of water rushing downstream towards him, but he turned around.
Jack took one look at the water and dropped the heavy bag he was carrying. He seemed about to try and run, but the steep slope ahead of him was slippery with mud and water.
Mimi stared in horror, unable to do anything, and knowing that Jack had only seconds to make a decision. Run for it, or find something to hang on to. There was a large spreading tree at the side of the road and she willed him towards it. As the water crashed down, she saw him run for the shelter of the tree, clinging on to one of the four split trunks which rose up from the earth.
‘Jack... Hang on...’ She sobbed the words even though she knew he couldn’t hear them. Maybe he knew she’d be saying it, just as surely as she’d known which decision he’d make.
The noise of the water was almost deafening and, in an apocalyptic touch to the scene, the storm chose this moment to shoot a bolt of lightning through the sky, followed by a deep growl of thunder. The rush of water crashed past, taking a few chunks of the bridge with it, and Mimi kept her gaze fixed on the spot where she’d last seen Jack.
‘Hang on, hang on, hang on...’ It was as if she could repeat it enough times to somehow make his grip firmer. The water was subsiding now as it followed the course of the river, and she could see him, tangled in the framework of twisted tree trunks.
Maybe he was holding on or maybe unconscious; she couldn’t see from here. Mimi started to run for the bridge, hoping that it hadn’t been weakened too much by the impact of the water.
A voice sounded behind her but the words were whipped away in the storm. And then someone grabbed her from behind, lifting her off her feet.
‘Mimi...!’
‘Let go of me.’ She struggled and, when he didn’t let her go, she kicked against him. The feel of him was familiar, but Mimi didn’t even stop to wonder how. Another sickening roar was coming from upstream.
‘Jack!’ She screamed his name as the second wave of water came crashing down into the valley. This one was bigger and swept the bridge away almost in one piece as the water boiled and rushed downstream.
‘You can’t reach him, Mimi. You’ll only kill yourself.’
That voice... Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her and it wasn’t him at all. But Rafe’s voice was unmistakable. A trace of public school, softened by years of not caring to mark himself out as any different from the next man, and currently spiced with an urgent growl. ‘Let go of me! My ambulance...’
Water spilled towards them, this time reaching the parked ambulance, pushing it sideways across the road. For a moment, Mimi thought it was going to be okay, that the vehicle would come back to rest on the tarmac, but then it slipped onto the mud by the side of the road, tipping and coming to rest against a tree, as the water retreated again.
If Jack was injured, how was she going to get him back to the hospital now? In fact, how was she going to get to him at all? The bridge was gone and the river had burst its banks and become a lethal, fast-running torrent.
‘Someone’s coming for him—look.’ The arms around her loosened and Mimi struggled free. She’d deal with the sick feeling in her stomach, prompted by the feel of his unrelenting body, later. She had more important things to think about right now.
She watched as five...no, six figures appeared from the trees on the other side of the river, scrambling and sliding in the mud. Two stopped to retrieve the medical bag, which had been deposited in a clump of brambles, and four made for the twisted tree trunks, where Mimi could see Jack’s bright high-vis jacket.
For what seemed like an age, he lay motionless, tangled in the branches like a broken doll. One of the figures squatted down next to him as if talking to him.
Please, please, please... Yes! Through the curtain of rain, she saw him move and then Jack was helped to his feet. She strained to see as the rescue party clustered around him, and then saw him turn towards her.
‘Looks as if he’s still in one piece...’ Rafe’s voice again, behind her.
She could see that. ‘Jack, are you okay? I’ll meet you up at the village...’ she called across.
‘There’s no way through, Mimi.’
‘Only my friends call me Mimi.’ In the sudden shock of seeing him again, all she could think about was that she wished Rafe wouldn’t call her Mimi. Everyone else did, but she’d never wanted to hear him say her name ever again. If he wanted to call her something, he could call her Miriam. Or actually Ms Sawyer would be just fine.
‘All right then. Miriam...’ He shot her a look that told her he knew full well that she was being petty. ‘We both have the same information from the control centre. Unless you’re considering sprouting wings and flying...’ He gestured towards the raging stream, frustration written clearly in every abrupt movement.
Mimi didn’t reply. The most satisfying course of action right now was to hold Rafe responsible for both the state of the roads and the fact that her ambulance was sitting at a precarious angle in a ditch, even if that wasn’t fair. Rafe had gone out of his way to teach her that life wasn’t always fair.
Jack was waving and she waved back, tears springing to her eyes. Then that familiar gesture, the one she’d seen hundreds of times before. I’ll call you. She looked around for her phone, and Rafe picked it up from where she’d dropped it, handing it to her. Mimi took it without looking at him.
She checked that the phone was still working and then signalled back a thumbs-up to Jack. Okay. Then she watched him turn, as the men with him helped him back up the hill, towards the village.
Now that Jack was out of sight, she couldn’t put the moment off any longer. Mimi turned to face Rafe.
He was still the same. Dark hair, wet and slicked back with one wet spike caressing his brow. Deep blue eyes, so striking that it was difficult not to stare. He still stole her breath away, and right now that felt like robbery of the cruellest kind.
If anything he seemed a little taller, but she knew that was impossible. He was staring down at her, no hint of emotion on his face, and she wondered what he saw.
‘We’ll wait for Jack to call, and then I’ll take you back to the hospital.’ Finally Rafe spoke.
‘You’re not taking me anywhere. My vehicle and my partner are here.’
‘Your vehicle doesn’t look as if it’s going anywhere, and you can’t get to your partner.’
Rub it in, why don’t you? Rafe had clearly not forgotten how to hurt her. His strong, silent approach, unafraid to face the facts and able to make hard decisions, had been one of the things that had made Mimi notice him in the first place. But this time it wasn’t up to him to make the decisions.
‘It’s not your call, Rafe.’ If he thought that a failed relationship gave him any right to tell her what to do then he was wrong. He’d given that up five years ago, when he’d walked out on her.
‘Okay. So what are you planning on doing?’
‘I’ll wait until Jack phones. Then I’ll decide.’ That was final, and there was nothing that Rafe could do about it.
*
