do you reckon, Blondie?’ Jack asked, his arm around Pamela as he supported her.
‘She’s tender over the distal fibula and the lateral malleolus,’ Bryony said quickly. ‘I think it’s probably a fracture. She’s going to need X-rays when we get her down.’
‘So we splint it now, give her some more analgesia and then get her into a casualty bag until the rest of the team gets here with the Bell,’ Jack said decisively, his arm still round Pamela. ‘You’re going to be fine, Pamela.’
Pamela groaned. ‘Have I broken it? And why do you need a bell?’
‘A Bell is a type of stretcher that we use, and it looks as though you might have broken your ankle,’ Jack said, watching as Bryony pulled out the rest of the equipment. ‘Don’t you worry. We’re going to make you comfortable. We have these amazing fleecy bags that are very snug. In a moment you’re going to feel like toast. Did you hear about the blonde who ordered a take-away pizza? The waiter asked her if she wanted it cut into six slices or twelve—’ swiftly he helped Bryony apply the splint ‘—and she said, “Six, please. I could never eat twelve.”’
‘Just ignore him, Pamela,’ Bryony advised with a smile. ‘He doesn’t know the meaning of politically correct and frankly it’s amazing he hasn’t been arrested before now. If I didn’t need him to carry you down this mountain, I’d push him off the cliff myself.’
But despite the pain she was obviously suffering, Pamela was smiling. ‘He’s making me laugh, actually.’
Bryony groaned. ‘Don’t tell him that or he’ll tell you blonde jokes all the way down the mountain. Trust me, you’d rather be left on your own in the snow than have to listen to Jack in full flow.’
She and Jack kept up their banter, taking Pamela’s mind off the situation she was in, working together with swift efficiency. They’d just got Pamela into a casualty bag when the rest of the team approached out of the snow. Bryony’s brother was among them.
Jack rolled his eyes. ‘The last thing we need up here is an obstetrician,’ he drawled. ‘Who’s delivering all those babies while you’re wasting your time on the mountain?’
Tom adjusted the pack on his back. ‘They’re all queuing up, waiting for me to come back.’
‘Well, you took so long you needn’t have bothered coming.’ Jack stood up, tall and broad-shouldered. ‘You’ve missed all the action. Blondie and I have sorted it out as usual. Don’t know why we need such a big team really.’
‘If we weren’t here you wouldn’t have anyone to boss around,’ Tom said dryly, working with the rest of the team to get a stretcher ready. ‘We rang the RAF to see if there was any chance of an airlift but the weather is closing in so it looks like we’re going to have to carry them down.’
Jack walked over and conferred with Sean, the other A and E consultant and the MRT leader, and discussed the best way to get the two women off the mountain while Bryony kept an eye on Pamela. Fortunately the casualty bag had zip access, which meant she was able to check on her patient without exposing her to the freezing air.
Finally Pamela was safely strapped onto a stretcher. Her sister had revived sufficiently to be able to walk down the mountain with some assistance from two bulky MRT members who roped her between them.
Bryony reattached her crampons and picked up her ice axe. The snow was thick now and she knew that one false step could have her sliding halfway down the mountain.
The snow was falling so thickly she could barely see and she scrubbed her face with her hand to clear her vision.
‘Rope up, Blondie,’ Jack’s voice said, and as she opened her mouth to answer, the ground beneath her suddenly shifted and she was falling.
She didn’t even have time to cry out, sliding fast down the slope towards the edge of the cliff that Jack had described so graphically.
Immediately she braced the axe shaft across her body, digging the pick into the snow slope and raising her feet so that they didn’t catch in the snow. She jerked to a halt and hung there for a moment, suspended, her heart hammering against her chest, her hands tightly locked on her ice axe, which was the only thing holding her on the slope.
She heard Jack calling her name and heard something in his tone that she hadn’t heard before. Panic.
She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She didn’t want Jack to panic. Jack never panicked. Ever. Jack panicking was a bad sign. Realising just how close she was to the edge of the cliff, she kept a tight hold on her ice axe and gingerly moved her feet, trying to get some traction with her crampons.
‘Hang on, Bry,’ Tom called cheerfully. ‘Jack’s just coming to get you. You won’t live this one down in a hurry.’
But despite his light-hearted tone, Bryony heard the anxiety in his voice. And it was hardly surprising, she thought ruefully, risking another glance below her. Another couple of metres and she would have vanished over the edge of a sheer cliff.
And it could still happen.
‘Hang on, Blondie,’ Jack called, and she glanced up to see him climbing down towards her, a rope attached to his middle.
‘You think I’m going to let go?’ Her voice shook slightly. ‘You think I’m that stupid?’
As he drew closer she could see his grin. ‘Of course you’re stupid. You fell, didn’t you? And you have blonde hair. You must be stupid. It says so in all the books.’
Bryony tried to smile but then she felt the snow give under her ice axe and she gave a gasp of fright and jabbed her feet into the slope. ‘Jack!’
‘I’ve got you, angel.’ His voice came from right beside her and he slid an arm and leg over her, holding her against the slope while he attached a rope to her waist. ‘God, you almost gave us all a heart attack.’
She turned her head to look at him and his face was so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath against her cheek and see the dark stubble shadowing his hard jaw. He looked sexy and strong and she’d never been so pleased to see anyone in her life.
Then she glanced down at the drop beneath her and thought of Lizzie. ‘Oh, God, Jack,’ she whispered, and she felt his grip on her tighten.
‘Don’t even say it,’ he said harshly. ‘I’ve got you and there’s no way I’m letting you go.’ He glanced up the slope and shouted something to Sean, who was holding the other end of the rope. ‘They’re going to take you up now, sweetheart. Try not to do anything blonde on the way up.’
She gave a weak smile and he smiled back. ‘Go for it.’
And gradually, with the aid of the rope and her ice axe and crampons, she managed to climb back up the slope, aware that Jack was behind her.
Finally she reached the top and Tom rolled his eyes. ‘Thanks for the adrenaline rush.’
‘Any time,’ Bryony said lightly, but she was shaking badly now that the danger had passed, and Jack must have known that because he pulled her into his arms and held her until his warmth and strength gradually calmed her.
He didn’t speak.
