Page 67 of Escape for Christmas
‘OK, I’ll be honest. I couldn’t find anything else at the last minute.’
‘Anythingbetter?’ she said, watching him through the steam from her mug.
‘No, actually. It was the quirkiness of the offer that attracted me. There were a couple of options promising turkey, tinsel and carols, but they appealed about as much as a limp lettuce. Your escape, on the other hand, leapt out atme … For all kinds of reasons,’ he added cryptically and with a touch of sadness, Sophie thought.
She smiled. ‘It’s not turned out quite how I expected.’
‘On the contrary, it’s greatly exceeded my expectations.’
The moon came out. Was that a twinkle in Nico’s eyes?
‘Particularly the hostess,’ he added smoothly. ‘You’re a remarkable woman, Sophie.’
Even in the chilly air, she felt warmth rise to her cheeks at the compliment from this handsome man. Then she reminded herself that, so far, the previous two good-looking and charming men she’d allowed into her life had let her down badly. Of all her ‘escapees’, Nico struck her as the one with the biggest reason for running away and hiding from something.
‘I’m just an ordinary person trying to do my best,’ she replied firmly.
‘Sophie?’ Brody appeared on the terrace, still in shirt sleeves, with damp hair.
‘Ah, the hero of the evening,’ Nico murmured.
‘Sorry?’ Brody said brusquely. ‘Sophie, the rescue team is preparing to move Anna and the baby to the helicopter. It’s almost here. I wondered if you might like to come to the sports field with me and see them off? They won’t be long, because the biggest danger now is the baby getting cold. The helicopter has the proper equipment to keep them warm.’
‘Oh yes!’ Sophie declared. ‘Would you mind making sure everything’s OK here?’ she asked Nico. ‘Especially Pete and the children, and Agatha. She was amazing, but she needslooking after now. I’ll be back soon, but I feel I want to see Anna and the baby safely onto the helicopter.’
‘Of course, I’ll hold the fort.’ Nico smiled ‘By the way, well done, mate,’ he said to Brody.
Brody grunted something vaguely resembling a ‘Thank you’ before striding off towards the front of the building. Sophie followed, drinking her tea on the move.
By the time she was inside the house, Brody was back in his coat, holding a torch. The mountain-rescue team was carrying Anna and the baby out in a stretcher chair, both swaddled like mummies against the cold. Pete saw her off to the gate. The Nowak children couldn’t all go on the helicopter and Pete didn’t want to leave them, so he had to stay behind.
The doctor comforted him just before they left the house. ‘I promise we’ll let you know how they are as soon as we can. Anna’s got her phone too.’
With that, Pete went back inside. Without the team, it was darker inside Sunnyside and the tea lights and phone batteries wouldn’t last for ever. It was going to be a very long night. Sophie grabbed a torch and hurried out after the team. Even in wellies, it was hard going, the snow coming almost to the top of her boots in places.
Felltop Farm had lights on downstairs, but the rest of the village was mostly in darkness. She and Brody walked past the fallen tree that had allowed a stretcher party, but not a vehicle, to pass.
‘We’ll get that cleared in the morning by one of the local farmers,’ Brody suggested.
‘The snow still has to thaw before anyone can leave, though,’ Sophie said. ‘So it’ll be Boxing Day before we can get out.’ Ironic, she thought, that her guests had come to escape and now they were trapped.
The roar of rotors grew louder as they trudged towards the sports field where the helicopter was waiting. The crew was hurrying towards the stretcher and, within a minute, both Anna and the baby were safely aboard. The mountain-rescue team moved away and the helicopter took off, snow spiralling into the air from the downdraught.
The thought of them soaring high in the sky to safety brought a lump to Sophie’s throat. The rotors died away and she felt herself choking back tears. She found Brody’s hand in the small of her back briefly – before it was hastily withdrawn, as if he’d suddenly remembered the tension between them.
She looked at him, his face uplit by torchlight. He looked completely shell-shocked.
‘They’ll be fine now,’ Brody said. ‘You did incredibly well.’
‘I only watched. Anyone would think you’d done it before.’
‘I was terrified of hurting the baby or Anna. I have never been so happy to see anyone as I was when the rescue doc turned up.’
‘Me too, but not because I didn’t have total faith in you,’ Sophie said, adding quickly, ‘in your abilities.’
‘I’m glad you did. Even though I’ve attended hundreds of animal births, that was something else.’
She stopped and listened. A distant clanging cut through the still night.
