of them were in the bathing machine with Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Green, rumbling and splashing their way back to the sandy shore, and Arabella was aware of every discomfort that had seemed a mere trifle before.
Her eyes ached without her spectacles and her blurred vision frustrated her.
