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She tucks her chin in against her chest, as a gust of wind threatens to knock her over. The weather is deteriorating fast. She needs to stop worrying about giant reindeer and find the driver, or whoever was in the sleigh.
‘Hello!’
Nothing.
Pulling her hat further over her ears, she cautiously makes her way around the wreckage, moving her torch in slow arcs across the deep snow. There are no footprints apart from her own, so where’s the driver?
Scarlett pushes through the trees, scanning the darkness around her. ‘This isn't creepy in the slightest,’ she mutters to herself as the wind howls through the thick trees. ‘Not one little bit. What the hell are you doing, Scarlett?’
Not finding anyone at the edge of the forest, she makes her way back to the clearing, turning in a slow circle, squinting against the falling snow. Then she spots something. There’s a dark shape in the snow a few feet ahead of her.
‘Shit!’
She trudges closer to the shape, half expecting whatever it is, to jump up and attack her at any minute. But it’s not moving and is already covered in a thick layer of snow.
‘There you are!’ Scarlett crouches down beside the body and examines it. From the sheer size she’d guess it’s a man. If he wasn’t wearing a red coat, she seriously doubts she would have caught sight of him through the snow.
The poor guy is lying chest down in the snow after presumably being thrown from his... sleigh thing, or whatever it is? She slowly reaches out, pressing her fingers to his wrist to check for a pulse. It’s strong and steady, much to her relief. ‘Hello? Sir?’
But he’s out cold. And he’s cold. Really cold. She brushes the snow from the side of his face and hair. ‘Hello?’
Still nothing.
She pulls her mobile out of her pocket and checks the screen. ‘Of course there’s no signal,’ she mutters to herself. Even standing up and waving the phone in all directions doesn’t help. Perfect! Now what is she supposed to do?
‘Any ideas?’ she asks him, but the man is utterly unhelpful, choosing to remain unconscious. She looks down at him and curses to herself. Not a lot she can do. She can’t exactly leave him out here to die of exposure.
‘Okay. So you stay put. I’ll be back in a minute,’ she says, before slowly picking her way through the snow back to her house.
‘This was supposed to be a nice quiet break,’ she says to herself as she searches around the back of the cottage for a sled, or anything she can use to drag him back to the house on. ‘But no. Only you could have a random guy land on your doorstep.’
She moves some junk from the corner of the garage and smiles. ‘Bingo!’ Scarlett drags the sled from the bottom of the pile and brushes the years of cobwebs and dirt from it.
The bright pink sled came out every time they were lucky enough to have a white Christmas when she was growing up. It was designed to carry a child, not a grown man, but it will have to do.
She quickly replaces the flimsy string with some rope she finds hanging from the wall, before locking the shed behind her again.
With the sled trailing behind her, she makes her way back through the snow to the mysterious man. ‘Is it too much to ask for a little peace and quiet? I just wanted to read a few books. Have quite a few glasses of wine. Eat myself into a stupor. Instead, I’m freezing my ass off, rescuing some random lost man that seems to have dropped from the sky.’
Unfortunately he’s still out cold when she gets back to him. She places her hands on her hips and glares at him. ‘You’re just going to make me drag you back, aren’t you?’ She pulls the sled up beside him, then grabs the back of his heavy coat. ‘I’m just rolling you over.’
It takes a hell of an effort to roll him onto his back, but she manages to get him onto the sled. His head and some of his upper body are on the sled, but that’s the best she can do. He’s a lot longer than his rescue vehicle.
She picks up the rope attached to the sled and digs her heels in. ‘Right. Let’s get you inside.’
The first few attempts to move him, end with her lying on her face or ass in the snow. He’s one heavy guy. Cursing him for the umpteenth time, she tries again, nearly shouting aloud when the sled slides towards her.
She readjusts her feet, then goes again. Two steps down. Only a few dozen more to go.
Over half an hour, and a hell of a lot of cursing later, Scarlett braces her legs and gives one last heave, dragging the man into her living room. She’s sweating and out of breath, but she’s done it, and just in time too. The wind is now howling around the cottage as the storm worsens.
The man is still unconscious, sprawled out on top of her pink sled. She thought all the jostling would have brought him around, but unfortunately it didn’t. It would have helped if he had woken up and was able to at least partly assist her getting him back to the house. He weighed a ton.
She hauls him over to the fire and positions him in front of the hearth to warm him up. His skin is pale and cold to the touch, but other than a wound on his head, he seems in good shape and he’s breathing normally.
Scarlett would like nothing more than to leave the sled where it is, but she needs to remove it, or he’ll wake up in serious pain from the uncomfortable position.
It takes another ten minutes to extract the sled from under him, but she finally succeeds. He’s now lying on the wooden floor, but that’s where he’s going to have to stay. She’s surprised she was able to get him as far as she did. Lifting him onto the couch is more than she’s willing to attempt.
