She screamed, thrashing backward even more than I had. Her head disappeared under the surface. Panic seized my muscles. Was she drowning? I instinctively reached underwater, my hands gripping what felt like her waist, but then she broke the surface again. I held onto her, still certain thatshe was drowning, or lost, or confused…there had to be some explanation for why she was bobbing out in the sea alone at sunrise. I kicked my legs hard, struggling to keep us both afloat.
Her wild eyes settled on me with shock. “Mr. Croft!”
Had she just now realized it was me? Or was she pretending?
A wave pushed us closer together, and she flattened her palms against my bare chest, shoving me away. She splashed vigorously as she put a few feet between us. She seemed perfectly capable of swimming on her own, even if her hair was plastered partially over her eyes.
“What the devil are you doing out here?” I asked. My heart pounded fast as I watched her drifting farther away from me. She was heading for deeper water. My anxiety heightened. I swam toward her, and she finally stopped paddling away from shore.
She barely kept her head above the undulating waves. “Swimming,” she answered.
“You should not be out here.” My voice was labored. The current was strong, and while I trusted my own ability to swim, I couldn’t imagine how a woman as small as Miss Kellaway, with wet skirts tangling around her legs, could manage to keep herself from being pulled away by the tide.
“But I am out here nonetheless.” Somehow, she managed to hold her chin even higher above the water. Her gaze darted toward my bare shoulders before flicking back up to my face. Her cheeks were pink. “Are you—are you…?”
“I am clothed,” I blurted. “Partially.” It wasn’t a great deal of reassurance. A woman of genteel breeding like Miss Kellaway wasn’t likely to have ever encountered a man in my state of undress before. My mind raced back to my conversation with her elder brother on the Steine. I had mentioned my secluded beach, and that it was a good place for a swim. Miss Kellaway had been listening. Then there were Miss Lyons’s words about MissKellaway’s ‘plan.’A very detailed stratagem, indeed. Today was only the beginning.
A surge of dread assailed my stomach.
Had Miss Kellaway come here hoping to find me?
I threw a glance over my shoulder at the shoreline. A young woman—a maid by the looks of her—observed our interaction, mouth agape.Blast it. “Does your mother know where you are?” My voice was rough with panic.
Miss Kellaway’s eyes narrowed as she continued floating away. “My mother is no longer in Brighton.”
I didn’t have time to ask the reason. “Does your brother?”
“No, he does not,” she snapped. Her mouth slipped underwater, and she came up coughing. “Why should he? I didn’t think I would encounter anything but a fish or two out here at this hour.”
“Because swimming in the sea alone is dangerous.” I scowled at her, hoping to emphasize my point.
“Youdo it! Every day, if I recall correctly. What makes you so much more capable than I?”
“So youdorecall. That is why you are here, is it not?”
“What?” Her brows snapped together in a glare.
Now was not the time to throw accusations at her. We were drifting farther from shore by the second, and my strength was already running low. The unexpected encounter had my heart pumping fast, but my muscles were growing weary. Miss Kellaway’s fiery gaze took me in one last time, and then she disappeared under the surface. Intentionally or not, I didn’t dare take the risk.
“Devil take it,” I muttered. My loyalty was to Edmund, and if Miss Kellaway was under his protection here, then it was my duty to deliver her home safely.
I reached under the water, gripped her by the waist, and held her tight against me as I kicked against the current. She gasped as I dragged her up out of the water.
“Unhand me!” She wriggled for a moment, but then her eyes met mine.
Her efforts to escape became weaker, and I nearly forgot what I was to be doing. Her lashes dripped with water, her lips and cheeks flushed. Her cold fingers rested against my chest, and I felt my legs tangling with the fabric of her skirts. My attraction to Miss Kellaway was rather bothersome, especially in a moment like this. I felt the tip of each of her fingers like an imprint on my skin, and soon I would be imagining them in my hair, her lips on mine, my arms locked even tighter around her.
I was already imagining it.
A frustrated sigh burst out of my chest as she tried to squirm away again. “I’m taking you back to shore.” I was holding her far too close, but I was afraid to let go of her. She would drown or drift away, and I would feel responsible. It was clear that she had wandered out here to find me, to somehow gain the upper hand over Miss Lyons in their competition for my fortune. I wasn’t daft.
“I know how to swim on my own,” she said in an exasperated voice.
Her wet white gown melted into her skin, but I kept my eyes fixed on her face. “I’m not leaving you out here,” I grumbled. I shifted my grip, hooking one arm around her waist as I used the other to propel us forward.
She fought against me for a few seconds, but then a wave struck us from behind. I barely managed to keep my head out of the water. My feet touched solid ground, and I continued to pull Miss Kellaway along until she could stand.
“How did you manage to sneak up on me?” I asked as we trudged toward shore. Each step we took revealed more of my torso. Miss Kellaway glanced once, then averted her gaze.
