Scott and Letty had both climbed up on this ancient roof using two ladders. Alone.
Were they out of their minds?
She shouldn’t have left them. She should’ve been here. She should…
Just get a grip, she told herself. Blame needed to wait.
‘I’ll get the ladder back up,’ she called to William. ‘Hold on.’
There was no time for hesitation. She moved the main ladder along the wall so it was wedged against the yard gate, so Scott could hold it steady by himself. Then she headed up, tugging the smaller ladder with her.
‘Meg…’ William sounded appalled. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Scott’s done it. Letty’s done it. If all of my stupid family is intent on self destruction I might as well join them. There’s no alternative.’
There wasn’t. He knew there wasn’t.
‘You fall and you’re fired,’ he snapped.
‘That’s right. Resort to threats under pressure. You fall and I quit,’ she snapped back, and caught the flash of a rueful smile.
But… How had Letty and Scotty done this, she thought, as she struggled upward. They’d climbed the first ladder dragging the next, each doing it alone?
She’d looked at Santa’s legs last night and she’d thought the same as Letty obviously had-that she’d have a go at fixing him. But Letty was in her seventies, and that Scott could have tried with his leg in a brace…
She shuddered and she paused, half way up the ladder.
‘You can do it,’ William said strongly and she looked up and met his gaze and took a deep breath.
During the years she’d worked for William she’d been given the most extraordinary orders. She’d done the most extraordinary things.
You can do it.
She loved working for William.
What did he think she was? A wuss? She climbed on.
She reached the first eave. She balanced herself, took a deep breath and swung the second ladder up to the next eave.
‘No,’ William said.
‘No?’
‘It won’t hold.’ He sounded calm now, back in control. He’d obviously been using the time while she struggled to think the scenario through. ‘I can see where it fell. The guttering’s broken and there’s no guarantee it won’t break again. You’ll need to lie a plank along its length so the ladder’s weight’s on half a dozen fastenings instead of one.’
‘I’ll get a plank,’ Scott said.
‘Scott!’ William’s voice would have stopped an army.
‘What?’
‘Let that ladder go before your sister’s down and you’re fired, too. Meg, leave the ladder where it is and go find the plank with Scott. You do this together. My way or not at all.’
Meg looked at her boss. He looked straight back.
‘Let’s do what the man says,’ she told her little brother. ‘He’s the boss.’
They found a beam, ten foot long. Scott heaved from below and she tugged. She laid it along the length of guttering. She shifted the second ladder so it was balanced on the midpoint and it was as safe as they could make it. Done.
All William had to do was edge Letty back along the ridge-and let Meg take her down.
‘You can’t.’ William’s voice was agonised as they faced this final step, but he knew the facts. Meg was five foot five; he was six feet two. He weighed at least forty pounds more than she did. Everything depended on the guttering holding.
Letty couldn’t climb herself. It was Meg who’d support Letty on the way down.
Slowly William edged back along the ridge, lifting Letty a little at each move. She was so limp, Meg thought. She couldn’t get her down if she lost consciousness. But…
‘I’m saving my strength,’ Letty whispered.
‘You’re a woman with intelligence as well as courage,’ William said, and he met Meg’s gaze, and she thought…
She thought…
Yeah, well, there wasn’t a lot of use going down that path. Of all the inappropriate things to think right now. He looked lean and mean and dangerous. He had torn overalls, bloodstained chest, one arm bared. His expression was grim and focussed. He was totally intent on what he was doing. He looked… He looked…
She knew how he looked. She also knew how he was making her feel, and somehow it made things…
Scarier? That she’d decided she loved a man who was balanced on a crumbling ridge, with her injured grandmother in his arms and her little brother underneath, and if they fell…
Um…get a grip.
She gripped.
William was moving so slowly there was no risk of him overbalancing. He was shifting Letty a few inches at a time.
The wait was interminable.
‘I have you steady.’ It was Scott from underneath them. He’d climbed the first ladder and was holding the second.
This was safer-except it meant Scotty was right beneath her.
‘Scott…’ she started and she knew her voice quavered.
‘Scott’s fine. No one’s going to fall,’ William said. It was his ‘no one’s going home until this is sorted’ voice. Meg blinked. Okay, she couldn’t defy him on this one.
‘Letty, you need to trust us all,’ William said. ‘Meg will catch your legs while you find a footing on the ladder. She’ll be right under you, pressing you into the rungs. You’ll hold as best you can with one hand. That’s all you’ll need. Meg will be guiding your feet, holding you firm. Don’t release the first rung until you feel totally stable; stable enough to reach under for the next. If you can’t do it then stop until you feel you can. There’s no rush. We have all the time in the world.’
All the time in the world. Except Letty looked dreadful. If she fainted…
If she fainted then Meg would catch her and hold her and somehow get her down. No one’s going to fall. The guy in the bloodstained overalls had said so.
‘As soon as you have her I’ll slide down the ridge the way I came up,’ William said. ‘I’ll be beneath you.’
‘What, slide and jump?’ Meg retorted. ‘You want a broken leg? Scotty’s underneath and he’ll do any catching.’
‘I will,’ Scott said, and Meg looked up and met William’s gaze and saw agony. William McMaster depended on no one. For him to depend on a kid like Scott…
No choice. No one’s going to fall.
And somehow no one did. Somehow William got a limp and trembling Letty onto Meg’s ladder. Somehow Meg held her, guiding her every step of the way. Somehow they climbed down, rung after rung.
‘Women are awesome,’ Letty muttered as they reached the lower guttering and manoeuvred across to the next ladder. Meg even managed a smile.
‘You bet. You ready for the next bit, Grandma?’
‘Bring it on.’ Letty’s voice might be a thready whisper but her spirit was indomitable.
And then it was done. As they reached the ground Letty sagged but Scott was there. It was Scott who lifted his grandmother from the ladder. He had his Grandma in his arms, and then Meg was there, too, hugging them both.
And William was down, as well. He stood back, and Meg saw him over Letty’s head, and she reached out and tugged him in as well. Her big, bloodstained hero. Her boss.
William.
They hugged together. Sandwich squeeze, she’d called this when she was little, when the family was
