The word, sharp but distant, yanked him immediately from the musings running through his mind. Mark looked forward and behind, but there was no sign of the person who had called for help.
“Help!” It came again, this time cut off at the end and distinctly coming from the river.
Mark clambered over tree roots to stand at the edge of the bank. There was nothing save for the rushing water and the leaves and sticks it carried along with it to the left. To the right—
There! A smudge of color, bright pink against the churning brown-blue of the water, rose and fell in the distance. Someone had fallen in, and Mark didn’t hesitate to pull off his boots and hat.
“Help!”
Mark nearly froze with recognition. It was Charlotte.
He didn’t stop to think any longer. He jumped right into the rushing water and swam with it toward her.
Chapter Ten
THE ICY WATER CHOKEDoff Charlotte’s scream.
She fought again to lift her head above the rushing tide of the river. Clearing the water again, she drew in a great breath as her heart slammed against the inside of her chest. Her shoes felt like weights, dragging her down as she kicked to remain afloat.
If only she’d been able to tag along with her brothers to swim in the ocean, maybe then she’d know what to do. All she knew right now was that shehadto keep propelling herself upward. If only there were a tree limb or sturdy bush along the bank she could grab onto. But even that was a fruitless wish she could barely comprehend past the fight to simply keep her head above the water.
Just as it seemed a tidal wave had pressed her face under again, something sturdy locked around her waist. Charlotte gasped, drawing in the water she so desperately had fought to keep out.
The thing around her waist—arms?—pulled her upward, and she emerged again, sputtering and coughing.
“It’s all right, I’ve got you,” a voice said.
“M-Mark?” The name came out in a fit of coughing as she barely noticed she’d called him by his given name.
He tightened his grip around her as he swam with the current toward the bank. They reached a large, spring green bush that half hung over the river, and he grabbed hold of it, stopping them against the pull of the current.
“Can you reach it?” he asked.
With every ounce of energy she had left, Charlotte gripped great handfuls of the bush, and with one of Mark’s arms still securely wrapped around her waist, she pulled herself closer to the bank using the shrub’s branches.
She gritted her teeth and pulled as hard as she could to lift herself onto the bank. But even if she slipped and fell again, he would be there behind her to catch her. That knowledge warmed her, and she reached a hand out to dig into the soft dirt of the riverbank. She pulled herself up the rest of the way. Until, finally, she was safely on land again.
