Jenny was so cold. She lay in the darkness, shivering. Her head hurt so badly, she could barely breathe. She wondered if she was going to die – and thought that really, dying wouldn’t be too bad if it stopped the man with the hammer in her head.
She opened her eyes. Her nose was pressed into something red and white. She winced as she moved her head just enough to realise she was lying on ice … and appeared to be bleeding. Slowly she tried to move one limb at a time. She eventually succeeded, which suggested that nothing was broken. It took an age for her to push herself into a sitting position. Once or twice, the world spun around her, but she managed to hold on to it.
She leaned against a large boulder and tried to steady her breathing. She raised one hand to gently touch her pounding forehead. Her fingertips came away bloody. Slowly she looked around. She remembered picking up that dratted bracelet. She remembered setting out for the landing site. Then … she slipped?
Moving slowly to prevent her head falling from her shoulders, as it felt likely to do, she looked upwards. She was lying at the bottom of a steep slope. There were scuff marks in the ice. She must have fallen and hit … probably the same rock she was now leaning against. She turned her head even further – and felt a stab of sheer terror. She wasn’t at the bottom of the slope. She was nearer the top. Had she not hit this boulder, she would have kept sliding until … She looked at the freezing sea far below and shuddered.
The cold was seeping into her body. She could feel it sapping her energy. If she didn’t start moving soon, she never would. But if she tried to climb that slope – and slipped again. This time she might not be so lucky. She probably shouldn’t try to climb back up without help.
How long had she been here? The light was definitely lower than when she turned back up the headland. The sky had the pink and golden tinge of the lowering sun. She wasn’t sure what time she had fallen – so she had no real idea how long she had been unconscious on the ice. Why had no one come? Her crewmates. Karl. Kit …
She shook her head slowly with indecision. The pain was bearable, but just. She had to make a decision. Should she try to climb back up to the path along the crest of the ridge or should she wait for help?
If help was coming, it was taking its own sweet time.
The longer she stayed there, the colder and weaker she would become. There really was no choice.
Very slowly and carefully, Jenny raised herself onto her knees. The world spun sickeningly. She waited until it stopped. There was no way she was going to be able to get to her feet, far less stay on them long enough to walk out of here. If she even tried to stand up, she would fall into that freezing ocean. She knew that as certainly as she knew that if she stayed here, she would freeze. She felt despair begin to take her.
‘Jenny. You would fight. You’d never give up. You’d never leave someone you loved.’
Kit’s voice echoed in her head.
‘Never.’ She spoke the word as firmly to the empty sky as she had to Kit that night on the deck of the ship. She had promised him that she would never give up. And she wouldn’t. Because just maybe that insignificant kiss, that unforgettable kiss had meant as much to him as it had to her.
If she couldn’t walk, she would crawl.
When she had set out on this foolhardy venture, she had been wearing gloves. She remembered taking them off as she picked up the bracelet. She dug in her pockets and praise be to the god of fools and lovers, she found them. She pulled them on, put her hands onto the ice and eased her weight forward. She shuffled a few inches, then waited for the world to stop spinning. A few more inches, and another wait. The slope was steep, but she was going to be able to do this. It was just going to take a year. Maybe two.
She shuffled forward another few inches, taking great care not to slip. One slip and it would all be over.
Something dark and red dropped onto the ice in front of her face. Her head was bleeding, which explained why the world was spinning again. She waited for the laws of physics to regain control of her universe and shuffled another few inches up the steep slope.
Her breath was coming in short hard gasps, but she kept moving. The pain in her head brought tears to her eyes, but she kept on moving.
‘Jenny. You would fight. You’d never give up. You’d never leave someone you loved.’
‘I won’t give up,’ she whispered. ‘Kit … Do you hear me? I won’t.’
The ice was slippery. She had to fight for every inch. Sometimes the ice won and she would slide back a few inches. But each time, she heard Kit’s voice in her head.
She would not give up.
Her body was drenched with sweat. She was shivering with the cold. Her will was still strong, but her body was failing. She risked a glance up. The crest of the ridge seemed a million miles away. But she could hear Kit’s voice – calling her forwards.
‘Jenny!’ How she wished that voice was real, not just a construct of her feverish mind.
‘Kit!’ Her voice was little more than a croak from her parched throat.
She must be dying. Going to heaven, because he was there. Reaching out his hands to her. Lifting her from the ice and folding her into the warmth of his arms. His face was the last thing she saw before the darkness took her.
Letting her go was almost beyond him, but the doctor’s words rang true. Slowly Kit lowered Jenny’s still form to the ground. But he couldn’t totally let go. He kept her head cradled in his lap. He raised one hand as if to touch her face, but the doctor gently pushed it away, and leaned forward to examine Jenny’s head wound.
As the doctor’s back blocked Jenny’s face from his gaze, Kit almost gave in to the despair washing over him. In his life, he had been privileged to love two very different but equally amazing women. He had lost one and the grief had nearly destroyed him. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing the other.
‘Help me,’ the doctor ordered. He took a large square of shiny plastic from his bag. ‘Wrap her in this. It will keep her warm.’
Kit did as he was told. He held Jenny tightly as the doctor started to bandage her injured head. She moaned softly, and stirred in his arms.
‘Won’t give up …’ she mumbled. ‘Kit … I promised.’
The she fell motionless again.
‘We need to get her back to the ship,’ the doctor said, rising to his feet. ‘As quickly as possible.’
Karl stepped forward. The big man held out his arms to take Jenny, but Kit shook his head.
‘I’ll take her.’ He scrambled upright and gently lifted her into his arms. He cradled her against his chest, his heart almost stopped as he heard her shallow, ragged breathing.
‘It’s a long steep ridge,’ Karl said, gently placing his hand on Kit’s shoulder. ‘I’m here when you get tired. It will be faster and safer if we share the load.’
Numbly, Kit shook his head and started walking down the treacherous ridgeline. He knew the need for haste, but measured each step as if he was walking on eggshells.
As if he carried in his arms the most precious thing in the world.
Because he did.