Instinctively she limped forward, her feet teetering on the edge of the bank, and then faltered, relief crashing through her as she realised Jake was there, wading towards the woman. Efficiently he took control, crouching beside Natasha, quickly assessing the situation. Checking the alignment of her body. Emily’s blood froze as she guessed he was checking for spinal damage. A beat later, he moved around to support Natasha’s head.
‘We have to get her out. We need to roll her,’ he said, his face taut, his voice calm. ‘Can one of you take hold of her torso and someone else take her legs?’ He glanced at the men in the water. ‘Ready?’ He checked everyone was in position, then, ‘On my count,’ he said, his face set with grim determination.
A minute later, she was lifted onto the bank. People were milling around, trying to help, getting in the way. ‘Has anyone called an ambulance?’ Jake yelled.
‘On its way,’ Edward answered, stepping forward, and then turned to the gathering crowd. ‘Come on, everybody, let’s move back, shall we? Give the doctor some space,’ he suggested, herding people away as Jake focused on Natasha.
‘Natasha?’ he called, feeling for a pulse. Turning his attention to her face, he scanned it, looking for signs of life, and then brushed her bedraggled hair aside to apply pressure to her ear. The woman didn’t stir.
‘Tash?’ he tried again, then, ‘Dammit!’ He swiped at the droplets of sweat on his forehead and looked up to the heavens.
He seemed indecisive, and Emily guessed he was weighing the risk of tilting her head back, possibly causing further damage to her spine, against losing her to drowning.Please God, no.Her heart banging against her ribcage, she prayed hard as she watched him listen over Natasha’s mouth for breaths. A turmoil of emotion twisted inside her as he moved his attention to her chest: guilt threatening to rise up and choke her; fear; jealousy. She’d felt something close to hatred as she’d witnessed the woman ogling her husband, but she hadn’t wished her dead.She hadn’t.
Had she? She swallowed hard. Her mother was right. She was evil. She heard it distinctly, her mother’s hissed condemnation as she’d lain alone in her room, dark shadows flitting in and out of her dreams as the days after Kara’s death drifted into nights, into days … ‘She’s a monster.’
That part came back to her with blinding clarity. She hadn’t remembered any of it until now. She’d buried it along with her sister. Hadn’t wanted to acknowledge how bitterly her parents had wished it was her they’d lost and not Kara.
‘She’s not breathing,’ Jake said tightly, snatching her attention back to this day, this riverbank and another death she might be responsible for. Terrified, she watched as he used his fingers to gently clear Natasha’s airway. He was pinching her nose, placing his mouth over hers, breathing slowly into it. Pausing. Assessing. Sucking air deep into his own lungs. Breathing. Rescue breaths. The kiss of life.
He was desperate not to lose her. Emily’s fingers strayed to her own lips. She was desperate not to losehim, her husband, the one solid thing in her life, the one person who knew her and loved her. But he didn’t know her, not all of her – he didn’t know why the ghost of her sister haunted her dreams. She didn’t know him fully either, each minuscule detail that had made him the man he was, or the deceit he might be capable of. She didn’tknowwhether he loved her. Her heart boomed another echo of her past. He’d been looking for a distraction, possibly attempting to move on. He might have done if she hadn’t called him from outside the bar that long-ago night and lied to him, telling him she’d been nervous about committing fully to another relationship after being treated badly by a man. She’d never told him how badly. How could she? The truth would surely have driven him away, and she’d needed him. She loved him – then and now. He’d taught her what love really was. She couldn’t have told him the whole truth and expected him to stay.
He had stayed. When they’d talked the next day and she’d told him she was pregnant – she’d decided she would keep the baby; she’d had to – he’d walked her home, his mood quiet, contemplative. Tentatively he’d kissed her goodbye, saying he would call her in the morning. She hadn’t been sure he would. An hour later, there’d been a knock on the door of her bedsit, and she’d answered it to find him standing nervously on the doorstep holding a small velvet box. ‘It wasn’t an expensive one,’ he’d said awkwardly, seeming not to notice her old pyjamas and cried-off make-up. ‘We can change it. As soon as I’m qualified, we can choose any ring you want, but for now, will you accept this one? Will you marry me?’
The box contained his mother’s engagement ring. She still wore it. Had he proposed because he loved her, or had he stepped up to do the right thing? Had she forced him to?
Now, standing stock still, too scared to speak or move as she heard hushed whispers around her, sensed fingers pointing accusingly at her, she continued to watch as Jake positioned his hands over Natasha, ready to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He’d done two compressions when she gasped, her eyes springing wide as she spewed out a breath.
Jake moved fast, yelling at the men who’d assisted him in the water to help roll her onto her side, keeping her spine aligned as they did. ‘Try not to move. You’ll be okay. The ambulance is on its way,’ he said, his hand resting gently on her shoulder, his face close to hers.
Someone offered sheets hastily retrieved from tables, which Jake indicated they should drape over her while he talked reassuringly to her, keeping her calm and still. He didn’t move from her side until the ambulance arrived.
He conferred with the paramedics as they checked her over, and walked with her as they transported her to the ambulance. Smiling, he squeezed her hand as they paused before loading her into it. ‘You gave me one hell of a scare back there,’ he said.
‘Sorry,’ she managed weakly.
‘I’ll let you off.’ He gave her another warm smile. ‘You’re in capable hands now. I’ll come and see you as soon as you’re home.’
An hour later, they were on their way back home themselves, Jake’s car loaded up with unsold goods from the stalls, the fair ruined. Despite what had happened, her guilt that she’d been the cause of it, Emily decided to broach the subject of the email. She was sure Natasha Jameson was the sender. It had to be her. ‘You saved her life,’ she said carefully. ‘She might have died if not for you.’
‘It was just basic first aid.’ Jake ran a hand over his neck, looking utterly exhausted.
Emily hesitated. ‘Still, it was a good job you were around.’
Jake nodded. ‘I suppose.’
Natasha had been in the vicinity of wherever Jake had been that morning. Emily would have had to be blind not to notice. Might she be wrong? It was possible. But she couldn’t ignore the nagging voice in her head that told her she wasn’t. ‘I didn’t realise you knew her that well,’ she ventured.
‘Sorry?’ Jake glanced confusedly at her.
‘Natasha.’ Emily took a deep breath. ‘I didn’t realise you two were intimate.’
‘Intimate?’ He laughed uncertainly.
‘Tash. You called her Tash.’And she called you Jake. Why would she do that if you weren’t on first-name terms?Her heart thundered. She was treading on dangerous ground. He would know she was accusing him. He wasn’t stupid. How would he react?
He shot her another look, one of incredulity this time. ‘She was unconscious. I was trying to reach her. That’s what she prefers to be called, isn’t it?’
Emily noticed his tight grip on the steering wheel and her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. ‘Yes … but I wasn’t aware you knew her well enough to know that.’ She tugged in a tremulous breath. Held it. ‘Or exchange emails.’
