The rope had enough play left that she didn't have to untie it. She was at Adam's side in a second, trying to roll away the boulder that wedged his body against the cliff. With her hands propped against the cliff wall, she shoved with her feet until she had cleared a space. Then she began to lift the smaller rocks until he was free. "Adam, can you hear me?" she pleaded, wedging herself between him and the cliff. She slid up to his head and, lifting it, pillowed it in her lap.
The foul odor of sulphur wafted toward her from the crater at her side. In the moonlight she could see that Adam's eyelids had opened, but his eyes were glazed. Without moving his head, she wriggled out of the pack, removing the canteen. Slowly she dribbled water across his lips. He swallowed convulsively, and his lips parted.
Encouraged, she dribbled water into his mouth and watched him swallow again. She didn't know how much to give him. If he had suffered internal injuries she might be harming him. "We have to get you away from that sulphur," she told him. "You're not pinned in anymore, but I'm not sure you can move. Can you wriggle down a little? I'll help as much as I can."
"Sorry," he whispered.
"It's all right. I know you're hurt. Don't apologize if you can't move." Her voice broke, and she wiped her cheeks with the back of one hand.
"Sorry I hurt you," he croaked. "Love you."
She washed his face with her tears. "I love you," she said brokenly. "More than anything in the world. Everything's going to be all right, just don't you die on me now."
"Gas," he said. With her help he tried to inch away from the crater, but he could hardly move. "Can't." His head fell back to her lap in exhaustion.
Paige encouraged him to try again, moving with him inch by inch until they were a full foot from the crater. The wind shifted, and even though she wished they could move another foot, the sulphur smell was already weaker. "The smoke's blowing the other way," she told him. "Are you breathing easier?"
She was so soft. Adam turned his cheek against her thigh. The ache in his neck had begun to ease, and, if she sensed the remnants of his pain, Paige began to massage it with her fingers. He swallowed before he spoke, wanting his question to be coherent. "How'd you find me?"
"I'm not sure I understand it myself."
His mind was beginning to function again. With the functioning came the horror of reality. "You're alone?"
"No, kaihana," she said cryptically. "Never alone. I'll tell you all about it someday."
"Who?" he insisted.
"Our ancestors." Paige smoothed his hair, then wet her fingers with water from the canteen and smoothed them over his face. "Can you drink some more?"
"Paige."
She recognized the demand in his voice and ignored it. "Did Hamish do this to you?" she asked.
He didn't question how she knew about Hamish. Later there would be time for questions. "Hamish is dead."
Her hand stilled, then resumed its stroking. "Samuel and some of the men from Waimauri should be here soon. They'll need to know how badly injured you are."
He was exhausted, light-headed, and his neck felt as if someone had driven a tractor over it. His arm ached where the bullet had grazed it, and his body felt as if it had spent the day wedged between a rock and a hard place. With a touch of irony, he thought that, of course, it had been.
"I'm fine." He turned his mouth against her thigh and kissed it.
"You're not."
"Kiss me."
"You're in no shape to be kissed."
"The breath of life, then."
She was still crying, and she hadn't even known it. With her back curved against the cliff, she bent and brushed her lips across his, then pressed noses in an awkward hongi. "You're going to be all right, aren't you?"
"Try and stop me," he said slowly.
A shout from above was a dose of reality. Paige shouted back, giving the men the information they needed to begin the rescue. "You're going to be safe now," she told Adam. "They'll have you out of here in minutes and into the clinic in town."
His hand crept up to grip hers. "You'll stay with me?"
"Will forever do, kaihana?”
Chapter 18
“What was this Armstrong chap wearing?"
The police officer asking the question pointed toward the middle of the lake to a blur ringed by a high-intensity beam from another officer's searchlight. He handed his binoculars to Adam, who took them with hands that still weren't quite steady.
Adam held the binoculars to his eyes for a moment, then handed them back. "That could be his jacket, I suppose. It's hard to tell.'"
Paige rested her head against Adam's shoulder, her arm firmly around his waist, where she had kept it ever since he had insisted on walking down the cliff path under his own power. He seemed to grow stronger with every breath of fresh air that he took, but she still wasn't convinced he was all right, even if the Waimauri doctor who had come with the rescue party and bandaged his arm seemed to think he was.
"How do you suppose Hamish ended up in the lake?" she asked.
"It's likely he slipped when he was trying to bury me with rocks. One rolled away from him, and he lost his balance."
She nodded gravely, trying to summon up a trace of pity for the man who had died such a terrible death. All she could summon was the picture of Adam slowly choking to death on the ledge.
"There's nothing we can do for the poor chap tonight," the officer said. "We'll drag the lake tomorrow and take out what's left of him."
Paige shuddered, and Adam's arm came around her for comfort. "It was over quickly," he assured her.
"I was just thinking it could have been you."
"Or you."
Samuel came up behind them, clapping his hand on Adam's shoulder. "Come on, strong man, let's get you back to the farm before you collapse and disgrace the tribe."
"We're going to need a full statement," the policeman reminded Adam before he and Paige could start out of the valley behind Samuel and two other men who were carrying lights.
Adam barely looked his way. "Let me change my clothes and rest, then I'll be in."
Paige was angry enough for both of them. "Can't that wait until tomorrow? Adam almost died here tonight."
The policeman shrugged. "Someone else did, miss. Adam knows I believe his story. We just want to be certain the Aussies have all their answers when we tell them one of their own isn't coming back alive."
"I'm going to be all right." Adam pulled Paige along beside him. "We'll take the shortest way out, I'll shower and change, then I'll go into the cop shop when I'm feeling rested enough."
"Strong man," she grumbled, making sure he didn't walk too fast.
The shortest way out wasn't short enough, but with some help, Adam walked through the front door of Four Hill Farm on his own two legs. Legs that were almost knocked out from under him by a small boy with a big grin.
Paige blinked back tears as she watched Adam and Jeremy's reunion. Adam sank to the floor and pulled Jeremy onto his lap, and for minutes they just held each other. Then Adam held out an arm to her, and she joined them.
Later, with a sleeping Jeremy on her lap, she told the full story to Mihi while Adam showered.
"Does Adam know how you found him?" Mihi asked when Paige had finished.
"Not really. I'll have to tell him, I suppose, but I don't think he'll understand."
"I understand."
Paige took the old woman's hand and held it to her cheek. "Then you're the only one who does. But I found out something tonight. I don't have to understand everything. I don't understand what happened to me in the thermals, and I don't understand how Adam and I were going to make our lives work together. But I know we will, just as I knew I was being led to him tonight."
"More has happened than you even suspect."
Paige wasn't sure she wanted any more to have happened.
"Your parents are in Rotorua," Mini continued. "Your father rang tonight, trying to locate you. They're coming here in the morning."
&nb
sp; "Here?"
Mini laughed a little. "It wasn't his first choice, I'm afraid. But I told him he must."
"You told him he must." Paige repeated Mihi's words just to see if there was some spell connected with them. "And Carter Duvall agreed?"
"Half past nine."
Adam came in, still rubbing his hair with a towel. Paige transferred Jeremy to Mihi and stood, circling Adam's waist with her arms. "You'll get wet," he warned as he pulled her closer.
"As if I care."
Adam rested his cheek against her hair. "You smell like sulphur."
She decided not to tell him about her parents yet. There would be time later, when he was more rested. "I want you to drop me off at my place on your way into town so I can shower and change. I don't have any clothes here," she said when he started to protest. "Samuel says he'll drive you in and help you make your report. Then you can pick me up on your way back."
"Where's Rambo?" Adam didn't want to move. He wanted to stand holding her this way forever.
"Well, that's the other reason I need to go home," she admitted. "Jeremy and I went over and put him in the pen this afternoon. I'm sure he's hungry."
"And he never stays in the pen after dark," Adam finished for her. "Granny, shall we let her keep that excuse for a lamb in our kitchen again?"
"I'm of a mind to think she can do anything she wants here," Mihi said, nodding. "Anything at all."
* * *
Paige slammed Samuel's car door behind her. "Thanks for the ride," she told him through the open window. "I'm sorry your stubborn brother wouldn't let you take him into town."
"It's a short drive. Once he's rested a little, he'll be fine driving in by himself. Adam's got the constitution of an ox." Samuel tooted his horn in salute and pulled away.
Paige started up the walk toward the pen, Rambo's bleats a pathetic serenade. "Poor little lamb," she sympathized. "Did Paige's little lamb want to go everywhere that Paige went?" At the pen, she debated whether to take the lamb up to the house with her or wait until she had fixed his bottle. When Rambo was hungry, he sucked or chewed on everything in sight, and she wasn't sure she had the energy to stop him.
She decided to leave him in the pen, although she felt like a traitor. "I'll hurry," she promised as she started toward the house.
She did plan to hurry. Adam was still at home gathering energy for the trip into town, but when he came to get her on his way back, she wanted to be all ready. Not only was she going to shower and change, she was going to pack.
Paige hoped he understood just what that meant. There had been no time to talk, no time for the promises she wanted to make to him, but there would be time tonight. And she wanted to show him that she meant it when she said she was going to live with him. She hoped he would take the next step himself and offer to make it legal. And permanent.
Cornwall was nowhere in sight. "I could have used your company tonight, dog," she muttered as she stepped up on the porch. "For once I would have been glad to see you."
She knew it was just the terrors of the night that were still preying on her, but as soon as she said the words to the absent dog, she knew she meant them. She really wasn't ready to be alone after everything that had happened. With no more adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream, she was tired and shaky and something more. She paused, her hand on the doorknob.
She was spooked. She laughed a little, trying to make the feeling disappear. A residue of fear made perfect sense after the night's events, but that didn't mean she had to give in to it. Resolutely she pushed the door open. Adam was safe; she had survived an experience few people would understand, and Hamish Armstrong...
"Get in and shut the door behind you."
Stunned, Paige wasn't able to obey.
A scarecrow of a man stepped out of the kitchen doorway and motioned with the barrel of his revolver. "I said get inside and shut the bloody door."
She forced herself to move. She kicked the door shut behind her. "We thought you were dead." Hysterically she wondered if he was and he just didn't know it yet.
"You'd have liked that, wouldn't you? Is this good enough for you?" Hamish pulled open what was left of his shirt, revealing a scalded chest.
Paige felt nausea creeping from her stomach into every part of her body. His face was burned, too, badly on one side, less badly on the other. One arm hung uselessly at his side. She leaned against the door to keep from fainting.
"Your thermals are a dangerous place, Miss Duvall."
"You fell in the lake." She wondered how he had survived.
"I fell, but I missed the lake. I just didn't miss the geyser on my way out."
After everything he had done, she still couldn't bear to imagine Hamish caught in the midst of Kaka's righteous fury. She remembered her prayer to earth mother. Papa's justice had been brutal. "We've got to get you to the hospital," she said as calmly as anyone could who was looking down the barrel of a revolver.
"I should think you'd like that. The cops could cuff me to the bed while they treated me."
"Hamish, you're in no shape to be worrying about the police at this point. You've got to get to a hospital or you won't be alive to be arrested."
"I'm going home."
At first she didn't understand. "They think you're dead," she tried to explain. "By now the police have probably been to your hotel."
"Home." He swayed. "Sydney."
She edged away from the door, but one wave of his pistol stopped her. "You're going to take me," he said.
"I can't drive you to Australia. There's a small matter of some water between here and there."
"You're going to drive me to Auckland. Then we're going to take a plane to Sydney."
"We?"
"Once we get there, you can do what you want. Sydney's my city. I can disappear. I won't hurt you." As if he saw the doubt in Paige's eyes, Hamish laughed, a horrible, pain-filled laugh. "I wouldn't harm Carter Duvall's daughter, love, unless you forced me to. I'm not a fool, just a murderer."
"Adam didn't die."
"Do you think that matters?" He laughed again.
Paige could hear how close to the edge of insanity he was. This was the plan of a man made desperate by agony and fear. It lacked all logic.
"You can't get on a plane, Hamish. You're obviously hurt. Your clothes are in tatters."
"You can buy me clothes in Auckland. I have my wallet, my passport."
"You're too sick. You've got to get medical attention immediately."
"Change your clothes." He swayed, but the gun was steady in his hand. "You have two minutes to get ready."
* * *
Adam slowed as he passed Paige's house. There were no lights on in the living room, and he imagined she was in the back taking her shower. His reaction to the thought of her standing naked, water streaming over her breasts and hips, was a good indication of his recovery. He laughed softly at Rambo's pathetic bleating before he accelerated to finish the drive into town.
* * *
Paige changed her clothes under Hamish's careful scrutiny. She knew he was too ill for desire, but she still felt sickened by his gaze. Her fingers shook as she slipped heels on over bare feet. She wasn't going to put pantyhose on in front of him.
She was combing her hair with trembling hands when she heard Adam pass. She recognized the chug-snort of his car engine, and her heart lodged in her throat. But the car kept going, and she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or devastated.
Hamish followed her into the living room. "Find me a sweater or something to put on in case anyone sees me."
Nodding, her heart still in her throat, Paige found a loose black cardigan in the hall closet. Hamish slipped it on, gasping in pain as he tried to move the arm that was obviously fractured in several places. Then he motioned toward the door, his lips drawn in a frightening grimace.
Paige's hand was on the knob before she realized what her fear had made her forget.
"Hamish, I don't have my car here." Paige knew she was ple
ading, but she didn't care. "I can't take you anywhere without a car. I left it at Adam's. His brother dropped me off, and Adam's going to pick me up on his way back from town."
"You're lying." Hamish took a step toward her. "Don't lie to me."
"I wish it wasn't true, but it is!" Paige backed against the door. "Look outside yourself. Do you see my car?"
"I couldn't see it from here if you parked it down below."
"But I don't do that. I pull it up the hill."
He seemed to be trying to recall the details of his other visits. His face screwed up in pain. "Open the door and step out on the porch," he ordered. "We'll just see."
She prayed someone would pass by, someone who would suspect something was wrong when he saw her standing on the porch with a man. But the one person who would have known for certain had passed just minutes before.
She stepped away from the door, swinging it toward her.
"Go on, and don't try anything. I'm right behind you."
Paige felt the cold metal of his gun through her cotton blouse. In the background Rambo's hungry baas were like the score of an avant-garde horror movie, and she stepped out on the porch in slow motion, fear walking before her.
The next seconds would remain in her memory forever.
Cornwall materialized out of nowhere, a raging, salivating monster. Before Hamish could react, Cornwall had attacked, and the revolver was sliding across the porch floor. She watched it slide, too shocked to move. Hamish was screaming, crawling toward the gun with blood streaming from his good arm. His fingers closed on the handle just before they were covered by a man's shoe.
Adam called Cornwall's name and whistled two blasts that sent the snarling dog to the steps but no farther. Adam shifted his weight forward and listened to Hamish's cries of pain. "Just slip your hand out a little at a time," he ordered. "Without the gun."
"I can't move it."
"I think you can. But if you're not certain, I can get Cornwall to help."
With an effort, Hamish unwrapped his fingers and pulled his hand back. Adam casually kicked the gun to the ground below the porch. Hamish rested his cheek on the floor in defeat and fainted.
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