From my position in the water, I couldn’t hear what Margaret said to him, but I could see her lips. She was telling him it was his fault. Or was she saying his name? Vaughn, Fault. The same ‘f’ shape of the lips.
‘Fault,’ Kate had said as she lay dying. Her last word to me. Except it wasn’t my fault, that was my guilt over getting involved in the situation inserting itself into my interpretation.
Freddie swam up to me.
‘I’m going to swim down the river,’ he said, his teeth chattering in the cold. ‘See how far I can get. You with me, Cook?’
‘You go, Freddie,’ Miriam said, swimming towards us. ‘Cook can stay here with me. Make sure I don’t drown.’
69
‘You’ve got a nasty cut,’ I said to Miriam. She winced as I touched her forehead. Blood flowed from the wound, two inches across. It looked deep, probably needed stitches. ‘We need to get something on it. Apply pressure and keep it there.’
I looked around. My shirt was hanging over the railing on the bridge. It was filthy, but it would have to do.
‘I’ve got it,’ Miriam said. She’d been treading water, but stopped, and slipped below the surface. When she came back up she had a ball of fabric in her hand. Her slip.
We swam to the shallower water near the bank. I wrung out the slip, and folded it. I pressed it against her forehead and it instantly bloomed red.
‘Hold it firmly,’ I said. She put her hand on top of mine, trapping it.
‘He gets like that if he doesn’t get his own way,’ she said.
‘Vaughn?’
‘My darling brother,’ she said. ‘It’s my job to take him down a peg or two. It’s the only thing he understands.’
She was shivering.
The cold water had blanched her skin, taking away the sunburn, albeit temporarily. Her shoulders were bruised.
I touched them.
‘What happened?’ I asked.
She lowered herself into the water.
‘Nothing,’ she said, ‘Freddie had me carrying his art supplies across the Forest. Doesn’t like to do his own work.’
Her teeth chattered as she talked.
‘We need to get you dry,’ I said.
‘Not yet,’ she said, moving closer. I felt her breasts against my chest, her nipples brushing my skin. ‘Hold me.’
I put my arms around her and pulled our bodies closer.
I was a useful heat source, and nothing more, at least that’s what I told myself. Not every part of my body got the message, though, as I responded to the feel of her soft body against mine.
‘Youdowant me,’ she said. ‘A girl does wonder, you know.’
‘Don’t take it personally,’ I said, as she moved against me.
‘I intend to take it very personally,’ she said. She moved her hands to my bottom and pulled us closer together.
‘You know I love Margaret like a sister,’ she said, ‘but she’s not right for you. Not for the long run. She doesn’t look at you the way you look at her.’
She kissed me, and moved her hips gently. I lowered my own hands, down her back, letting them slide over her bottom, pulling her close.
