she could hardly understand. ‘I think you’re awesome,’ he added. ‘I wish there were some dragons I could slay on your behalf in real life.’
This was doing her head in. Any minute now she’d step forward and take this man and hold him.
She didn’t do relationships. She didn’t trust.
She could trust this man?
‘M-meanwhile, we need to figure how to get off this island,’ she managed, and heaven only knew the effort it took to get the words out.
‘We do,’ he said ruefully. ‘Fantasy’s great, but the real world awaits us.’
‘It does,’ she agreed, and then she muttered an aside. ‘I just need to keep remembering it.’
THE REAL WORLD broke in half an hour later.
Helicopters appeared in the distance, buzzing out over the islands but mostly out to sea.
‘The yacht race was a disaster,’ Ben said as they watched them. ‘That’s who they’ll be looking for. The race was full of idiots like us, in expensive boats but not enough skills to cope.’
‘How many sailors have the skills to cope with a cyclone?’
‘We could have done better. I never questioned the seaworthiness of the life raft. The salesman told me it was state of the art. I knew how to set it up but it never occurred to me that it was little more than a giant beach ball. I just hope other yachts had better equipment.’ He shaded his eyes, watching a couple of dots of helicopters flying out on the horizon. ‘If they’re still searching, I hope whoever they’re looking for had a better life raft than ours.’
‘They’re probably looking for you.’
‘Or Jake.’
‘Let’s face probabilities, shall we?’ she said astringently. ‘At last report, Jake was being winched to safety. You, on the other hand, were drifting in a beach ball. So they’re looking for you. Driftwood. Matches, fire, smoke. Stat. We need to get smoke up there fast before the weather closes in again.’
‘Is the weather closing in?’
‘Who knows? I hope someone, somewhere is working frantically to restore a transmission tower but nothing’s coming through on my radio. Or my phone.’ She flicked her cellphone out of her pocket. ‘Dead.’
‘Is it charged?’
‘You tell me to try turning it off and on again and I’ll tell you where to put it, tech-head.’ She tossed him the phone. ‘Here. You play with the on and off buttons, then make your way back to the cave at your leisure. I’m off to try a less tech-heavy form of communication.’
‘Mary...’
She’d started to turn away but she stopped and looked back at him. ‘Yes?’
‘Thank you,’ he said simply, and they were a mere two words but all the power in the universe was behind them. He looked at her, just looked. Their gazes held for a long, long moment, and in the end it seemed to tear something when she had to turn away.
‘My pleasure,’ she managed, but as she headed back to the cave she felt those stupid tears slipping down her face again.
What was wrong with her? Smash ’em Mary was turning into a wuss.
There was a part of Smash ’em Mary that didn’t even want the helicopter to come.
* * *
Only the helicopter did come. The fire took hold and she covered it with green leaves. Smoke billowed upwards, the chopper changed course and headed toward them.
Ben had made his way back by then, limping heavily, using his sticks for support. She should have moved slowly, staying to help him, but rescue had seemed more important.
Of course it was.
They stood in silence as the chopper approached. There seemed little to say, or maybe there was lots to say but neither of them could think what.
There was no way the chopper could land. The island was hilly, and the beach, normally a possible landing place, was a mess. The chopper came in low, assessing the situation, and then someone came down a rope.
A guy, Ben noted. Neither was it the chopper that had taken Jake away. Why not? His stomach clenched, thinking of the chopper in that wild weather. Surely if it had survived...
‘That’s called catastrophising,’ Mary said. ‘Stop it.’
‘How did you know...?’
‘Your face is like an open book. Just because this isn’t the chopper that took Jake, it doesn’t mean Jake’s at the bottom of the sea. I know you think New Zealand’s tiny compared to the US, but we do run to more than one helicopter.’
He managed a smile and then the guy on the rope landed near them, and she headed forward to help.
Ben stayed where he was. He’d pushed too hard. His leg seemed like it was at the end of its useful life. He’d never felt so useless.
Jake...
‘Take Ben first,’ Mary was saying.
He roused himself and thought, What?
‘She tells me you’re injured, sir,’ the paramedic said. ‘Do we need to splint your leg before we move you? Any other injuries?’
‘I don’t think he wants to be stretchered up,’ Mary said, and she was smiling.
He wasn’t smiling.
‘My brother...’ he said, and the paramedic’s face grew grim.
‘You’re one of the race crew?’
‘Yes.’
‘We’re very pleased to see you,’ he said. ‘There are still crew members missing.’ He turned to Mary, obviously forming a question, but she answered before he could ask.
‘I’ve searched the beach and found no one.’
‘Could someone have made their way inland?’
‘If they were capable of getting inland they’d have found the remains of the hut. It’s the obvious high point.’
‘It’s probably worth sending a team over to look more thoroughly,’ the guy said, ‘if this one’s washed up.
This one. This victim.
Ben was going out of his mind.
‘Do you know if my brother’s safe?’ he demanded. ‘Jake Logan. He was pulled up on a chopper before the cyclone hit.’
‘That’ll have been a New Zealand crew,’ the guy told him. ‘We’re Australian. I don’t know who they did and didn’t pull off.’
‘The choppers are all safe?’
‘I don’t know that either,’ he said apologetically. ‘This is our first run. Please, our time’s short.’
He didn’t need to say more. Others were missing. He had to get back in the air.
‘Put the harness on,’ Mary said, and something inside him snapped.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You go first and that’s an order. I’ll grab your manuscript and follow.’
‘It’s not important.’
‘It is. Go!’
‘Blimey,’ the guy said, obviously astounded at the vehemence behind his words. ‘Women and children first? The island’s not sinking, mate.’
It wasn’t, but the memory of Jake was all