‘Do I look bad?’ she asked, pointlessly running her hands through the nest of tangles on her head.
‘No, no,’ we all murmured. ‘You look fine.’
‘Yeah.’ Rowan wiped her friends face with a tissue. ‘You suit theI’m a Celebritylook.’
‘How are the stings?’ Melody asked, changing the subject.
‘I can hardly feel them any more. Those dock leaves really work. I’m just tired. Where are the beds?’
Good question. We looked at Hester. Were we to build our beds out of soggy ferns and clumps of muddy grass? Our director stared back at us, unflinching.
‘There are roll up mats in the back of my car and Ebony’s, and spare sleeping bags for those who haven’t brought one. Kim may go to bed in tent one. For the rest of us, it is time to get started.’
‘Get started with what?’ We gaped at her. ‘It’s the middle of the night.’
‘It is quarter to nine.’
Quarter to nine?
‘It’s also freezing, pitch black and still drizzling, not to mention blowing a gale,’ Mags pointed out.
What could Hester possibly have planned out here?
‘First, we hike.’
That did not go down well.
‘What? Why are you moaning? I told you about the night hike.’ Hester bristled.
‘We thought that was a joke,’ Uzma said in a dazed voice.
‘Did I sound like I was joking?’
‘You never sound like you’re joking,’ Leona pointed out. ‘Is this a sensible idea?’
‘I did this very same hike with the Girl Guides last year,’ Hester snapped. ‘We all had a marvellous time.’
‘What’s second?’ April asked, shivering with a combination of cold and fear. ‘You said the hike was first.’
‘Let’s conquer the first, first. Then we’ll get on to what’s second. Now, stout shoes, water bottles and torches, choir. It was all on the kit list. Hup two three four. What are you waiting for?’
In the end, after a discussion about who got to stay that nearly turned nasty, Millie and Janice pulled the old and infirm card, getting to stay behind with Kim, the sleeping twins, a lamp and a packet of mini apple pies.
We trudged through the mizzle, stumbling over hillocks and stepping up to our ankles in unseen puddles. Barely speaking, too tired and too busy concentrating on where we were going, we plodded on through trees and fields. Not adventurous. Certainly not fun. I wondered what the weather had been like when the Guides had done it. It seemed as though Hester had gone too far this time, and the trip would break instead of make us.
Until we hit a particularly tricky stretch along the edge of a swampy meadow.
We had to shuffle along, clinging to twigs sticking out from the hedge running alongside, leaping from tiny, slippery stone to tinier, even slipperier stone as we tried to work our way to the end of the field without falling in and sinking to the bottom of the swamp. Marilyn, familiar enough with Anton’s killer training sessions to take this walk in her stride (and even, quite possibly, enjoy being able to vault stiles and leap across brooks for the first time in years), led the way. She used the largest torch to navigate a safe path, making sure the person behind her could follow. We had to grip on to each other’s hands, and shoulders and rucksacks, watch carefully for those who began to wobble, and call out instructions to guide those behind us, and updates to those in front. In the end, we began to get the hang of it. We switched places so the stronger among us, those more used to hiking through swamps, flanked the weaker and more nervous members of the group. We organised a system with the seven torches (six, once Leona dropped hers) so that everyone could see when they needed to. We offered encouragement, and advice and cheered each other on.
Would you look at that? I thought proudly to myself, as I helped Rosa breach a particularly long gap between stones. We’ve become a team.
Then from the back came a piercing shriek.
April had fallen in.
‘Woman down!’ cried Hester, who’d been guarding the rear.
We all froze, peering anxiously back through the darkness in the direction of the squeals and splashes. The surprise sent Mags into a dangerous wobble, and it looked like there would be another woman down until Rowan hopped forwards and steadied her.
