‘Dinnae worry,’ Clyde tried to comfort her. ‘I’m sure your teachers will wait for you…’
‘No, they won’t. We were warned they wouldn’t hold the runway for anyone. If I miss it, I fail.’ Peaches’ phone rang once more as she was saying this.
It was Willie. ‘I’m on campus, where are you?’
‘The roads are blocked out of Cairn Dhu, some freak winds apparently.’
‘Winds? There’s nothing here.’
‘It’s blown trees down over the roads here. Mum’s not allowed through in her car. All my stuff’s here at the shed…’ Her words grew pitchy as her panic increased.
‘Just take a breath. How long can it take to move a tree? I’m going to take a nap while I wait for you. Just get here quick, OK?’
‘A nap? Are you not feeling any better?’
‘I told you I was modelling for you tonight and I’m not letting you down now. I’m just a bit feverish, that’s all. Don’t worry about me, but get here soon. Professor Quinn-Watson is stomping around in a right froth. Some teams are already running their last-minute timings on the catwalk.’
‘I’ll get there.’ She hung up only to realise everyone was looking at her: PC Beaton, Clyde, Senga, Sachin and McIntyre, each one more sorrowful than the last.
‘Peaches,’ McIntyre began, making her sit in one of the café chairs. ‘You’re not getting out. Not until the tractors arrive to pull clear the debris and all the heritage trees lining the roadsides are checked for cracked limbs that could cause further timber falls.’
‘But…’ Peaches wouldn’t be contained and flew to the shed door, dragging it open. She staggered out into the driveway and froze, the men running after her.
Every one of them stopped and looked into the sky.
‘But it’s…’ began McIntyre.
‘It’s stopped,’ said Peaches.
Sure enough, the air was still, and eerily quiet. The birds were not singing and the animals in the pastures all around the valley were silent. No engines revved and absolutely nothing moved.
‘They did say it was likely to be isolated gusts and short-lived,’ added Sachin.
Peaches’ heart lifted at this and she spun round to look at the men, but again they were thin-lipped and frowning.
‘The station are telling me there’s no vehicular access in or out of town,’ said Jamie Beaton. ‘Unless you can offroad?—’
‘She can,’ Clyde Forte interrupted. ‘She can!’ He was dialling a number, the call connecting in seconds. Whoever picked up was worried for Clyde’s safety and had been trying to get through to him.
‘You know I keep my phone on silent,’ Clyde replied. ‘Listen, I need you to bring Rosie to the repair shop. Come the river path way, ride in the gullies if you need to, just avoid the polis’ roadblock on the high street, OK? I know, I know, just get here. Peaches is in a spot o’ bother.’
That was seemingly all he had to say and the call ended.
Clyde and McIntyre only had to glance at one another before they sprang into action, hurrying from the shed.
In the end, it didn’t take long, even though it was the very first time in forty years that the sidecar had been secured to Clyde’s motorbike, and Clyde had burst into tears to see them reunited and fixed fast.
‘That was some good welding the other day,’ McIntyre was saying, admiringly.
Peaches hadn’t exactly been consulted on the common sense or the safety of the mission; she’d only been swept up in it all, watching for Euan bursting through the gap in the boundary wall, having dashed here as fast as possible.
Sachin helped her bundle the garment bags and place them in the sidecar; they didn’t all fit and some would have to be held but if she sandwiched them between her front and Euan’s back on the bike, they’d be OK. Clyde was acting like this was an excellent solution and not in fact a highly dangerous one.
Officer Beaton put up a lot of complaints but with everyone doing their best to convince him this was an emergency, he had to relent and throw his hands up, saying, ‘I can get you an outrider as far as the tree over the road, then you’ll have to skirt round as best you can. Word on the radio says there’s a metre-wide gap if you leave the road to avoid the tree and skim the riverbank. Then with any luck, you can get back up onto the road, provided it’s not too slippery or rocky, or steep.’
‘That’s the plan?’ Peaches said. ‘Maybe get through? Maybe end up in the river?’
‘It’s the best we can do,’ Euan was saying, re-strapping his helmet and holding something out to her, astride the bike. ‘We may as well go take a look.’
