Page 113 of All Wrapped Up
With a force of will I hadn’t known I had in me, I climbed out and slammed the door shut. I was soaked in an instant andmy Converse, which I hadn’t thought to switch for my wellingtons, were no match for the mud. It was a wet, windy and wild night and I roughly wiped my hair out of my face as the coat hood was whipped back and my hair plastered to my head.
‘Over here!’ I heard someone holler, but it wasn’t Ash. ‘Quick!’
There were people everywhere, crossing backwards and forwards and dodging around me. I knew I shouldn’t be there, but how could I not have come?
‘Where’s Ash?’ I heard Will suddenly bellow and everyone rushed in his direction. His voice was carried to me loud and clear on the wind. ‘Has anyone seen Ash?’ he shouted urgently again. ‘Where is he?’
With much difficulty, I made my way towards the sound of his voice and closer to the riverbank. I wanted to scream into the wind as I struggled to stay upright, but I saved my rapidly draining energy for the tragedy I could feel I was teetering on the brink of. How could this be happening again? How could it be that lightning was going to strike twice?
But then, with just two words… it was over.
‘I’m here!’ I suddenly heard a voice shout back and it unmistakably belonged to Ash. ‘I’ve got the straps! Let’s see if we can get her up!’
There was another rush of people towards what I could now see was a mud-covered horse laying on the ground and there, in the midst of the chaos, was Ash. He was soaked to the skin and filthy, but he was alive, he was breathing, he was there.
Noisy, painful sobs that felt literally torn from my lungs filled the air around me, but amongst the wind and tumult, no one heard them and I sank to my knees, grateful for the anonymityas I completely gave way to the all-consuming emotion coursing through me and the acknowledgement that, irrespective of whether or not Ash loved me, I was undeniably in love with him.
I was in love with Ash. I loved him…
I don’t know how long I was there, but it felt like some time before one of the firefighters’ head torches picked me out.
‘What the hell?’ I heard them shout as they spotted me, sodden and spent, and they rushed over. ‘Are you all right?’
I looked up at them knowing I didn’t have to worry about the tears coursing down my cheeks because they could easily be explained away as rain.
‘Yes,’ I said, feeling out of breath and utterly exhausted. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’
I’d rarely been less fine, but I could hardly explain.
‘Well, you can’t sit there, love,’ he stated as he unceremoniously pulled me back up and on to my feet. ‘Look at the state of you. This isn’t your horse we’ve just pulled out of the river, is it? If it is—’
‘No,’ I cut him off. ‘It’s not mine. Is it all right? I only stopped because I was driving by and saw all the lights, then I slipped over.’
‘Clearly,’ he said, with a look over his shoulder to where the horse was now standing, but shaking all over. ‘I think it’s going to be okay. We need to trace the owner though, so if you do know anything—’
‘I don’t,’ I said. ‘I really don’t. And I’m sorry I’m in the way. I should go.’
‘Yes,’ he said, looking at me again and frowning. ‘We’ll be clearing the site soon and we don’t need onlookers getting in the way.’
‘Sorry,’ I said, feeling a total nuisance as well as freezing cold, soaking wet and in deep shock.
‘I need to get on,’ he said. ‘You haven’t got your car stuck somewhere, have you?’
He sounded exasperated and I felt guilty to have held him up.
‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s the Land Rover parked on the verge. I’ll go.’
I could tell he was watching me as I slipped my way back across the field and climbed into the cab, then turned the engine over and the heating up to full blast. I waved gingerly as I crept away, knowing the journey home would be driven at a much more sedate pace now that I knew Ash was safe. Now that I knew Ash hadn’t rushed into the river to rescue that horse. Now that my life had taken yet another dramatic turn that I hadn’t seen coming…
Chapter 25
Back at Rowan Cottage, I peeled my clothes off on the doormat and ran myself a deep, hot bath. The water steadily cooled as I lay and stewed, with Pixie watching me from the doorway. It seemed utterly unbelievable that I had fallen in love, but there could be no denying the tumultuous feelings that had been unleashed as a result of the riverside rescue. My reaction and subsequent relief at seeing that Ash was safe from harm ran far deeper than even the firmest of friendships would have warranted.
A sleepless night followed and then another. Ash had messaged to apologise for missing our dinner date and I had sent a suitable reply, but I hadn’t suggested a second get-together and Ash hadn’t yet pushed for one either. Ultimately, I was as relieved about that as I was about there being a few days’ respite from having anything to do for the festival. I needed some peace in which to further think because I had no idea how I was going to free myself from the rigid state of shock I now found myself frozen in.
My life certainly hadn’t got any easier as a result of knowing I had fallen in love with Ash, because my heart wasn’t free tolove him. It was still bound tightly to Callum and the sudden reappearance of the dreadful dreams I hadn’t had about his death in months, suggested there was nothing I was going to be able to do to change that.
I felt trapped, flummoxed and guilt-ridden and I remained that way until the Friday morning when, dizzy from lack of sleep, I decided to reclaim the bold course of action I had originally planned for the abandoned supper date in the hope that it might just save my sanity. Having fought for it once before, I considered it worth rescuing again and set the wheels in motion straightaway.
