Page 59

She would be wearing a dress, would she not?

He and Archie and Effie had gone in naked.

But that was before anyone else arrived.

Perhaps she would be wearing a shift. That would be—

“Any luck?”

He cleared his throat. “Not yet.”

“Oh, the heat from the fire feels divine.”

“Doesn’t it, though?”

“I already enjoy the sensation that unfolds on one’s skin—under one’s skin—when one gets out of the pool. It is magnified, I think, by proximity to a heat source.”

“I agree. How would you characterize that sensation?”

“It’s a good question, and one I shall have to answer for the article I’m meant to write.” She huffed a little sigh, and Simon wanted more than anything to peek over his shoulder. Not for any untoward reason. Merely to see what she was wearing.

Or not wearing.

But in a not untoward way.

“I think,” she said, mercifully pulling him from the morass of his own mind, “that there must be a scientific explanation to do with temperature differentials. I can’t comment on that, but I can comment on how it feels.”

“And how does it feel?”

She was silent a moment, and he could see her in his mind’s eye. She would be affecting her thinking pose, tilting her head slightly to the left.

“When you first get into the water, it is a shock, an utter shock. One can think of nothing else. I pause to add that my account is dependent on adherence to my methodology, which dictates that one must get in smoothly, all at once, and submerse oneself entirely.”

“This is also my methodology.”

“Well, then you know this feeling. One is overwhelmed, but in a welcome way.”

Overwhelmed in a welcome way. “Yes. There is no room for anything except the sensations immediately at hand.”

“Exactly. And then one begins to acclimatize.”

“Which can be rather difficult to do when one’s companions are shrieking.”

She laughed—that was the third time. “Did your companions shriek, too?” she asked.

“They most certainly did.”

“I think I must concede a point that Lady Stonely made earlier, that while everyone always accuses ladies of being prone to hysteria, and excesses of sentiment generally, gentlemen are equally afflicted.”

It was Simon’s turn to laugh. “Do go on with your account.”

“All right. One is in the water. One is not shrieking. But eventually, even those with the strongest will are defeated by the cold.”

“And then one must exit.”

“And that is the best part.”

“I quite agree.”