Read Online A Dream of Wessex by Christopher Priest - Free Book Online

rampart, and shortly was out of sight
     

seven
     
    David Harkman leaned forward to take the balance, opened the skimmer’s throttle, and felt the surge of acceleration beneath his feet. He throttled back at once, alarmed at the instant response of the engine. He guided the craft towards the shallow end of the inlet, and executed a wide, gentle turn. Facing towards the sea, he accelerated again, this time allowing the engine to take the craft as fast as it would go. The inlet, sheltered on one side by the bulk of the Castle and by a forested hill on the other, was as smooth as glass. The only thing that would tip him off the skimmer was his own inexperience.
    As he passed the little beach where he had launched the skimmer, he looked for Julia to wave to her, but there was no sign of her. He reached the neck of the inlet and turned again, this time trying the standard skimmer-turn: flipping the board with his weight, turning it through a hundred and eighty degrees in not much more than its own length.
    He started back with renewed confidence, and then he saw Julia. She was swimming, and he saw her arm wave from the water.
    He liked the way the craft handled, and so he took it up and down the narrow creek three more times, acquiring confidence and regaining old skills each time. At last he took the skimmer to where Julia was swimming, and he slowed it, letting the engine idle.
    She swam over to him. Her hair swept wetly back from her face, clinging to her head like the coat of an animal. As she rested her hands on the edge of the skimmer, he saw she was naked.
    ‘You’re as pale as the tourists!’ she said, laughing, and splashed water up at his legs.
    ‘I’ve been working in offices all my life,’ he said, trying to keep his balance because she was deliberately wobbling him.
    ‘Come and have a swim.’
    ‘No, I want to try the other board.’
    ‘I’ll tip you in!’
    He gunned the engine and swung away. When he was a short distance from her he turned and headed straight back, pulling up short a couple of metres away and sending a sheet of water spraying over her. Julia went under, and came up spitting water.
    Laughing, Harkman accelerated away down the creek.
    Julia was still swimming five minutes later, so he went back to the beach and dragged the second skimmer down to the water. It didn’t take him more than one ride down the inlet to discover that this one, compared to the first, seemed slower and heavier.
    He saw Julia standing in the shallows, up to her waist in the water, so he took the craft over to her.
    ‘I’m going to take the first one,’ he said, standing on the board and looking down at her. ‘How much?’
    She grinned sweetly at him, then tipped the skimmer with both hands. Harkman swung his arms wildly, and toppled backwards into the water. As soon as he had recovered his sense of direction he lunged at Julia, splashing water, trying to give her a second ducking... but she was wading out.
    ‘Don’t you want to swim?’ he said, standing up with his hands on his hips.
    ‘I’ve had enough. I was getting cold. I’ll wait here.’
    She picked up her discarded smock and began dabbing the water from her body with it. Harkman turned round and dived, and swam out to the deeper, greener water of the inlet, thinking it would have been a more interesting swim to be splashing around with a naked girl. He floated on his back, and saw that Julia had put her smock on the sand, and was lying down beside it, waiting for him.
    Five minutes later he walked up the beach, and Julia tossed him her smock. ‘Here ... you can dry yourself with this.’
    He wiped his face and neck, and sat down beside her. ‘I think I’ll dry out in the sun.’
    He lay back on the sand, aware of her nearness to him, aware of her nakedness.
    ‘They’re good skimmers,’ he said, trying to keep his mind on other matters. Nudity was a commonplace in this part of Wessex; there was no invitation implied in her casual