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She tugged at his sleeve. ‘I insist. I want to be at your side when you first feel the foam of the sea touch your toes. No further, I promise.’
‘Only if you will as well,’ he challenged her.
‘Right, I will!’ She began to run and he followed, breaking into a jog.
‘Get your shoes and socks off, and roll up your trousers,’ she urged.
He laughed. ‘Still bossy. People are going to stare.’
‘Does it matter? It’s harmless. You’ve never seen the sea, Tom!’ she exclaimed again as if still unable to believe it. Fleur pulled off her own shoes quicker than Tom and dropped them onto the beach. ‘We’ll leave them here. Don’t worry, no one will touch them.’
She offered her hand and he took it, allowing her to lead him down across the sand. The reflected light from the Palais and the jetty allowed them to see where they were walking.
‘I love the sound of Nature’s power,’ Tom said, exhaling softly as they stopped just out of reach of the water’s edge. ‘Even when she’s gentle like now, you know she can take it up a few notches. It’s very soothing tonight.’
‘It is seductive,’ Fleur agreed. ‘Do you have anything similar in the landscape you grew up in?’
He nodded. ‘The wind can tousle your hair when it’s hot and make you sigh with pleasure, but when it roars across the plain, that same wind is Nature showing off her power. It can create a storm like you can’t imagine – there’s nothing to shield you from the sand it whips up, or the rain it drives . . . or the heat it carries, which can kill.’ He watched her shake her head gently in wonder. ‘And on the day my mother and sister passed away, there was an earthquake in our region. I’ll never forget it. That was Nature at perhaps her most dramatic . . . it made me realise we’re like grains of sand by comparison to her power. She shook me until my teeth rattled, like she was able to wake up some prehistoric beast deep in the earth and make it shift.’
Fleur smiled. ‘I like that you make me see it and feel it with your description, Tom. So, now, step into the water and enjoy a whole new experience.’
Still holding hands, they stepped forward and allowed the sea’s tumbling edge to race up and greet them. The foam curled around their toes and Tom chuckled.
‘That’s amazing. No longer a sea virgin.’
She laughed. ‘I’m glad I was here for your first time,’ she said, smiling back at him. ‘I find your joy irresistible.’ And as he turned towards her, it seemed she chose not to resist the impulse as she reached up and kissed him swiftly but gently. ‘Are you going to wipe your mouth now with the back of your sleeve?’ she murmured.
He blinked. ‘I didn’t, did I?’
‘You most certainly did.’ She laughed again at the memory.
‘Not this time.’ He leaned in and kissed her again. ‘Thank you.’
‘For what?’ she asked, looking puzzled.
He looked around. ‘For this. For dancing with me, for remembering me. For a kiss from the most beautiful woman at the dance.’
The sea surged again gently around their feet. Fleur tugged on his hand. ‘Let’s walk a little. Not too far, because it’s a bit dark.’
‘Fleur, when we spoke the other evening, I didn’t know it was you, but you looked unhappy.’
‘I was. I am.’
‘What’s going on?’
Now it was Fleur’s turn to spill the past, and Tom learned how her mother had died, how the arrival of Irma into her life had turned it upside down, about the change in her father, and now the campaign to get her married to Coglin and out of the house . . . out of the way.
‘Out of the business, do you mean?’ Tom asked.
Fleur nodded. ‘Probably. I think she wants it for herself. Although she’s covering all the possible angles.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, by trying to marry me off to Jimmy.’
‘Why him specifically? Is he rich?’
She smirked. ‘Now you’ve got her measure, but no, Jimmy is not rich. His father owns a coffin-making business and both father and son want to move into undertaking.’
