An Innocent Affair

XII

But Cressie didn't seem to mind, and the very fact that she did not appear affronted by the contact only encouraged Jem's hope that he was not alone in his feelings.

The sounds of the fountain were so peaceful, and Cressie looked over it with awe, her cheeks red from the run. Jem was certain his own appeared the same.

"It is not the seaside, I know."

Cressie suddenly looked up at him, her brows furrowed. "What?"

"You told me that you always longed to swim in the sea," Jem recalled. "The Diana Fountain is not the seaside, but it is better than the Thames."

Had Jem wanted to give them both cholera, then he would have taken her on a swimming trip in the Thames, but that did not seem very romantic.

Cressie still looked utterly confused, and it only increased the thrill that Jem felt travelling down his spine. He grinned. Perhaps it was mad. Perhaps she wouldn't like it. But something inside of him was telling him that this was the right thing to do. This was fun. This was silly. And Cressie was someone who longed for fun.

They would certainly be looked at now, but they were still lucky that nobody knew them.

"Won't you swim with me, Cressie?" he asked in an almost taunting tone, abandoning her side so that he could step into the fountain. The moment he did, he felt the water fill his boots and soak his socks and the bottoms of his breeches. It would have been horrid had the look on Cressie's face not been so amusing.

She was staring at him in utter shock as he waded into the fountain, more and more of his ensemble becoming saturated by the second.

"What are you doing?" Cressie hissed yet yelled. "Have you gone mad?"

Jem let out a laugh as he held his arms out to her. "We've all got to make a little time for madness."

Cressie's smile was one of disbelief and wonder. And it was beautiful. "Your spirit is something else entirely, Jem Denham," she remarked, before she shook her head and bent over to lift up her petticoats to her calves.

With first her left, and then her right foot, Cressie stepped into the fountain, her mouth forming an 'o' shape when the cold water began to soak through her stockings and shoes.

And then she laughed as she released her skirts, letting them drop down into the water with a shrug of her shoulders.

Over Cressie's shoulders, for the briefest of moments, Jem could see that passers-by had begun to stop and stare and question as to what these two fools were doing. But Jem could not convince himself to care at all. His vision quickly refocused to Cressie, and Cressie only.

Cressie's laugh was musical and joyous as she began to wade through the fountain towards him. Jem could visibly see her shoulders relax and a considerable weight lift off of them. In looking upon her now, Jem did not think that he had ever seen her without that unknown burden. She looked young and happy and free.

Just as Cressie reached him, as she took her final step before she would be before him, her foot caught in the water laden hems of her dress. Her laugh vanished momentarily as she lost her footing, and she stumbled forwards. In a panic, she reached out for whatever was nearest her, and that happened to be Jem. Jem could not do anything but be pulled down into the shallow water of the fountain with Cressie, and before either of them knew it, they were soaked up to their necks in the cold water of the fountain.

They both held onto each other, staring at one another in surprise at what had just happened, and quite in shock at the fact that they were soaking wet.