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Miranda shot a guilty look at Jake, who winked at her.
‘It can happen to the best of us, Verity. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m just going to take a look at the damage.’ His tone reassuring, he undid the laces of her boot and Miranda caught hold of the woman’s hand and encouraged her to squeeze.
‘Oh, that’s agony!’ Verity’s face drained of colour and she gasped in pain as Jake carefully eased the boot off her foot.
Miranda pulled a face. She could see instantly that Verity’s foot was badly swollen and discoloured. Was it broken? And what, she wondered, was Jake going to do about that out here in the middle of nowhere?
‘Does it hurt here?’ Jake was examining the ankle carefully and the woman gasped again.
‘Yes. It’s just a sprain, I’m sure, not a break.’ She winced and tried to wriggle into a more comfortable position while Jake dug his mobile phone out of his pocket and opened the top of his rucksack.
He pulled out a pad, a coiled rope and a knife and set about making a splint, his movements slick and confident.
‘Miranda, can you just check her pedal pulse? The foot looks a reasonable colour and she has sensation and movement so I’m assuming her circulation isn’t impaired, but I want to check.’ The phone tucked under his ear, he started talking to the person on the other end, giving a report on the woman’s condition and a description of their whereabouts, while he cut the pad and fashioned a splint.
Miranda removed her glove and checked the pulse in the woman’s foot, feeling the delicate throb under her fingertips with relief. ‘She has a good pulse,’ she told Jake as he snapped the phone shut and finished splinting the leg.
‘Right.’ Jake secured the splint and glanced at his watch. ‘I think they’ll be along with that stretcher in another fifteen minutes, Verity, so hang in there.’
‘Fifteen minutes?’ Miranda gaped at him. ‘It’s taken us almost an hour to get to this point.’
‘The mountain rescue team aren’t in the advanced stages of pregnancy,’ he reminded her, rocking back on his heels and pushing his hand back into his rucksack.
Verity’s face brightened. ‘You’re about to have a baby? Oh, you lucky things. How wonderful for you.’
Miranda frowned. ‘Well, actually, the baby isn’t—’
‘We’re thrilled,’ Jake said firmly, pulling out an extra layer and slipping it around Verity’s shoulders. ‘Best thing that could have happened.’
Confused as to why he would let the woman continue with her misunderstanding, Miranda opened her mouth to correct him and gave a gasp of shock as Jake leaned forward and kissed her. ‘I’m plucking up courage to ask her to marry me,’ he murmured, ‘but I have a feeling she’s going to turn me down so I keep postponing the moment.’
Marry him?
Miranda was speechless and Verity gave a sigh.
‘You don’t want to marry him?’ She turned to look at Miranda who managed a weak smile.
‘I haven’t known him that long.’ Realising how that sounded, Miranda felt a rush of embarrassment. What would Verity think of her? She could hardly explain that she couldn’t marry him because she was pregnant with another man’s baby, could she?
‘I knew my husband for about five minutes before I realised that he was the one.’ Verity sighed. ‘When it’s right, there’s just no point in waiting.’
Jake smiled. ‘My point exactly.’
Miranda looked at him, trying to read his mind. Was he serious? Why did something that seemed so complicated to her seem so simple to everyone else?
Still reeling from his words, she tried to concentrate as Jake engaged Verity in conversation about marriage, babies and life generally, but her mind kept wandering back to his surprise announcement.
Did he really want to marry her?
And then she glanced across at him, saw the way he was taking Verity’s mind off the pain with an animated discussion on the risks of a certain climbing technique and she suddenly realised that he’d just been trying to distract Verity.
Her spirits slumped and she gave an irritated frown, totally unable to understand her own reaction. She didn’t want to marry him. She didn’t want to marry anyone. So why did the realisation that his proposal had been nothing more than distraction therapy leave her feeling so flat?
‘Here come the cavalry.’ Rising to his feet in an athletic movement, Jake gave Verity a quick smile. ‘We’ll soon have you back to civilisation.’
‘What a pity.’ Verity glanced round her with a sigh. ‘I love it here. This view is vastly preferably to the view from my office window, but there you are. Can’t always have what you want in life.’
‘Why not? I always think that what you want is worth fighting for.’ Jake’s gaze lingered on Miranda for a brief moment and then he turned his attention to his colleagues who arrived carrying the stretcher and other equipment.
