Page 119 of The Sisters of Sea View
Her stomach lurched and she swallowed, hard.
“The wager was your idea, remember,” Viola reminded her, not sounding very happy about the prospect herself.
Emily stepped out onto the small platform, and Viola squeezed beside her. In the silvery distance, Emily again spied a dark headmoving across the water, this time toward shore. The swimmer she had seen earlier, she hoped. Not a rare shark.
The attendant appeared, lowered the ladderlike stairs, and offered them a hand down.
Emily forced herself to go first, gripping the woman’s hand tightly, and gasping as the cold water enveloped her body and stole her breath.
The water wasn’t too deep here, and her toes sank into soft, wet sand, free of the pebbles that studded the shore.
Next, the woman reached behind her and helped Viola down into the water as well.
“Ho! It’s cold!” A wave slapped Viola in the mouth, and she sputtered.
“Stay close,” the woman warned. “I’m gonna move the horse.”
Viola dipped herself experimentally in the water, paddling about, the skirt of the bathing dress billowing around her. Not to be outdone, Emily did the same and ventured a little deeper. Emily splashed Viola, and her twin splashed back.
“See? Nothing to be afraid of!”
From the corner of her eye Emily glimpsed a looming grey wall, but there was no time to react. The rogue wave broke over her, knocking her down. Emily found herself underwater, the undertow churning wildly, spinning her dizzy. Her worst nightmares had become a reality—water up her nose, lungs burning, unable to see, to breathe. She forced open her eyes in panicked desperation to find the surface. To find air. Her involuntary somersault slowed, her toes touched sand, and she instinctively pushed upward and shot to the surface, sucking in a desperate breath and coughing on salt water.
Emily looked around, disoriented. Where was the bathing machine?
She pivoted, half expecting to see Vi smirking at her, amused by her sputtering, bedraggled state. But Viola was nowhere to be seen.
Her heart pounded like a mallet.
“Vi?” She turned a complete circle, searching for her sister. Nothing.God, no.Please!If anything happened to Vi ... her peevish, annoying, beloved twin sister, she couldn’t bear it. Why had she been so unkind to her over the years? Why?
Then she saw it, the bathing machine on its side. It had been knocked over as she had been. Where was the stout bathing woman? Had she, in her inebriated state, been knocked into the water?
And was Vi trapped beneath the vehicle even now? Or had the current swept her away?
She looked around once more in mounting desperation.Please, God, no, please.Their family had suffered too many losses.
A man wearing nothing but pantaloons came running across the beach, hair wet, a bundle under one arm. He threw down the pile of clothing, ran into the surf, and dove under. Emily took a startled step back, lost her footing, and nearly went under again. A moment later, the man reemerged with a mighty splash, tossing his head back, dark hair flying from his face.
In his muscled arms, he held a slight female—Triton stealing away with a sea nymph. If Emily had not seen him run a moment before, she might believe he had the tail of a fish.
Clearly air deprivation had addled her brain.
Emily wiped the water from her eyes. It was her sister he held in his arms. Was she alive, or...? The latter did not bear thinking of.
The merman walked slowly toward her.
Emily called, “Is she hurt?”
As he neared, she heard Viola coughing and gasping to catch her breath. Emily sloshed through the water to meet them, concern for her sister overpowering her fear of the sea.
At that moment, the attendant reappeared from around the capsized vehicle, drenched bonnet dripping.
“Lawks! That ain’t ’appened since aught eight. You’m all right?”
But Emily had eyes only for her sister as Triton carried her toward safety.
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