A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,65
quiet life. Not because of these.’ He touched his face. ‘I don’t care about how I look. I left because of issues that went way more than skin deep. I suppose some of my mates and even my family might call it running away, but I prefer to call it self-preservation. This is my fresh start.’
Marina thought carefully before replying, eager to hear more. ‘I’m glad you chose Porthmellow, even if the reasons behind it aren’t happy ones.’
‘I feel I owe you the full story.’
‘You don’t owe me anything, Lachlan, but I’m ready to listen.’
‘Well, you deserve to hear it …’ He managed a small smile. ‘When I was in the RAF military police, I was in charge of security on the base. I’ve grown up in the mountains and loved climbing so it was natural for me to volunteer for the local search and rescue team near the base. In fact, I was acting as leader that day.’
‘Was this last winter?’ she asked, afraid to shatter the bubble of his confidence.
He sipped his drink. ‘Late February last year. The twenty-fifth, to be precise. We were called out on a shout to look for two students who’d climbed Ben Daurrig and hadn’t come down to their youth hostel by afternoon. Their mates couldn’t raise them, so they alerted the mountain rescue.
‘The helicopter picked us up from the base and dropped us above the snowline so we could reach the casualties faster because it was going dark and snowing heavily. We found the students and the helicopter evacuated them to hospital. They were taken off safely and the team started to walk down and I slipped in the dark on the icy path.’ He shook his head. ‘Stupid, really. Classic error. I’d stopped paying attention after the adrenaline of the rescue was over; I was joking with some of the team and lost my footing. I came off the path and down the mountainside.’
She gasped. ‘Oh my God!’
‘Fortunately for me, there was a narrow ledge about fifteen feet down which broke my fall and prevented me from ending up at the bottom of a cliff, but I heard the snap, and knew I’d broken my ankle.’
Marina winced.
‘I don’t mind admitting that I almost passed out with the pain and by then it was snowing hard and Catriona – the medic who was with the team – said we couldn’t wait for me to be carried down because conditions were worsening, so she called the helicopter back.’
‘It sounds horrendous.’
‘I was suffering, but I didn’t want the helicopter to come out for me because I knew its crew would be at its limits in that weather. I can’t help but think that they only risked it because I was one of their own. I caused them to come back again. If I hadn’t slipped, they wouldn’t have had to take that risk. Conditions were bad enough on the first rescue, but when they came back they were the worst I’d ever experienced, with massive downdraughts, snow swirling in the high winds and almost no visibility. They should never have taken off again from the base, not for anyone.’
Especially not him? Marina wondered if that was what he meant.
He flexed his fingers, and she noticed the tremor in them. Dredging up bad memories was painful and traumatic, it sucked your energy, but sometimes, you had to get those fears into the open.
‘By the time we reached the base, the blizzard was at low level, and the winds were horrific. When we came to land in the valley at the base, a gust caused the pilot to lose control and we hit the ground. I was woozy from the meds, so my recollection’s hazy but I remember the impact and the explosion. It felt as if my eardrums had shattered. There were shouts and someone was trying to unclip me from the stretcher …’ He gazed into his glass but didn’t drink.
He paused so long, she had her doubts about whether he’d continue.
‘The next thing I remember I was on my own and crawling through the snow on the tarmac. The ground was freezing, I was soaked, but at my back, was this tremendous heat. I think my clothes were on fire and the smoke was blinding and choking me. There was another explosion and I couldn’t crawl any more. I lay there waiting to die.’
He paused and took a breath. ‘Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital, thrashing about and shouting.’