"Edith, we really could just walk there ourselves." Sybil insisted, looking once again in the full length mirror.

"Walk? Why should we walk such a long way to swim? That would be ridiculous."

It wouldn't be as ridiculous as wearing these horrid swim dresses that their dressmaker had delivered days earlier. They weren't at all in line with the fashion of the more streamlined dresses she'd seen advertised in French newspapers. This swim dress looked as though it were made for a child going to a party, not a woman. Sybil glanced at herself once again and sighed. She felt like a china doll.

It was all white fabric and ruffles and bows, with sleeves that pouffed up around her shoulders like tea cakes. If it weren't for Edith looking at her with such longing, she would have absolutely refused to be seen in her horrid dress. The hot air of summer was beginning to move in, making Sybil feel impatient and annoyed altogether. She wasn't sleeping at night the way she'd been able to before- when she closed her eyes she would feel the faint memory of his hands against her skin, sending lightening volts up her spine. It was causing her sleep to be fraught with the swooning dizziness written about at length in the romance novels Edith loved so dearly. She wondered how much longer she could keep her secret stowed away.

"Besides, Papa thinks it would be much better if Branson were to take us there. In case one of us were to have an accident."

Tom. Not Branson, she thought for a moment, her eyebrow arching impertinently.

"An accident? In a pond no deeper than the bedposts? We'd be more likely to be drowned by these dresses than anything else."

"Please, Sybil, you promised. I don't want to go swimming alone."

"Why didn't you ask Mary instead?" Sybil asked, though she knew that there was no need for the question at all.

"Mary has no interest in swimming, and besides, I thought you'd like to be out and about today."

Sybil nodded her agreement, but felt put upon by her sister. Ever since the night that she, Mary and Anna had forced their way into the inn and cancelled her elopement, Edith insisted on acting as though the whole thing had never happened. It was becoming an act that Sybil could no longer stomach, and yet couldn't communicate to anyone. Her- their- secret was weighing on her.

With one more look in the mirror she shook her head and went to her closet to put on a light coat to hide the awful dress.

"If we must go, we might as well do it now."