Baby It's Cold Outside

As we reached the bottom, Louise rushed over.

‘Oh thank god,’ she said, throwing her arms round Harry’s neck. ‘Well done you two. They’ve got him.’ She pointed up at the slope where Bobby and Penny were reaching into the hole and pulling out a motionless body, with the help of a couple of colleagues. It was a man, his face covered in blood.

‘He’s alive,’ Willie said, coming up behind us and shepherding us towards the trucks.

‘We got him just in time.’ He opened the door and helped Harry climb in. ‘That whole mountain’s going to fall.’

Louise followed Harry into the truck. I took a step towards them, but my legs wouldn’t work. Above me, I heard the same deep rumbling I’d heard before the avalanche. Terrified, I tried to scramble into the truck – and then everything went black.

Chapter 8 (#ulink_bd9dd712-fb2e-56d2-a26c-47987b4132a0)

I woke up on a camp bed covered in a scratchy blanket. Disorientated, I sat up, and looked round me. I was in a corner of the town hall. There were people everywhere, sitting around chatting, drinking tea from a table manned by the ever-dependable Millicent Fry. A general buzz of conversation filled the air.

‘You’re awake,’ Jamie sat down on the bed and folded me into his arms. I sank against him.

‘You’re here,’ I said, so pleased to see him that I started to cry.

‘Oh sweetheart,’ Jamie said, brushing my hair back from my face and kissing me. ‘It’s okay now. Harry told me what you did – you saved all those people.’

It all came back to me in a rush; the avalanche, the mountain rescue team, the man with the blood all over his face…

‘Did the driver get out,’ I said, sniffing.

Jamie nodded.

‘He’s hit his head quite badly, but he’s okay,’ he said. ‘And the walkers are both fine too. And the dog. They would all have died if you hadn’t been there.’

I tried to smile, but I couldn’t stop crying. Jamie pulled me closer and handed me a tissue.

‘The rest of the mountain came down,’ he said. ‘Just after you fainted.’

‘I fainted?’ I’d never done that before.

‘You’ve hurt your wrist,’ Jamie said.

I pulled my arm out of the blanket and looked at my wrist which was bandaged.

‘It’s just a sprain, don’t worry. You can ditch the bandage before Saturday. You hit your head too,’ Jamie said, stroking the back of my hair. I winced as he touched a tender spot on my head.

‘Tansy patched you up.’

I wiped my nose and looked at Jamie.

‘Tansy’s here?’

‘Louise rang to tell us what had happened,’ he explained. ‘You can’t keep Tansy away from a crisis – she’s been telling everyone what to do.’

He pointed to the opposite side of the room where Tansy was talking to a paramedic while she efficiently bandaged a woman’s wrist.

‘Were more people hurt?’ I asked.

Jamie stroked my arm.

‘They evacuated all the houses but some people panicked when the second avalanche happened. It’s just cuts and bruises really – running on snow isn’t the best idea. A couple of broken arms and one guy broke his leg.’

‘But no one died?’

‘Thanks to you.’

‘Where’s Harry?’ I said, suddenly realising I couldn’t see her. ‘Is she okay?’

‘She’s at the café with your mum and Suky,’ Jamie said. ‘They’ve been dishing out drinks and cakes.’

I wondered if that had been all they were dishing out or if they were serving up a few enchantments along with their sweet treats.

‘I’m going to ring your mum now,’ Jamie said, digging his phone out of his pocket. ‘I’ll tell her you’re okay. Then we should think about getting home. Dad’s here somewhere. He brought the Range Rover so he can take us all home.’

‘Your dad’s here?’ I said in surprise. ‘Has he met Tansy? Does he know about Parker?’

Jamie looked down at his knees.

‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘He’s met Tansy before, when Mum and Dad came over to Kenya so I couldn’t really pretend she was anyone else. But I asked Tansy not to say anything about Parker. I need to tell them myself. Luckily they’ve been so busy there’s not been time for small talk.’

‘You’ll have to tell him soon,’ I pointed out. ‘Today. Now.’

‘I know.’

He kissed me gently on the lips.

‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Never get caught in an avalanche again.’

I felt a bit lost sitting there, watching Tansy bandaging people and laughing with the paramedics and mountain rescuers who were milling around. She looked more like a local than I did. I spotted Jamie’s dad – Dr Brodie senior – and waved to him. He blew me a kiss but didn’t come over. He was busy talking to a heavily pregnant woman who was pale and sipping from a cup of water. I smiled to myself. Jamie might say that Tansy couldn’t walk away from an emergency but he was just the same – and so was his dad.

‘How are you feeling?’ Penny pulled up a plastic chair and sat down to next to me. She’d shed her outer layers and looked younger and fresh-faced in a thin fleece over her waterproof trousers. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and she looked like a surf chick who had got lost.

‘I’m fine,’ I said feeling a bit sheepish. ‘I fainted.’

Penny looked at me, her green eyes holding a hint of mischief.

‘You don’t have a photographic memory do you?’

I shook my head, then winced because it hurt.

‘So what, are you psychic or something?’ she said, grinning.

‘Something like that,’ I said. I wasn’t going to give her all the details, no matter how nice she was being.

Penny smiled again.