Merlin, Noble wished that he didn't have to talk her through this. Maybe there was another way, but he was cold and wet and he couldn't figure it out, and Miss Cartwright had always struck him as a little bit helpless. So — he was going to have to navigate this, the body, with her. Especially because the death of Mrs. Cartwright was at least partially his fault. The time to leave Cartwright family matters to the Cartwrights had passed several minutes ago.

"If we tell someone," Noble said, still gentle, "They're going to ask how this happened. And — I don't think that would be good, for either of us." He glanced down at the water again. Why wouldn't the ocean just take her? If it hadn't been for the weather charm on the Sanditon, he was sure that she would have gone out to sea by now. But instead the body was there, just floating vaguely around the pillars of the boardwalk.

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