by Rebecca Lang
She nodded, swallowing a tight knot of fear in her throat. Usually one could rely on the integrity of the soil beneath one’s feet. Dan looked even more exhausted than he had when she’d last seen him. It appeared that he was still up, working, perhaps delivering babies.
‘What you felt,’ the supervisor said, getting right to the point, ‘was an earth tremor that resulted from a earthquake out at sea, with the epicentre about one hundred and fifty kilometres beyond the islands. We got that information a moment or two ago from the monitoring station. There shouldn’t be anything more happening, but I ask you to remain in your rooms, fully clothed and alert, for the next half-hour at least, just to remain ready. I commend you on your swift response in mustering at this point. For those of you who are new here, please read the printed emergency procedures in your rooms. For those who are on duty, make sure your whereabouts are known to your colleagues at all times. Stay in your departments. Check your emergency equipment. That’s all for now.’
When she had gone, chatter broke out, with an exchange of information about what everyone had experienced.
‘Is that enough excitement for you with regard to earthquakes?’ Dan addressed the four WAN nurses with a wry grin.
‘It is,’ Pearl said emphatically. ‘I think I’d rather have a hurricane.’
‘Kathy Lahey gave birth to a boy, by the way,’ Dan said to Connie and Signy. ‘Both well.’
‘That’s good.’ Signy smiled. ‘Could I come to help you with anything? I know I won’t sleep for the remainder of the night.’
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Anyone who wants to come is very welcome. Go to your rooms first to wait out the half-hour and read the instructions.’
‘I’m glad this has happened,’ Terri commented as they left the room. ‘Now we’ll have at least a slight idea of what people have experienced when they’ve been in an earthquake.’
‘The fear, anyway,’ Pearl said.
It was two weeks later when they were next in Brookes Landing. The weather was closing in, with fog and snow flurries. The WAN staff had been told that these few days would be their last in the community. From now on they would be doing theoretical work only, back at the camp on Kelp Island, as the weather would hamper travel, and they would take a week’s break for Christmas.
A little snow had settled on some of the trees in the village, making the conifers look like Christmas trees, on the day that Signy decided to borrow a vehicle from the hospital and drive to the lookout tower that was used for fire-spotting in the event of forest fires. The sun was shining, the light glittering on the snow. Visibility was good, making it perhaps the last day to get a view over the forested areas and the wilderness beyond Brookes Landing. Accordingly, she arranged with Maggie at Reception to borrow a Land Rover to go to visit Kathy Lahey and her baby at home, then go on the tower. None of the other nurses had been free to come with her.
As she searched for the track Donna had described some time before, having visited mother and baby, Signy looked at the scene around her, knowing that this was as close as she was going to get to the real Canada, the beginning of vast territory where there were no humans, that was frequented only by wildlife. It was an exciting feeling. The vehicle bucked and swayed over rough terrain.
At the end of the track, she abruptly came out of the trees into a rough clearing, where the tower, looking like an electricity pylon, made of metal, stood in the centre. At the top was a tiny wooden hut, and there were metal steps going up to it. She drove around the base of the tower and parked the Land Rover facing the track she had just come on. She would have to watch the time to be back to Brookes Landing before dusk, as she didn’t want to be driving in the dark. Besides, hunting animals came out at dusk.
The air was crisp and fresh, she noted as she stepped out into it, a few degrees colder than in Brookes Landing. Filled with anticipation, Signy began at once to climb the tower steps that went up to small landings at every sixth step. Once she was above the level of some of the lower trees, she stopped to take her camera out of her knapsack and take photographs from several angles. The forest was spread out before her, like a lumpy blanket in several hues of green. When she got back to England she would enjoy looking at these pictures. The whole trip would seem like a dream if she didn’t have concrete items to look at.
From the very top landing, which was mostly taken up by the hut, she could see the ocean in the direction from which she had come.
‘Wow!’ she whispered, wishing that there was someone there to share this spectacular view with her. Dan came to mind, then she tried to force thoughts of him from her…unsuccessfully. As the time drew near for the training course to end, her emotions regarding Dan were becoming increasingly ambivalent and disruptive of her equilibrium. As hard as she had tried to maintain her dislike—almost for Dominic’s sake—it had slowly fizzled out until what was left was a disturbing awareness of him as a man, and of herself as a woman, a free woman. Once a man had kissed you, she thought as she looked out over the treetops, you couldn’t pretend that it hadn’t happened, or that it didn’t mean anything. There had been no sort of follow-up, which she was finding frustrating.
Not that he thought anything special of her, she mused. He still sought her out, it seemed, still worked with her when he could, even though she sensed a certain cynicism in him, not so much with her as with male-female relationships in general. As for her, she didn’t know what to do. She had both a sense of relief that the strain would soon be over, and a sense of something like dread that she would most likely never see him again. He had somehow grown on her…had, by gradual increments, broken through the barrier that she had put up.
Signy willed her emotions back to the wonderful scene in front of her and felt herself become immersed in it. The forest disappeared into the far distance, into a grey-green mist. Then she got busy again with her camera.
The hut had room for three people to stand side by side. There was a door that had a sturdy latch on it, and a double-glazed picture window facing away from Brookes Landing. This was one of the most spectacular and moving things she had seen in her life, even though she felt insignificant surrounded by raw nature. The vehicle and her cellphone were her links to the world where she had some control against that nature.
Absorbed with taking photographs, at the end of her second roll of film, Signy realized that the light was fading, bringing an added chill. Quickly packing up her camera, she turned to go down the steps. Not very happy with heights, she tried not to look down for more than the next six steps, to the next landing, until she was more than halfway down the tower and the distance to go didn’t seem too intimidating.
‘Ah…’ She let out a sigh of contentment, taking one more slow look around her in all directions before she sank below the tops of the shorter trees.
Risking a look down to the clearing directly below, which was covered with rough grass and tiny bushes, she froze as she saw movement by the Land Rover. With one hand she gripped the outer metal railing beside the steps and peered down. For a moment she could see nothing moving, then something took shape, the same colour as the brownish-yellow grass. Beside the wheel of the Land Rover a large cat sniffed at the tyre, then moved sinuously to sniff at the door which she’d left unlatched, open about a quarter of an inch.
A feeling of shock came over her like a sickness, paralysing her, together with a certainty that this was a cougar. As she stared down onto its tawny back and head, it suddenly looked up at her and crouched down slightly. Perhaps she had made a slight sound, an intake of breath. Its eyes looked directly into hers, a look from predator to prey. Never in her life had Signy seen such a look of cold intent in the eyes of a creature as it held itself immobile, staring at her.
Gripping the rail tightly, Signy began to climb backwards up the stairs, wondering frantically if cougars could climb stairs. She didn’t see why they couldn’t. Not wanting to take her eyes off it, her progress was sickeningly slow. If she could make it to the top she could shu
t herself in the hut. She couldn’t risk going down to the vehicle. As she moved she made plans. Perhaps she would have to stay in the hut all night. Cougars hunted mainly at night and it was coming up to dusk now. Thank heaven she had a cellphone on her, plus some food and drink and warm clothes. The nights were cold now as soon as the sun began to go down. She berated herself for not leaving sooner.
As she slowly gained the upper levels, the big cat moved to a spot under the centre of the tower to look up at her. Then she didn’t doubt that it could climb steps…but whether it would actually do so was another matter. At two landings from the top, she turned and ran up to the hut, yanked open the door and went inside. Her hands shook as she latched the door shut with the sturdy metal hasp. In the floor of the hut was a tiny trapdoor through which she could see the base of the tower. As she looked down, the cougar looked up, although she doubted whether it could see her clearly.
Signy sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall, trying to think about the best course of action. There was no way she could go down and drive away now. Even if the cougar went into the forest, it would probably lie in wait for her. No…there was nothing for it but to wait there all night, then make a dash for the vehicle when the sun was well up. It would be cold; already she felt somewhat chilled.
From her knapsack she took her cellphone and small address book and looked for the number of Terri’s cell-phone. Several people knew where she had gone. She didn’t expect anyone to come and rescue her, she simply wanted to let them know where she was, and safe.
‘Terri Carpenter,’ the bright voice answered, after she had punched in Terri’s number. It had been a while—when she’d been in Africa—since Signy had felt such abject relief.
‘Terri, it’s Signy,’ she said. ‘I’m stuck up in a tower, being held hostage by a cougar.’
‘Well, if you ain’t joking,’ Terri said after a moment’s stunned silence, ‘that’s a beaut!’
The sound of a vehicle, far below, penetrated Signy’s fuzzy mind as she allowed herself to doze but not fall asleep. Outside there was total darkness and a wind that buffeted her small sanctuary from time to time. She sat on the floor of the hut with her knees drawn up, her arms around her knees, her head on her arms, leaning against the wall. Although the walls were sturdy, the cold penetrated the structure. Before bedding down for the night, she had put on every item of clothing that she’d brought with her, including hat and gloves.
When she looked through the hatch she saw the light from headlamps showing up the base of the tower in sharp relief against the dark forest. To her surprise, there was a thin blanket of snow on the ground, while some flakes still fell, showing up like sparklers in the lights of the car. Not knowing whether this was someone who had come to find her, she waited with her heart beating fast. Until she knew who was there, she didn’t want to reveal herself. Silently she watched as two men got out of an all-terrain vehicle, leaving the lights on. They both carried shotguns. One of them walked over to her Land Rover and put on the headlights, then he looked up. She saw that it was Dan.
Relief suffused her being like a warm wave. ‘Thank God!’ she whispered. ‘Thank you, Dan.’ Terri must have let Dan know where she was, although she had told Terri that she would come out in the morning.
Then he began to climb the stairs, carrying a flashlight, so she went to the door and shouted down to him. Although she had been prepared to stay there all night, knowing that she shouldn’t have waited until the light had begun to fade, she would rather get out. The sick feeling of fear, which had been with her from the moment she’d spotted the cougar, lessened with every step that Dan took towards her.
‘Stay there until I reach you,’ he shouted back.
She stood in the open doorway of the hut, then stepped back when he made the final landing, momentarily blinded when he shone the flashlight at her.
‘Well, Signy Clover,’ he said, ducking through the doorway, ‘I suspected that you would be trouble when I first set eyes on you.’
‘Th-thank you for coming,’ she said, her teeth chattering now from cold. ‘I didn’t mean to get you out here. I was quite prepared to stay here for the night. I told Terri that.’
‘And freeze to death in the process?’ he said.
With that, he pulled her roughly into his arms and kissed her. ‘I didn’t call you,’ he said, ‘because I suspected you would refuse to be rescued—pig-headed as you are.’
‘Pig-headed!’ she began to protest, but he kissed her again, holding her against him in a bear hug.
‘Shut up,’ he said. Abruptly he let her go. ‘I’ve got one of the hospital security guys with me. He’s more concerned about the hospital vehicle than he is about you, so he’s going to drive that one back. You can come with me.’ The way he said it sounded like a threat.
Silently Signy picked up her gear, stuffing the flashlight into the knapsack.
‘Come on,’ Dan said, taking her hand. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
With his light making a circle of yellow ahead of them, they descended the stairs. At the bottom, he introduced her to the security guard, who simply said, ‘Hi. I’m glad you’re safe. You don’t mess with cougars.’
The track and then the road going back to Brookes Landing were covered with a light snow, making everything look different. On the outskirts of the village the security guard veered off towards the hospital while Dan took another road.
‘I’m taking you to Heron Cottage,’ Dan said. ‘You need to get heated up pretty quickly. You should have a bath and a hot drink right away.’ His face looked grim, and in the light from the streetlamps Signy could see that he looked more than exhausted, he looked haggard.
She said nothing, shivering with cold now, even though he had given her a thick wool blanket to wrap around herself. Deeply sorry that he’d been bothered, she felt sheepish in the extreme. It seemed that she was always in the wrong with him somehow.
Inside Heron Cottage at last, he told her to sit by the fire while he ran a bath for her.
‘I can do it…Dan,’ she protested. ‘Thank you for what you’ve done. I’m truly and deeply grateful, but I can look after myself.’
‘Shut up,’ he said grimly. ‘Don’t overdo the thanks. And do what you’re told for once. Someone in Africa should have told you the same thing. You don’t know this terrain. I do.’
‘I know the way to the bathroom,’ she said tartly.
‘Shut up.’ At that moment he sounded very English. Perhaps in moments of extreme stress he reverted to his roots. That observation made her realize fully that he had been seriously worried about her.
‘I’m so sorry.’ Signy sank down on the rug next to the fire, where the embers glowed red and hot, pulling the blanket around her.
‘So you ought to be!’ He almost spat the words at her. His anger didn’t faze her; in fact, she felt uncommonly cosseted and loved, like a lost child who had been found.
Loved? She didn’t want to dwell on that. Now that she was back here, in the cosy warmth, the full enormity of her situation hit her. She’d had a lucky escape once again. Perhaps, like a cat, she had nine lives. With eyes closed, she tried to relax in the blessed heat as she heard the sound of bath water running in the guest room, then Dan clattering about in the kitchen with a certain amount of unnecessary banging.
‘Get into the bath,’ he ordered her, after a few minutes. ‘I’ll make us both a hot drink, something with brandy.’
Not trusting herself to speak, she did as he told her. Best to humour him, she thought, feeling his anger with her, even though she thought she had been on top of the situation. She sank down into the hot water so that only her head was out of it, feeling the heat infuse her body, chilled to the bone as she was.
When a knock came on the door she was pleasantly warm, her cheeks glowing. Quickly she scrambled out of the bath and wrapped herself in the voluminous towel that Dan had given her. ‘Come in.’
With another peremptory knock, Dan came in and
handed her a mug of steaming liquid. ‘Drink this right away,’ he ordered again, his eyes going over her swiftly, down to her bare feet.
‘Thank you, Dan,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m really sorry for all this.’
‘All in a day’s work,’ he said brusquely. ‘I’ll bring you something to put on. Don’t apologize again.’
‘It’s all…’ she began, but he was gone. Resignedly, bemused, Signy dried herself.
Again he entered, with pyjamas, a dressing-gown and woolly socks. ‘Come and sit by the fire when you’re ready,’ he said. ‘We’ll have some soup. I guess you haven’t eaten for a while.’
‘No.’
The drink he’d brought her was hot milk with honey and brandy, so delicious and soothing that she sipped it slowly to make it last. When she was dressed in the clothes he had brought, she felt like a child in dressing-up clothes and had to roll up the sleeves and legs of the pyjamas.
The fire was roaring when she went out to sit beside it. True to his word, Dan brought her soup, which he placed on a small coffee-table that he drew up to the fireplace, a bowl for each of them. To her embarrassment, Signy found that she couldn’t think of anything to say to him, except a small ‘thank you’ when he handed her something, even though thoughts and emotions seemed to be buzzing around inside her head like so many angry bees. There was so much she wanted to say to him, yet she could not think where to begin, how to make a start.
Methodically, he cleared away the used dishes when they had finished and rearranged the furniture, while Signy sat down on the floor by the fire again, brooding over what might have happened to her if she hadn’t seen the cougar in the clearing, if it had been lurking among the trees and had attacked her while she’d gone to get into her car.
Dan came and knelt down beside her. ‘Feeling OK?’ he said. So tired did he look that she wanted to touch his face, to say again that she was sorry. Am I the cause of that? she asked herself. No…doubt it, she answered herself.
