by Carmen Reid
‘Ya!’ Svetlana said, urging her on. ‘We are two very, very tough women. Trust me. We do ten, twelve miles and raise thousands of pounds for charity.’
But as Annie watched Svetlana struggle to climb into the Land-Rover, all of a sudden she wasn’t so sure.
This was a woman who couldn’t even open doors for herself. What was she going to make of a mountain?
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Action girl Morven:
Base layer (Patagonia)
Wicking fleece (same)
Technical anorak (Everest Camping)
Longjohns (same)
Waterproof trousers (same)
Hiking boots (same)
Total est. cost: £350
‘Then we start heading down on the north side.’
Three entire hours had passed. Only three hours! It was barely believable. Annie felt as if she had been watching Morven’s easy strides marching ahead of them for an eternity. All talk and jolly chit-chat had run dry ages ago. Now the walk was just about marching and hoping: hoping that the madness would end soon.
It had taken some time for the over-dressed walkers to get into any sort of stride, to work out how to negotiate soft Scottish grass, slippery pebbles and rocky outcrops in the shoes and dresses. Not to mention balancing the handbags.
Annie had a large, humiliating grass stain on her raincoat where she’d fallen on her bum in about the fourth minute of the walk.
She’d screamed too – and Morven had looked at her in total exasperation. Plus she’d dropped the video camera and it had been making an odd buzzing noise ever since, although it was definitely still recording.
Occasionally, Annie would manage to say something slightly upbeat into the camera, such as: ‘OK, I think we’ve got the hang of this now. We have to sort of tiptoe forward, especially on the pebbly bits.’
Truthfully, she and Svetlana were hobbling forwards yard by tricky yard and making slow and painful progress. More times than she would like to have admitted, Annie had said to herself: Why, oh why did I ever mention hillwalking on air? I should just have kept my big trap shut!
But Svetlana was determined not to give in until they’d covered a reasonable distance and Annie wasn’t going to give in first.
Every now and then, Morven would try to cheer and chivvy them along, promising smoother ground ahead or a fantastic view just half a mile from here … but it was obvious she was finding them slow and she certainly didn’t think they’d hit their target of 5 miles, let alone 10.
The last time Svetlana had asked, it turned out they had covered just over 2 miles. This news had been so deeply disappointing that neither Annie nor Svetlana had had the heart to ask again.
They were walking, er, stumbling along side by side with Morven way ahead of them now. She had wound them slowly up a disconcertingly high hill and now they were coming to an edge. A surprisingly sheer and rocky edge.
‘How your feet?’ Svetlana asked.
‘Not so good,’ Annie decided to admit. From what she could feel in her shoes, she guessed she’d shredded through her tights. The raw edges were chafing against her toes. The wet, sticky sensation suggested that blisters had burst and bleeding had begun. She’d already decided she didn’t want to take the shoes off and look, because then she’d just feel worse.
‘I think I pull muscle in calf,’ Svetlana admitted. ‘But you and I two tough girls, Annie. We not give in yet. Ten miles,’ she said through teeth that were slightly gritted. ‘How much money we make if we walk ten miles?’
It was an easy enough calculation. The current phone-in pledges worked out at £5,400 per mile.
‘Fifty-four thousand,’ Annie answered.
Svetlana gave a little whistle. ‘That’s good. Come on.’ She put her arm through Annie’s. ‘We soldier on. Maybe we over halfway already.’
‘Are your parents still alive?’ Annie wondered. It seemed a good moment to ask while they were cosied up together with hours of walking and talking still ahead of them.
‘I don’t know,’ Svetlana replied casually, ‘they not very interesting, I never try to find them, they never try to find me …’
‘I thought my dad was probably dead,’ Annie confided, ‘then he just turned up on my doorstep, like Elena turned up on yours.’
‘Tcha. Is surprising, no? Take some time to get used to. The first two times I see her’ – Svetlana stuck two fingers up for emphasis – ‘I want to kill her! I want to shout, I don’t want to know her or anything about her. This part of my life over. Finished! Now … I think one of best things ever happen to me is Elena.’
Annie shook her head thoughtfully; she could not imagine anything about Mick’s return working out so well for her.
‘Now I’m worried she fall in love with this American man and leave London for him,’ Svetlana admitted.
‘I thought Elena was in love with business and had no time for men?’ Annie said.
Svetlana smiled. ‘Elena think this too. Is biggest surprise for her.’
Morven, still a good 400 metres or so ahead of them, had come to a standstill. She was on the very edge of the hill, looking out over a view that even Annie and Svetlana, dedicated city-dwellers that they were, could recognize as inspiring.
Much, much higher hills surrounded them here, looming over them with a wild and majestic presence, every slope a slightly different shade of grey, purple or green.
Annie was overcome by the sense of immensity. She felt so small in her little heels with her tiny video camera, which, even when she waved it about the landscape, couldn’t begin to capture the scale. The three of them standing here seemed so insignificant and so alone. There was not another soul to be seen. Annie scanned the hillsides and couldn’t spy another house, cottage or any sign that human beings had ever set foot here at all.
‘Wow!’ she said to Morven. ‘I’ve never been anywhere so wild and so … remote ever before.’
‘Is like the Ukrainian steppe,’ Svetlana said, not sounding as impressed as Annie. ‘Wild and bare. In Ukraine, very dangerous: bandit-country.’
A huge white and black bird flew overhead; with each wing beat, a creaking noise filled the air.
‘Have you ever heard anything like that?’ Annie asked in surprise. ‘It’s so quiet out here, we can actually hear the sound of a bird flying.’
‘That’s an osprey,’ Morven told them, an excited edge to her voice. ‘Those great big black and white wings, you don’t see them often. You should also know that we’ve done six miles,’ she added with an encouraging grin. ‘You should be very proud. You’ve already gone much, much further than I thought you would. Much further. I thought I’d be back at base by two p.m. at the latest. We’re going to go round the hill here’ – Morven pointed out the route they were about to take – ‘then we start heading down on the north side. It’s nearly four miles from here back to where we started.’
‘So we will do ten?’ Svetlana asked, sounding pleased.
‘Fingers crossed. Take care on this next bit though, it’s quite rocky.’
Morven was warming up, Annie couldn’t help thinking; underneath the serious front was a quite friendly person just waiting to be teased out.
‘What’s that?’ Annie’s attention was caught by a column of dark and brooding cloud over to the far west which seemed to be scudding towards them in a hurry.
‘Oh …’ Morven had looked over to where Annie had pointed and sounded a little surprised. ‘We need to get a move on. Rain was forecast for late afternoon and that looks like very heavy rain. Unless the wind changes direction, it’s headed straight for us.’
Annie took another look at the cloud. She couldn’t think when she’d ever watched weather approaching so fast or so obviously. She’d never been so aware of the weather before. It was fascinating to stand here, almost above the clouds, and watch them moving around like this.
Down on the valley floor below them, the shadow of the clouds chased the sunlight away, plunging the valley into sh
ade.
The thought of donning real hiking clothes and coming out on a proper walk with Ed and Owen, who both loved to camp and hillwalk, didn’t seem so utterly bizarre as she’d once thought. Maybe it would be interesting to go out with them.
Ed hadn’t been out with Owen to commune with the great outdoors since the babies were born. Today was going to be their first trip out, each carrying a baby in a backpack. Annie suddenly realized she would have liked to be part of that trip.
‘C’mon,’ Morven instructed, ‘the shower might not hit us quite so hard round this corner of the hill.’ Nevertheless, she was unrolling the hood from the collar of the seriously technical and entirely waterproof anorak she was wearing. The best Svetlana and Annie could do as the shadow of the clouds began to catch up with them was button up their trenchcoats, tie the belts tightly and turn up the collars.
‘We should have brought umbrellas,’ Svetlana said. Annie didn’t think she was joking.
As they rounded the hill and hit the bare and rocky looking ground on the other side, it went dark, as if the lights had been turned off; then rain, the like of which Annie had never endured before, began to lash down on them.
‘Aaaargh!’ Svetlana cried in dismay as her bouncy blow dry was washed clean away and soaking wet hair began to stick to her face in lank rats’ tails.
As Annie tucked her handbag under her coat to protect it from the downpour, Svetlana actually put her crocodile beauty on top of her head to protect her face from the rain!
Not that the bag was going to help much. The rain had all the force of a cold power shower. Within seconds, it had totally soaked them through. Annie could feel water running in cold rivulets down her neck, her back and her legs, which now felt as exposed as if they were bare.
‘Eurrrgh!’ she complained, huddling up against Svetlana. Once again Morven was striding ahead of them, but not so far in front now. She wasn’t enjoying the cold rain lashing against her face either; in fact sometimes she even walked backwards to keep the water from hitting her so hard on the cheeks.
‘Careful, careful,’ Annie warned Svetlana after slipping slightly on the now treacherously wet, bare stone face.
The two women clung to each other for support as they tiptoed over the stone.
The rain and the cloudy gloom made it hard to see very far ahead and all three had their eyes down searching for sure footing.
‘This not so good,’ Svetlana told Annie. ‘We need to get back to grass, if we fall on the rocks … tcha!’ She gave her Ukrainian noise of universal disapproval.
‘Just take it easy,’ Annie encouraged her, moving forward on tiny baby steps. She felt vulnerable too. Maybe they should have doubled back and gone home the way they’d come, but it was 6 miles back the other way and only 4 miles this way.
‘Is OK to hold you?’ Svetlana asked, as she was now clinging on to Annie’s arm. ‘You not worried I bring us both down?’
‘No,’ Annie told her as confidently as she could.
More than anything, Annie wanted the rain to stop. She was sure everything would seem much better and more manageable just as soon as needles of icy cold water stopped hitting them in the face.
With a lurch of panic, Annie felt Svetlana stumble. Her heel had wedged in a crevice between two rocks and, with a small cry, she wobbled on her left leg.
But just as Annie thought she couldn’t hold her friend up, Svetlana’s heel flew out again and she managed to remain upright.
They both giggled with relief.
‘That was close, watch it!’ Morven instructed. She was walking backwards again, keeping her face out of the oncoming gusts of rain.
As Annie’s soaked raincoat flapped about her wet legs, rain poured down her neck and she chilled to the bone. She looked at Morven’s sturdy hiking boots, Morven’s legs encased in dry, cosy waterproofs, Morven’s hair tucked out of the rain in a snug hood. Annie didn’t think she had ever coveted someone’s outfit more.
She would have stripped down naked right there and then to change clothes with Morven.
And just as that thought formed in her mind, that was when it happened.
Morven stepped backwards and seemed to skid awkwardly. Her left foot buckled over and her arms flailed at her sides in a sort of windmill way. Her right leg shot forwards high up into the air, as if she was trying to score a major premiership-winning goal. Then she fell flat on her back and her head bounced once, sickeningly, off the rocks.
‘Jesus!’ was Annie’s stunned reaction.
Heels or no heels, both she and Svetlana rushed forward to help.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Hiker Ed:
Blue T-shirt (M&S)
Blue longjohns (M&S)
Black waterproof trousers (Sprayway)
Black waterproof anorak (Trespass)
Blue hiking boots (Hi-Tec)
Baby backpack (Outward Bound)
Baby (Micky)
Total est. cost: £160
‘No sign of your mum then?’
‘Tired?’ Ed asked Owen as they walked the pathway towards the cabin.
‘Exhausted!’ Owen admitted with a roll of his eyes. ‘Minnie weighs a total ton. What did she have for lunch? A brick?’
Both babies, each in a backpack strapped to Owen and Ed’s backs, had fallen asleep on the home stretch of the hour-long walk they’d just done.
Ed had kept it nice and easy. They’d walked 3 miles along flat, woodland paths, Ed checking all the time that he wasn’t going too far or too fast for Owen. He was well aware that a twenty-pound baby was a heavy load for a young back.
Ed looked at his watch and saw that it was 5 p.m. already. His schedule was totally off. Never mind.
‘We’ll put the babies in bed, fire up the kettle and dig into the ginger cake that I know is safely stored at the bottom of the food box. Your mum’s bound to be back by now,’ he told Owen.
‘You don’t think there’s any chance Lana could have eaten it?’ Owen worried. ‘You know what she’s like when she’s supposed to be studying. She’d eat the entire contents of the fridge if we let her.’
‘No, I think the cake is safely hidden,’ Ed reassured him.
As they went in the cabin door, it seemed so quiet that, were it not for the sleeping babies, Ed would have called out a ‘hellooo!’
Instead, he and Owen took off their muddy boots and headed upstairs to slide Micky and Minnie into their beds. Then Ed padded off to look for any other signs of life in the cabin, while Owen headed for the kitchen.
After knocking on one of the small bedroom doors, Ed was told to come in by Lana, who lay on her bed surrounded by books with a scowl on her face.
‘You OK?’ he asked.
‘Suppose so,’ came the sulky reply. ‘It’s not exactly fun though, is it? Being stuck out here with nothing but studying to do?’
‘You should have come for the walk and had a break. Just a few more weeks,’ Ed tried to reassure her. ‘Think how much you’ll enjoy your summer holiday after all this.’
‘Huh,’ came the response, ‘stuck hanging around my family with no money. Great.’
‘We’ll help you to find a job, Lana,’ Ed said, trying to be as nice and understanding as he possibly could. ‘I’m sure you could do some babysitting, for a start.’
‘Boring!’ came the response. Lana turned her head away from him.
Ed gripped the door handle tightly. Saying any of the things on his mind right now, like: ‘Why are you always so negative about my children?’ ‘Why have you taken the birth of the twins as a personal insult?’ ‘Why don’t you just try and bond with them a tiny bit?’ wouldn’t be helpful. He was going to have to talk to Lana about this some time when she was calm, when she had less work to do and when they were both in a happy place.
‘Would you like to come down and have a piece of cake? I’ve got ginger cake in the kitchen … and butter,’ he coaxed.
‘Oh, all right then,’ Lana replied and gave almost a hint of a smile.
‘No sign of your mum then?’
‘No, not heard anything.’
Ed glanced at the window; outside, grey clouds were gathering. It looked as if it was going to be a damp and dreary evening.
Annie had been gone for over five hours; a bubble of worry surfaced in his mind at this thought. But then he told himself they were with a mountain guide who was sure to know exactly what she was doing. They would be fine. They would be absolutely fine. Any moment now, he would hear the Land-Rover rumbling down the driveway and all would be well.
As he made for the kitchen, he thought about how battered and blistered Annie would probably be and felt sorry for her.
‘Have you got the kettle on?’ he asked Owen, who was already spreading a wedge of cake 2 inches thick with a layer of butter. ‘And have you even washed your hands?’
When Owen looked at him in surprise, Ed sighed. ‘Owen! Go, find soap, now.’
Once Owen was out of the kitchen, Ed made tea, slowly. He cut and buttered his cake, slowly. He wanted to be busy so he didn’t have to think about the time. He sat down at the table to eat the cake … and then realized he wasn’t hungry any more.
He wondered at what point he should worry properly and do something. Should he wait until 6 p.m.? Then what should he do? Should he phone mountain rescue? Just to see if they had heard anything? Or should he go and look for her?
Oh, good grief! He told himself off. They were probably all in some cosy little pub drying off and drinking a hot toddy and of course, normally, she would have called to let him know, but the signal was so bad that she couldn’t.
He looked around the cabin and realized there was a landline. Why had he not thought to give Annie that number? Then if she was in a pub, she’d have been able to phone the cabin on a payphone.
He would eat the cake and start to worry properly when he had finished, he told himself.
‘Morven? Morven? Are you OK?’ Annie asked.
‘Morven? You feel sick?’ Svetlana added.
