Baby It's Cold Outside. Kerry Barrett

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СКАЧАТЬ here,’ I said, so pleased to see him that I started to cry.

      ‘Oh sweetheart,’ Jamie said, brushing my hair back from my face and kissing me. ‘It’s okay now. Harry told me what you did – you saved all those people.’

      It all came back to me in a rush; the avalanche, the mountain rescue team, the man with the blood all over his face…

      ‘Did the driver get out,’ I said, sniffing.

      Jamie nodded.

      ‘He’s hit his head quite badly, but he’s okay,’ he said. ‘And the walkers are both fine too. And the dog. They would all have died if you hadn’t been there.’

      I tried to smile, but I couldn’t stop crying. Jamie pulled me closer and handed me a tissue.

      ‘The rest of the mountain came down,’ he said. ‘Just after you fainted.’

      ‘I fainted?’ I’d never done that before.

      ‘You’ve hurt your wrist,’ Jamie said.

      I pulled my arm out of the blanket and looked at my wrist which was bandaged.

      ‘It’s just a sprain, don’t worry. You can ditch the bandage before Saturday. You hit your head too,’ Jamie said, stroking the back of my hair. I winced as he touched a tender spot on my head.

      ‘Tansy patched you up.’

      I wiped my nose and looked at Jamie.

      ‘Tansy’s here?’

      ‘Louise rang to tell us what had happened,’ he explained. ‘You can’t keep Tansy away from a crisis – she’s been telling everyone what to do.’

      He pointed to the opposite side of the room where Tansy was talking to a paramedic while she efficiently bandaged a woman’s wrist.

      ‘Were more people hurt?’ I asked.

      Jamie stroked my arm.

      ‘They evacuated all the houses but some people panicked when the second avalanche happened. It’s just cuts and bruises really – running on snow isn’t the best idea. A couple of broken arms and one guy broke his leg.’

      ‘But no one died?’

      ‘Thanks to you.’

      ‘Where’s Harry?’ I said, suddenly realising I couldn’t see her. ‘Is she okay?’

      ‘She’s at the café with your mum and Suky,’ Jamie said. ‘They’ve been dishing out drinks and cakes.’

      I wondered if that had been all they were dishing out or if they were serving up a few enchantments along with their sweet treats.

      ‘I’m going to ring your mum now,’ Jamie said, digging his phone out of his pocket. ‘I’ll tell her you’re okay. Then we should think about getting home. Dad’s here somewhere. He brought the Range Rover so he can take us all home.’

      ‘Your dad’s here?’ I said in surprise. ‘Has he met Tansy? Does he know about Parker?’

      Jamie looked down at his knees.

      ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘He’s met Tansy before, when Mum and Dad came over to Kenya so I couldn’t really pretend she was anyone else. But I asked Tansy not to say anything about Parker. I need to tell them myself. Luckily they’ve been so busy there’s not been time for small talk.’

      ‘You’ll have to tell him soon,’ I pointed out. ‘Today. Now.’

      ‘I know.’

      He kissed me gently on the lips.

      ‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Never get caught in an avalanche again.’

      I felt a bit lost sitting there, watching Tansy bandaging people and laughing with the paramedics and mountain rescuers who were milling around. She looked more like a local than I did. I spotted Jamie’s dad – Dr Brodie senior – and waved to him. He blew me a kiss but didn’t come over. He was busy talking to a heavily pregnant woman who was pale and sipping from a cup of water. I smiled to myself. Jamie might say that Tansy couldn’t walk away from an emergency but he was just the same – and so was his dad.

      ‘How are you feeling?’ Penny pulled up a plastic chair and sat down to next to me. She’d shed her outer layers and looked younger and fresh-faced in a thin fleece over her waterproof trousers. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and she looked like a surf chick who had got lost.

      ‘I’m fine,’ I said feeling a bit sheepish. ‘I fainted.’

      Penny looked at me, her green eyes holding a hint of mischief.

      ‘You don’t have a photographic memory do you?’

      I shook my head, then winced because it hurt.

      ‘So what, are you psychic or something?’ she said, grinning.

      ‘Something like that,’ I said. I wasn’t going to give her all the details, no matter how nice she was being.

      Penny smiled again.

      ‘It’s pretty cool,’ she said. ‘Well done. We’d never have got them out in time without you.’

      ‘What’s the deal with the mountain?’ I asked her, swinging my legs round to the side of the bed – I wanted to get up. ‘Is it safe?’

      Penny gestured to the people who were gathering their belongings and starting to drift

      ‘We’ve shored it up with some heavy-duty netting,’ Penny said. ‘We’re confident it’s safe for now.’

      I shuddered.

      ‘So everyone’s going home,’ I said. ‘Everything’s back to normal?’

      ‘Except for the road, of course,’ Penny said. ‘That amount of snow means it’ll be blocked for days. A week, maybe.’

      I stared at her as the enormity of what she was saying began to sink in. The road – the main road – the only road in and out of Claddach – was blocked. We weren’t able to leave – that meant Tansy was here for at least a few more days than she’d planned to be. And, worse than that, no one could get to us. My wedding dress, Harry’s bridesmaid dress, our catering supplies, Chloe, Frankie, my lovely dad, the registrar – oh god, the registrar – were all outside Claddach with no way of getting in. It looked very much like the wedding wasn’t going to happen.

      I cried all the way home in Jamie’s dad’s car. Tansy sat in the front with my future father-in-law, telling him about the work she did in Boston. He seemed impressed and asked her all sorts of questions as he negotiated the Range Rover up the hill through the snow. The plough had been out but it was still hard going.

      I stared out of the window, hot tears falling down my frozen cheeks, and listened to Tansy charming the pants off my future father-in-law.

      It СКАЧАТЬ