A Solitary Heart (8 page)

side to side, shrieking in terror.

'Oh, God, Sian, I—I think I'm going to be sick!'

Sian's initial shock faded in a wave of adrenalin. She rounded on her

friend and snapped coldly, 'Stop that! You're frightening the other

children.'

She had never used that tone of voice with Jane before, not even in

her worst temper, and the other girl stiffened, shocked out of her

internal reaction. 'Listen to me,' Sian said, her gaze hard and clear on

the blonde's face. 'It's obvious he can't climb down by himself and,

the way the poor brat's got himself twisted, he's going to fall if he

doesn't stop panicking.'

'Call the fire department!' cried one of the children.

'Even if you could find a phone, it wouldn't do any good,' Sian said.

Her own face was rigid with enforced calm. 'They can't get their

equipment this far back into the woods. Someone's got to bring him

down. Where are your parents?'

The first girl who had hailed them said, wiping her tear-stained face,

'Back at the picnic site, that way.'

She pointed in the direction Sian and Jane had been heading. Sian

nodded and said grimly, 'Go tell them what's happened. Now.'

She did not shout; she wouldn't have anyway, not in their state, but

all four bolted as if they were fleeing from the wrath of God, and, at

the sight of his friends disappearing, the boy at the top of the tree

sobbed even harder.

'Hey!' Sian shouted, forcing a no-nonsense tone into her voice.

'Why's a big lad like you crying like that! You think that's high? I

used to climb twice as high as that when I was half your size! Now,

quit your snivelling and keep a firm grip, and we'll have you down

before you know it!'

Jane was a shaken mess beside her, but at least she wasn't having

hysterics. Sian said to her in a quiet undertone, 'The branches are too

thin where he's stuck. Do you understand? Only someone small and

light can climb that high. But it's obvious you can't do it, so there's

only me. I'm going to try to get his shirt unstuck, but I don't think he

can climb down on his own—he's far too frightened, and I'm not

strong enough to carry him. Janey, we need help.'

Jane's eyes clung to her as she talked, and she was thankful to see

that some rationality had crept into the other girl's huge eyes. 'Oh,

Sian, be careful, for God's sake! If the branches are breaking under

his
weight -'

'Don't fall to pieces on me now!' snapped Sian. 'Just get help—and

hurry!'

Jane stole one last look, shuddered and ran. Sian, too, turned to stare

up at what had suddenly become an immeasurable, impossible

distance and wished she could think of some other alternative. But.

there wasn't any and she knew it, so, before she lost her nerve, she

gritted her teeth and started to climb.

The first half was easy; she could see how seductive the prank would

be to the mind of a mischievous boy, and how foolishly he had let his

self-confidence convince him that he could go higher than he should

have. As soon as he sensed that help was on its way, he began to cry

again in a mixture that she suspected was part renewed fear and part

relief.

'What's your name?' she asked, selecting her next branch with cold

logical care and taking another step up. Her wet bare feet were drying

quickly and finding purchase on the rough bark, though she knew she

would have bruises afterwards on the soft skin of her inner sole.

There was a break in the outburst, then he said with a gulp, 'Barry.'

'Well, Barry, my name's Sian. S-i-a-n. That's Welsh for Jane, which

is my friend's name as well. My mother came from Wales—it's a

place, you know, not a big fish,' she told him conversationally; then

paused. Sure enough, he had forgotten enough of his panic to

produce a rather hollow chuckle, and she smiled wryly and

continued, 'I know a story about a Welshman who thought he could

fly. Would you like to hear it?'

'O-OK, sure.'

And so she began, and, as she talked to keep him calm and her mind

off the very real danger of what she was doing, she was already

reaching up for another branch.

SIAN had a vivid memory of when she was a very small child, not

quite two years old, in which her mother, still living then, was a large

shadowy figure. Her parents were already separated at that time, and

once when Devin had come to visit his daughter she had run to him

with arms outstretched.

He had swung her up into his strong arms, her big handsome father,

and the world had reeled giddily about her as she chortled with

delight. Then he had tossed her into the air and her bright

uncontainable joy had immediately turned to fright as everything

solid and secure had fallen away and she was left for one

immeasurable instant suspended in mid-air.

The moment had passed too quickly for her to even cry out. Gravity

had claimed her tiny body, and she fell, and her father caught her

close into a great hug, and everything settled again into how it should

be. But Sian had never forgotten that pure terror as she began to

tumble helplessly back to the ground.

She had a mental flashback of it that broke her into a cold sweat as

she rested, panting, for a few seconds and surveyed her position.

Time had slowed and there was nothing but the present, and the quiet

sound of leaves rustling. She had discovered another hazard in her

climb, which was the slippery sun lotion that coated her body and

made her confidence of her grip very shaky. Her arms were

beginning to ache from the tight clench she maintained, but no hint of

her fear filtered into her calm, even voice as she talked to the boy and

listened for his occasional high treble of a reply.

She had reached the thinner branches and picked her way with

extreme care, testing their strength before trusting her weight to

them, and at each creak and sway her breath stopped in her throat and

she froze before continuing to inch upwards.

It could not have been more than five minutes before the quiet

surrounding the two in the tree was broken by the noisy approach of

people. Sian risked a glance down. She could see in the group

hurrying from the picnic site the same reactions that she and Jane had

had, the shock of hesitation as they took in the scene, and the various

positions of fright. Oh, lord, she thought in resignation, not a fit and

athletic man among the lot of them.

A woman cried out in a high voice, and Barry started to sob again,

quietly.

'Is that your mom? Not to worry,' said Sian, tilting back her head. She

Was at a level with one dirty sneaker, and it seemed very small and

vulnerable as it dangled in front of her eyes. 'I bet she has a fit if you

cross the street, doesn't she?'

'She's gonna kill me!' the boy burst out. Sian had room inside her for

one breathless chuckle.

Preoccupied with soothing the child, trying to ignore the panic below

her, Sian was unaware of another's approach to the scene. The man

sprinted, full out, with powerful distance-eating strides as swift at the

end of the half-mile as when he'd begun, a gold and tawny figure

spearing through the shallow water which cascaded from the force of

his urgent passage into sparkling diamonds.

His intent expression did not change when he saw the trapped boy

and Sian's slim body underneath, taut with striving feline grace,

seemingly suspended at the top of the tree by insubstantial green

fronds and a prayer. But his hazel eyes undertook a sharp dilation,

and his chest moved hard, where before the headlong dash had barely

quickened his heartbeat.

Then Sian heard the sound of another voice from the ground, deep

and firm and commanding, and her knees went to water in an intense

flood of relief as she recognised Matt taking charge of the threatening

pandemonium. He had been amazingly fast; Jane had to have raced

back to the camp as if all the hounds of hell were snapping at her

heels.

He must have summed up the situation at a glance, for, without any

of the horrified hesitation that had frozen the others, he called

quietly, 'I'm coming up, Sian. Don't try to free him until I'm

underneath you.'

'OK,' she said, and breathlessly waited as he swarmed up the tree

with athletic ease. She risked a peek over her shoulder. He had

stopped when the branches started to groan protestingly under his

greater weight, and his serious upturned face was about ten feet

below her.

Their eyes met: fatalistic, almond-shaped green and fierce hazel. Ten

feet might as well have been an eternity. His expression was terrible

and she closed her eyes to it. Sian heard the creak of another branch.

'Don't come any further.' Her tone was bloodless with terror. Another

creaking, and Sian shuddered as if she'd been axed. 'For God's sake,

Matthew!'

'Never mind about me,' Matt said with ruthless calm. 'Be very careful

now. Can you hook your legs around the next branch and reach high

enough to free him?'

'I can try.' She eased forward with infinite caution, her tired muscles

aching in protest, and swallowed hard against vertigo as the wind

sent the overburdened tree- top swaying in an exaggerated arc. Then,

after wrapping her legs tight around the fearfully slim trunk, she ran

questing fingers up the boy's small back, straining upwards as far as

she could. As soon as she had a firm grip on his T-shirt, she said

gently, 'Right, Barry. I'm going to pull you loose. I want you to hold

on as tight as you can. Don't panic if you feel a tug, because I've got

you. Understand?'

'Y-yes.'

She gritted her teeth and tugged, and the T-shirt tore off the jagged

edge it had been caught on. The boy screamed as he heard the

material rip and he twisted like an feel to clutch, not at the trunk as

she'd told him to, but at her hand.

She could feel it coming the split second before it happened. With the

violent shift of his body, the boy lost his perch. She had no time to do

more than to snake her hand around his wrist in a death clench before

he went tumbling past her.

Then Sian screamed as well, as her torso was yanked backwards and

both the boy and her back and shoulders slammed with stunning

force against the trunk.

She hit her head and nearly blacked out. For one horrible moment she

was afraid that the strength in her locked legs would give out, that

they would both fall, tumbling head over heels to their deaths. Dizzy

and sickened, with pain shooting up from her arm and shoulder, she

hung upside-down and maintained her clutch on the boy's wrist with

all her might.

'Dear God in heaven!' Matt's exclamation was shaken.

Tears streamed from her eyes and blinded her, for the boy's weight

was too much. Her intake of breath was a tortured rasp. 'Help me!'

'Oh, darling—just hold on. I can almost reach him. Sian, for the love

of God, don't slip now. Nearly there -'

A long, low moan broke from her lips as her entire body shook with

the stress. Her torso was stretched in an intolerable bow, the tendons

of her arm standing out like the strings of a violin keening. Then the

weight eased, and Matt breathed, 'Got him. Let go!'

Her fingers slipped away strengthlessly. Tilting her head back, she

watched with blurred, upside-down vision as he slung the boy on to

his broad back, where Barry clung like a monkey. Matt looked up at

her. The fear and tension had tautened the bones of his face into

sharp angles before he started to dissolve into a white haze. All right

now. Let go. Her lips parted in a sigh, and her dusky eyelashes

fluttered.

'Sian!' Her name was a violent roar, and startled her alert. 'Don't

faint! I'm going to hand him down to his mother and be right back.

Don't move an inch—do you hear? Answer me!'

'I hear you,' she whispered, through the pounding in her head. She

hurt all over, though, and shock was making her so dizzy. It would be

terribly easy to just sleep... she started to drift away on a spinning

cloud...

Until the warm, hard reality of Matt's hand eased underneath her

abraded shoulders. He lifted her head and laid it gently in the hollow

of his corded neck and shoulder, then slid his arm up and around her

torso. 'There now, I've got you,' he soothed. 'You're safe. Try to put