Wish Upon a Star (22 page)

He handed her a chocolate bar and then pulled a fleece hat onto her damp hair to try and prevent further heat loss from her head.

The chocolate bar slipped through her fingers and her eyes drifted closed. ‘Not really hungry. Tired now…’ she murmured, and he cursed softly under his breath as he rescued the chocolate.

‘You need to eat, Miranda. It will warm you up.’ He
pulled the wrapper off the chocolate, pushed the bar into her hands again and closed her fingers around it. ‘Eat!’

Her eyes opened at his sharp command and she stared blankly at the chocolate bar as if she’d never seen one before and then took a reluctant nibble.

Jake removed her sodden coat, which would have struggled to give protection against a light shower in the city, let alone heavy snow in the mountains.

‘Don’t take my coat off.’ She mumbled her protest and tried to stop him but he’d already dropped it on the ground and was dragging extra layers from his rucksack.

‘You need to put these on. You need dry clothes. Put on this fleece and then this waterproof shell.’

She stared at the clothes he dropped onto her lap and he gave a sigh and picked them up, deciding that he was going to have to dress her himself. So he pulled the fleece over her head and then manoeuvred her arms through the sleeves, then did the same thing again with another layer and finally zipped her into his spare coat.

It was like dressing a doll. She was limp and unresisting and his coat swamped her, but at least it was dry and weatherproof. He wrapped a scarf around her mouth and nose to warm the air she was breathing, running through the options in his head. Helicopter evacuation? Not in this weather. Which meant calling the team out. But it would take them a couple of hours to reach this point and that was two hours during which Miranda could grow even colder.

‘All right.’ Pleased to see that she’d finished the chocolate bar, he handed her another and reached into his rucksack for the insulated flask that he always carried. ‘This is the situation. We basically have two choices. I can contact the mountain rescue team and then put up a shelter and we can
lie naked in a sleeping bag together while we wait. That should warm you up.’

Her eyes slid to his and he saw a glimmer of humour. ‘Is that an indecent proposal?’

Something in her slightly cynical tone made him smile. She had a sense of humour and that was a good sign. ‘Believe it or not, it wasn’t. Skin to skin contact is the fastest way of rewarming a casualty.’

Her teeth were chattering as she nibbled reluctantly on the second chocolate bar. ‘That’s the most original seduction line I’ve ever heard and, believe me, I’ve heard a few.’ Her voice was weak and rasping. ‘And I’m not a casualty.’

He decided not to point out that she was fast becoming one. ‘The second choice is that we walk down. But that requires you to get up and move your legs. Are you up to it?’

‘Of course.’ More alert now, she rubbed the snow out of her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘What do you think I am? Pathetic?’

No, hypothermic.

He was relieved to see that she suddenly seemed to be waking up. ‘So tell me what you’re doing out here on a day like this.’ Concern made his voice sharper than he’d intended. ‘Do you have a death wish?’

‘No. And the day was nothing like this earlier this morning. It was sunny.’ Despite the extra layers he’d given her, her teeth were still chattering and her breath clouded the freezing air. ‘And I was out for a walk, just like you.’

Jake glanced down at her feet and lifted an eyebrow. ‘
Not
like me,’ he pointed out gently. ‘You’re wearing trainers.’

Her hands still clutching the chocolate bar, the girl stared down at her feet and gave a wan smile. ‘Well, they were all I had. I don’t possess walking boots. I thought I’d be all right providing I stuck to the path.’

‘Is this the same path that has just disappeared under a layer of snow? And didn’t you possess gloves either?’ Jake gave a sigh and reached inside his rucksack again. ‘If you don’t own walking boots then you shouldn’t be out on the mountains, especially not at the height of winter. What were you thinking of?’

For a moment those incredible eyes were haunted by ghosts and then she turned her head away. ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she said huskily. ‘This and that. Stuff.’

Stuff?

Something about the set of her profile made him frown and want to question her further but then he reminded himself that hesitation could make the difference between life and death in the mountains. This wasn’t the time for polite conversation. ‘Finish the chocolate.’ He laid a pair of gloves on her lap. ‘And then put these on before you develop frostbite in your fingers. Have you any idea what the temperature is today?’

She finished the last of the chocolate and then slowly wriggled her hands into the gloves. ‘No, but it certainly isn’t the Bahamas, that’s for sure. The sun was shining when I left.’

It was a common mistake, Jake reflected. Believing that a cloudless blue sky would last. A significant proportion of the calls to the mountain rescue team were made by people who had underestimated the changeability of the weather. ‘You shouldn’t be out here on your own in this weather. It’s Christmas Day, you should be home with family, eating turkey.’ The moment the words left his mouth he wanted to kick himself. Presumably, if that had been an option she would have taken it, and her next words confirmed his suspicion.

‘I don’t have any family.’ She spoke the words calmly,

as if it wasn’t that great a problem. ‘But you’re completely right, of course. Coming out here was a stupid thing to do. It’s just that it was beautiful and I needed to think and—’

‘And you didn’t want to sit in by yourself on Christmas Day. You don’t have to explain to me.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘All around the country at this precise moment in time, people are opening presents they don’t want from relatives they haven’t seen all year and gaining pounds that they’re going to spend the next few months failing to lose.’

‘So is that what you’re doing up here in the wilderness? Avoiding presents and weight gain?’ Her gaze rested on his shoulders and then lifted to his mouth and lingered there for a moment. Then she lifted her eyes to his again and he felt something stir inside him. The urge to kiss her was so powerful that he forced himself to take a step backwards, reminding himself that this wasn’t the time or the place.

Or the woman.
He didn’t know what her problem was, but it was clearly something significant.

‘I happen to love it up here in the wilderness.’ He watched as she slowly stood up. ‘It’s my favourite place.’

‘Oh.’ She hugged her arms around her body to try and stop the shivering. ‘Well, lucky for me that you happened to be passing. If you’ll just point me in the right direction, I’ll make my way home. Sorry to have bothered you and eaten all your chocolate rations. I hope there are plenty more waiting for you back on your Christmas tree.’

He was torn between exasperation and admiration. He knew she was hideously cold and uncomfortable. Every other female he knew would have been moaning, hysterical or both by now. Miranda seemed remarkably calm.
Too calm?

‘This isn’t a shopping centre with a hidden exit. Do you have any idea how much danger you’re in?’

‘Yes, actually,’ she said calmly, stamping her feet to clear her trainers of the snow. ‘But I assume that panicking isn’t going to help. Better to make a plan and get on with it.’

‘And that’s what you were doing, sitting on the rock, when I found you? Planning?’

‘Actually, I was trying to work out which way was up and which way was down.’ She squinted through the steady fall of snow. ‘I didn’t want to move until I was sure and everything seems to have merged. You can’t tell the difference between the sky and the ground.’

Jake gave a disbelieving shake of his head. ‘It’s called a whiteout,’ he informed her gently, wondering what would have happened to her if he hadn’t chosen to take this particular path. ‘One of the most dangerous weather conditions that exists in the mountains.’

‘I’ve never seen one before.’ She stretched out a hand and caught some of the thick snowflakes as they landed. ‘Gosh.’

‘Gosh?
Gosh?
’ Shaking his head with exasperation, Jake lifted the flask. ‘Here—drink some of this.’ He poured the creamy liquid into the cup and handed it to her.

‘What is it? I don’t drink alcohol.’

‘And I don’t give alcohol to victims of hypothermia. It would kill them.’

She lifted her chin and her dark eyes flashed with anger. ‘I’m
not
a victim.’ Her tone was chilly. ‘Don’t ever call me a victim.’

He found himself wondering why that one word seemed to trouble her more than her immediate situation. ‘You will be a victim if we don’t warm you up soon. It’s hot chocolate. It will give you energy and warm you up.’ He pushed the flask into her gloved hands. ‘Stop talking and drink.’

‘Hot chocolate? You keep pulling amazing things out of your bag.’ Her teeth were chattering again as she clutched
the mug. ‘Clothes and now hot drinks. Who are you, Father Christmas?’

‘A well-equipped climber,’ he said pointedly, and she stared into the mug without enthusiasm.

‘We can’t all afford fancy equipment.’

‘It isn’t about fancy equipment! It’s about safety. And if you don’t have the right equipment, you shouldn’t be out here.’ He heard his voice sharpen and stopped talking. What was the matter with him? He never lectured people. On the contrary, he believed that people had the right to live their lives the way they wanted to live them. But he didn’t feel remotely relaxed about Miranda.

What if she did the same thing again and he wasn’t around to rescue her?

He shook himself, wondering why he cared so much about someone he’d known for less than an hour.

She sipped the chocolate. ‘Oh…’ She closed her eyes and gave a low moan of delight. ‘That’s delicious. I’ve never tasted anything better in my life.’

Looking at the thickness of her dark lashes and the vulnerability of her soft mouth, Jake felt a thud of lust and almost laughed at himself.

He really needed to get out more. His life was truly in a sorry state if he was lusting after a half-frozen woman whose knowledge of the mountains could have been written on a bootlace.

She drank the chocolate and he pushed the Thermos back into his rucksack and withdrew a rope and harness.

‘I’m going to put this on you because your footwear has no grip and the ground is slippery.’

She looked at the rope. ‘You’re going to lower me down the mountain?’

‘We’re going to
walk
down the mountain. I’m going to tie
you to me,’ he explained patiently. ‘That way, if you slip, I catch you.’

‘Or I pull you over, too.’

He refrained from pointing out that he had more muscle in one arm than she appeared to have in her entire body. ‘That isn’t going to happen.’

She took a deep breath and gave him a slightly chilly smile. ‘Thanks for the chocolate and the extra layers. I’ll be fine now. I can get down by myself. If you give me your address, I’ll deliver your things back to you after Christmas.’

He stared at her, unable to believe what he was hearing. ‘You’ll be fine?’

By rights she should be clinging to him, begging him not to leave her. Instead, she was dismissing him.

‘Absolutely fine.’ Her eyes were filled with determination. ‘I’m warm again now so I don’t need any more help, although I’d love to borrow the hat. I’m sorry to have bothered you this much.’

‘Bothered me?’ He frowned at her, wondering what was going through her head. ‘Miranda, you don’t have a clue where you are and you don’t have any equipment to help you survive in these weather conditions. Just how, precisely, do you plan to get yourself down on your own?’

‘If you’d be kind enough to just point me towards the path and tell me when I go left or right, I’ll be fine.’

He blinked. She sounded like someone asking for directions in a city. ‘The path,’ he pointed out gently, ‘is currently buried under several centimetres of snow. And it doesn’t go left or right—it curves, subtly. Step too far to the left and you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the valley faster than you’d planned, step too far to the right and you’ll fall into the ravine.’

Her smile faltered slightly. ‘I’m sure I’ll manage.’

He struggled to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. ‘How?’

‘Because I’m used to doing things by myself. I’m a survivor,’ she said firmly, and there was something in her tone that made Jake look at her searchingly.

Was she trying to convince him or herself?

As intrigued as he was puzzled, he gave a quick shake of his head. One minute she was chatty and then next distracted, far away, as if she had something more important on her mind than survival.

What was the matter with her?

And what was she doing up here on her own on Christmas Day?

Ignoring her attempts to dismiss him, he fastened the rope to the harness on her waist with swift, skilled movements of his hands. ‘Do you even know which way is down?’

‘No. But it sounds as if I’m going to find it soon enough if I take a wrong step.’

‘You’re not going to take a wrong step.’ He checked the knot on the rope.

‘I don’t want you to give up your walk to rescue me.’

She was clearly fiercely independent. He rubbed a hand across his face to clear his vision and tried another tack. ‘I’d already finished my walk so we’re walking in the same direction anyway.’

‘Oh. Well, that’s different. If you’re going that way…’ she shrugged ‘… we might as well walk together. Why do you have all this equipment?’

‘Part of my job.’

‘Your job?’

Jake gave the rope a gentle tug. He’d decided to keep the rope short so that if she slipped it would reduce the sliding distance. ‘I’m in the mountain rescue team. And if we don’t
both go down now, we’ll be calling out the entire team later, which would be extremely embarrassing for me.’

She stared dubiously at the mist and snow. ‘All right. I suppose it makes sense to walk together. I can certainly see why they call it a whiteout.’