‘I can control it by myself.’
Helen opened her mouth to speak but Oliver caught her eye and gave a discreet shake of his head.
‘All right.’ His voice was calm and even. ‘Well, you’re clearly feeling better in yourself but you had quite a fall. You obviously lost your balance on the path and managed to tumble down here. It’s amazing that you didn’t fall all the way to the bottom. Are you hurting anywhere?’
The man struggled to his feet, brushing away all offers of help. ‘No. I’m fine. I just went for a stroll and I started to feel dizzy.’
At that moment there was a shout from above and Sean Nicholson, the A and E consultant, abseiled quickly down a rope, landing neatly next to them.
Helen stared at him in awe, remembering how long it had taken her to climb down that same route.
‘I’ve never seen anyone do that before.’ She smiled at him in admiration. ‘I must say it looked a great deal more entertaining than clinging to slippery rocks with fingernails, which was my experience.’
Oliver winked and took some equipment from Sean. ‘Hell on the nail varnish, don’t you find, Sean?’
‘Nightmare. That’s why I chose the easy route. Good afternoon, Mr Andrews.’ Sean gave the patient a friendly nod, listening while Oliver related what had happened.
‘If you’re going to nag me, then please don’t bother,’ the man said grumpily and Sean frowned slightly.
‘My job is just to get you down safely from this mountain,’ he said smoothly. ‘And to recommend that you get yourself checked out at the hospital before you carry on with your holiday.’ He glanced at Helen and then looked at Oliver. ‘You two should probably make a move. Helen’s looking cold. We can manage here easily enough now. You’ve done the hard bit.’
And Helen realised that she was actually freezing.
Sitting still on that rock, the chill had suddenly penetrated her bones and she started to shiver.
‘Oliver…’ A disturbing thought had struck her and she glanced upwards, a horrified expression on her face. ‘Am I going to have to climb back up the way I came down?’
‘No. From this point it’s quicker to carry on to the bottom,’ Sean said immediately. ‘You turn right and meet up with the path. Oliver knows the way.’
‘Down?’
Remembering the drop, she glanced at them in horror.
‘Sean’s right,’ Oliver said quickly, fastening his rucksack and swinging it onto his back. ‘It isn’t far from here. You’ve done the worst bit.’
Without giving her time to brood, he clipped a rope to her waist, gave her harness a tug and guided her towards the edge of the rocks.
The sound of the waterfall was so loud they could hardly make themselves heard and Oliver glanced back at Sean who was coordinating with the rest of the team.
‘Drunken Fox, tonight?’
Sean grinned. ‘You’re buying.’
Oliver went first and then guided Helen down until finally they reached the bottom and picked up the path.
&
nbsp; ‘How long will it take them to get him off the mountain?’ Helen asked, tugging her hood up to protect her head from the steadily falling snow. ‘Will they be all right?’
Oliver glanced at her in amusement. ‘They’ll be fine. And it shouldn’t take them long. Couple of hours?’
‘And then what?’ Helen frowned as she huddled deeper inside her coat. ‘He’s obviously determined to ignore his disease. Will they try and persuade him to take it more seriously?’
‘Helen, we’re the mountain rescue team,’ Oliver reminded her gently. ‘We rescue people from mountains. It’s not our job to sort out the rest of their lives, however much we might like to. Sean will try and persuade him to go to hospital to be checked and he’ll certainly tell him that he needs to see his GP, but after that it’s out of our hands.’
‘Well, it was a very exciting walk. And I must admit I was shocked by how quickly the mist came down,’ Helen said with a shudder. ‘One minute we had virtually blue skies, the next we could barely see. But that might have been a good thing, I suppose. If I’d been able to see all the way to the bottom of that ghyll I never would have plucked up the courage to climb over those rocks.’
They reached the car and Oliver shrugged the rucksack off his back.