People get rescued all the time.’
‘Yes, but-’
‘Mandy, I’ve been in bad situations before. I’ve even given up hope and then found I was mistaken. We have a lot going for us. This hut is protecting us. If they don’t find us we can survive here until the weather improves.’
‘But how do we get out of the door?’
‘We claw our way through the snow if we have to. Trust me, I know what to do.’
But, as if to defy his bravado, a vibration seemed to go through the hut. For a moment everything shuddered, almost as though the frail structure had lurched closer to the edge. Instinctively, she reached out to him and felt his arms close tightly about her.
No more pretence now, just the two of them seeking refuge in the only place it existed.
‘It’s all right,’ he murmured against her hair. ‘I’m here. It’s going to be all right.’
And now she could believe it, simply because he said it. It made no sense, and yet it made every sense.
‘Now,’ he said with an attempt at cheerfulness, ‘let’s concentrate on what’s urgent-getting settled, keeping warm, finding something to eat.’
‘Right,’ she agreed, knowing that there was nothing to do but follow his lead.
The darkness was total. Night had fallen outside, and no moonlight could reach them through the snow piled at the windows. Only the rooms directly over the abyss were moonlit, and they avoided them.
There was no heating and none of the lights worked, but luckily Renzo’s torch still functioned and by its beam they managed to explore a little. There was a bathroom, with water still on tap from a tank outside, and finally the kitchen. There they found bottles of water and some glasses.
‘And canned food,’ Renzo observed. ‘Thank goodness they didn’t have time to remove this. We won’t starve, although the cuisine may be a rather weird mixture.’
Still using the torch, they groped around to find a table and two chairs.
‘I don’t know what this is,’ Renzo said, opening a can. ‘Cross your fingers.’
Using this principle they created a make-shift meal consisting of custard and fruit pieces, washed down by bottled water. As they ate he talked, reassuring her, trying to make this sound like a normal day, until at last she whispered, ‘Don’t. Please don’t.’
‘All right,’ he said. ‘We ought to get some rest anyway. We’ve both had the stuffing knocked out of us.’
She didn’t press him further. There was no knowing how deep was the snow that held them trapped, or how solidly it was frozen. Their chances of survival were poor, and in his heart she guessed he knew this, and suspected that she knew it, as well.
But it was too soon to confront that prospect.
Only one bedroom was left, with two narrow beds, a foot apart. Fully dressed, they fell into these and pulled the blankets up to their ears.
‘Goodnight,’ Renzo said.
‘Goodnight.’
With the lights out she might almost have thought that everything was fine, except for the cold that made her huddle up. She wondered if Renzo was cold in the other bed.
If you let your thoughts dwell on the reality you could go mad, she thought. Because reality wasn’t reality. What was happening was impossible, so it wasn’t really happening at all. It was only in her head that the snow was all around, which meant that if she thought hard she could make it go away-only it wouldn’t go away, no matter how frantically she-
‘Mandy, Mandy, wake up!’ She thought that was Renzo’s voice but she couldn’t hear him properly because someone was screaming. ‘Mandy, hush, hush!’
Then she knew it was herself screaming, but she couldn’t stop until he drew her close, burying her face in his shoulder until she fell silent.
‘OK, OK, are you awake now?’
‘Yes,’ she choked, clinging to him.
At last she stopped shivering and he released her, just a little.
‘You were having a nightmare,’ he said softly. ‘I’m not surprised, but don’t worry, it won’t be much longer.’
‘Renzo, you don’t have to tell me kind lies,’ she said quietly. ‘I can take the truth.’
‘We could still be rescued-’
‘I know. But there’s every chance that we won’t be, and that’s a fact.’
He grew very still, not answering but holding her close, and a feeling of contentment spread over her. It was incredible in the circumstances but it was as though his arms had the power to fend off disaster. She found she could even manage a mild joke.
‘You don’t have to protect me. I’m not really that delicate, you know.’
‘No, I guess you never were,’ he murmured. ‘You tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen, would I? That’s the way I am. I believe some people find me intolerable because of it.’
‘Tell me who they are and I’ll go after them,’ she said at once. ‘I won’t let anyone bad-mouth you.’
He laughed against her hair. ‘That’s all right, then. With you to defend me, what could I have to fear?’
‘Don’t let go of me,’ she said. ‘Stay here.’
‘Wait a minute.’
He drew away, returned to his own bed and pushed it up against hers.
‘That’s better,’ he said, taking her in his arms again.
Now it was easy to drift back to sleep, and this time there were no nightmares.
CHAPTER FOUR
WHEN Mandy awoke she was alone. With the window blocked by snow, she had no idea of the time and groped her way cautiously out of the room and across the hall until she could see the open door that led to the ‘forbidden’ room, the one whose far wall was missing, and the only place where there was any light.
There she found Renzo, looking out onto the snow that was still falling heavily.
‘If a helicopter comes up here, this is the best place to wave,’ he said as she edged cautiously close to him.
‘Has there been any sign of a helicopter?’
‘No, and even if there were-’
‘They couldn’t see us through that snow,’ she finished.
‘Let’s get something to eat. Then we’ll come and stand guard.’
They spent the day in the forbidden room, sitting well back, listening for the sound of a helicopter that never came. By the time the snow stopped, darkness had fallen and they moved back to the safe part of the house to find something to eat by torchlight.
‘You’re cold,’ he said as she shivered. ‘There’s only one place to keep warm, and the sooner we’re there the better.’
Before they got under the blankets, he tried his cellphone again, then hers. Neither gave any response. Mandy sensed his despair, and put her arms around him.
‘It doesn’t change what we already know,’ she said softly.
‘I wanted to make you safe. Some guide I am!’
‘I am safe.’
He turned his head. ‘I wish I could see your face,’ he murmured.
‘It’s the same as always.’
‘No, it’s changed.
‘Perhaps. Let’s get warm.’
They lay down, pulling the blankets up and lying wrapped in each other’s arms, as close as possible, to share their bodies’ warmth.
