gentleness became apparent a little later as he bound Jennifer’s forearm to a small cardboard splint, and his stamina was evident when he unflinchingly tolerated her ministrations to a badly grazed arm, a deeply lacerated calf and possibly a fractured ankle that had swollen far more than her arm had.
By the time they had finished their first aid on each other and had crawled inside the shelter they had created around Digger, a darkness more complete than Jennifer had ever experienced enfolded them. They checked their patient by the light of the torch Guy had had in his kit and then settled, one of either side of Digger, to help keep him warm.
‘Nice,’ Digger murmured. ‘If I just asked…would you hold my hand…again, Jenna?’
A few seconds later Jennifer heard loud crackling noises coming from Guy’s side.
‘Hey, Jenna?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Could I interest you in a Tim Tam?’
The bubble of laughter took Jennifer completely by surprise. Here she was, crowded into a makeshift low tent with two men who had been strangers to her only hours previously. They were facing what was probably going to be the longest night of their lives, but the danger they faced had somehow bonded them into a unit that felt more like a family than Jennifer had felt part of for many, many years.
A chocolate biscuit should be well down on any wish list right now. A helicopter would have been at the top of that list. A hot drink should have also rated pretty well but as Jennifer’s chuckle escaped she knew that the Tim Tam was enough for the time being.
And it was all they could do, the three of them, right now. To take each moment as it came and deal with it the best way they could.
Together.
‘Yes, please,’ she said softly into the darkness. ‘I’d love a Tim Tam.’
THEY just had to get through the night.
‘That red sunset meant it’ll be a nice day tomorrow, didn’t it?’
‘Should be.’ Guy wasn’t making any promises.
‘Shepherd’s delight,’ Digger said. ‘It’ll be clear.’
Clear skies with the wreck of a light plane glinting in sunshine on an exposed, rocky plateau. If they’d checked south of the great lakes already, they might well send someone looking to the north tomorrow. Maybe the locator beacon wasn’t one of the faulty ones. Rescue would come.
They just had to get through the night. Right now, that seemed an achievable goal. It was cold, certainly, but it didn’t feel dangerously so with the three of them huddled under the tarpaulin.
‘The tussocks were a good idea.’ Guy had used a pocket knife to slice off clumps of the strong mountain grass. It now provided a carpet for the floor of their shelter and insulation from the bone-chilling cold of the rocks beneath. ‘Are you warm enough, Digger?’
‘Feel like a chicken…ready for roasting.’ Digger’s breathing had a wheeze that was becoming steadily more audible, and he was still in enough respiratory distress to necessitate taking a breath after only a few words. ‘Never been wrapped…in foil before.’
‘You thirsty?’ Guy’s voice floated through the intense darkness.
‘Yes. Very.’ The sweetness of the chocolate biscuit had been wonderful, but trying to swallow had made Jennifer realise just how thirsty she was.
‘Actually, I was asking Digger. The snow I collected in this billy has finally melted.’
Jennifer bit back the automatic response that a patient awaiting surgery should be nil by mouth. It would be hours before they got Digger anywhere near an operating theatre. If they even managed to get him that far.
‘Let Jenna have it…’ Digger dragged in another breath. ‘I’m fine.’
‘Here it is, then.’ Guy sounded resigned. ‘I’ll pass it round Digger’s feet. I don’t want to spill cold water on him.’
The foil sheet encasing Digger’s legs crackled as Jennifer felt for direction. She could feel the warmth of Guy’s hand well before she touched it, and she would rather have taken hold of his fingers than the cold metal container they held. There would be more comfort to be found in the touch of another person right now than in assuaging her thirst. She passed the billy back after just a few swallows.
‘Can you pass me the torch?’
‘Why?’
‘I want to check the IV line and that bag of fluid.’
‘I can do that.’ The torch flashed briefly, running from the line in Digger’s arm up to a bag that looked ominously flat. It wasn’t quite empty, or blood would be visible, travelling back up the line, but it was going to run out pretty soon.
‘Have you got the stethoscope on your side?’
‘No.’
‘OK.’ Jennifer’s hands left the protection of the inside of her anorak again and she felt around near Digger’s head.
‘Don’t uncover him for any longer than you have to.’
‘I’m not stupid, Guy.’
‘I’m not doubting your intelligence,’ he responded calmly. ‘But I doubt that you’ve ever spent a night on a mountaintop before. It’s going to get a lot colder than this, and we want to conserve all the heat we can.’
‘Actually, I have spent a night on a mountaintop.’
‘Where? In front of some après-ski open fire? A nicely exclusive resort in the Swiss Alps perhaps?’
‘And you’re an expert?’ He wasn’t so far from the truth, but why did he have to make it sound like she’d committed some kind of crime? Jennifer’s hand curled around the stethoscope but she was now hesitant to expose Digger’s chest to listen to his breath sounds.
‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘He does at that,’ Digger said. ‘We’ve had a few…dodgy nights…here and there.’
‘Thanks to your desire to start a new gold rush.’ Guy sounded as though he was smiling. ‘We must have checked every obscure stream within tramping distance of every equally obscure airfield there is in these parts.’
‘Are you a goldminer, Digger?’
‘Just a…hobby.’
‘Digger’s a man of many talents,’ Guy said quietly. ‘Sheep shearer, rodeo king, deer hunter, top-dressing pilot, tavern manager and more recently a tour guide. He knows this country better than anyone.’
‘Wish I…knew where…the
