Chapter 10: The Lake

Rose went under.

Her white sleeve came up once, grabbing at nothing.

Then the water closed over it.

On the lawn, somebody shouted for a boat.

There was no boat.

The little paper lanterns bobbed on the black water, all the way to the far shore.

In the book, Vivi stood on this pier and watched Rose drown until a footman jumped in.

Everybody knew Vivi Montclair was terrified of water.

She'd screamed when a page splashed her in the fountain once.

The book thought that was very funny.

I kicked off my slippers.

I tore the silver mask off my face and threw it on the boards.

Then I jumped.

The cold hit me across the whole body.

I went down, down, into black water that tasted like weeds and lamp oil.

Then my body did nothing at all.

Vivi's arms didn't know how to swim.

Vivi's legs went stiff with panic, all on their own.

For one second I sank, and I thought, this is it, this is how the book gets me after all.

Then I remembered the public pool on Fourth Street.

Saturday mornings, two years of them, a dollar fifty a visit.

Kick from the hip. Pull the water back. Breathe on the third stroke.

I made Vivi's arms do it.

They were clumsy, but they did it.

I came up gasping under the lantern boats.

A white shape was thrashing three strokes away.

I swam to it and grabbed a handful of wet silk.

Rose came up coughing.

Her arms locked around my neck.

"Let go," I gasped. "Rose, let go, I've got you, turn on your back."

She didn't let go.