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“Are you sure?”
Brooke laughed. “I would tell you to trust me, but how likely is that?”
“If either of you falls in here, I will strangle you, Brooke.”
“Hah.” Brooke’s arm appeared. In her hand, she held a miracle: a bottle of water. “Are you thirsty?”
“Are you kidding?”
“Can you catch it?”
“Drop it straight down.”
“Count of three. One, two...”
Genny caught it. “Oh, thank you, God.” She screwed off the cap and took a slow, heavenly sip. “Wonderful.” She sipped again. “Oh, I cannot tell you...”
Brooke asked, “What happened to your phone?”
Genny indulged in another glorious sip. “I dropped it. It’s down here somewhere. There’s muddy water to just below my calves.” During the rain last night, it had risen to her knees. That hadn’t been fun. She’d been freezing and sure she was going to drown. “I felt around for it for hours, it seemed like. Haven’t found it yet.”
“Are you cold?” Brooke asked. “We have a blanket.”
“Mum thought of it as we were leaving the stables,” Geoffrey proudly announced.
Suddenly, she was shivering again. She capped the water and stuck it under her arm. “Pass it down here, please.”
Brooke got the blanket and carefully dropped it down. Genny caught it neatly and managed to wrap it around herself without letting any of the edges trail in the muck. It was heavy and scratchy, the most fabulous thing she’d ever felt in her life.
Well, next to Rafe’s kiss, his rough whisper in the middle of the night, the feel of his big, hot body curled around her as she slept. Next to the knowledge that she and their baby had somehow survived way too many hours alone in the dark wondering how anyone was ever going to find them....
Brooke asked, “Are you hungry? We have sandwiches and fruit and muesli bars.”
Genny’s stomach rumbled. She smiled through her tears. “I’ve got the blanket and the water.” She shifted, getting the water bottle out from under her arm, trying to hold the blanket and keep her weight off her bad ankle at the same time. “I’m bound to drop something if I have to catch anything else. I’ll be okay until you get me out of here.” She got the cap off the bottle and took a longer drink that time.
Brooke said, “Rafe should be here any minute...”
And he was. Not five minutes later, she heard the pounding of horse’s hooves echoing through the muddy walls that surrounded her.
“It’s Uncle Rafe!” Geoffrey shouted. “He’s here.”
She heard him pull the horse to a stop. And then he was there, much too far above her, his beloved face staring down at her, black eyes finding hers.
“Gen.”
Her heart felt too big for the cage of her chest. “I’m all right. We’re all right, me and the baby, too. I lost my phone. I...hurt my ankle and couldn’t see any way to get out of here. I didn’t know what to do....” Her voice caught on a sob.
“Just hold on, love. We’ll get you out.”
Brooke said, “I called Granny. They should be here with the ladder and ropes and...whatever else they need soon.”
Rafe broke eye contact with her to talk to his sister. “Soon isn’t good enough. I can barely see her face, but I can tell that she’s shivering. She’s freezing down there. It’s an old well, hand dug, not more than twenty feet deep, probably less. A ladder seven or eight feet would do it. She can climb to the top and I’ll reach down and pull her the rest of the way up. Even a sturdy rope might be workable. Let’s check in the cottage and around back. I think there’s a storage shed. We’ll see what we can find.”
Wait. He was leaving? Genny cried out, “No! Just stay there. Just...I need to see you.”
“Gen.” He held her yearning gaze so steadily. She needed his arms around her. Needed them desperately. “I’m just going to have a look around the cottage. I won’t be long.”
And Geoffrey said, “I’ll stay here, Aunt Genny. You can look up and see me.”
Of course, she knew she was being ridiculous. But that didn’t make the terror of losing sight of Rafe now any less. All those endless hours and hours, where she hadn’t known if she would ever see his face again.
She swallowed her tears—and her fear. “Yes. That would be all right. Of course it would.”
“You’re sure?” Rafe asked gruffly.
And Geoffrey said, “She’s sure. See if there’s a ladder. Mum, you help him. I will stay here where Aunt Genny can look at me.”
