Page 15 of Sweet Siren
"The very best. My older brother who died young sadly, was a very proficient swimmer. My parents had a country house and on the grounds was a man-made lake. In summer months, I'd sneak out and go with him to swim. My father declared it indecent and it was. I refused, you see, to wear one of those hideous women's swimmingoutfits."
"The shirt and thebloomers?"
"Just so. Scratchy too. And I didn't bother to use our awful bathing machine to travel to the water's edge, either. I loved the excitement of just...well, jumpingin."
"I don't blame you," he said. "Swimming is meant to save your life or enhance it. Best if you can enjoy both. I know. A man who commands a ship must be as able and ready to jump overboard as hisseamen."
The very idea of Killian Hanniford stripped to the waist, bronzed and brave enough to cut through rough waves had her pulse pounding. "Did you have to?Often?"
"A few times, yes. When I was fourteen, my best friend fell overboard in Baltimore harbor. He hadn't yet learned how to swim well and I went in to collar him and take him to shore. A few times, I've been aboard when we've encountered hurricanes. Days before our civil war broke out, we foundered off the coast of Jamaica. We lost threecrewmen."
"That'ssad."
"It ended badly." He grimaced and looked away from her for a minute, then turned back with interest. "So I'm intrigued about your swims. If you didn't have an outfit, what did youwear?"
"Ah, well." She blushed and wondered if he could tell in the dark ofnight.
"Ha! You're bright red. So you must revealall."
She relented. "I borrowed a pair of my brother's falls and cut off my chemise at thehips."
He roared in laughter. "I'm shocked your mother didn't lock you up and throw away thekey."
"She might have tried, but she was ill."Locked away in hermind.
"I'msorry."
She could not dismiss his sorrow. Had not her mother suffered because of him? "She'd been ill for manyyears."
"So then, I see that one thing we must do together is goswimming."
She looked at him askance. "Impossible."
"Why?" he asked with agrin.
"I don't havetime."
"Never?"
"No. But worse, I still don't have a bathingcostume."
"All the better. Neither doI."
She broke out in laughter with him. Then she turned and walked on, soothed and excited by hishumor.
"Tell me about your daughter," Killian said and pierced her reverie. "She is poised and very charming. How old isshe?"
"Fourteen. But she's to celebrate a birthday in December when she will turn—I'm certain—forty-two. But she's as lovely inside asout."
"I'm sure you taught herthat."
She met his quicksilver eyes. "No. Camille came full blown at birth, giving a sigh as if she were quite delighted with herself and the world. She continues in that vein, finding charm in the smallest ofthings."
"You encourage her in that, I bet." He frowned at her. "Children do not continue with a love of life unless they have a goodexample."
"I'm afraid it was her father who led the way on that one. If he was excessive in his addictions and suffered for them, Camille has learned from that poor example to temper her tendencies toexcess."
She stopped. Why had she revealed so much of David's faults? Honesty was one thing, but to disclose so much of her husband's sorrows was too damning. She put a hand to her brow. "I'm sorry. That was...unnecessary."
