A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,119

Marina watched as Nate was hauled inside the helicopter and she wept with relief. Nate was inside, perhaps not safe, but he had a chance.

Now for Lachlan. She searched for him in the water as the winchman descended again. But as she watched, a huge wave – bigger than any before – rolled into the cove, picked up Lachlan and crashed against the cliffs.

When the boiling foam retreated, there was nothing.

Chapter Forty-Two

In her deepest, darkest moments, in the blackness of night, Marina would admit, only to herself, that she’d occasionally longed to vanish beneath the waves. In the weeks and months after Nate had gone, when she’d finally come to realise he must be dead, those thoughts had crept into her mind.

Now again, seeing the swirling water around the cliff, the helicopter hovering above, but no sign of Lachlan, she thought of joining him in the sea.

The helicopter and winchman edged closer to the cliffs behind the cove. The crew must be able to see something she couldn’t … She screamed out in hope, begging the sea to let Lachlan live.

The winchman was almost touching the rocks, the rotors were perilously close … and then she saw why. Lachlan had been propelled by the waves back onto the ledge where Nate had fallen. He seemed to cling onto to the rocks but a backwash of surf tore him off and flung him back into the water yet again.

The helicopter backed off, dragging the winchman through the whitecaps. He was feet above the surf, metres away from Lachlan, then feet again. He reached him but it was clear he couldn’t get a hold of him.

The winchman tried again and they were on top of each other, but Lachlan was flailing. Was Lachlan too scared to go with the winchman? Too terrified to allow himself to be winched up?

The winchman hugged Lachlan and put a strap around him while the water bubbled and boiled. Marina was terrified they’d both be swept away or the helicopter would be blown against the cliffs. They were so close to saving him, but she daren’t let herself hope until they were safely inside the helicopter …

Suddenly there was daylight between the waves and the two men, and they were being pulled upwards above the rolling seas. They spiralled upwards, like marionettes in a deadly dance, while the helicopter flew away from the cliffs and hovered above the heaving sea.

She held on tight, soaked by the sea, shaking with the cold and adrenaline, but weeping with relief when she saw the winchman and Lachlan vanish inside the aircraft, which was already speeding off. In half a minute, she was left alone, with only the roar of wind and sea.

She laid her cheek against the rocks and uttered a silent prayer.

‘Marina!’

There was shouting from behind her, in the cove beneath the lookout station. The inshore lifeboat bobbed in the waves and two of its crew were climbing up to her. ‘Stay there!’ they ordered, waving at her frantically. ‘We’re coming to get you.’

Rachel was at the helm, keeping the small RIB away from the rocks as two of the crew reached her. ‘You’re going to have to come into the water with us,’ they warned.

Marina didn’t care. She only wanted to know that the man she’d loved once, and the one she did now, would be OK.

They helped her down and waded with her the few feet through the water to the RIB. She was shaking uncontrollably, despite the coats they laid over her.

‘Is Nate alive? Is Lachlan OK?’ she kept asking all the way back to Porthmellow Harbour, but no one had an answer for her.

She went through a thousand agonies until they reached the lifeboat station, where Dirk, now back from the trawler tow, had news from the hospital. Lachlan was OK, apart from a few cuts and bruises apparently.

Hearing Lachlan was safe, Marina sobbed in relief while Dirk drove her to the hospital and told her what little he knew about Nate’s condition. It had been touch and go but he was alive and conscious. He’d been treated for hypothermia and he’d swallowed a lot of water.

She was told to wait outside A&E and asked the nurse in charge, who she knew slightly, how Lachlan was, desperate to see him. She hadn’t dared to text him while he was undergoing treatment.

‘He was released,’ the nurse said. ‘I think he’s gone home.’

‘Already?’

‘He had a few cuts and bruises and naturally he was very cold, but otherwise