24. Isla #2
“Not too deep. Trust me, Isla. I won’t let anything happen to you.
” With one hand resting on her lower back, his thumb gently circled and caressed as his gaze moved from her throat to her lips and finally, those blue eyes met hers.
The darkness Isla found there had to be a trick of the light, nothing more, and surely, the heavy breathing was from the exertions of keeping them afloat.
That thought brought her up short. They were floating. They were both floating over deep water. Panic seized her, and she flung her arms around his head, unintentionally driving him beneath the water. With her arms flailing, she opened her mouth to scream, only to take water into her lungs.
Jonto quickly ducked away, sending her panic into overdrive. Before she knew what had happened, he’d come in behind her and wrapped his arm around her chest. “You’re safe, Isla. Stop struggling.”
Isla’s arms and legs were still flailing when she heard a resounding splash nearby and felt a wave surge around her. A second arm slipped around her chest.
With broad strokes of her muscular legs, Ilona propelled them into shallow water.
Once their feet touched the silty bottom, Jonto repositioned his arms, and Ilona slipped her free hand beneath Isla’s knees.
Between them, they held her above the surface to give her a moment to cough up the water she’d swallowed in panic.
When her coughing subsided, they lowered her until she was floating once more.
A sharp spike of panic surged through her, and she stiffened.
Ilona moved close to her ear and spoke with the voice of authority. “Put your head back like I taught you, Isla. Now.”
Without thinking, Isla reflexively obeyed.
Ilona replaced Jonto’s hand beneath the small of her back and then slowly removed the hand beneath her knees.
Using the same no-nonsense tone, she gripped Isla’s chin between strong fingers and made her look into her eyes.
“Listen to me. Panic in the water kills. It can kill you, and it can kill whoever is trying to help you.” Her eyes were fierce, and her fingers tightened on her cheeks as she lightly shook Isla’s head. “Do you hear me?”
“Y…yes.” Isla’s raw throat ached from choking out the water she’d breathed in, and she swallowed several times to ease the pain before repeating in a clearer voice, “Yes.”
“Good, because we’re going back into the deep end, all three of us, and you’re going to float there until you’re relaxed enough to move your arms and bring yourself right back here.”
“But—”
Ilona’s fierce visage became even more frightening in its intensity. “No buts, Isla. Not all sailors can swim, but everyone in Captain Jonto’s fleet at least knows how to float until help can arrive. You’re no exception.”
Before she realized they were moving, Isla saw Jonto and Ilona gently waving their arms through the water to keep themselves afloat.
Fear tightened her chest again, but one look into Ilona’s fiery green eyes had her breathing in through her nose as she’d been taught.
She forced her stiff shoulders and neck to relax before lowering the back of her head into the water.
Once again, Jonto’s hand joined Ilona’s beneath her back and to Isla’s surprise, Ilona removed hers.
His thumb made soothing circles, taking her thoughts away from drowning and on to more pleasant sensations.
He spoke barely above a whisper. “That’s it.
As long as you keep your head, you’ll be fine. ”
Gentle water droplets drifted onto her cheeks and nose, each growing more pronounced the nearer they came to the falls.
She’d been to waterfalls before, but instead of the thunderous roar she’d experienced on those occasions, this sounded more like a hard rain falling on the stream flowing through her land.
Celie reappeared as she dove toward them through the cascading water curtain, with Lily right behind her.
Both vanished beneath the water’s surface, creating concentric circles that spread into ever-widening patterns.
When they reemerged, they swam to where Isla floated next to Jonto and Ilona, who were treading water and keeping a watchful eye on their guest.
Isla’s backside sank when she lifted her head to look at Celie.
She immediately lowered it again. The sudden tightening in her chest relaxed when her body’s natural buoyancy lifted her into the proper position.
It felt odd to speak without looking directly at them, but necessity compelled her to fix her gaze on the blue sky instead.
“I didn’t know you two knew how to swim. ”
Celie swam slow circles around her. “Your mother and I would go to the upper pastures where the stream enters Windsong’s lands.
It’s deep enough there to swim. Don’t you remember we’d go three or four times per week when you were home on school vacations?
We tried to get you to come with us, but you never would. ”
“You were swimming?” How could Isla not have known?
Her cheeks pinked at the realization of how much time she’d wasted staying away from the mother she idolized because of her childish fears.
She’d never gone with them because they wore old skirts and blouses that Isla hadn’t considered decent, and she’d been afraid someone would see them and report back to the girls at school.
“I thought you were hiking to the top woods, not swimming.”
“Would it have mattered?”
With a heavy sigh, Isla shook her head. “No.”
Lily glided forward so Isla could see her out of the corner of her eyes.
“And as for me, when I was a companion to Duke Southard, he taught me to swim in the artificial pond he’d created in his garden.
We swam every day for nearly a year unless it was frozen over.
I don’t know how many times he told me, ‘A cold plunge balances the humors, my dear.’” Her wistful smile said it all.
“It was a lovely time.” She glanced toward the pond’s edge.
“I’m going to go help set everything up.
” With a cheerful twirl, she pointed herself in the right direction and swam to the shallows.
Returning to where her feet would reach the bottom of the pond sounded wonderful to Isla. “So, I just move my arms to return to the shallows?”
Nodding, Ilona moved her arm beneath the water and, for some reason, replaced Jonto’s hand with her own. “That’s right.” She looked at the other two. “Why don’t you two go help set up the picnic? We’ll be right there.”
With a grin, Jonto looked at Celie. “Race you.” He didn’t wait for a response but instead ducked beneath the water, followed quickly by Celie.
When they were alone, Ilona lightly towed Isla away from the falls.
“I wanted to apologize. Even though the captain regularly pushes himself and his people to do things that make us uncomfortable, I didn’t realize he’d move you into the deep end so soon.
He heard you tell us that you weren’t ready, and I assumed he’d honor that. ”
Despite the cold water, Isla felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “It wasn’t your fault, and…it wasn’t his either.”
“What do you mean?”
There’d never been a time when confiding secrets to her friends came easily.
The few times she had, other than with Celie and Lily, of course, her so-called friends had used the information to belittle or embarrass her.
But Isla trusted Ilona to accept her for who she was.
That allowed her to say something she’d usually never admit.
“He…well, I think he was distracted and moved into the deep end purely by accident.”
Ilona cocked her head and then quietly chuckled.
That wasn’t the understanding response Isla had been expecting, and she turned hurt eyes on the swordswoman.
“No, no. I’m not laughing at you, My Lady.
I’m laughing at myself and the impossible situation I left our captain in.
I’ve seen the way he watches you as you stroll around the deck during your daily walks, and while I’m sure he remained a gentleman…
?” She checked Isla’s face to make sure that had, indeed, been the case.
Isla thought about the circles his thumb had rubbed into her back and then realized she was only being foolish. “Of course he did.”
“Well, I hadn’t intended to push you to swim in the deeper end quite so soon, and for propriety’s sake, I shouldn’t have left you two alone in the pool.
” Her brows rose suggestively. “And perhaps I need to adopt more of the Fitzgerald’s prudish attitudes if I’m to assume the role of your chaperone. ”
Isla immediately shook her head. “Oh, great goddess. Please don’t.
Besides, I know that once Pris has time to think, she’ll realize what I said is true and will resume her so-called duties.
While she treats her servants well, they remain just that—her servants.
But she does care about them and often smooths over Robert’s ghastly, dismissive treatment of his manservant with a few coins now and again.
He’s not the man he was when they married.
He’ll never change his stratified views of society since those were solidified from infancy, but I’m hoping this trip might bring back a bit of the rabble-rousing firebrand she fell in love with.
” She quickly amended, “Not that she doesn’t love him with all her heart. ”
“That’s obvious, My Lady.”
“Isla, remember?”
“I remember. You can lower your feet now. We’re in the shallows. Perhaps you’d like a second lesson later in the voyage? Just the two of us this time?”
“In the ocean?”
“It would be best if you have that experience, yes. We can ask the captain to stop at another island with a white, sandy beach, and we can play in the surf. Floating in salt water is easier than in fresh, and you can get a sense of the water moving around you as it would if you fall overboard, which you won’t. ”