by Lucy Gordon
‘Mandy,’ he murmured against her hair, ‘are we going to pick this moment to argue about who’s the idiot?’
‘No, I guess it’s not a very good idea,’ she whispered.
‘Come on, let’s go somewhere safer.’
He drew her away into another part of the hut, where they could no longer see that the building was half gone, could almost pretend that it wasn’t so.
The place was small and basic, but looked as if it had once been comfortable, and the rooms at the back were still serviceable.
‘Everyone got out six months ago,’ Renzo said. ‘When they knew the place was unsafe they started removing furniture, but then there was a sudden lurch closer to the edge and they ran for it. Since then some more of the land has fallen away and taken the front of the hut with it. But we’ll be safe here for a few days.’
‘But how will we get out? We can’t go forward or back.’
‘When something like this happens the rescue service sends out helicopters. It may take a while but they’ll find us, because I’m going to use the radio to let them know we’re here. I’d better contact them now and tell them to look out for the others.’
But when he took the radio from his pack it lay useless in his hands, refusing to respond as he urgently pressed buttons.
‘It’s dead, isn’t it?’ she asked gently. ‘But we each have a cellphone.’
‘Let’s try them, although I’m not sure if the signal can get through here.’
He was right. Neither phone was any use.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Renzo said firmly. ‘The ones who went down ahead of us will tell them our rough direction. People get rescued all the time.’
‘Yes, but-’
‘Mandy, I’ve been in bad situations before. I’ve even given up hope and then found I was mistaken. We have a lot going for us. This hut is protecting us. If they don’t find us we can survive here until the weather improves.’
‘But how do we get out of the door?’
‘We claw our way through the snow if we have to. Trust me, I know what to do.’
But, as if to defy his bravado, a vibration seemed to go through the hut. For a moment everything shuddered, almost as though the frail structure had lurched closer to the edge. Instinctively, she reached out to him and felt his arms close tightly about her.
No more pretence now, just the two of them seeking refuge in the only place it existed.
‘It’s all right,’ he murmured against her hair. ‘I’m here. It’s going to be all right.’
And now she could believe it, simply because he said it. It made no sense, and yet it made every sense.
‘Now,’ he said with an attempt at cheerfulness, ‘let’s concentrate on what’s urgent-getting settled, keeping warm, finding something to eat.’
‘Right,’ she agreed, knowing that there was nothing to do but follow his lead.
The darkness was total. Night had fallen outside, and no moonlight could reach them through the snow piled at the windows. Only the rooms directly over the abyss were moonlit, and they avoided them.
There was no heating and none of the lights worked, but luckily Renzo’s torch still functioned and by its beam they managed to explore a little. There was a bathroom, with water still on tap from a tank outside, and finally the kitchen. There they found bottles of water and some glasses.
‘And canned food,’ Renzo observed. ‘Thank goodness they didn’t have time to remove this. We won’t starve, although the cuisine may be a rather weird mixture.’
Still using the torch, they groped around to find a table and two chairs.
‘I don’t know what this is,’ Renzo said, opening a can. ‘Cross your fingers.’
Using this principle they created a make-shift meal consisting of custard and fruit pieces, washed down by bottled water. As they ate he talked, reassuring her, trying to make this sound like a normal day, until at last she whispered, ‘Don’t. Please don’t.’
‘All right,’ he said. ‘We ought to get some rest anyway. We’ve both had the stuffing knocked out of us.’
She didn’t press him further. There was no knowing how deep was the snow that held them trapped, or how solidly it was frozen. Their chances of survival were poor, and in his heart she guessed he knew this, and suspected that she knew it, as well.
But it was too soon to confront that prospect.
Only one bedroom was left, with two narrow beds, a foot apart. Fully dressed, they fell into these and pulled the blankets up to their ears.
‘Goodnight,’ Renzo said.
‘Goodnight.’
With the lights out she might almost have thought that everything was fine, except for the cold that made her huddle up. She wondered if Renzo was cold in the other bed.
If you let your thoughts dwell on the reality you could go mad, she thought. Because reality wasn’t reality. What was happening was impossible, so it wasn’t really happening at all. It was only in her head that the snow was all around, which meant that if she thought hard she could make it go away-only it wouldn’t go away, no matter how frantically she-
‘Mandy, Mandy, wake up!’ She thought that was Renzo’s voice but she couldn’t hear him properly because someone was screaming. ‘Mandy, hush, hush!’
Then she knew it was herself screaming, but she couldn’t stop until he drew her close, burying her face in his shoulder until she fell silent.
‘OK, OK, are you awake now?’
‘Yes,’ she choked, clinging to him.
At last she stopped shivering and he released her, just a little.
‘You were having a nightmare,’ he said softly. ‘I’m not surprised, but don’t worry, it won’t be much longer.’
‘Renzo, you don’t have to tell me kind lies,’ she said quietly. ‘I can take the truth.’
‘We could still be rescued-’
‘I know. But there’s every chance that we won’t be, and that’s a fact.’
He grew very still, not answering but holding her close, and a feeling of contentment spread over her. It was incredible in the circumstances but it was as though his arms had the power to fend off disaster. She found she could even manage a mild joke.
‘You don’t have to protect me. I’m not really that delicate, you know.’
‘No, I guess you never were,’ he murmured. ‘You tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen, would I? That’s the way I am. I believe some people find me intolerable because of it.’
‘Tell me who they are and I’ll go after them,’ she said at once. ‘I won’t let anyone bad-mouth you.’
He laughed against her hair. ‘That’s all right, then. With you to defend me, what could I have to fear?’
‘Don’t let go of me,’ she said. ‘Stay here.’
‘Wait a minute.’
He drew away, returned to his own bed and pushed it up against hers.
‘That’s better,’ he said, taking her in his arms again.
Now it was easy to drift back to sleep, and this time there were no nightmares.
CHAPTER FOUR
W HEN Mandy awoke she was alone. With the window blocked by snow, she had no idea of the time and groped her way cautiously out of the room and across the hall until she could see the open door that led to the ‘forbidden’ room, the one whose far wall was missing, and the only place where there was any light.
There she found Renzo, looking out onto the snow that was still falling heavily.
‘If a helicopter comes up here, this is the best place to wave,’ he said as she edged cautiously close to him.
‘Has there been any sign of a helicopter?’
‘No, and even if there were-’
‘They couldn’t see us through that snow,’ she finished.
‘Let’s get something to eat. Then we’ll come and stand guard.’
They spent the day in the forbidden room, sitting well back, listening for the sound of a helicopter that never came. By the time the snow stopped, darkness had fallen and they moved
back to the safe part of the house to find something to eat by torchlight.
‘You’re cold,’ he said as she shivered. ‘There’s only one place to keep warm, and the sooner we’re there the better.’
Before they got under the blankets, he tried his cellphone again, then hers. Neither gave any response. Mandy sensed his despair, and put her arms around him.
‘It doesn’t change what we already know,’ she said softly.
‘I wanted to make you safe. Some guide I am!’
‘I am safe.’
He turned his head. ‘I wish I could see your face,’ he murmured.
‘It’s the same as always.’
‘No, it’s changed. You’ve changed.’
‘Perhaps. Let’s get warm.’
They lay down, pulling the blankets up and lying wrapped in each other’s arms, as close as possible, to share their bodies’ warmth.
‘If we could have got through on the phone,’ he said at last, ‘do you have anyone to call? I mean, anyone who’ll worry about you.’
‘Not really. I’ve only got distant family, that I never see. I don’t mean that we’ve quarrelled, but they’re scattered all over the country.’
‘Friends? Lovers?’
‘Lovers, plural? Don’t be cheeky.’
She imagined him giving her a quirky grin. ‘Just one, then?’
‘No, I’m done with love. It’s a bore and a waste of time.’
‘Ah, yes, you mentioned him before, the one who wanted “something to get hold of”.’
‘I thought he was delightful at first. He could make me laugh, and that’s a big plus.’
‘Yes, it is,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘And you’d know, wouldn’t you? Make ’em laugh and then it’s off to bed. I used to watch him at parties, looking around him like the beacon from a lighthouse, calculating how long it would take to bring them under his spell.’
‘And that-’ In his indignation he propped himself on his elbow. ‘You think I’m like that? It’s what you’ve always had against me, isn’t it? He treated you badly and I get the blame. Woman, may you be forgiven! But not by me.’
‘Don’t give me the innocent act,’ she chided. ‘You and him might have come from the same mould. I’ve seen you look around the room in the same way.’
‘I won’t deny that I’ve had my moments-’
‘Ahh!’
‘But not on this kind of trip. Believe what you like, but I don’t try to seduce the girls in a party that I’m leading. For one thing, it would be unprofessional, and for another, their boyfriends would kill me. I’d end up down the nearest crevasse.’
‘You prefer a balcony to swing from?’
She heard his laugh in the darkness, and felt the vibration of his body.
‘All right, all right,’ she conceded. ‘You’re Mr Virtuous.’
‘Not entirely. There is one girl I had trouble being virtuous with. She always left me wondering, you see, and I could never work out whether she was tantalizing me on purpose, or just didn’t know how she was getting under my skin.’
She felt his lips close to her ear as he murmured, ‘I’ll never know, unless you tell me.’
‘What did you-’ Astounded by what she’d heard, she turned her head and found his lips brushing her cheek. Coming unexpectedly, it was like an electric shock. ‘What did you say?’
‘Did you know what you were doing to me? It’s kind of important to me to know.’
‘What I did to you? Haven’t you got that the wrong way round?’
‘Not at all. From the start, you set out to be a thorn in my side. The first day was all right. We had that chat in the evening and I thought, This is great. Here’s someone I can talk to. But after that you were possessed by the devil, and I think you did it on purpose.’
She recovered her poise enough to say, ‘Couldn’t you tell?’
‘No, that’s what I meant. I never knew. I still don’t know and it’s driving me wild. You’re such a little tease-’
‘I am not!’
‘Really? So it was just accident that you danced like that with Marcel, knowing it would put everything you have on display.’
‘I was decently dressed in trousers.’
‘It wasn’t your clothes, it was the way you moved-slinky, sensual, in tight trousers that showed you off to every man.’
‘Including you?’
‘You’re damn right, including me. And when we were outside you lured me on to kiss you, then backed off, leaving me looking a fool-and feeling one.’
‘Now wait a minute! It was you who lured me on, just to prove that no woman was immune to you, not even me. You admitted it.’
‘I did what?’
‘You said, “since you saw through me so easily…I might as well give up.”’
‘Well, of course I did!’ he exploded. ‘I had to say I hadn’t been serious, to save my face. I was going crazy wanting to kiss you, but you’d just been leading me up a blind alley and having a good laugh.’
‘And that’s just what you were doing. Making a point.’
‘Give me patience. I was the victim there.’
‘Well, you got your revenge, didn’t you, the next night,’ she countered.
‘What in heaven’s name did I do the next night? You were poorly, I massaged you to make you better. And I never put a hand out of place, so why are you complaining?’
‘Because you never put a hand out of place,’ she said furiously.
‘Did you want me to?’
‘Give me patience! It’s like trying to get through to a brick wall. Something stares you in the face and you can’t see it. And what’s funny?’ Renzo had given a snort of laughter.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a shaking voice. ‘It’s you talking about seeing what’s staring me in the face. Can you see anything?’
The darkness was black around them, but in her indignation she’d actually forgotten it. Now she was seized with longing to see him, but all she could do was reach out, touching his face, feeling the amusement that shook his body.
Had there ever been a man like this one? They were teetering on the edge of annihilation and he was laughing.
‘I don’t need to see you,’ she said. ‘I know you’ve got that wicked look, and you’re making fun of me-’
‘Making fun? After what you’ve put me through? Mandy-’
His voice changed as her fingertips brushed his lips.
‘Mandy…Mandy…Mandy!’
The last word was muffled as his lips touched hers in the kiss that had always been waiting for them, and had taken too long. Now she could be honest with herself and admit how badly she’d wanted this. His mouth was just as she’d known it would be-strong and generous, teasing, coaxing, silently imploring her to respond wholeheartedly.
There was no resisting that plea and she yielded to it with joy, moving her lips against his until his urgency overwhelmed her and she opened to him, letting him entice her with his tongue. He was as skilled as she’d known he would be, and at one time-a few days and a thousand years ago-she would have resented that skill. Now she revelled in it, answering with flickering movements of her own tongue, in an echo of the duelling that had always been how they communicated.
They were moving their hands, touching each other wherever they could reach, frustrated by the thick clothes they were wearing. But the need to be naked with him was greater than any cold, and she began pulling open her zips and buttons.
‘Careful, it’s freezing,’ he muttered, but he was fumbling with his own clothes as he spoke.
They helped each other undress and went completely under the blankets to escape the icy air. She could feel him beneath her fingers, lean yet muscular, full of tensile strength, exploring her as she was exploring him.
At first she was tentative, learning about the man even as she learned about his body. But suddenly she discovered that everything she did was right, because a thrill went through him, so intense that she felt it herself, and
he said fiercely, ‘Do that again, don’t stop-don’t stop!’
‘I’m not going to,’ she said joyfully, redoubling her efforts and feeling him respond with vigour.
Mandy had known desire before but never like this, the feeling heightened by the fast approach of the unknown, sweeping her up, filling her with the desperate desire to experience this while there was still time.
And it was the same with him, she knew beyond a doubt. Life couldn’t end until he’d known this pleasure, this joy. From the start there had been a connection between them, starting in their minds, reaching out to their emotions and finishing with their sensations, where it clamoured for release. Now it was having its way, driving them like one entity hurtling towards the same end.
She never knew if he moved over her or if she pulled him over. She knew only that she had to have this, to have him, inside her, filling her, encompassing her, offering her the last gift she would ever know. She returned everything with all her heart, seeking to give him even more than he gave her, but knowing it was impossible, because he gave everything from a generous heart. And she should always have known that this was the truth about him, but she hadn’t, until it was too late.
Then they lay together, arms entwined, basking in the warmth of each other’s bodies, but even more in the warmth of the heart.
‘Are you all right?’ Renzo whispered, but then gave a suppressed choke. ‘Listen to me. I’m going off my head. In a few hours-well, anyway, it was a stupid question.’
Mandy tightened her arms about him. ‘You’re not going off your head. Not while I’m here. And, if you are, we’ll go off together. Now I’m talking nonsense.’
She too began laughing wildly, clinging to him, feeling him holding on to her as though she was all that was left in the world. And it was true. There was nothing but this; no snow or danger lurking in wait. Just warmth and joy because he was there, and he was hers.
But then prosaic matters intruded and she muttered, ‘Let’s do something before we freeze to death.’
They scrambled back into their clothes before groping their way to the cupboard, yanking out every blanket they could find and tossing it all on the bed. Then they dived under the covers again and huddled together.