Strange Recompense by Catherine Airlie Page A

on understanding for a little while longer, my dear.”
    They went in Noel’s car because it was bigger than Tranby’s and would hold them all comfortably, and Sara managed to install herself in front with Noel while Anna sat behind between Ruth and Doctor Tranby.
    Soon Anna had forgotten everything but the beauty of the road over which they travelled. Hills surrounded them on three sides, the high mountains of Snowdonia wreathed in sunlight with the lesser hills chequered in light and shade as the cloud shadows sailed across them. The breath of the sea was in the wind, and presently the sea itself came into view, the great stretch of Cardigan Bay glittering as if a million diamonds had been tossed down upon it from the cliffs above.
    Anna drew a deeply appreciative breath, and then she was thinking that she ha d seen all this before. The color receded from her cheeks as she sought to remember, and it seemed that wind and rain had been driven down against those cliffs when she had last been there. It had turned the bay into a slate-grey maelstrom of tossing water and running tide and she had turned from it and run as if she were being pursued.
    Conscious of Dennis Tranby watching her, she did her best not to show her sudden distress, but she was glad when they reached a little, secret bay that was their destination and she could get out and help Ruth with the baskets.
    “What are we going to do first?” Ruth demanded. “Bathe or just laze about for a while?”
    “That sea’s far too good to stay out of for a minute longer than is absolutely necessary!” her brother declared. “How do you feel about it, Anna?” he asked. “Are you fond of the sea? Do you swim?”
    “Yes.” There had been not the slightest hesitation about her reply, but when she came to look at the sea again she found herself shrinking from the thought of diving into that vast expanse of water, of swimming far out and drowning in it, perhaps! “ I’m not sure if I am a strong swimmer,” she added uncertainly, “but I can try.”
    “You needn’t worry about not being rescued,” Tranby assured her, noting the firm determination in her tone at the end of that difficult little speech. “We’re all fairly capable in that respect, especially Noel! ”
    Sara stood up, saying nothing, but she was the first to reappear from behind the group of rocks which the girls had claimed as a changing room, conscious of her figure’s perfection in the brief black suit which was such a splendid foil for her fair coloring.
    Ruth emerged with her towelling wrap hugged round her.
    “One feels so pale and anaemic at the beginning of the season!” she complained. “I really must find time to sunbathe. I freckle so badly, though, that I sometimes wonder which is worse!”
    Anna, in the bright scarlet suit she had borrowed, stood leaning against the rocks looking out to sea. She felt cold and terribly distressed for some unknown reason, yet the sun was shining down more brightly than before and the sand was warm under her bare feet. It was as if a cold hand had been placed over her heart so that outside warmth could no longer reach it.
    She thrust the thought aside, thinking that she must not spoil Ruth’s party in this way. The men were already wading into the water, and she looked round the glittering semi-circle of the bay, conscious of its beauty for the first time. The yellow curve of sand lay like a sickle between two jutting promontories, flat grey rocks stepping down to the sea and looking warmly inviting in the sunshine.
    Anna waded into the water until it was over her knees, feeling it keenly cold against her skin as it rose higher, and then, holding her breath, she plunged down through an oncoming wave. With a gasp she emerged again, the invigorating thrill of it tingling through her veins as she struck ou t for deeper water.
    She swam with a growing sense of confidence, putting distance between herself and the shore now, the water washing soothingly