The Midwife's Christmas Miracle (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 5)

Speak to me. Say something.

Drowsiness and confusion were signs of the onset of hypothermia and he didn’t like what he was seeing.

Her dark eyes slid to his and he saw something in her gaze that twisted his insides. An empty hopelessness.

‘Miranda.’ Finally she spoke and her voice seemed tiny in the huge emptiness of snow and ice. ‘No friends. No party.’ Her arms were huddled round her waist for warmth. ‘Just m-me.’

‘Here, sit on this.’ Jake pushed a thick pad underneath her, reminding himself that there would be time enough later to talk to her about the dangers of walking alone in winter weather conditions. ‘It’s insulated and it will stop the snow seeping through your clothes. Then we need to get you something to eat.’

Mentally he ran through the various stages of hypothermia.

He knew that the most effective warming of the casualty came from the inside. She needed glucose and fluid and he needed to stop her losing any more heat.

He handed her a chocolate bar and then pulled a fleece hat onto her damp hair to try and prevent further heat loss from her head.

The chocolate bar slipped through her fingers and her eyes drifted closed. ‘Not really hungry. Tired now…’ she murmured, and he cursed softly under his breath as he rescued the chocolate.

‘You need to eat, Miranda. It will warm you up.’ He pulled the wrapper off the chocolate, pushed the bar into her hands again and closed her fingers around it. ‘Eat!’

Her eyes opened at his sharp command and she stared blankly at the chocolate bar as if she’d never seen one before and then took a reluctant nibble.

Jake removed her sodden coat, which would have struggled to give protection against a light shower in the city, let alone heavy snow in the mountains.

‘Don’t take my coat off.’ She mumbled her protest and tried to stop him but he’d already dropped it on the ground and was dragging extra layers from his rucksack.

‘You need to put these on. Yo

u need dry clothes. Put on this fleece and then this waterproof shell.’

She stared at the clothes he dropped onto her lap and he gave a sigh and picked them up, deciding that he was going to have to dress her himself. So he pulled the fleece over her head and then manoeuvred her arms through the sleeves, then did the same thing again with another layer and finally zipped her into his spare coat.

It was like dressing a doll. She was limp and unresisting and his coat swamped her, but at least it was dry and weatherproof. He wrapped a scarf around her mouth and nose to warm the air she was breathing, running through the options in his head. Helicopter evacuation? Not in this weather. Which meant calling the team out. But it would take them a couple of hours to reach this point and that was two hours during which Miranda could grow even colder.

‘All right.’ Pleased to see that she’d finished the chocolate bar, he handed her another and reached into his rucksack for the insulated flask that he always carried. ‘This is the situation. We basically have two choices. I can contact the mountain rescue team and then put up a shelter and we can lie naked in a sleeping bag together while we wait. That should warm you up.’

Her eyes slid to his and he saw a glimmer of humour. ‘Is that an indecent proposal?’

Something in her slightly cynical tone made him smile. She had a sense of humour and that was a good sign. ‘Believe it or not, it wasn’t. Skin to skin contact is the fastest way of rewarming a casualty.’

Her teeth were chattering as she nibbled reluctantly on the second chocolate bar. ‘That’s the most original seduction line I’ve ever heard and, believe me, I’ve heard a few.’ Her voice was weak and rasping. ‘And I’m not a casualty.’

He decided not to point out that she was fast becoming one. ‘The second choice is that we walk down. But that requires you to get up and move your legs. Are you up to it?’

‘Of course.’ More alert now, she rubbed the snow out of her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘What do you think I am? Pathetic?’

No, hypothermic.

He was relieved to see that she suddenly seemed to be waking up. ‘So tell me what you’re doing out here on a day like this.’ Concern made his voice sharper than he’d intended. ‘Do you have a death wish?’

‘No. And the day was nothing like this earlier this morning. It was sunny.’ Despite the extra layers he’d given her, her teeth were still chattering and her breath clouded the freezing air. ‘And I was out for a walk, just like you.’

Jake glanced down at her feet and lifted an eyebrow. ‘Not like me,’ he pointed out gently. ‘You’re wearing trainers.’

Her hands still clutching the chocolate bar, the girl stared down at her feet and gave a wan smile. ‘Well, they were all I had. I don’t possess walking boots. I thought I’d be all right providing I stuck to the path.’

‘Is this the same path that has just disappeared under a layer of snow? And didn’t you possess gloves either?’Jake gave a sigh and reached inside his rucksack again. ‘If you don’t own walking boots then you shouldn’t be out on the mountains, especially not at the height of winter. What were you thinking of?’

For a moment those incredible eyes were haunted by ghosts and then she turned her head away. ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she said huskily. ‘This and that. Stuff.’