‘I’ll never make it on this thing,’ whined Natasha as Alister hared off around the curve after Jordan and Curtis. Blinking back tears, she wrestled anew with the lever. Then, with a triumphant ‘Done it!’, she found a co-operative gear and began to pick up speed. ‘C’mon, Leah, keep up!’
Mindful of it being a family area, Leah smothered the curse that leaped to her tongue, standing on the pedals as she obeyed Natasha’s summons and tried to be thankful for the lightning change of mood.
Finding her pedalling rhythm, she began to feel the wind in her face. The next bend saw her whizzing up behind Natasha who, in turn, was gaining on Alister. The two boys were again out of sight. Leah’s feet whirled faster and faster, her wake marked by reeds swaying at the edge of the lake.
Natasha glanced around, wobbling precariously. ‘Dad, Leah’s catching us!’ she shrieked. ‘Go, Dad, go!’
Alister tucked his head down and pedalled harder, putting on a big booming Gandalf voice. ‘You shall not pass!’
Leah laughed, her legs going like pistons, her hair blowing over her face, helmet strap once again over her eye. ‘I’ll be first in the queue for ice-cream!’
Giggling and gasping, Natasha crouched over her pumping legs. ‘No, no, I will!’
Alister panted, ‘You shall not pass!’ less convincingly, as Natasha and Leah drew level.
Three abreast, howling and laughing, wobbling and swerving, jockeying for the lead, they flew around the next bend.
Which was when they met Jordan and Curtis flying back.
‘Whoa!’ the boys bellowed, sliding sideways in a screech of brakes, flinging up clouds of dirt but ending up more or less on their feet and astride their machines.
‘Waaaah!’ screamed Natasha, swerving wildly towards the reeds.
‘NO!’ After a heart-stop moment of grabbing at the handlebars for brakes that weren’t there, Leah remembered the unfamiliar braking system and back-pedalled. Hard.
The bike bucked her off like a pony.
She had a split second to be thankful for her helmet, skew-whiff or not, before the ground flew up to thump all the air from her body. ‘Oof!’ As she lay and crowed for oxygen, she heard a splash. And then a piercing scream.
‘Natasha!’ On a surge of adrenalin Leah hauled herself to her feet and staggered dizzily to where the reeds fidgeted in agitation at being disturbed.
But no Natasha stood in the water among them.
‘Natasha! Tashie?’ Leah’s heart hammered, and she had to hold her ragged breath to listen. After a terrifying moment, she heard whimpering.
‘I’m stuck.’ A choking cough. ‘I can’t!’ Splutter. ‘Lea–’ More coughing.
‘I’m coming!’ Leah splashed into the water, shoving blindly at the reeds that, nightmare-like, grabbed at her arms and legs. Endless seconds of battling took her up to her waist in icy lake water and suddenly she could see Natasha’s neon green helmet bobbing frighteningly close to the surface.
‘Legs stuck– Bike–’ Natasha gasped, flailing bravely to keep her mouth above water.
Heart pounding, Leah fought her way close enough to scoop an arm beneath Natasha’s shoulders. ‘OK, I’ve got you. Breathe, sweetie. Just breathe.’ She took a couple of moments to follow her own advice as Natasha’s panic began to calm with a few last heaves and coughs.
‘Can you kick free if I hold you up?’
‘Think so.’ After a lot of splashing and ‘Ow! Ow!’ Natasha was able to slide her legs out of the bike frame and tremble her way to her feet. ‘I couldn’t br-breathe. I thought I’d drown.’ Reaction setting in, she clung wetly to Leah and burst into tears.
‘I know. You’re safe now.’ Leah closed her eyes and cuddled her niece close as she waited for the fear to subside. It was several moments before either of them felt strong enough to yank their feet free of the lakebed and turn back towards the dry land. Jordan was just striking out towards them through the reeds, looking uncharacteristically anxious.
‘Leah–’
‘I’ve got her. She’s had a fright but she’s OK.’ Gaining dry land, after a cursory check of Natasha’s person and finding nothing worse than barked shins and bruises, Leah pressed her niece’s hand firmly into Jordan’s. ‘Look after your sister for two minutes while I drag the bike out. Don’t move an inch.’
‘Leah, Dad’s hurt his leg.’
‘One thing at a time.’ Ignoring the fact that her elbow was beginning to throb fierily Leah waded back into the chilly water, slipping over painfully between the reeds. It took all her strength to haul the bike up from its watery bed and back to shore. When she allowed herself a moment to catch her breath she noticed that not only were Jordan and Natasha still holding hands and standing exactly where she’d left them, but Jordan was dead white. Her heart gave an extra thud. ‘Did you say Alister’s hurt?’
‘Really hurt. Curtis stayed with him and I came after you and Tash.’
The sun was beating down but Leah’s blood ran cold. She’d been so focused on her mission that Alister’s absence hadn’t hit her. For him to abandon his daughter in a lake he must have been physically unable to–
‘Right, let’s check him out,’ she said briskly to disguise the slimy feeling of apprehension slithering through her belly. Leah jogged back towards the track as fast as suddenly wobbly legs would allow, surprised to see how far she and Natasha had plunged after the mass collision.
She found Alister sprawled in the dirt, face an unpleasant grey-white, Curtis crouched beside him.
‘Oh, shit.’ Leah almost gagged as she saw the unnatural angle of Alister’s leg.
‘Hurts.’ Alister’s breath hissed through gritted teeth either side of the single word.
‘I’ll get an ambulance. The French for 999 is 18, isn’t it?’
Alister sucked in a breath. ‘But we left all the phones in the car to save them from getting damaged – my bright idea, I think.’
‘Right. We’ll have to …’ Leah faltered. The track, so busy just a little while earlier, was empty. Her mind hurtled through the possibilities. Which was closer, the ice cream place or The Pig? Should she leave Alister and take all the kids? Leave all the kids with him? She’d just made up her mind to leave the boys but take Natasha, who was wailing again at the sight of her dad’s leg, when, to her swamping relief, two men in Lycra shot around the corner on serious cyclists’ cycles. They swished to efficient halts with exclamations of ‘Merde!’
‘S’il vous plait,’ Leah stuttered, jumping up, ‘mon bon-frère est blessé —’
‘Beau-frère.’ Alister couldn’t resist correcting her, be it through white lips. He even took over the explanations, his French flowing impressively despite his agony. In moments one man was hunkering down beside Alister while the other flew back along the track, wheels whirring. Alister, grimacing all the while, translated these developments into English. ‘There’s a ranger’s station as well as a café. The gentleman’s gone there for help.’
Leah huddled with a shivering Natasha as the lake water in their T-shirts and shorts became too cold to be outweighed by the warmth of the sun. Jordan sat on the track with his father, and the Frenchman who’d remained with them introduced himself as Théo and chatted reassuringly with Alister in French and with the others in fair English. A few minutes saw the rangers bowling up in a pick-up truck with Garde Forestier on the side, the second Frenchman and his bike in the back.
Théo nodded approvingly. ‘Les pompiers come also, soon.’
It felt