A Very...Pregnant New Year's. Doreen Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ to blast out another chorus. Before she could let it out, however, she heard the noise again. Closer this time.

      Excitement gripped her as she strained her ears. She was either suffering from delusion, or that was a human voice she’d heard. Tears welled up and ran unchecked down her cheeks when she heard the shout again. It was a human voice. And he wasn’t too far away.

      Terrified that he’d pass right by her, she dragged in her breath and let it out in a furious bellow of desperation. “Help! Please help me!”

      “Hang on, I’m coming. Just keep yelling.”

      “I’m down here, in a ravine. Please, be careful.” The last thing she needed was a man’s heavy body tumbling down on top of her. More than likely he’d send them both hurtling to their deaths.

      She refused to think about that, but waited in an agony of suspense until she heard another shout. It was much closer this time.

      “Where are you?”

      “Wait! Don’t move. You’re close to the edge of the ravine. Wait a minute and I’ll send up a snowball.” She quickly gathered up some snow and formed it into a ball. “Are you ready?”

      “Yes, throw away!”

      His voice sounded muffled, and vaguely familiar. Excited now, she braced herself against the wall. She would have to throw underarm…she had no room to bring her elbow back for an overarm throw. Praying she had the strength to lob the snowball high enough for her rescuer to see it, she leaned forward and flung her hand skyward.

      The snowball shot out of her hand and she saw it silhouetted against the gray patch of sky, then it fell like a stone. She never heard it land. She tried not to think how far down it had fallen.

      She peered up at the gray patch and yelled, “Did you see it?”

      “I saw it.” Seconds later a beam of light flashed downward, blinding her. “I have to tell you, Annie Parker, that was the worst rendition of “God Bless America” I’ve ever heard.”

      She blinked, her mind refusing to accept what her ears had heard. It couldn’t be. She was imagining things again.

      Then he spoke again, chasing away any doubt in her mind. “I know how you big city dwellers crave excitement, but isn’t this going a little too far?”

      She groaned aloud. Unbelievable. A whole damn mountain out there and Brad Irving had to be the one to stumble across her. In the next instant she was ashamed of her uncharitable thought. She could have died in that ravine if he hadn’t found her.

      Concern crept into his voice as he peered down at her. “Are you hurt?”

      His face looked ghostly in the reflection from his headlamp, but there was no mistaking those chiseled features. She roused herself to answer. “My ankle hurts, but otherwise I’m okay.”

      “Is it broken?”

      She wiggled it and winced. “I don’t think so. But my foot is jammed behind this broken tree and I can’t get my ski off.”

      The light moved off her face and probed around her. For the first time she could see the edge of the ledge and the blackness beyond. Her stomach heaved. She had less room than she thought. She watched the headlamp’s beam move over the broken tree and her shattered ski.

      “Looks like we’ll have to shift that tree before we can get you up,” Brad said, with a lot more confidence than the situation warranted, in Anne’s opinion.

      “I might go down with it,” she said, her voice trembling.

      “Suit yourself, but I don’t recommend it.”

      His cheerful tone irritated her. The last thing she needed right now was his warped sense of humor. “So what do you suggest? That’s if you’re capable of coming up with a practical solution.”

      “If I don’t, then I guess you’re stuck down there. If I were you I’d think about that, Annie, and try to be civil to me.”

      Deciding to play it safe, she said dryly, “I’ll do my best, but my temperament is not at its greatest right now. For reasons you should be able to understand. And by the way, since you seem to keep forgetting, the name’s Anne.”

      “Right.”

      The light disappeared, leaving her in the cold darkness once more. She looked up, but all she could see was the patch of gray above her. For a terrifying moment of disbelief she thought he’d left her, but then the beam slashed across her face again, temporarily blinding her.

      She could hear Brad grunting and cursing, and a shower of snow descended on her, then she saw his face suspended above her again.

      “Can’t shift the tree from up here,” he said, sounding breathless. “You’ll have to try and shove it away from you at your end.”

      “I don’t think I can,” she said miserably.

      “You can if I’m hanging on to you. I think I can reach you from here. Stretch your arms up and see if you can reach my hands.”

      She saw his gloved hands sliding down toward her. He had to be lying flat on his stomach in the snow. She stretched as high as she could. There was at least a six-inch gap between her fingers and his. “Not without standing up,” she said, trying not to let defeat creep into her voice.

      “Okay, hang on.” Again he disappeared, and she waited, feeling the cold gnawing at her bones. Seconds later something slithered over the edge and snaked down toward her.

      “Buckle this belt around one of your wrists,” Brad ordered. “I’ve got the other end around mine. It will hold you while you kick the tree out from the ledge.”

      She took off one of her gloves long enough to fasten the belt around her wrist, then pulled it on again. “Okay, I’m ready.”

      “Before we do this,” Brad said calmly, “I should tell you I don’t have a lot of traction up here. So try not to fall off the ledge, okay?”

      She understood what he meant. The avalanche had laid a blanket of deep, soft snow over the area. It would be slippery even to walk on. Trying to get traction in it would be almost impossible. There was every chance that in trying to get her out of there, Brad could very well fall down in there with her. She didn’t want to think about where they might end up.

      “Look,” she said, with just a slight waver in her voice. “Are you sure about this? I mean, I could wait here while you go get help.”

      “We don’t have time for that. I’ve lost my skis and it could take hours, if not days, to get down the mountain on foot, even if I could find my way. It’s snowing like crazy up here.”

      She could tell that from the snowflakes drifting down on her face. He was right, she didn’t have that much time. Already she could feel the numbness creeping up her right leg. “Okay,” she said unsteadily. “Let’s do it.”

      “Right. I’ve got a good hold on you, so I want you to kick that tree out from under you with your good foot. If you give it a good shove near the base, it should go down. Okay?”

      She СКАЧАТЬ