Sophie Kinsella - Shopaholic and sister

We both listen. It is. It’s real.

The real chopper-chopper sound of a helicopter.

I look up — and lights are dimly approaching through the sleeting rain.

“Help!” I scream, and wave my arms frantically. “Here!”

“Here!” Jess yells, and thrusts her torch beam up, moving it about in the gloom. “We’re here! Help!”

The helicopter hovers above us for a few moments, then, to my dismay, it moves on.

“Didn’t… they see us?” I gasp.

“I don’t know.” Jess looks taut and anxious. “Hard to tell. They wouldn’t land here anyway. They’d land on the ridge at the top and come down by foot.”

We both stand motionless for a moment, but the helicopter doesn’t return.

“OK,” says Jess at last. “Let’s keep going. At least the rocks will shelter us from the wind.”

We start moving again, as before. But this time all my drive seems to have gone. I just feel exhausted. I’m drenched, and cold, and I have absolutely no reserves of energy left. We’re inching up the slope with a painful slowness, heads together, arms locked around each other, both panting and gasping as rain hits us in the face.

“Wait.” I stop still. “I can hear something.” I clutch Jess, craning my neck.

“What?”

“I heard something—”

I break off as a dim light flashes through the rain. It’s a distant torch beam. And I can hear the sound of movement down the mountain.

Oh my God. It’s people. At last.

“It’s the mountain rescue! They’ve come!” I yell. “Here! We need help!”

“Here!” Jess calls, and flashes her torch in the air. “We’re here!”

The other torchlight disappears briefly, then reappears.

“Help!” shouts Jess. “We’re here!”

There’s no reply. Where have they gone? Have they missed us?

“Heeelp!” I scream desperately. “Please help! Over here! Can you hear us?”

“Bex?”

A familiar high-pitched voice comes thinly over the sound of the storm. I freeze.

What?

Am I… hallucinating? That sounded just like—

“Bex?” comes the voice again. “Bex, where are you?”

“Suze?”

As I stare upward, a figure appears at the edge of the ridge, wearing an ancient Barbour. Her hair is plastered down on her head with the rain, and she’s flashing a torch about, shielding her eyes and looking around, her brow creased in anxiety.

“Bex?” she screams. “Bex! Where are you?”

I have to be hallucinating. It’s like a mirage. I’m looking at a tree waving in the wind, and thinking it’s Suze.

“Bex?” Her eyes have lighted on us. “Oh my God! Bex!” She shouts over her shoulder, “I’ve found her! Over here!” She starts scrambling down the ridge toward us, sending rocks flying. “Bex!”

“Do you know her?” says Jess, looking bewildered.

“It’s Suze.” I swallow. “It’s… my best friend.”

Something hard is blocking my throat. Suze came to find me. She came all this way to find me.

“Bex! Thank God!” Suze arrives in a final flurry of stones and earth, her face all mud-stained, her blue eyes huge with concern. “Oh my God. You’re hurt. I knew it. I knew it—”

“I’m OK,” I manage. “Except my ankle.”

“She’s here, but she’s injured!” she says into her mobile, and listens for a moment. “Tarkie’s coming down with a stretcher.”

“Tarquin?” My head is too dazed to take this all in. “Tarquin’s here?”

“With his friend from the RAF. The stupid mountain rescue team said it was too early. But I knew you were in trouble. I knew we had to come. I was so worried.” Suze’s face suddenly crumples. “Oh God. I was so worried. No one knew where you were… You just disappeared. We all thought… We didn’t know what to think… We were trying to track your mobile signal, but there wasn’t one… then suddenly it appeared… And now here you are, all… all beaten up.” She looks on the verge of tears. “Bex, I’m so sorry I never called back. I’m so sorry.”

She flings her arms tightly round me. And for a few moments we just stand there, clinging to each other, the rain lashing down on us.

“I’m fine,” I say at last, gulping. “Really. I fell down the mountain. But I was with my sister. She took care of me.”

“Your sister.” Suze loosens her grip and slowly turns to Jess, who’s standing, watching awkwardly, her hands stuffed in her pockets.

“This is Jess,” I say. “Jess… this is Suze.”

The two look at each other through the driving rain. I can’t tell what each of them is thinking.

“Hi, Becky’s sister,” Suze says at last, and holds out her hand.

“Hi, Becky’s best friend,” Jess replies, and takes it.

There’s a crashing sound, and we all look up to see Tarquin making his way toward us down the slope, in some amazingly cool-looking army gear, including a hat with a headlamp on it.

“Tarquin,” I say. “Hi.”

“Jeremy’s coming down with the fold-up stretcher,” he says cheerfully. “Nasty fright you gave us all, Becky.” Into his mobile phone he says, “Luke? We’ve found her.”

The mountain seems to wobble. Suze quickly sticks out an arm for me to lean on.

Luke?

“How come…” My lips are suddenly trembling so much I can hardly form the words. “How come Luke…”

“He’s stuck in Cyprus because of bad weather,” says Suze, “but he’s been on the other end of the line the whole time. God, he’s been in a state.”

“Here you are, Becky,” Tarquin says, holding out the phone to me.

I almost can’t take it. I’m keyed up with nerves.

“Is he still… angry with me?” I falter.

Suze just looks at me for a moment, the rain pounding down on her hair and running down her face.

“Bex, take it from me. He’s not angry with you.”

I lift the phone up to my ear, wincing slightly as it presses on my bruised face.

“Luke?”

“Oh my God! Becky. Thank Christ.”

He’s all distant and crackly and I can hardly make him out. But as soon as I hear his familiar voice, it’s like the whole of the last few days comes to a head. Something is welling up inside me. My eyes are hot and my throat feels choked.

I want him. I want him, and I want to go home.

“Thank God you’re safe.” Luke sounds more overwrought than I’ve ever heard him. “I was out of my mind… ”

“I know,” I say with a gulp. “I’m sorry… ” Tears are spilling over onto my cheeks. I can barely speak. “Luke, I’m really sorry for everything—”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m sorry. Jesus. I thought…” He stops, and I can hear him breathing hard. “Just… don’t ever go missing again, OK?”

“I won’t.” I wipe my eyes furiously with my hand. “God, I wish you were here.”

“I’ll be there. I’ll be out as soon as the storm passes. Nathan’s offered me his private jet. He’s been absolutely tremendous… ” To my dismay, his voice is descending into a hissing crackle.

“Luke?”

“… hotel…”

He’s breaking up. Nothing is making any sense.

“I love you,” I call hopelessly as the phone goes dead. I look up to see all the others watching with compassion. Tarquin pats my shoulder kindly with a dripping hand.

“Come on, Becky. We’d better get you into the helicopter.”

THE HOSPITAL IS all a bit of a blur. There’s lots of light and noise and being asked questions and wheeled around on a trolley, and eventually it turns out I’ve broken my ankle in two places and they’ve got to set my leg — plus give me stitches where I cut my forehead and check I haven’t got tetanus or mad cow disease or anything. While they’re doing all that, they give me an injection of some stuff that makes me feel a bit dopey, and when everything’s done I flop back on my pillows, suddenly exhausted. God, it’s nice to be somewhere clean and warm and white.

In the distance I can hear someone reassuring Jess that she didn’t do any damage by moving me, and then telling Suze several times that a full body scan won’t be needed in this case, and no, they’re not being cavalier with my health. And as it happens, he is the top man in the county.

“Becky?” I look up in a daze, to see Tarquin advancing toward my bed, holding out a mobile phone. “Luke again.”

“Luke?” I say into the receiver. “Hi! Guess what? I’ve got a broken leg!” I look admiringly at my plaster cast, which is propped up on a support. I have always wanted a plaster cast.

“I heard. My poor darling. Are they looking after you OK? Do you have everything you need?”

“Er… I think so. You know…” With no warning I give a huge yawn. “Actually… I’m pretty tired. I might go to sleep.”

“I wish I was there.” Luke’s voice is gentle and loving. “Becky… just tell me one thing. Why did you go running off to the North without telling anyone?”

I blink at the phone. He doesn’t know why?

“Because I needed help, of course,” I say matter-of-factly. By now, I’ve almost come to terms with the situation. “Our marriage was in tatters. Jess was the only person I could turn to.”

Luke seems to be struck dumb.

“Our marriage was in what?” he says at last.

“Tatters!” My voice wobbles. “You know it was! It was awful! You didn’t even kiss me goodbye!”

“Darling, I was pissed off. We had a row! That doesn’t mean our marriage is in tatters.”

“Oh. Well, I thought it was. I thought it was all over. I thought you wouldn’t care where I was.”

“Oh, Becky.” Luke’s voice has gone all strange, like he’s trying not to laugh. Or possibly cry. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through?”

“No.” I bite my lip, hot with shame. “Luke, I’m really sorry. I… I didn’t think… I never realized—”

He cuts me off. “Anyway, you’re safe. That’s all that matters now. You’re safe.”