Their party, including the more senior nursemaid, who came armed with an ample supply of towels and cloths, set out for the rustic bridge, and prepared themselves for either sport or spectating. Charlotte and Elizabeth seated themselves on the edge, where they had a good view of the pool below, and Herr Rosenstein removed his boots, waistcoat, cravat and the tooled straps attached to his trousers, then waded into the water. Next, he had to coax the girls, already overcome by the excitement of wearing their strange new costumes, to join him, as they were now as shriekingly desirous of avoiding immersion as they had previously been enthusiastic. Laura at last closed her eyes tight and launched herself at the river as if she were one of Mr Darcy’s spaniels, creating maximum splash and noise as she landed. Sarah was left with no choice but to follow her younger sister, which she did to less spectacular effect.

The musician set the flailing and roaring Laura upright, and encouraged both girls to paddle in the shallows at first, lending a steadying hand whenever they slipped and squealed. Soon they were overcome by that natural human urge whenever two or more gather in a body of water, and began to splash each other and their tutor. Charlotte had to speak stern words when it occurred to them that their mother and Mrs Darcy might also want their share of scattering drops.

The lesson began in earnest as Herr Rosenstein held first one, then the other child steady in the water and taught them first how to float, then how to kick. The sprays raised by their feet caught the sunlight, gold against the green and brown river, and although the mirth of the girls continued unabated, it was punctuated by the demands of breathing and the commands of their teacher.

It was now the turn of Charlotte and Lizzy to laugh at the antics taking place just beneath the parapet of the bridge, and Charlotte felt another knot in her spine slide loose. She shaded her eyes with her hand to watch more closely. The musician’s soaked form suggested some creature at home in water; Charlotte had only a vague sense of what oceanic creatures such as seals or dolphins looked like, but the musculature of his arms as the water ran down them conveyed the sense of a glossy animal, the curves of his back and shoulders as he hoisted the children about and directed their kicking bodies not unlike those of the darting fish their sport had driven away.

As if echoing her thoughts, at that moment he dived like the proverbial fish, disappearing underwater, and Charlotte leaned so far forward to watch for his re-emergence that Lizzy was moved to hook a cautionary hand in the folds of her skirt.