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‘Please... Let me go.’ If he didn’t move away now, she wasn’t sure that she could. And kissing him would only open up old wounds, not heal them.
Wordlessly he moved back, holding on to her hand as she stepped away from the precipice. Steadying her when she almost tripped over a tree root.
‘Ready to go back to work?’ His gaze was thoughtful. Tender.
‘Yes.’
He glanced over her shoulder and Mimi followed his gaze. There was no trace of the remaining boats, both of them having been scuppered by the ducks.
‘What do you reckon?’ He was searching in his pocket for something. ‘A gaggle of ducks?’
She grinned. ‘No, I think that’s geese.’ Rafe had changed gear again, turning away from the things that threatened to hurt them. But this time he seemed intent on bringing her with him, lightening her load.
Mimi picked up the empty coffee cups as Rafe tapped a search into his phone. ‘A sabotage of ducks?’
He chuckled. ‘Yeah. Actually, it’s not as good as that. It’s a paddling or a waddling. Depending on whether they’re in or out of the water, presumably.’
Mimi strolled to the car with him as he laughed over the list of collective nouns he’d found on the Internet. A murder of crows. A parliament of owls.
It was time to go back to work.
* * *
This was going to be the last call of the day. If it hadn’t been for the fact that each call meant that someone was in trouble then Mimi would have been sorry.
‘They should be on the road, here somewhere.’ She leaned forward, straining to see through the rain and the darkness. A light shone briefly and disappeared. Then describing an arc, up ahead of them.
‘I see them.’ Rafe slowed to a crawl in the teeming rain as the car headlights illuminated a figure standing in the middle of the road, signalling with a distress lantern. Another figure was sitting, hunched over, in the shelter of a tree by the side of the road, and a few yards further up a car was nose-down in the ditch.
The white rear number plates reflected in the glare of the headlights and Mimi saw that it was a European registration, with a D under a circle of stars to denote the country. ‘What’s that? German?’
‘Yep. Hope they speak English.’ Rafe stopped the car and got out, jogging towards the figure in the road, and Mimi followed.
It was a woman. She spoke a hurried sentence that Mimi didn’t understand, and Rafe frowned in incomprehension.
‘Wir werden ein Krankenwagen.’
The woman gave her an uncomprehending look and Mimi tried again, hoping that the woman might get her drift. If she didn’t, then Mimi was going to have to call the translation service.
‘Ich brauche einen Arzt.’ She smiled, jerking her thumb towards Rafe, and the woman raised her eyebrows. ‘Um... Sprechen Sie Englisch?’
‘Ja... Yes, I speak English. Danke.’ She caught Rafe’s sleeve, pulling him towards the figure by the side of the road. ‘My husband is hurt. Please can you help us?’
The woman’s English was slightly accented, but seemed fluent enough. It was common to find that people under stress spoke first in their own language, and that calming them down would improve their English no end.
Mimi found the woman’s hand and took it. ‘The doctor is here and he will help your husba
nd. Do you understand?’
‘Yes... Yes, I understand.’ The woman watched as Rafe hurried over to the man by the side of the road.
‘I need you to help us.’
‘Yes. What can I do?’ The woman looked frightened and stressed but she was keeping it under control.
‘My name’s Mimi. Yours?’
‘Annaliese.’
