Dangerous Love (16 page)

The car jerked back and Bram went over the side. She heard him swear, then shout, “Tell him to slow down!”

But she was already running to the car.

“I’ll do it,” she said. “Your feet are cold and you’re shaken up. Get out, Len. You guide me.”

“My foot slipped on the clutch,” Len said as he climbed out. “I can hardly feel my feet. Is he okay?”

“Yes. Go back and call directions.”

She got behind the wheel. It was a big car and although driving on the snow and ice scared the life out of her, she knew that this thing had great traction, so long as you kept it steady. No harsh movements.

It was agonising, inching back so slowly until at last Len put up his hand.

“Stop!”

She pulled on the brake and jumped out and went as close to the edge as she dared. It was impossible to see the people below, but Regan could see the waves getting closer and closer to the shore. It wouldn’t be long before it was full tide. Once it reached them, they wouldn’t have a hope in hell of surviving.

“I’m sending Katie up first,” Bram yelled. “She’s conscious and scared. I don’t think anything’s broken.”

“Watch her back and neck, Bram,” Regan called out.

It seemed an age before Bram called up that they were ready.

“Slow as you can,” he shouted. “No sudden movements.”

“You do it,” Len said. “I’ll guide you. You’re a smoother driver than I am.”

Regan took a few deep breaths, then began to drive slowly away from the cliff edge. Her knees were shaking with fear, but she managed to keep the clutch steady as the big car rolled forward, snow crunching beneath the tyres.

She tried not to think about Katie, dangling on the end of the rope and when Len yelled, “Stop!” she let out her breath in a long hiss, then ran back to the edge as Len was helping Katie over the edge.

She was sobbing, but mercifully uninjured.

“I’m sorry,” she wept. “I’m so sorry. I slipped. I didn’t mean to…”

Regan wrapped blankets round her and held her close. “Don’t be sorry. You’ve been through hell. And listen, David’s coming. He’s going to get here as soon as he can.”

“I still love him, Regan,” Katie wept. The bitter, scratchy, bad-tempered woman she’d become had gone and all that remained was a frightened shell. “If I’d only got over my hurt and taken him back…”

“Don’t think like that, Katie. You can’t change the past, but you can do something about the future. You and David… you need each other now.”

Soon it was time to do it again, this time bringing Lally up to the top. This doesn’t get any easier, Regan thought as she moved the car again.

When they pulled Lally onto the top, she gasped, “Hurry! The water’s almost in. It’s coming in so fast.”

Len threw the rope over the side and Regan ran back to the car. It would be quicker this time. Fastening himself to the rope wouldn’t take as long as it had with Katie and Lally.

Len gave her the signal and she began to creep forward, resisting the urge to put her foot down and get him up as soon as possible. She’d hardly moved a few metres when the car jerked forward and Len let out a shout.

Katie was beside the car, hammering on the window.

“The rope broke,” she screamed.

“What?”

“Len saw it had frayed, but it was too late.”

There wasn’t enough rope to send down more and worse than that, when Regan shouted out, Bram didn’t answer.

“No!” she cried. “No, you are not doing this to us, Bram Fletcher.”

She thrust the car keys at Len.

“Get down to the town,” she instructed as she fished a first aid kid out of the car and stuffed it in a backpack she found in the boot. “Alert the lifeboat crew. Take Lally and Katie with you and get them to hospital as soon as you can.”

“What are you going to do? You’re not planning to climb down there?” he said.

“Are you kidding?” she said. “I’m scared of heights. There’s no way I could go down. No. I’m going down to the end then I’ll make my way back across the rocks.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“You grew up round here, Len. You must have played on the cliffs as a child and you know it’s possible to go along the face of the cliffs. You must have done it when you were a kid. For a dare?”

He looked at her as if she was mad.

“No,” he said. “I never did. I was never that stupid!”

“Have you got any better ideas?”

“We can’t let you do it,” Lally said.

“I have to! If he gets taken by the tide, he doesn’t stand a chance. If I can get to him before the sea does, I can help him get higher up the cliff and we’ll wait for rescue.”

Lally looked at Len.

“He’s not answering us, love,” Len said, his voice calmer. “How are you going to get an unconscious man up the cliff?”

“I’ll think of something,” she said, tightening the straps of the back pack. “Please, hurry.”

Running down the hill through the snow was hard going. The muscles in her legs protested and with every gasp of cold air, her chest hurt. But thinking of Bram lying at the foot of the cliffs kept her going. Nothing else mattered but getting to him.

She was doing this for Georgie. She wasn’t going to let her little girl lose her father all over again.

At the bottom of the slope, she jumped down onto the beach and doubled back, scrambling over the rocks until she could get no further. She felt no pain as she smashed down again and again. Her body already hurt with the cold. Not once did she think she might not make it herself. It didn’t even cross her mind that she wouldn’t get back to Georgie.

In the car it had been different. She wasn’t in control. Now she was.

She was running on adrenaline.

She had to go upwards. Up and along. She climbed up above the water and began to move sideways. Progress was painfully slow, but if she went faster, she risked slipping and she had absolutely no intention of killing herself.

At last the cliff bowed inwards, sheltering the last remaining patch of sand. She looked up. It wasn’t that high. If they helped each other, she could get Bram up there. No problem! Easy peasy! She choked back a burst of desperate laughter.

The clouds parted as she jumped down onto the sand and the moon ignited the sky, gleaming down on the waves as they washed over the shore, but she couldn’t see Bram, couldn’t tell which one of the dark shadows at the base of the cliff might be him.

Then one of the shadows spoke.

“Regan? What the hell are you doing down here?”

“Coming to get you,” she said. “Len’s alerting the lifeboat in case we can’t make it back up.”

Of all the places to fall, this was probably the best. If they couldn’t get up the cliff, the lifeboat would be able to get pretty close to them here. Or they could go back the way she’d come, scrambling across the cliff face like a pair of crabs.

She almost laughed again. The situation wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d feared.

She knelt on the sand beside him, water lapping at her heels and felt the stickiness of blood on his head. But that’s okay, she told herself. Heads bled a lot, that’s what they did, she knew that.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “One minute I was coming back up the cliff, the next I woke up with my mouth full of sand.”

“Well, you’re okay now,” she said. “We’re going to climb up. If you can’t make it all the way we’ll go as far as we can and wait for rescue.”

“You go ahead,” he said. “I’ll wait down here.”

“What?” She laughed. “Don’t be mad! This’ll be underwater in a few minutes.”

“Yeah, well, I can admire the view better from down here. Oh darn, I forgot, you borrowed some of my trousers. I hope you haven’t torn them.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, baffled. “Come on, Bram. You’re not making any sense. On your feet.”

She grabbed his arm and tried to pull, but he wasn’t budging.

“What is wrong with you?” she yelled. “Why are you playing the fool? Get up will you?”

“I can’t,” his voice cracked. “Get back up the top. Leave me here. Do it, Regan.”

“What? Why? Stop being such an idiot.”

He gripped her wrist, tight. She tried to pull away but couldn’t.

“You’re hurting me, Bram.”

“Go,” he said, releasing her. “Georgie needs you.”

She caught her breath and looked up. The waves were getting bigger as they smashed over the rocks, showering them with icy cold spray.

“I’ll follow you,” he said. “I just need to get my breath back.”

She almost believed him. Almost. But there was no way the Bram Fletcher she knew would have sent her on her own up the cliff. He’d have wanted to be there, ready to catch her. Didn’t matter what his personal feelings were, to men like Bram it was of no consequence. His drive was to save life at all costs.

She ran her hands down his leg.

“Hey,” he said. “This is no time for that sort of thing.”

“Shut up, Bram.”

As she ran her hands down his other leg, he reached out again, clamping his hand over her wrist, but she wrenched her hand free and felt his ankle, trapped between two rocks.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Now will you go?” he said softly.

“No!” She clawed at the sand around the rock, then tried to shift it. It could go down forever beneath the sand.

“You’re not getting me out of here without the use of a JCB,” he said. “So do the sensible thing and go while you can.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she said.

“Now who’s being a reckless idiot? Do as you’re told for once in your life, woman.”

“Would you leave someone trapped down here?”

His silence was all the answer she needed. She clawed again at the sand round the rock. As soon as she dug into it, the hole filled with water, a sure sign that they would soon be overwhelmed.

She wrapped her arms round the rock and tried to rock it loose, but it didn’t budge.

“Please,” he said. “I’ll be fine. The sea might loosen the rocks, then I’ll be able to get out.”

She grabbed his leg and pulled and he groaned in agony. It must be broken. Brute force wasn’t going to do it and making him pass out with pain certainly wasn’t going to help.

“See sense will you,” he grated. “Go now, while you still can.”

“We’ll wait for the lifeboat,” she said.

“They can’t get the damn boat in this close until the tide’s higher. By then it’ll be too late for either of us.”

“You think you’re the only man alive with enough determination to save lives?” she said. “If you were doing this rescue, you’d find a way wouldn’t you?”

She amazed herself at how calm she sounded when inside she was anything but. She was scared out of her wits, mainly for him, a little for herself and a lot for Georgie. But while she was alive and breathing, she just couldn’t contemplate not making it.

“Regan,” he said. “About us…”

“There is no us, remember?”

“But there should have been. We used to be happy before I had that damn accident. It wasn’t just because of your ultimatum that I left. They told me I may never walk again. I wanted to leave, to get out of your life before you felt duty bound to stay with me.”

“What?” If he hadn’t been so hurt and helpless she would have hit him! “How dare you say that?” she cried. “Do you really think I was so shallow that I’d stop loving you because you were in a wheelchair? What sort of person do you take me for?”

“I know you would have stuck with me,” he said. “And that was the problem. You made it easy for me to walk…wheel myself away and blame you.”

“I loved you, you idiot,” she sobbed. “After you’d gone…” Oh what was the point? It was all too late now.

“I’ve never stopped loving you, Regan,” he murmured. “You should know that. I’m sorry I’ve been so angry with you.”

His voice slurred.

“Hey,” she pushed him. “Don’t go to sleep. If I’m staying here with you, you are damn well not going to die on me, do you hear?”

His head rested against her shoulder and she pushed him upright.

“Stay with me, Bram!” she shouted. “Stay with me.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you, you stupid great lump! I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”

“Knew it,” he laughed weakly.

“So why didn’t you come back?” she asked, licking her lips. She had to keep him talking, keep him conscious. “You know, when you found out you were going to be okay? Why not just come back?”

“It took nearly two years, Regan and I wasn’t a nice person to know while I was recovering.”

“I can imagine,” she said. “You were never the best patient.”

“I’d kept in touch with Dennis and a couple of times he said he wanted to tell me something about you. I told him I didn’t want to hear it. I thought…” He broke off and she heard him swallow. “I thought he meant you’d found someone else. I told him I wasn’t interested and what you did was of no consequence.”

She brushed his hair away from his face, gently moving it out of the blood so she could put on a dressing.

“I should have tried to find you,” she said.

He dropped his head to her shoulder again and she pushed him upright.

“Do. Not. Sleep!” she yelled. “Bram!”

“There,” Len said as he turned the beam on the beach and saw a figure jumping up and down waving their arms. Regan. “We’ll take the Molly Jane in as far as we can.”

Four of the men climbed out of the boat and waded through the thigh deep water to the beach. There was no beach left. Bram was sitting in the water. Regan was crouching beside him.

“His foot is trapped,” she said. “And his ankle is broken.”

“This is going to hurt you more than it’s going to hurt me,” Malcolm said with a laugh.

“I bet you say that to everyone,” Bram laughed back.

It took them less than five minutes to free his foot and when they did, Bram bellowed with pain and Malcolm, despite his earlier words, apologised with a crack in his voice.

Watching from the boat, Len saw two of the guys lift Bram up and start their unsteady journey back to the boat.

Behind him came the other two, carrying Regan.

“What were you thinking, Len?” Bram said the minute he was aboard. “Letting her do that? She could have been killed.”

“Thanks for coming to my rescue, Len,” Len said. “Oh, that’s okay, Bram me old mate, anytime.”

Bram glared at him for a moment, then roared with laughter. Len clapped him on the shoulder.

“Good to have you back, son,” he said.

“Someone here to see you,” Lally said as she stepped through the curtain.

Katie turned her face into her pillow. “I don’t want to see anyone,” she mumbled.

“I hope you’ll see me,” David said as he stepped up to the bed. He smiled at Lally and she nodded and withdrew.

“What are you doing here?”

“Regan called me,” he said.

“You didn’t have to come.”

“But I did. When I asked you if we could try again, I…”

“We had Jay then,” she said. “It was different. There’s nothing left.”

“What about love? I still love you, Katie. I think… I think we should be together, now more than ever.”

“You’re just saying that,” she murmured, voice leaden with misery. “You feel sorry for me.”

“No,” he said. “I feel sorry for myself. For what I’ve lost, for what I threw away. This was my fault, all of it.”

“It wasn’t. It was mine. I should have let you come back when you asked, but I wanted to make you suffer… well I certainly did that.”

She broke into sobs and David sat on the bed and hugged her.

“We can go on blaming ourselves for the rest of our lives or we can start over. Will you come back with me when I leave, Katie? I’ll take care of you, I swear and I will never hurt you again.”

Lally stood on the other side of the curtain, her fingers crossed. She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but she wanted to be there in case Katie sent him away, so she could send him straight back in.

She didn’t hear what Katie said, but it was followed by a cascade of weeping and when she peeked in, they were holding each other as if they’d never let go.

Brushing away a tear, she hurried away from the ward. By the time she got to the corridor, she was sobbing herself.

“You’re not that dismayed to see me are you, Lally?” Len said and she couldn’t hold back. She ran into his arms. He smelled of salt and boats. “We got them. Bram’s down in A&E now. They’re both fine, apart from his smashed ankle that is.”

“And so are you,” she said. “I’m so relieved.”

“Me?” he laughed. “I’m always all right, me. I’m not the one throwing himself off cliffs.”

“Bram didn’t exactly…”

“I’m talking about you, brave, wonderful lady,” he said. And then he kissed her and Lally’s world turned upside down, then righted itself again. She had never expected to fall in love again, but it seemed she had and it was wonderful.

After the snow came a brief relatively warm spell and a couple of days of rain. It soon washed the snow away and it only persisted in dirty little heaps where it had been piled up.

Regan held tight to Georgie’s hand and hurried along the hospital corridor. She hadn’t been to visit Bram, although she’d been to the hospital to take Georgie to have her cast removed and a couple of times to visit Stanley who was well on the road to recovery now. But she couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer. Georgie was chomping at the bit wanting to see him. She’d insisted on buying him a balloon from the hospital shop.

It said “Get well Daddy!” on it in big blue letters.

She stopped dead outside the ward. Now was not the time to have a panic attack. She hadn’t been to see him since the night they were rescued. They’d said some daft things to each other in the heat of the moment and she was terrified he’d be regretting the things he said.

And what if he’d been delirious with pain and didn’t know what he was saying? It was foolish and premature to think she’d been forgiven.

“Come on, Mummy,” Georgie pulled on her hand and she winced a little. Her hands were bruised, her fingernails brutally short where they’d been smashed. She’d been completely shocked when she saw the extent of her injuries, all minor thankfully, but hardly any part of her body had escaped unscathed.

Bram had always said you didn’t feel pain when you were on a rescue. At last she understood what he meant.

She took a deep breath and stepped into the ward.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed, reaching for his crutches and one of the younger nurses was rushing over to him.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” he said wearily.

“Let me help you. You’re not supposed to…”

“I can manage perfectly well,” he said, pushing her well-meaning hands away. “I don’t need any help. Thank you, love, I know you mean well, but I don’t want anyone to hold my hand.”

The nurse’s expression darkened.

“I have a job to do and that includes making sure you don’t fall over or collapse on your way to the bathroom.”

Georgie looked up at Regan and grinned.

“It’s about time you learned to do as you were told, Bram Fletcher,” Regan said as they hurried over to the bed.

His face lit up when he saw them. Well, Georgie anyway.

“A balloon,” he said. “Brilliant!”

Regan stepped forward. “I can leave you two for a while,” she offered. “Make myself scarce. I’ll come back for Georgie later. But Bram, if you need to go to the bathroom, accept the help on offer.”

She turned, ready to make her escape when his voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Get yourself back here,” he said. She turned slowly.
“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard,” he said and then he grinned and the ice in her heart melted as he patted the bed. “Come and sit with us. We have a lot to talk about.”

“We do? I thought you needed the bathroom?”

“That was just a ploy,” he winked at the nurse. “Sorry. I just wanted to get off the ward for a few minutes.”

“It’s all right,” Regan told her. “I’ll make sure he behaves.”

She moved closer and pulled up a plastic chair, sitting a safe distance away.

Georgie sat on the bed staring at the cast on Bram’s foot.

“Want a pen?” he said and she giggled.

“Yes, please.”

He’d already had a few people write on it and had a thick marker pen at the ready. Georgie carefully wrote her name, then enclosed it in a big wonky heart.