deep within its pockets. Suddenly she looked up and across at May and Julian. May waved to Mrs. Woolf in greeting, who immediately waved back.
Julian stared, first in recognition at the woman and then back at May. Allowing himself to take in the long legs and brown body in its pretty, flower-patterned suit beside him, he felt suddenly and intensely exhilarated.
“You are one of the most surprising people I have ever come across,” he declared. “Ready?” he asked, taking off his glasses and putting them carefully on the grassy bank. “Let’s jump now!”
A moment later the water enveloped them. The current was travelling at speed and they found themselves spinning round in circles as the rush of water pulled them towards the river mouth. In less than a minute they reached the open sea, whooping and shouting to one another at the top of their voices above the noise of the waves.
After several minutes, Julian, who, unlike May, had been deprived of a childhood in which swimming was as much part of the daily routine as the brushing of teeth, suggested they turn back to the shore.
Afterwards May was not quite sure how it had all happened. Julian had returned to the bank to get his glasses before they climbed together up the pebbly shore towards the little telephone exchange to retrieve their towels. Shivering from the temperature of the water as well as the intoxicating swim, May pushed at the door of the hut and to her surprise it gave way. A broken down armchair, so large that it was almost the size of a sofa, was wedged in a corner. Julian’s teeth were chattering.
“Shall we go in and get warm?” May said. “I’m sure no one will mind.”
Inside the hut, sitting on the chair big enough for two, May began to rub her hair dry with the towel.
“Let me help you,” Julian said quietly, sitting down and taking the towel from her. Several minutes elapsed during which he kissed every part of her face, even her eyelids, before he slid the straps of her costume off her shoulders. Gradually he eased the flowery suit down the length of her body, until she was completely naked. For May this long-anticipated moment had become one of imagined resistance. And yet the dreadful memories of Duncan’s sustained abuse now vanished in the presence of the warm, patient, loving touch of a man whose uninhibited desire for her was suddenly impossible to resist. The lightness of Julian’s fingertips, stroking her back and running at first all the way to the base of her spine, and then, cautiously, slowly, round to the curve of her breast, made her want the feelings he was awakening in her to last forever. As he gathered May towards him she felt his arms gently circle her waist. Leaning into the cool smoothness of his bare skin she allowed herself to sink deep, deep into a previously unimaginable state where nothing at all mattered, nor would ever matter again. For what seemed like a lifetime, May remained inside that small wooden hut on the pebble beach wrapped in Julian’s arms. As he kissed her at first with such tenderness, and then with a reciprocated passion as powerful as the motion of the sea itself, she thought she might dissolve with happiness.
Later that evening Mr. Hooch arrived back at the garage after leaving Mr. Julian at the station. The trip had been his second to Polegate that day. He had already taken an unusually taciturn Miss Nettlefold to the train, remarking to himself that not only here was a woman decidedly out of sorts but also one who, judging by the pungency that still lurked in the back of the Talbot, had taken to economising on baths.
May was inside the Rolls-Royce, oiling the partition window that divided the driver from her passengers when Mr. Hooch walked in.
“Mr. Julian’s visit has certainly put a big smile on your face, young lady,” Mr. Hooch remarked as he shut the door of the Talbot. “He seems to think he will be back here soon. To see her ladyship, I expect,” he added, a smile detectable in his voice.
Mr. Hooch found himself unexpectedly moved by the sight of this beautiful young woman unable to stop herself from grinning. And yet at the same time he feared for her.
“Mind you, I imagine he will have to tear himself away from the charms of Miss Bellowes if he is to have time to come down