‘Of course,’ she said, not wanting to admit she wasn’t.
‘There are currents, so we do need to be careful. Better in high summer really but it should be fine now. And we haven’t had too much to drink.’
She hung her head, digging her toes into the sand. ‘I’ll just sunbathe.’
‘Of course. Addison always has towels and mats in the boot.’
He went to fetch them and once he had returned, he laid two straw mats on the sand, smoothing them out until they were completely flat. Then he handed her a towel.
‘What?’ he said, clearly sensing her unease.
‘I don’t have a costume.’
‘You were the one who suggested the beach.’
‘I know. It doesn’t matter.’
He glanced up at the bright blue sky. ‘It’ll get hot soon.’
He was right and there was no shade. Then, aware he was watching her, she carefully undid her buttons and wriggled out of her dress. She felt self-conscious standingonly in her pink drawers, a chemise and a petticoat, all of them in a new material they called rayon. But it was sweaty, and she wished it were silk. She didn’t usually bother with a corset here in Malta, although her mother would have been incensed at the very idea. Her mother. Her shoulders sagged at the thought.
‘What?’ he said again.
‘Nothing. Just thinking of my mother.’
‘You must miss her.’
‘Oh, my good Lord. Not at all.’
He laughed. ‘I know the feeling.’
‘But your mother was just over here to see you. I bet she thinks you’re the best.’
‘Hardly. Anyway, it wasn’t just to see me.’
‘What then?’
‘A bit of a kerfuffle at the bank. Something very boring. She’s a rum old bird. Likes to sort everything out herself.’
‘Well at least she came.’
He shook his head but didn’t say anything more and simply concentrated on removing his cream cotton trousers, and his blue shirt, under which she saw he was wearing a short-legged, short-sleeved, union suit. He walked to the water’s edge and with his back to her he removed his underwear. She watched spellbound. This was the first time she’d seen a man completely naked, even if only from behind. He was fair-skinned with clearly defined muscles in his thighs, buttocks and back. He glanced back at her, and she felt herself blushing to have been caught staring like that which, of course, she realised, had been his intention.
He plunged into the sea, and she walked to the edge where the water lapped around her toes as she tested the temperature, then she waded a little further to watch as he swam. After a while he stopped and waved.
‘Come right in. The water’s gorgeous.’
‘It feels cold,’ she shouted back at him from the shallows, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she studied the haze on the horizon.
‘Not a bit of it,’ he said, then carried on swimming, this time out of sight.
She plucked up her courage, walked out of the foaming water back to the sand, slipped off her petticoat, leaving only her chemise and drawers, then stepped into the water again up to her waist, shrieking as icy waves broke against her tummy.
‘It’s freezing,’ she yelled as he came back into sight.
He laughed and swam to her.
‘I’ve never swum in the ocean before,’ she said and felt the weight of his eyes on her semi-naked body.
