Shelagh stretched out on her deck chair – her toes burrowing in the sand. Glancing out from under the wide brim of her hat she chuckled as she watched Tim continue to bury Patrick in the sand. She could get used to this way of life she thought.
She still awoke early, but it was nice to wake realising that there was no immediate urgency to her getting out of bed, no need to organise her boys and see them off to school and work.
Tim was happy and Patrick was relaxed. They were both slowly turning brown thanks to 4 straight days in the outdoors. Shelagh herself was still the same shade of white she had been when she arrived. She never tanned, she went straight from white to fire engine red with no stop inbetween. Not that she'd dedicated much time to sun tanning as a nun. Still, she'd learnt as a kid to stay in the shade.
It wasn't just the sun and the sea air that was enjoyable, it was the mental relaxation too. In Poplar she was still on edge. Yes the gossip had died down, (helped, though it pained Shelagh to think of this, by the fact they hadn't conceived immediately, which put pay to any lingering rumours that She and Patrick may have acted improperly before they got married), and the stares were becoming less and less as people became used to seeing her in civilian clothes. However, she was still the woman who used to be a nun.
Here she wasn't. She was exactly who she introduced herself as, Shelagh Turner, husband of Patrick, mum to Timothy. No looks, no double takes, no whispers.
"We're going for a dip" Patrick called, as Tim helped him up.
"Ok" Shelagh nodded.
She smoothed the fabric of her swimming costume. She'd got braver as the week wore on. The first day she sat on the beach in her skirt and blouse, with only her stockings removed.
The second day, she'd removed the skirt, but kept the blouse on, covering the bathing suite.
The third day, the blouse had been kept open.
Today, the blouse was gone, but she hadn't been brave enough to move from her chair. Yet.
The sea certainly looked inviting.
Shelagh's gaze was focused on the shoreline, so she didn't notice Tim approaching, coming for a swig of the bottle of lemonade at her feet. She jumped as cold water droplets hit her feet.
"Sorry!" Tim said, not sounding the least bit sorry. "You should come in Mum, the water is great".
"Perhaps I will" Shelagh said, surprising herself. "You'll have to help me though Tim, I won't be able to see very much when I take my glasses off."
Patrick was on his back, bobbing up and down when Tim and Shelagh approached the water edge. He glanced up to find his wife, hair loose over her shoulders, and her blue eyes unobscured by her glasses, gingerly wading out into the waves.
He made a huge splash, miss-stepping on the sand as he hurried to right himself, and to offer a hand out to great his wife.
"I'll take her from here Tim" he said.
"I'm not a toy" Shelagh reprimanded him, but taking the outstretched hand never the less.
"I should hope not in that outfit" Patrick exclaimed.
"Whats wrong with my outfit?" Shelagh said coyly. "Isn't it appropriate?"
"It's perfectly appropriate" Patrick murmured low enough for only her to hear, his fingers gently running up her sides, sending shivers up her spine that weren't entirely caused by the less than warm Cornish sea. "I've been waiting all week to see this"
"Patrick!" Shelagh hissed, before continuing in hushed tones "What are you talking about? You've seen more than this just last night"
"On reflection, your birthday suit is perhaps my favourite" he whispered, while Shelagh turned pink "but this bathing suit is a close second."
"What are you whispering about?" Tim huffed, fed up of being kept out of the conversation . He splashed over to his parents.
"Nothing for you to worry about dearest" Shelagh replied as Tim swam to her side.
Tim, making use of the buoyancy the water gave him, used the opportunity to hug himself to Shelagh's side, wrapping an arm around her neck. Shelagh, felt her own arms automatically go underneath him to support him, holding Tim on her hip as if he were a toddler. It was both bittersweet and oddly cathartic.
Patrick smiled at the pair. "It's a shame we have to head back to London tomorrow" he lamented.
"Can't we just stay here?" Tim asked
"As much as I would love to, I have patients to see, and you young man have school on Monday."
Tim harrumphed. "Can we come back again?"
"I don't see why not," Patrick agreed. "I've had a wonderful time"
"And me" Tim added
"And me three" Shelagh said.
"Can we get ice cream for tea again?" Tim demanded.
"We can get ice-cream after tea" Shelagh clarified, "We may be on holiday, but it isn't a substitute for an actual meal."
"Excellent" Tim wriggled off Shelagh's hip. "I'm going to go inspect the rock pools one last time."
Shelagh turned to Patrick and smiled "And if you play your cards right, you might get 2 deserts this evening"
Patrick beamed. Happy Wife, happy life. This was definitely one of the best decisions he had made in a long time. He would even look into it being an annual thing.
