The faint hues of sunrise illuminated the short cliffs, where three women stood overlooking the beach. All were elegant, and all must have been close to my mother’s age. My heart hammered in my chest as I recognized the weight of the situation. They could have been watching us for several minutes as we swam in the waves—as Mr. Croft pulled me to him and hauled me against his chest. It might not have been perceived as an attempt to ‘rescue’ me…but as something far more scandalous.
My face burned.
My anger had clouded my judgment. I hadn’t considered that anyone would be out at this hour, especially not a trio of elegant ladies. By the looks of them, I suspected that they had an appetite for gossip—and they had just stumbled upon a feast.
I exchanged a fleeting glance with Mr. Croft before marching toward shore. My heart pounded fast as mortification made a wave of heat climb my neck. Would the ladies recognize me? Or would I look like maid in my plain white dress with Eliza as my companion? It was possible that I could escape without being recognized if I hurried.
“Miss Kellaway? Is that you?” A woman’s voice from above made me freeze. Her tone was heavy with disapproval.
I should not have looked up, but I did so without thinking.
It was Lady Cinderford from the ball. Her face was in clear view now that she wasn’t covering half of it with her hand. Her eyes, wild with disapproval, scoured me from head to toe. “What on earth are you doing out here, young lady?”
The other two women whispered to one another, shaking their heads in horror.
I didn’t know how to answer. I could hear Mr. Croft trudging out of the water behind me, so I hurried forward to fetch mycloak. Eliza helped drape it over my shoulders, and I wrapped it so tightly around myself that it dug into my neck.
Lady Cinderford waved her hands in a frantic motion toward the rocks. “Hide yourself at once!” She glanced over her shoulder. “Where is your mother? Why are you out here alone with this…man?” Her gaze darted behind me, where I assumed Mr. Croft still stood. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him disappear behind the rocks, hopefully to fetch his clothes.
I shut my eyes as I exhaled, panic pulsing through my chest. I could hardly breathe. What had she asked first?Where was my mother?It was the same question Mr. Croft had asked me in the water. “She had to return to Hampshire,” I said in a shaky voice, “but she will return in a day or two.” The second question was more difficult to answer. “I wanted to go for a swim. I did not expect a man to be here.”
Lady Cinderford covered her face with her hands again. She muttered something behind them, and my shame only spiraled deeper. Where had Mr. Croft disappeared to? Had he been recognized?
“Is he a gentleman?” Lady Cinderford asked in a mortified whisper.
That was a complicated question. My feelings of vexation resurfaced, but I shoved them away. Mr. Croft was not a servant or tradesman if that’s what she was implying, though at the moment he looked rugged and strong enough to be one. I suspected the image of his muscular chest and shoulders would live in my mind for a long while, unfortunately.
I shook my head to clear it—and to dislodge a few drops of seawater from my ears.
“Well…yes, I suppose.” That was all I could say. Dread gripped my stomach. I prayed that Mr. Croft would disappear and not walk back up the sand toward me. Perhaps if he was gone quickly enough, the ladies would not recognize his face.
“It was Mr. Jonathan Croft,” one of the ladies said. Her voice was almost too quiet for me to overhear.
Drat it all.
“I thought so, too,” the other woman agreed.
“I saw them conversing at the assembly.”
“There was something between them, to be sure.”
“An attachment?”
The conversation carried on, but I grabbed Eliza by the arm and started hurrying up the beach.
“Miss Kellaway! Where are you going?” Lady Cinderford’s voice echoed, but I didn’t turn around. I was already in deep trouble, and staying there would not help my situation. Panic carried my legs faster than I thought possible without breaking into a run. My lungs were already tired from treading water, and I had even inhaled a little bit. The salt stung my throat and eyes, but that was the least of my concerns.
Eliza’s somber expression told me that something was deeply amiss.
Perhaps something that couldn’t be mended.
I rubbed at my nose, drawing a deep breath to keep my tears at bay. I had never been so mortified in my entire life. How would I have known that Mr. Croft went swimming in that exact place each morning? The possibility of encountering him had not even crossed my mind.
I didn’t dare think of what the consequences would be.
The three ladies who had seen us would not forget the incident, especially not Lady Cinderford. I didn’t suspect that she would intentionally spread gossip, but it was entirely possible that she would demand reparations from Mr. Croft. She had seen us swimming in the sea together. She had seen the clinging, the closeness—but she had not seen the arguing. She hadn’t seen how very angry we both were. My veins still pulsedwith frustration as Eliza and I approached the front door of our townhouse.
How could Mr. Croft have been so quick to assume that I was ensnaring him?
