voice wavered and tears stung as they gathered behind her eyelids. This recognition of a despair she hadn’t felt since she’d been too young to protect herself had to be the worst moment of her adult life.
‘I’m coming... Hold on...’
She wasn’t alone. There was hope to be found now. A glowing light in the darkness of that despair. It was a male voice she’d heard, the words short, as if he was out of breath, and in the space after those words Mika could hear the sound of shoes crunching on the sparse gravel of the track.
He was running?
When there were only a few feet between the steep wall of the cliff above and that appalling drop into nothingness below?
The speed of the footsteps slowed and then stopped.
‘What is it?’ A deep voice with a faint accent that she couldn’t place. ‘Are you hurt?’
Mika shook her head, her eyes still tightly closed. The overwhelming relief at not being alone any more made speech impossible for several breaths.
‘Vertigo,’ she managed finally, hating how pathetic her voice sounded. ‘I... I can’t move...’
‘You’re safe,’ the man said. ‘I’ll keep you safe.’
Dear Lord...had anybody ever said that to her? Being so helpless had made her feel like a small child again, so it was too easy to imagine how it would feel to have somebody say those words to that frightened little girl. To feel fear and desolation start to drain away as if a plug had been pulled. To have an insight into how different her life might have been if somebody had said that to her, back then, and meant it. If somebody had been there to protect her. To love her...
How humiliating was it to have her outward breath sound like a child’s sob? She’d learned long ago that weakness was something to be hidden very deeply.
‘It’s okay,’ the man said. ‘You’re going to be fine. How long have you been stuck?’
‘I...don’t know.’ It felt like for ever.
‘Are you thirsty? I have water.’
She heard a shuffling sound and then a zip opening. She was thirsty but to accept a water bottle would mean opening her eyes, and what if the spinning started again? Sobbing in front of a stranger was bad enough. Imagine if she threw up?
‘It’s okay. I don’t need a drink.’
There was a moment’s silence. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Mika.’
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mika.’
This time her breath came out as a huff of something closer to laughter than tears. Her rescuer had very nice manners. He sounded as though they’d just been introduced at a cocktail party.
‘I’m Ra...um... Rafe.’
She had only been speaking to him for a minute or two, and she didn’t even have any idea what he looked like, but the hesitation seemed out of character. Did he not want her to know his real name? Was it possible that she was about to step from the frying pan into the fire and put her faith in an axe murderer? Or a...a rapist?
It might have been five years ago but the fear was always too close to the surface. If he hadn’t chosen that precise moment to touch her, she could have dealt with it. It wasn’t like the vertigo; she could persuade herself to think rationally and conquer it.
But he touched her arm and moving away from that touch was too instinctive to avoid. Mika let go of her tufts of grass with every intention of trying to run but her legs were still shaking and she lost her footing. Desperately trying to stop the skid, she reached for the grass again, but it slid through her fingers. Her foot made contact with something solid and she pushed against it but that, too, slid out of touch. She landed on her hands and knees, aware of a sound like rocks falling that provided a background to the soft but vehement curse that came from her rescuer.
And then silence.
Cautiously, Mika sat back on her heels as she tried to process what had just happened.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes. I’m sorry. I... I slipped.’
‘Hmm...’
She could feel him watching her. ‘Did I...um...kick you?’
‘No. You kicked my backpack. It went over the cliff.’
Mika’s eyes opened smartly. ‘What? Oh, no... I’m so sorry...’
‘Better the pack than you.’
It seemed extraordinary but he was smiling at her. A smile that made the corners of his eyes crinkle. Dark eyes. Dark, shaggy hair and a dark jaw that had gone well past designer stubble but wasn’t quite a beard. And he was big. Even crouching he seemed to tower over her.
Weird that the fear that had prompted this unfortunate development was ebbing away instead of increasing. Maybe it was those eyes. This man might be in a position of power over her right now but he wasn’t any kind of predator. He looked...nice. Kind?
You’re safe. I’ll keep you safe.
‘Did it have anything important in it? Like your wallet?’ A churning in her stomach reminded her not to try looking over the edge of the cliff.
‘There’s no point worrying about that right now. The light’s going to fade before long, Mika. I need to get you off this track.’
Mika nodded. She scrambled to her feet, her own light pack still secure on her back. If she didn’t look into the chasm, maybe she would be okay. She looked towards the solid side of the cliff, reaching out her hand to touch it as well.
‘I’m trying to decide which way would be best. You’ve come a long way onto the open part of the track already. It’s probably better to keep going towards Positano rather than go down all those steps when it’s getting darker.’
Mika swallowed hard and then nodded again. ‘That’s where I’m living at the moment. In Positano.’
‘The track is quite narrow. Do you want me to walk ahead of you or behind?’
‘Ahead, I think... I can watch your feet. If I don’t look at the drop, maybe the dizziness won’t come back.’
It worked...for a little while...but, try as she might, Mika became more and more aware of the emptiness on the left side in her peripheral vision. Using her free hand to provide a kind of blinker also helped for a while but it wasn’t enough. Her stomach began to fold itself into spasms of distress and her brain began a slow, sickening spin. She tried to focus on the boots in front of her: smart, expensive-looking leather hiking boots. Thick socks were rolled down above them and then there were bare legs, muscles under olive skin outlined with every step.
‘How’s it going?’
Mika dropped the hand she was using as a shield to look up as Raoul turned his head when she didn’t respond immediately. She tried
