The Prince's Bride Read online

  That didn’t sound good. “Ouch. You’re saying I’m exploiting you.”

  But she shook her head, the witch-green eyes gleaming. “Fetching and carrying are fine. And learning is a privilege. You’re a good teacher. Carry on, Batman. With you every step of the way.”

  He wanted to hug her. But a major part of the grand plan was not to touch her until she wanted him to. And so far she had shown no sign of it. Jonas might be new to these feelings, but he’d flirted with the best and he could see that little distance she kept between them as if it had been bright green sea glass.

  Don’t rush her. There’s no hurry. Take it at her pace. It was an effort but he managed to remind himself in time.

  He finished writing and put the notebook back in his pocket. “You’re right. Definitely one for the whiteboard. We haven’t sighted an eagle for a couple of years.”

  Hope was intrigued. So he took his mind off wanting to hug her by launching into a lecture about how the bird had been hunted in the nineteenth century and poisoned by assorted agricultural practices in the twentieth.

  “All the countries of the region got together and we banned hunting eagles across the whole area. Now no one who has shot an eagle can duck over a national border and feel safe, not once we know who he is. And even better than that, we’ve made it an offence to disturb the eagles’ habitat. Of course, the wind farm lobby want to overturn that, now. And so the battle goes on.”

  “You enjoy it,” she said on a note of discovery.

  He thought about it. “No, it’s not that exactly. I don’t like fighting. It never gets you anywhere. If you lose, you feel resentful and carry on being as awkward as you can. And if you win, everyone hates you and won’t let you win again. What I like is finding ways through the issues, so that everyone gets something.”

  “So why are you a lawyer, instead of protecting the eagles full-time?”

  He made a face. “Long story.”

  At once she stiffened. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to be nosy.”

  Hell! He hadn’t seen that coming. And now she’d retreated even further behind that sea glass wall. He could have kicked himself.

  “You weren’t,” he said quickly. “It’s just complicated. Law is the family business. My eldest brother’s been carrying the firm ever since my father’s first heart attack, more than ten years ago. I just need to do my share, you know?”

  He held his breath for her next question. Was this the moment he had to explain what else the family business embraced? Part of him thought oh no, don’t spoil today. Part of him was almost relieved.

  Hope relaxed, even smiled a little. But she didn’t ask anything more. That precious moment of intimacy had gone.

  Chapter Five

  Afterwards Jonas was full of regret. The day had been spoilt anyway. Hope had retired behind what his grandmother would have called her party manners – polite, responsive, distant as the moon. Once the intimacy was gone he had no idea how to get it back.

  He told himself he was more thankful than ever that he hadn’t succumbed to temptation and touched her. But he had a sneaking suspicion that he was just evading the issue. He even wondered whether she would come back the next day.

  To his enormous relief, she did. But it was a mixed blessing.

  Marko, having arrived early to see a group of teenage scouts off on a forest adventure with their leaders, was firing on all cylinders when she arrived and hogged the conversation. And Hope didn’t resort to party manners with him. She listened to the old Ranger’s stories with what looked like real interest so that Marko ended up by flinging an arm round her and hugging her so hard that her toes nearly left the floor.

  Jonas’s hand clenched into a purposeful fist and he was half a second away from hurling the old lecher into the wall – only then he saw that Hope was laughing. She extracted herself from Marko’s clinch, all right. But she wasn’t offended and she didn’t throw up that sea glass wall against the old Ranger either.

  Dammit, he couldn’t be jealous! Marko was seventy if he was a day and had been his godfather’s best friend. Jonas had known him since he was six.

  He muttered something – he wasn’t sure what – and went outside for some healthy fresh air and the space to turn back into his calm, civilized self again.

  It took a while.

  Hope watched Jonas walk out with mixed feelings. She wanted to be close to him, of course she did. When they were apart, she couldn’t wait to see him again. Yet, sometimes when she was with him, she would feel she couldn’t breathe. It was exciting but at the same time, it felt as if she were out of control. Hope hadn’t been out of control since she was eighteen and didn’t like it.

  And sometimes, like yesterday, he would turn into a stranger, all of a sudden. Then she would feel as if the ground had gone from under her and she had no idea what to say to him or what to do.

  He makes me feel shy, she thought, disgusted with herself. And I don’t do shy. AAAARGH!

  So she didn’t follow him. Instead she stayed to welcome a party of excited primary school children and their teacher and watched Marko turn Moby into the straight man of a polished act. She even understood most of what he was saying. He spoke slowly and the San Michele language was a ragbag of scraps from languages that Hope had encountered before.

  When Jonas returned, she forgot that they had nearly fallen out yesterday and he’d made her feel shy, when he bent towards her with that enticing twinkle in his eyes. She felt herself blushing and pretended she wasn’t as she muttered under her breath, “I’m getting better at this language.”

  Almost at once the teacher took a call on her mobile phone, listened, and then said loudly, “Emergencia.”

  Jonas straightened at once and said in his own language, “Quietly. The children!”

  Marko faltered mid-story and then picked up the thread, as rapturous eyes stayed fixed on his face. Jonas had a low-voiced conversation with the teacher, then came back to Hope. No laughter in his eyes now.

  “I need to borrow your 4X4.”

  She jumped up. “You won’t be insured. I’ll drive you wherever you need to go.”

  He frowned but didn’t waste time arguing. “OK. But if we go off track I drive. Did you bring a waterproof? Blankets?”

  Her heart jumped. “Blankets, no. Will we need them?”

  “Best to be prepared. Come with me.”

  They went to the supply cupboard and he gave her a Ranger’s backpack and a couple of squashy kit bags. He shouldered a backpack of his own and dug out a thermal box so large that it would take both hands to carry it to the car. He stuffed a big military-looking two-way radio in one of the top pockets of his field jacket and a substantial rubber torch in the other.

  “Try not to disturb the kids. With a bit of luck they’ll think we’re going on a picnic. Let’s go.”

  Hope’s mouth was dry. Whatever had happened must be bad. That was a lot of rescue equipment.

  “But what about Moby? I can’t just leave him.”

  “He’ll be fine with Marko.” Over the top of the children’s heads he pointed to the dog and made a cradling gesture. Marko gave them the thumbs up and grinned. Jonas turned back to her. “Satisfied?”

  She nodded and followed him out to the car.

  The children didn’t even turn round to watch them go. Marko nodded at them over the top of the children’s heads and made some signal. Jonas nodded. Marko smiled and continued reading. The teacher looked as if she were going to cry.

  As soon as they were under way, Jonas got onto the radio.

  “Klaus? We have a situation at the northeast boundary where the old oak came down in November. Peter took four Boy Scouts out there this morning and there was a ground movement. The fallen tree collapsed down the slope. One boy fell ten metres and isn’t responding. Don’t know how badly hurt he is. Peter and two others were trapped by the tree. Same for them. I’m on my way in Miss Kennard’s vehicle.” And he pressed the button to receive an answer.

&nb
sp; Hope, driving, could only marvel at how unemotional he sounded.

  Klaus was equally calm. “Marko is at base?” Beep.

  “Yes.” Beep.

  “Good. You should also know that there is a severe thunderstorm warning.” Beep.

  “Got that,” said Jonas calmly. “Severe storm. ETA?” Beep.

  “No idea. Will tell Marko and get him to keep an eye on the alerts. See you there. Over and out.”

  “Shit,” said Hope, with feeling.

  “We could have done without the thunder and lightning,” agreed Jonas. “But the good news is that Peter and I’ve been doing one-on-one training with a bunch of mountain experts this week. So we’re as good as we’ll ever be.”

  “Not in thunder and lightning, though.”

  He smiled at her. “We’ll adapt. You’ll see.”

  And somehow she believed that they would.

  His directions took her onto smaller tracks than the main one, but they were still on a distinctly beaten path when they came across a big green Land Rover Defender with the logo of the San Michele Forestry Commission on the side. Hope coasted to a halt behind it. Jonas swung out before she’d come to a full stop. She saw a figure pelting out from the trees to meet him. The newcomer looked about fifteen and very scared.

  Jonas came back to her. “They’re not too far in. I’ll reconnoitre and be right back.” They disappeared.

  When they came back Jonas was already talking on his radio. He shut it off when he came within hearing distance and Hope’s heart sank.

  “Bad?”

  “Manageable, I think.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Dig the energy bars out of the backpacks, will you? The boys could do with them. I don’t think Peter’s broken anything but I need to get him out from under a load of branches.” He went to the back and opened the kit bag she’d carried. “Ah, here we are.”

  She goggled. “That’s a chainsaw.”

  “Only a very small one. Give the bars to Luka and wait here for Klaus.”

  He disappeared again and soon she heard the whine of the saw. She winced, thinking of the poor guy who was underneath the tree that Jonas was sawing. She opened the big box and was not surprised to find a full first aid kit. She recognized much of it from her time at the ski resort: a folding stretcher, head brace, packs of silver burn blankets and all types and sizes of bandages. And she had only picked over the top layer.

  She looked up and saw the sky was darkening noticeably.

  “Hurry,” she said under her breath.

  Eventually three figures emerged from the trees. The first boy was not among them, she saw fearfully.

  “Luka is staying at the site with Peter. The injured boy is his brother,” Jonas said reassuringly. “He’s not making sense but he’s conscious. Now that Peter is on his feet again, I can swing down on a rope and bring the boy up.”

  The two boys climbed into the 4X4 and Jonas showed them how to use one of the walkie-talkies and told them to keep in touch with Klaus. Jonas was very clear and patient. Hope saw that having something useful to do was steadying them.

  A couple of big fat raindrops landed on the 4X4’s hood with a splat.

  She saw Jonas’s quick frown but his steady, practical tone didn’t change. He didn’t even argue when she said that she was coming back to the accident site with him. “There’s too much for you to carry on your own, with ropes and the portable winch as well as the emergency stretcher.”

  “I can’t argue with that. Let’s go.”

  He looped the coils of rope over his shoulder and picked up the winch. He wanted to carry the stretcher too but Hope laughed at him.

  “It’s awkward, not heavy. I can manage.”

  It was not easy walking. The forest floor was very uneven, sloping sharply downwards, and some of the scattered branches were as big as young trees. The fallen tree itself had torn up the earth. Half of its root system was now at right angles to the ground, looking like a gigantic old woman’s head in a hairnet, with wisps of roots coming out at all angles. The top branches extended right over the gap where part of the hillside had collapsed.

  Approaching, Hope saw that it looked as if a small chasm had opened up. Earth skittered away under her feet and tumbled down a slope that was nearly vertical.

  “Don’t go any closer,” said Jonas, still calm but very firm. “The edge is still crumbling. I reckon that it’s stable only as far as here.”

  Comparatively stable, thought Hope. She didn’t say so.

  He urged her back to a safe distance and went about setting up the tripod for the portable winch and making it secure. The boys helped but Peter, it soon emerged, wasn’t really functioning. He certainly wasn’t going to be able to steady Jonas’s weight on a rope. He was clearly in pain and had no strength in his arms at all.

  Jonas looked at the sky, which was getting darker all the time. Rain, Hope thought, was going to erode that slope even further. She saw that Jonas had come to the same conclusion.

  But even so: “We’d better wait for Klaus,” he decided reluctantly.

  Hope shook her head. “I probably couldn’t manage to stabilize your weight. But you could hold mine, couldn’t you?”

  “No.” Jonas looked suddenly furious.

  It started to rain harder.

  “I can swing on a rope,” she said steadily. “And I know how to set up a foldable stretcher and strap someone onto it. We all did Red Cross courses in the ski resort. And it’s going to rain really hard quite soon. And worse.”

  He hated it. She could see he hated it. But also he had no real alternative. The boys were willing and sensible but they just didn’t have the necessary muscle. And through the edge of the trees they could all see the storm approaching across the valley. The sky was a dense grey ceiling of cloud, lightning stabbed down intermittently and there was the distant rumble of thunder following.

  “Sooner the better and get it over with?” she suggested.

  Jonas swore. But he agreed. He had no choice.

  She saw he was very pale, and patted his hand reassuringly.

  Then he took her through the drill to unfold the portable emergency stretcher, and working the straps and pulleys to fix it to the rope. He helped her put her arms through the straps so that she was effectively carrying it on her back. He helped her adjust the rope round herself and lean back into it.

  “It’s not difficult. Can be fun, in other circumstances. But try to move as little as you can. We don’t know how stable this area is.”

  She nodded. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll try to keep my head.”

  “I know you will.”

  And, if that wasn’t astonishing enough, as she lowered herself over the edge, he blew her a kiss. As if he meant it.

  Hope tried to relax and minimize the swing. Jonas lowered her slowly, so that she managed to land close to the fallen boy. It was not very far. Before the landslide, they could have walked the distance in a dozen steps.

  Peter was leaning against the tree, valiantly reassuring the boy’s brother and keeping in touch with the boys in the 4X4. Hope could hear him reporting to Jonas on all sorts of things from how near Klaus was getting in the Rangers’ vehicle, to which of the energy bars the boys liked best.

  Jonas turned the winch handle when she asked, stopped when she told him. He kept up a stream of clear instruction and advice. He made her laugh, too, even when the clatter of falling earth and stones got too frequent for comfort.

  The boy was in a better condition than either of them had dared to hope. He was mumbling a bit he seemed to be making sense now. He’d clearly hurt his shoulder and ankle and scraped both legs but his pupils were normal and he responded to her questions sensibly. He even managed to roll onto the stretcher himself, though it was obviously painful.

  When she got twitchy about the boy’s condition, Jonas asked sensible questions and helped her take the right decisions. She buckled the boy tight onto the stretcher and called to Jonas to turn the winch
. She stood on tiptoe to steady it as it rose. It was already only three feet or so from the top of the crater when it moved out of her grasp. As it disappeared over the top of the crater she laughed aloud in triumph.

  One of the boys appeared at the edge. He was clearly lying on his stomach. Too excited to remember his English he talked in a jumble about il maistre, which sounded like poor Peter, Scout Leader, and something about il principe, which she thought might be the winch. But he grinned, so it clearly wasn’t anything terrible.

  The rain was falling hard now.

  Jonas sent down the rope again and winched her back to the top. The whole exercise had probably taken no more than twenty minutes.

  He gave her a brief hug but said, “We need to get the invalid to hospital. Klaus is about five minutes away. Will you be all right if I leave you here with Peter while Luka and I carry the stretcher up the hill to meet him?”

  “Of course.”

  The leader was half leaning against the trunk of a tree. He was very pale. Hope thought he probably needed medical attention more than the injured boy did. He certainly needed painkillers. His right arm seemed to be hanging useless and he seemed dazed.

  Hope coiled up the rope neatly. The winch had come with printed instructions, so she began to dismantle that, too, while she watched Peter carefully out of the corner of her eye. She kept talking casually, though from time to time she asked him questions that he needed to answer. By the time Jonas returned he had lost the dazed look.

  “Klaus has gone. He’s taking Luka and his brother to the Rangers’ Centre. An ambulance is already on its way to meet them there,” said Jonas, taking over the dismantling and packing the winch away. “Both boys seemed fine. The other two have moved into your vehicle, Peter. Ready to go?”

  They helped Peter along between them. The rain was falling steadily now and was clearly going to get worse. Hope could feel the wet right through to her skin. She shivered.

  The remaining two boys leaped out of the Scout Leader’s truck as soon as they saw him and took over helping him back to his vehicle.

  “Is he going to be able to drive?” murmured Hope, concerned.