Worth the Risk(69)

‘Dammit, Ally, do you hear me?’ He shook her slightly, his voice a deep growl of frustration. ‘No heroics.’

‘OK.’ She nodded and wiped the snow out of her eyes. Aware of Jack standing slightly to one side, watching them both, she waited quietly while they checked and rechecked and made the final preparations. Geoff had gone over the side of a deep gully but the jagged, rocky sides made it unsuitable for abseiling. She was going to have to scramble down to him and join him on the ledge. Squinting down into the snowy darkness, she felt a moment of panic. Was there even room for two people on that ledge?

Taking a deep breath, she walked gingerly towards the edge and went over the side, using her hands and feet to feel for a way down, relying on Sean who was shouting instructions from above her.

It felt like for ever but finally her feet found the ledge and she flattened herself against the side of the gully to try and protect herself from the elements. The wind was rising, and without doubt the ledge was the most exposed place she’d ever been in her life.

‘Geoff?’

He was huddled next to her, and with the light from the torch on her helmet she registered that there was no room for manoeuvre at all. The ledge was just too narrow. How on earth had he managed to fall onto it? By rights he should have been lying in a mangled heap at the bottom of the mountain.

‘Geoff?’ Was he unconscious? Certainly he wasn’t moving at all, and gingerly she crouched down next to him, feeling a rush of relief when he lifted his head, his ravaged features visible by her torchlight.

‘Leave me alone. I don’t know why you’re risking your neck for me. You should have just let me die.’

‘You’re not going to die, Geoff.’ Ally was finding it almost impossible to manoeuvre on the ledge with a rope attached to her waist, but she knew better than to risk removing it. ‘First things first. Are you hurt anywhere?’

Geoff was silent for a moment then he shifted with a grunt. ‘My ankle. I can’t stand on it.’

‘Right.’ Ally slipped her gloved fingers into a handhold as the wind gusted against them. ‘Well, let’s get you to safety and then look at it. Will you let me put a harness on you?’

‘No!’ Geoff straightened and winced as his injured ankle took his weight. ‘Dammit, I don’t want to be rescued.’

‘Geoff, nothing is ever this bad!’ She was yelling now, her voice deadened by the wind. ‘We can make it better. You’ve already beaten the alcohol.’

‘Mary’s better off without me.’

Ally thought for a moment and decided to use a different tack. ‘Geoff Thompson, don’t you dare pretend you care about Mary!’

He stared at her, bemused. ‘Of course I care about Mary. That’s why I’m doing this—so she doesn’t have to be shackled to a loser any more.’

‘If you cared about Mary you’d be thinking of her now. How do you think she feels, Geoff? She’s been worried sick about you since you disappeared without letting anyone know where you were going. Then she gets a report that you’ve been sighted up here.’ Ally flinched as the wind buffeted her against the rock, bruising her arm. ‘She thinks you’re already dead, Geoff, and she’s beside herself. She adores you and she blames herself for not helping you.’

Geoff stared at her, his face anguished. ‘She did help me. It wasn’t her fault—’

‘Well, she thinks it is!’ Ally knew she was being brutal but gentle kindness hadn’t worked at all. ‘If you die now you’ll be leaving Mary with a lifetime of grief and guilt. Is that what you want?’

Geoff shook his head slowly and groaned. ‘No, it isn’t. Of course it isn’t what I want.’

‘Then let me get you up this rockface to safety and then we can sort the whole thing out.’

He stared at her and then sagged, all the fight gone. ‘All right. All right.’

Ally felt a rush of relief and fumbled with the spare harness on her waist. Unclipping it, she stepped towards Geoff, helping him into it and clipping it into place, checking it was secure before attaching the spare rope and yelling up to Jack.

‘He’s roped up. We need help to get him up—he’s fractured his ankle.’

Jack’s words were lost in the howling of wind that followed, and with a cry of alarm Ally lost her footing and went over the edge. Supported by the rope, she swung like a pendulum against the rockface and then the world went black.

* * *

‘Ally? Ally, for God’s sake!’ The voice was male, urgent and very, very familiar.

Feeling as though an elephant were sitting on her eyelids, she opened her eyes briefly and closed them again as pain ripped through her head.