Passionate Protection

'Is that why you came down here, so you wouldn't have to go to school?'

Lisa shook her head. 'I just wanted to think,' she said simply, and they both winced as they heard a loud rumbling overhead.

'Only thunder,' Jessica said firmly. She glanced upwards and stared in horror at the crack appearing in the arched ceiling. Dirt and rubble trickled down, spattering on to the floor, the light bulb swinging wildly before the cavern was suddenly plunged into darkness. With the light gone Jessica's ears became attuned to sounds she had not heard before—the steady trickling of moisture on the walls, the ominous rumblings from above them, and the slowly increasing dribble of debris through the now invisible crack in the ceiling.

She couldn't possibly leave Lisa now, Jessica acknowledged. In fact neither of them could stay where they were for a moment longer than they had to.

'We've got to move,' she told the little girl, relieved when Lisa answered in a matter-of-fact if somewhat breathless voice,

'Yes, otherwise the roof might fall in on us, mightn't it?'

'Well, just hold on tight,' Jessica cautioned her.

Surely the best thing to do would be to feel her way along the wall. That way they were more likely to avoid any cave-in. It was a painfully laborious task inching her way along the wall, trying her best not to jar Lisa's ankle. She had no idea how far they had gone when they both heard the sudden crack above, and it was only blind instinct that sent her stumbling for the stairs, her head bent over Lisa's as they were showered with debris and the water that cascaded through the hole in the ceiling.

She could have cried with relief when she felt the first step; she had been terrified that they were going to be trapped by the falling ceiling. Her body was trembling with tiredness and relief when they finally reached the top stair. She fumbled for the catch and pushed, but the door refused to open. She tried again, forcing her whole weight behind it, and still it refused to move.

'Something must have blocked it,' Lisa murmured apprehensively. 'What are we going to do?'

'We're going to sit here and wait for someone to come and unblock it,' Jessica told her, trying to appear calm.

'But no one knows we're here.'

It was all too dreadfully true. What could she say? Taking a deep breath, Jessica lied, 'Oh yes, they do—I told Jorge I thought you might be here, but I didn't say anything before, because I didn't think you'd want me to tell anyone else about your secret place.'

'Now four of us know,' Lisa replied drowsily. 'You, me, Tio Sebastian and Tio Jorge.'

Yes, Sebastian knew, but did he care enough about either of them to think of looking here? Eventually someone was bound to notice that the roof had caved in, but they might not realise that they had been trapped in the cellar.

Dreadful pictures flashed through her mind, stories of walled-up nuns and petrified skeletons tormenting her until she wanted to scream and beat on the door until it gave way, but if she did that it would only upset Lisa. She would perhaps never know whether she had been carrying Sebastian's child, and he would have lost another bride, although this time… She sighed and shivered as the cold sliced through to her bones.

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; Lisa's teeth were chattering; the little girl was only wearing a flimsy dress and Jessica pulled off her own knitted jacket, draping it round her shoulders and pulling her into the warmth of her own body.

Time dragged by. Jessica wasn't wearing a watch, and the only sounds to break the silence were their own voices and the ominous cracking sounds as more of the ceiling gave way.

Lisa started to cry. 'We'll be trapped in here for ever,' she sobbed. 'We'll never get out!'

'Of course we will. Look, I'll tell you a story, shall I?'

She did her best, inventing impossible characters and situations, but she only had a tiny portion of Lisa's concentration.

'Stop!' she insisted at one point. 'Jessica, I thought I heard something.'

Her heartbeat almost drowning out her ability to say anything else, Jessica listened. There were sounds… faint, but clearly discernible from those of the falling ceiling.

'We must shout,' Lisa urged, 'so that they know we're here.'

'No, we'll tap on the door instead,' Jessica told her, terrified that if they shouted the reverberations might be enough to bring down what was left of the ceiling.

She tapped, and there was no response, and no matter how much she strained her ears she could hear nothing from the other side of the door. Perhaps they had simply imagined those sounds after all, perhaps there wasn't anyone there—or even worse, perhaps someone had been and gone.

'We must keep tapping,' she told Lisa doggedly, not wanting the little girl to lose heart.

Her wrist was aching with the effort of supporting Lisa and trying to tap on the door at the same time, when at last she heard a faint but unmistakable response. Just to be sure she tapped again—Morse code learned when she was a girl and only dimly remembered, the same definite pattern of sounds coming back to her.

Tears of relief poured down her face. Her chest felt tight with pain, and she could scarcely think for relief.