Page 40 of Trouble

The sand was less mesmerising. It was coarse, and rough, and somehow already in Emily’s hair.

Meera laid out a blanket in the shade, and Akia immediately sat down on it and started eating grapes. Oliver took off his shoes and stockings and went to stand dramatically in the surf, squinting out to sea.

Emily went for a walk.

She was surprised how far the beach stretched ahead of her, endless curves and corners. There were some parts where rocks rose up out of the grey sand and partially blocked the way, but it turned out they weren’t so hard to manoeuvre over, as long as they weren’t all filled with water. In one such pool, she saw a crab the size of her fingernail making a dash for it as her shadow passed overhead. In another, she discovered a dead fish, its ribs protruding whitely from its rotting flesh. She passed the cave she had entered with Captain Edwards, as dark and ominous as ever, even in daylight.

Amy would have looked so right here, striding about, getting great lungfuls of sea air, letting the coast heal her from the inside out. She was the sort of person who delighted in ordinary things, finding a hundred different ways to brighten up her own day. Her first glimpse of the sea would have had her in quiet, smiling raptures for hours before she found the words to express to Emily just how wonderful it all was. Emily would have to try to describe the little scuttling crab to her; the way the sea stretched inexorably to a blurry horizon.

When she was far enough away from the others, she could get down to the real reason for her walk. The snuffbox and statuette she had swiped from the hall mantel were clutched tight in her pocket. She had wrapped them and hidden them in her trunk at first, as she had done with the hideous baroque contraption, but she had been overwhelmed by paranoia due to Oliver’s pointed looks over the breakfast table and had ultimately decided to keep them on her person instead.

Thinking of the tide that had lapped threateningly at the entrance to the cave, she kept walking until she found a little stretch of beach that extended beyond the border of crushed shells, tangled seaweed and miscellaneous debris that must have marked the waterline. She located a memorable jut of rock and reached down into the furry grey sand below it to scoop up a handful. It left a fist-sized hole which stayed relatively structurally sound. She glanced around and then returned to her digging until she was satisfied that she had gone far enough. It was like grave burial mathematics, probably – if six feet was right for a person, then surely an entire foot for a couple of trinkets that were only a few inches across was, in actual fact, overkill.

Once she had laid her treasures inside and covered them up again, she dusted her hands mostly free of sand and made her way back towards the others, where she found them all lounging on the blanket.

‘I don’t understand how sea air could possibly be good for the lungs,’ Oliver was saying, as if he had read her mind. ‘It’s justwet. Isn’t wetbad? Nobody says you ought to go and sit in a damp, mouldy cellar for your health, do they?’

‘Mould is different,’ said Akia. ‘I think it sort of poisons you. Through the air.’

‘Delightful,’ said Meera. ‘Well, she won’t come to the sea anyway. She doesn’t like to travel. I think her last trip almost did her in,’ She noticed Emily approaching, and shuffled over to make room. ‘My aunt is unwell,’ she explained. ‘She was doing all right in India, but somebody convinced her that the doctors here were better. Now she’s here with her daughter, it turns out they most certainly arenot, and besides, the city air is no good for her. They cannot move away and have my cousin lose her position, so they are somewhat .?.?. stuck. I would hire her here, if we only had the budget for another maid.’

‘Oh,’ said Emily. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No need to be sorry,’ Meera said cheerfully. ‘Youdidn’t duff up her lungs. I’ll send her what I can, and perhaps she can see about a short trip away from all the smoke. What do you think of our patch of sea, then?’

Emily had not quite grown used to Meera’s habit of abruptly directing the conversation towards her.

‘It’s very .?.?. big.’

‘Goodness,’ said Oliver. ‘And this is the great mind teaching the next generation.’

‘Well, what do you want me to say, Oliver?’ Emily snapped. ‘It encompasses an unknowable vastness? I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be composing an additional verse forThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’

‘God, please don’t,’ said Akia. ‘I know that one. It’ssolong.’

‘I have had enough of this,’ said Meera. ‘Either shake hands and become friends, Oliver, or eat a grape and shut up.’

‘Oh, fine.’ Oliver sat up on to his knees and offered Emily a hand. ‘Look, I will agree to play nicely, but only if you admit that you jumped to vile conclusions about me for absolutelynodiscernible reason, and that you are very sorry for being such a toad.’

‘I will do no such thing,’ Emily said. She would never have admitted that Captain Edwards’s surety that Oliver would never harm Aster had in fact swayed her opinion in his favour, but she supposed she could ease the disagreement in increments. ‘Iwillagree to be civil. I am sick of your pouting.’

Akia laughed, and Meera elbowed her in the ribs to stop her.

‘You really are the most cantankerous little weasel,’ said Oliver, but he grasped her hand anyway and shook it once, hard.

‘Thank God,’ said Akia. ‘All right, who wants to play Stones?’

‘I will,’ said Oliver.

‘You cheat.’

‘How could I possibly cheat? It’s not whist, Akia – it’s throwing small stones at a bigger stone. A one-year-old could do it.’

‘You call dishonest points,’ said Akia. ‘You are overgenerous with yourself.’

‘As we should all be.’

The game of Stones really was just throwing pebbles at a big stone, receiving a point for every time you hit the target, but it took up half an hour as they nibbled on fruit and cheese – and then Meera announced that their allotted slot for fun was over and it was time to return to the house to begin the evening’s chores.