Page 44 of A Chance in a Million
‘Jane, hi. All well?’
As succinctly as possible she gave him a report of the situation and explained as well as she could just where they were. He listened intently before answering.
‘I’m pretty sure I know where you are. I’ll come straight over.’
‘If you bring some rope and a sheet or something to make a harness, we should hopefully be able to pull him out.’
‘All right, but you just be careful. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.’
‘Neither would I, but I’ll be fine. Ciao.’
She lay there for almost twenty minutes, making encouraging noises to the dog. During this time she found herself thinking of all sort of things. She thought of Mark, but this time not so much with sadness as with gentle nostalgia. She also thought of Beatrice and Paolo. They had gone out twice before Beatrice’s return to Rome and appeared to be picking up where they had left off fifteen years ago. She thought of her parents who had stayed for the weekend before heading south to visit Ravenna, Bologna and Florence. It had been good to see them again and to hear how pleased they were to find her looking happier. And they were right about that. Since coming to Italy, something fundamental had changed inside her head and her heart – whether due to David or not – and she knew it had marked a turning point in her rehabilitation.
She was still lying there, her head now filled with thoughts of David as she tried, yet again, to come to terms with her growing attraction towards him, and debated whether there was any chance he might feel the same way about her, when she heard shouts. Although he was far away, she immediately recognised his voice, so she stood up and shouted back, hoping the dog wouldn’t start jumping about and hurt himself as he reacted to the arrival of his master. She heard crashing as David came running up through the undergrowth towards her and she guided him with shouts and waves until he emerged from the ferns at the base of the mass of boulders and started to scramble towards her.
She pointed towards the backpack on his shoulder. ‘Rope?’ He nodded. ‘Something to make a harness?’ He nodded again so she laid out the plan she had been hatching. ‘I reckon if you go up on the rocks above me and let me have the harness and the end of the rope, you can lower me into the cave. It’s not quite vertical but the rock’s wet and slimy so there’ll be virtually no grip at all. Once I’m in there I can tie Dino into the harness and you can pull him out, followed by me.’ She shot him an encouraging smile. ‘Sound like a plan?’
‘Sounds good, but just you be careful.’
He nodded, pulled out an old sheet and handed it to her before turning away. She watched as he clambered up the rocky outcrop above her and made the rope fast. He then braced himself against a massive boulder with the rope running over his shoulder and through his hands and called down to her, ‘Tie yourself on and I’ll lower you down. I just wish it could be me in your place.’
She wrapped the old sheet around her waist, gave him an answering wave of the hand, and did as instructed. Once the rope was securely fastened around her, she gripped it tightly and started to slide down into the cave. The fissure at the top was so narrow she felt sure David would never have managed to squeeze his broad shoulders through, but with a bit of wriggling, she succeeded. As he lowered her into the darkness, she could hear excited yapping from the dog below and the sound of his paws scrabbling at the rocky walls. She kept talking to him as calmly and comfortingly as possible until she felt paws scrabbling at her legs and then her feet touched the floor of the cave.
She gave two sharp tugs on the rope to tell David she had arrived, untied it from around her body and then pulled out her phone and turned the torch back on. She set it carefully on top of a nearby rock and bent down to stroke the dog, calming him until she could fashion a sort of huge nappy out of the sheet David had brought. With this cradling the dog’s tummy, she tied it onto the end of the rope and gave it two more tugs. The rope tightened and the dog was lifted off the ground, giving a plaintive whine, but she stroked him gently until he was lifted out of her reach. The harness worked well and a few moments later she saw his paws disappear into the daylight. While she waited for David to release the dog and drop the rope back into the cave, she took a good look around.
The first thing she saw was a skeleton of a young deer, complete with short antlers. The unfortunate animal must have done the same thing as Dino but hadn’t had somebody to rescue it. Alongside it was another, far more sinister, skeleton – this time of a snake. Although there was nothing left of it but bones, it gave her the creeps and she was relieved when she heard David’s voice echoing down into the cave.
‘Tie yourself on and try to scramble up the rock. I should just about be able to lift you but if you could help I’d be grateful.’
‘I’m not that heavy, you know!’ She smiled to herself as she tied a good strong knot. ‘Okay, all tied on. Let’s do this.’
The rope tightened and she began to climb the rock wall. With his help from above it wasn’t too hard, although she was constantly slipping and sliding on the slimy surface and bumping her elbows as she did so. She had one bad moment when a small chunk of the rock wall broke off beneath her foot and caused her to fall sharply forward and bang her knee on the rock face, sending a stab of pain up her leg. It took over a minute of wriggling for her to squeeze through the narrow opening into the daylight and it was with an immense sense of relief that she emerged into the open, stepped onto a boulder, untied the rope and looked up at David.
There was sweat running down his face and she realised she was drenched as well. In spite of it, he was smiling broadly and she smiled back.
‘See… I’m not that heavy, am I?’
‘Absolutely not. I’m sure Dino weighs twice as much as you.’ The blue eyes sparkled. ‘Funny how my arms ache all the same…’ His tone became more serious. ‘Thanks, Jane. Really, thank you.’
He rolled up the rope and they clambered back down over the rocks onto the forest floor where she found the dog tied to a tree. Before untying him, David wagged a stern finger at him.
‘You are a very bad dog. Leave the squirrels alone in future. No more squirrels, got that?’
The dog had the decency to hang his head for a few moments, but as soon as he was untied he jumped up at his master to be petted. Suppressing a sigh of frustration, David led them off downhill until they reached a rough track. Jane was delighted to see the Labrador trotting along normally, apparently unhurt by his slide into the cave. In contrast, her cut and bruised knee was causing her quite a bit of discomfort. In consequence she was happy to find David’s Land Rover parked in the middle of the track. The idea of walking home really didn’t appeal.
Looking down at her leg, she saw blood running from the cut on her knee so she slowed. ‘I think I’d better clean this up.’
‘I’ve got a first aid kit in the car. You stay here. I’ll get it.’
She sat down on a fallen tree trunk and Dino the dog came over, rested his heavy head on her thigh and looked up with adoring eyes as if to say ‘Thank you’. She tousled his ears affectionately.
Seconds later, David returned with the medical pack and knelt in front of her. Ignoring her protests that she could do it herself, he set about cleaning and disinfecting the wound, swatting away his dog’s attempts to help. The stinging of the antiseptic was a small price to pay for feeling his hands on her bare skin, and she felt herself relax into a dreamy state.
‘I don’t know what to say, Jane. Thank you so much for rescuing this monster.’ David stuck a dressing over the wound and straightened his back. Quite spontaneously, she reached down towards him.
‘Thank you, doctor. Come and sit beside me, would you? I feel a bit weary all of a sudden.’
She caught hold of his hands and pulled him onto the log beside her. His arm stretched around her shoulders and clasped her tightly. A wave of happiness washed over her and she buried her face against his chest. A moment later she felt a big hairy paw land on her thigh and then another. The next thing she knew, an equally hairy face was nuzzling hers as the dog emitted little affectionate whimpers.
