Nicola Marsh - It Happened In Paradise - Wedded in a Whirlwind / Deserted Island, Dreamy Ex! / His Bride in Paradise

‘Yes.’

‘Good. Put the strap over your head so you don’t get parted from it again. There are bound to be more aftershocks.’

He used the same take it or leave it tone with which he’d told her to close her eyes and her first reaction to any kind of order had always been to ignore it. This time, however, she didn’t hesitate, putting the trowel in her bag, placing the strap over her head.

And she didn’t speak again until he’d painstakingly photographed all three hundred and sixty degrees of what remained of the temple. Kept her bottom lip firmly clamped between her teeth, containing her impatience as he carefully examined each image, instead fixing her gaze on the dark angles and planes of his face in the shadowy light from the small screen. Watching for the slightest sign that he’d found some way out.

Without a word he stopped looking, then turned his attention to the roof and carried on taking photographs.

She did her best to smother a pathetic whimper but he must have heard her because, without pausing in what he was doing, he reached out, found her hand in the faint light from the screen.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

‘Well?’ she asked, unable to contain herself when, finally, he stopped, looked through all the images and still said nothing.

‘Is this you?’ he asked.

‘What?’

She leaned forward and realised that he’d found the pictures taken at the christening. She’d taken a picture of Belle holding Minette.

‘No. That’s my sister-in-law. I was godmother to her baby last week.’

‘Why do I think I know her?’

‘I couldn’t say,’ she replied, unwilling to add glamour to her sister-in-law by telling him that, until recently, she had been the nation’s breakfast television sweetheart. ‘Maybe you’ve a thing for voluptuous women?’

‘If I have, believe me I’m over it. What about this?’ he asked, flipping on to the next picture.

‘That’s Daisy. She’s my assistant. My sister-in-law’s sister. It was a joint christening and I was godmother to her little boy too.’

‘So where’s number three?’

‘Three?’

‘Doesn’t everything come in threes? Wishes? Disasters? Babies…’

‘Not in this family,’ she said sharply.

‘That would be the family you’re taking a break from?’

Had she really said that? To this total stranger. Except that when a man had kissed you—twice—he could hardly be described as a stranger. Even when you didn’t know what he looked like. Anything about him. Except that he knew when to be tough and when to be gentle. And when a girl needed a hand to hold in the dark.

Maybe that was enough.

‘The same family whose photographs you carry about with you?’

‘It’s…complicated.’

‘Families usually are,’ he said with feeling.

‘What about you? Will your family be glued to the twenty-four hour news channels? Or flying out to help in the search?’

‘It’s unlikely. They have no idea I’m in Cordillera.’

‘Really? I assumed you’d been here for quite a while.’

‘Nearly five years.’

‘Oh.’

‘We’re not what you could call close.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s my choice.’

‘Right.’ Then, ‘Mine don’t know, either. Where I am.’

‘You said.’

She had said rather a lot for such a short acquaintance, but then the circumstances had an intensity that speeded up the normal course of social intercourse.

‘Of course I’ve only been gone a few days,’ she added, feeling guilty.

‘I’m sure you’d have got around to sending a postcard eventually.’

‘I don’t send postcards.’

‘Or call? They seem to have been calling you.’

‘Those messages? Probably business,’ she said dismissively. ‘Belle and Daisy and I have a television production company. We’re due to start work on a new documentary soon.’

‘Oh, well, the good news is that we needn’t worry about them worrying about us.’

That was the good news?

‘Okay, Miranda Grenville. We seem to have just two options. I may have found a way through the roof. The first part of the climb would be fairly easy. Up the back of the eagle where it’s sloping to the ground. But after that it’s going to be a tough climb, finding footholds in the dark. See?’

He showed her the picture of a dark gash in the roof where the light hadn’t reflected back, suggesting space.

‘Unfortunately I can’t say what we’ll find when we get there. We might still be—’

‘What’s the alternative?’ she asked.

‘We could try and clear this corner.’ He flipped forward to a photograph that showed a corner where the wall had subsided. ‘The ground falls away there, so it’s unlikely to be blocked with debris once we’re through.’

‘If we can get through,’ she said.

‘If we can get through,’ he confirmed. ‘The third option is to stay put and hope that the sniffer dogs are on their way.’

‘I don’t think I’ll hold my breath on that one.’ Manda did her best to swallow down the fear. ‘I imagine they already have their paws full.’ She tried not to think about what was going on outside. The suffering… ‘Which would you choose? If you didn’t have to think about me?’

There was a telling pause before he said, ‘I think clearing the corner might be the most sensible option.’

He was lying.

‘If you were on your own you’d go for the climb. Admit it.’

He hesitated a fraction too long before saying, ‘In the dark it could be suicide.’

‘You think I’m not up to it, is that it?’

‘I’ve no idea what you’re up to, but it’s not that. If there’s a shock while we’re up there—’

‘Shut up, Jago.’

‘Miranda…’

‘If there’s a shock it could all come down on top of us.’ He didn’t say anything. ‘And climbing would be quicker.’

‘True,’ he admitted. ‘Did you say something about a packet of mints? Or did they dissolve when the water leaked?’

‘You’re in luck, they’re the chewy kind.’ She felt around in her bag until she found them, unwrapped two mints and handed him one. Then she snapped the rest of the pack in two and gave half to him. ‘Here. Don’t eat them all at once.’

‘No, ma’am,’ he replied and her eyes were now so accustomed to the low light levels emitting from the phone that she clearly saw him tuck the sweets into his shirt pocket. ‘Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll go up and take a look to see if it’s possible, then I’ll come back for you.’

‘Leaving me down here? No way!’

‘You want your mints back?’ he asked.

‘Stuff the mints…’ She didn’t care a fig about them. ‘Stuff you.’ He wasn’t going to abandon her. ‘Give me my phone back and I’ll find my own way.’

As she made a grab for it, he moved it out of reach. ‘You think I’d abandon you?’

‘Not intentionally. But once you’re up there…’ He’d be exhausted. It would take a superhero to climb back down into the dark. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t going to happen. ‘Let’s just say that experience has led me to have very low expectations of the average male.’

‘Then it’s your lucky day. The one thing I’m not is average.’

‘No?’ Actually, she probably thought he was right, but she wasn’t about to pander to his ego. ‘So where do you fit? Above or below the median?’

‘You’d better hope that it’s above.’

‘I’ll let you know.’

‘Cat,’ he replied, but softly so that she was sure he was smiling. Then, leaning into her so that she could see the screen, ‘Okay. This is the way we go,’ he said, pointing out the route he’d chosen.