“Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.”
Realizing this wasn’t a game, Thom frowned. “She went by herself?”
“Aye, I thought...” Joanna blushed. “She might need privacy.”
“She isn’t likely to get lost around here. Which way did she go?”
She pointed in the direction of the river. “Downstream a little.”
“I’ll fetch her,” Thom said.
When Joanna smiled, he wondered if he’d been tricked again.
It didn’t take him long to realize that he hadn’t. He called her name a few times as he picked his way through the dense trees and brush. But he’d only gone about fifty yards when he noticed that the bank of trees along this side of the river hid the edge of a ravine. The kind of ravine that it would be easy for someone to slip down.
Ah, hell. His stomach dropped, but his pulse took off in the opposite direction. Dread twisted in his gut as he retraced his steps and walked back and forth along the edge shouting her name, looking down into the abyss of foliage with his heart in his throat and fearing what other tangled limbs he might see among the branches and vines.
Finally, he heard a soft cry. “Here. I’m here.”
He looked down, and when he saw the two big blue eyes staring up at him, the heart that had been in his throat jammed. She was about twenty feet below him, clinging to a small tree that wasn’t much more than a sapling about halfway down the steep embankment. The steep,unstableembankment.
Damn. From the visible roots and large chunks of missing dirt, he could see that part of the hillside had already come away.
He followed what must have been the path she’d taken down the hill with his gaze. With the wet rock, mud, and dried leaves, she would have been sliding fast. That thin twig of a tree was likely the only thing that had stopped her from sliding all the way down to the rocky bottom. And it was the only thing preventing her from continuing.
She could be lying in a twisted, bloody pool... God, he thought he might be sick.
He did a quick scan of her person, and aside from a few scratches, dirt, a missing veil that he could see about ten feet down the slope, and a mussed plait, she didn’t appear to be seriously injured.
But he didn’t like the look of that tree. Not wanting to alarm her, he forced a lightness to his voice that he did not feel. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, her eyes getting a little wider. “I slipped.”
He couldn’t help smiling. “I can see that.”
“I tried to pull myself up, but I didn’t want to let go.”
“Don’t!” he said, unable to completely mask his alarm. Then more calmly, he added, “I’m going to come down to get you.”
“But shouldn’t you get a rope first?”
Aye, but he didn’t think he had time. The roots of that tree were not very deep and the rain coupled with her weight had loosened the grip it had on the hillside. He could already see the dirt lifting around the base.
“I’ll be careful,” he assured her, starting down.
With very little to grab on to that was sturdy enough to support his weight, he half-scrambled, half-slid down the embankment, keeping his body as parallel to the ground as he could, using his right hand for leverage and left for support. With one eye on her and the other on the base of that damned tree, he made his way toward her with precision and speed born not so much of skill but of determination. There was no way in hell he was going to fall—not when she needed him.
By the time he reached her, he knew they would never be able to climb back up. They would have to go down. It had only been a handful of minutes since he started looking for her, and he knew it would be awhile before Joanna sent someone after them.
He’d devised a plan, but it was going to take a leap of faith on her part.
He could see the pale terror mixed with panic on her face as he approached, and it tore at him. The urge to comfort—to protect—her overwhelmed him.
He stopped a few feet away, not wanting to get too close lest she reach for him or he put strain on that tree. The whole patch of ground looked in peril of breaking away.
“Hi,” he said, smiling as if they were meeting on a stroll through the forest.
“Hi,” she replied softly. Her eyes sparkled with the edge of tears. “You found me. I didn’t think anyone would come in time.”
