shrugged. ‘Well, like it or not, you’ve got them. And you’re not going down this mountain on your own.’
She couldn’t believe she was hearing this. ‘I’ve been walking in these mountains on my own since my teens and I’ve never come to any harm.’
He glanced up, his eyes hard. ‘Then you’ve been lucky. If you want to walk, join the Ramblers Association.’
‘The Ramblers…’ She broke off and her small chin lifted angrily. ‘How dare you make judgements when you don’t know anything about me? Dammit, you don’t even know I’m blonde!’
His gaze lifted briefly to the wool hat, which successfully hid all traces of her hair colour and then rested on her face.
‘I do know you’re blonde.’ His eyes smiled into hers for a brief moment. ‘I’m a connoisseur of blondes. Only true blondes have eyes the colour of violets.’
A connoisseur of blondes?
‘And being a blonde makes me dizzy?’ Her whole body was tingling with outrage and something else she chose not to identify. ‘You are the most chauvinistic, misogynistic, prejudiced male—’
‘And I like you, too.’ He smiled complacently and then turned to look at the ravine, totally dismissive of her words, his mind obviously working on the problem ahead. How to evacuate the boys.
‘Look.’ She took a deep breath and deliberately made her tone conciliatory. ‘I may be a woman but I do know these mountains and I can help—believe me.’
Judging from the look he gave her, he didn’t. ‘At a guess you’re five feet nothing and eight stone. The chances of you being able to deploy any muscle to save those guys down there is remote.’
‘Mountain rescue isn’t about muscle.’ Her fists clenched by her sides.
‘No?’ He tilted his head, his eyes hard. ‘Didn’t you say the water level is high at the moment? What if one of them has fallen into a dangerous position and needs to be moved to save his life? Good at lifting bulky teenagers, are you?’
Ally counted to ten. It wasn’t enough so she tried twenty. ‘Well, as you rightly said, someone needs to go for help, so once you give me a brief on their condition I’ll alert mountain rescue.’
With a short laugh he turned his attention back to the rope. ‘You’re not going anywhere. The wind is getting worse, the path is barely visible and you’re going down this mountain on your own over my dead body.’
Ally ground her teeth. The thought was actually quite attractive! ‘I came up it on my own.’
‘Ever heard the saying, Two wrongs don’t make a right?’ He tugged off a glove to get a better grip on what he was doing.
Ally ignored his tone and scanned the items he’d laid on the ground. ‘If you’re really planning to abseil down to them this isn’t the best place.’
He muttered something rude under his breath. ‘You’re trying to give me an abseiling lesson?’
‘Yes.’ She forced herself to hold his stare, refusing to be intimidated by his dry, forbidding tone. Obviously he thought she couldn’t teach him anything, and his arrogance made her grind her teeth in frustration. Except that something told her that, however difficult the abseil, this man would manage it. He was supremely confident, very fit and, judging from the equipment he was pulling out of his rucksack, he obviously knew exactly what he was doing. But he didn’t know the area like she did and it would be stupid to make the abseil more dangerous than it had to be.
‘Do it from further up the gully. There’s a six-metre waterfall directly beneath us and another one directly below that. It’s a double cascade and totally unclimbable unless it’s dry.’
He studied her in silence for a long moment, dark eyes narrowed. ‘You’re telling me you’ve abseiled into this ghyll?’
‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ Her voice was honey-sweet. ‘Even my blonde hair and blue eyes didn’t hold me back.’
He stared at her. ‘You’re saying you can abseil?’
She batted her eyelashes in a parody of a dumb blonde. ‘If I really concentrate hard I can even read and write.’
He grinned. ‘OK, OK. So maybe I jumped to conclusions—’
‘No, you?’ Ally gave him a pert look, picked up the rope and slammed it against his chest. ‘I know these mountains inside out and that ghyll is a death trap in weather like this. You need to be higher up. There are some flat rocks to the right of the falls. It’s safer there and your rope is less likely to get snagged. And for your information, I’m five feet five, not five feet—above average for a woman, actually. I just seem smaller because you’re tall. I weigh nine stone, and I may not have your volume of muscle but I’m extremely fit and more than capable of getting down this mountain in one piece and contacting the rescue services.’
Without waiting for his reply, she picked up his rucksack and trudged up the path, aware that he was close behind her.
‘Do it from here.’ She dumped his rucksack as far away from the edge as possible. ‘There’s a good place to anchor up there.’
He followed her gaze to a spiky rock above the path. ‘Are you an only child?’
Ally blinked, totally thrown by his question. ‘Sorry?’
‘You must be,’ he muttered under his breath, shaking his head and pulling a tape sling out of his rucksack.
‘Why?’ What was he talking about?
‘Because, having had you, no mother would have the nerve to put herself through the worry again,’ he said dryly. ‘Your exploits must have given her heart failure. So you must be an only child. Or the youngest.’
Ally grinned in spite of herself. ‘The youngest, actually. Shall I follow you down?’
‘Have you got a helmet?’
‘No.’
‘Then you’re staying here.’ His eyes gleamed. ‘Although, if you’ve spent your life being reckless, I don’t suppose this is exactly the time to reform you. But as you rightly said, one of us needs to go for help. If you’re sure you can do it without getting lost then that’s the best solution.’
‘Lost? Why should I get lost?’ Ally held onto her temper. Just. ‘Your opinion of women is appalling. Who on earth have you spent your life mixing with?’
‘You want a list?’ He gave her a wolfish grin and she could have bitten her tongue off. What a stupid thing to say. A man like him would have had women clawing each other to get at him since he could walk.
She changed the subject quickly, her voice crisp and businesslike. ‘You do know not to move a casualty unless it’s absolutely necessary?’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘You’d like to add a first-aid lesson to your abseiling lesson?’
She flushed. ‘I wasn’t being rude. It’s just that I’m a doctor and I thought that—’
