Page 20

F or what felt like a year, the accelerator pedal stuck, flat to the floor. Rose pressed the brake but nothing happened. The power steering had gone too and the effort to turn the wheel with sweaty hands to avoid a ditch, wrenched her arms.

Then, the pedal unstuck, the engine died and Rose let the car slow to a halt as she heaved it into the grass verge. There was a crunch as it rolled over one of the small white boulders on the edge of the road, then a sort of sigh, when the car stopped.

Rose put shaking hands over her mouth to stop herself from being sick.

When she thought her legs might work again, she opened the door, got out and took in gulps of air.

The road was empty in both directions. On its eastern side, it curved north round the forest towards Kirkglen and curved south round the forest towards the city.

On the western side, open country fell with rough slopes and pastures, towards a distant loch and then the sea, which was a line of barely visible silver between grey-green land and grey sky.

Dotted in between were scattered crofts and houses, none of them in easy walking distance.

Rose shut the door and looked at the car.

She willed it to tell her what was wrong, then setout the warning triangle.

It seemed a little redundant as it must be fairly obvious she’d broken down.

If she’d wanted to stop on purpose, there was a picnic spot only a few metres away.

Taking her handbag from the passenger side, she rummaged about for her phone and looked up at the sky.

The day had not got any warmer and it looked poised to rain.

Wasn’t it supposed to be dangerous to get back into a broken down car because something might come careering round the bend and crash into the back?

When she found her phone, it had no signal.

Rose considered her options. She was in heeled sandals and a thin top and cropped jeans. It was a five mile hike back to Kirkglen and probably ten to the next small village. Surely someone would turn up soon? The sense of being smothered by nothingness overwhelmed her.

Someone might turn up soon but who was to say it was someone safe?

A light drizzle was falling. The forest seemed to offer shelter and somewhere safe to watch the road. And it was on higher ground where there might be a signal.

Cursing as her heels caught in clumps of earth as she climbed, Rose headed towards the forest. Periodically she looked back at the road, but it was still empty of all but her abandoned car, lop-sided on the edge of the carriageway.

The forest was bound with a fence, but a few trees stood outside the boundary. There was still no mobile signal. Rose wished she could merge with the tree. There was just too much countryside.

A car was coming from Kirkglen. It slowed as it approached Rose’s car and stopped. A woman emerged and peered inside.

I wouldn’t do that, thought Rose, I’d think it was a trap. Then she thought, that’s my city mind: suspicious.

Nevertheless, she moved behind the tree and gauged its trunk and branches.

Wishing she had shoes instead of sandals on, she climbed it and wedged herself in a fork, where she could look down but feel hidden.

Looking along the branch, which overhung the fence, Rose wondered if she could climb along and drop down inside the wire.

A half-seen movement in the shadows arrested her and then she heard a voice calling:

‘Rose! Rose Henderson!’

At the roadside, the woman from the other car was staring about and yelling. Rose didn’t recognise her, but that apparently meant nothing round here.

‘Rose! Wherever you are, stop walking! I can help!’ The woman looked towards the trees.

Rose tucked herself deeper into the trunk and felt glad of her brown hair and dark clothes.

The woman looked back down the road towards the city and then up at the sky as she brushed water off her shoulders. The rain was getting heavier.

The logical thing to do would be to climb down, walk to the stranger and take up the offer of help. It was ridiculous to hide in a tree like a bad tempered child.

Rose stayed put.

Settling herself as comfortably as possible, the rain pattering on the leaves around her, she looked sideways back down into the forest where something moved out of the corner of her eye.

She must be going mad. The strange person who wanted to help was unnerving her, but the strange something watching her from the undergrowth reassured her .

The woman got back into her car to continue her journey.

Presumably she assumed Rose has walked onwards and would be somewhere along the road ahead of her.

Meanwhile, the thing in the shrubbery made itself visible and made a noise somewhere between a woof and a sneeze.

It was a wolf, brindled, slender. Rose could make out blue eyes peering up at her.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Are you Sky?’

Balancing with difficulty, she pulled out her phone and took a photograph. The wolf sniffed the air and turned towards the road, making Rose follow her gaze. A familiar Land Rover stopped and Rob emerged.

Rose found it strange to look down on him as he stood fidgeting with his keys.

She watched him hesitate, before approaching her car to peer inside and then round.

He rubbed his face and walked across the skid marks to the ditch she’d avoided and stood in the lessening rain for quite a while, staring down into it.

Rose frowned, leaning forward and shifting in her perch. One of her sandals fell onto the grass under the tree.

What was he doing?

He straightened then looked up and down the road. He was returning to his own car when Rose heard a soft howl. Rob peered towards the noise and Rose looked down at the wolf.

‘What are you doing?’ she whispered.

The wolf howled again, sniffed the air and shifted back into the shadows to stare with blue eyes. When Rose turned back towards the road, she saw Rob making his way up the slope. In no time, he was squinting into the branches where she sat.

She said nothing.

Rob picked up her sandal and waved it.

‘Hello Cinderella,’ he said. ‘Any particular reason why you’re up a tree and howling at me?’

‘It wasn’t me, it was her.’ Rose indicated the forest behind the fence.

The wolf, if it was still there, was no longer visible.

Rob peered into the forest and made a howl of his own, then shrugged. ‘It’s only you that’s up a tree.’

‘The car broke down.’

‘Uh-huh. And that made you climb a tree because…’

‘There’s too much countryside.’

Rob turned round and stared out across the moorlands rolling down towards the distant sea and back up at Rose.

‘There was a woman,’ she added. ‘She was one of the ones from town I think. I couldn’t face another set of questions from yet another person who already knew the answers by some sort of yokel sixth sense.’

Rob raised his eyebrows.

‘Speaking as a yokel,’ he said. ‘I’m wondering if she might have just wanted to offer you some help. It’s maybe a concept you townies are unfamiliar with.’

Rose swallowed. ‘I can’t explain,’ she said at last. ‘I just wanted to get out and go somewhere. I just wanted to get away. It’s like everyone, everything wants to stop me.’

Rob, paused from spinning her sandal as if was a drumstick and looked back down towards the cars and the road.

‘All I wanted to do was get some paint.’ She waved her arms about and started to slip. A kind of woof came from the undergrowth as she grabbed the trunk and shifted position again.

‘Paint?’

‘Decorating. This century’s colours. All the women told me to stick to Mr Thingy’s shop with his porcelain pigs and floral toilet brushes. They just told me to stay at home. And I just wanted to leave and look what happened!’

‘What happened?’ his voice was sharp, he was staring up at her intensely.

Rose closed her eyes took a breath. What on earth must he think of her? Was she going to make a fool of herself every time they met?

‘The brakes went or the accelerator or both and then the steering definitely went. I thought… I don’t know what I thought.

I was driving quite fast but I’d slowed for the bend.

I managed to wrench it to the left and stop.

It’s never done that sort of thing before.

I’m not… it’s not.. it’s just… my arms hurt.

I just wanted some paint and some tall buildings. ’

Don’t start crying, she thought.

‘Come down, Rose.’ Rob said gently.

‘I’m not sure I can,’

‘Come on, let go and I’ll catch you.

Rose tried to peek into the undergrowth for reassurance but no blue eyes could be seen. If the wolf was watching, it was now well back. She let herself slip and fall down the tree until Rob could catch and steady her .

He held her for seconds before letting go as if she had scalded him.

She blushed. There had been warmth in that momentary touch of his hands, the brush of his chest against hers as she fell, the passing of their eyes, their lips within inches of each other.

He was looking at her, scanning her briefly from head to toe.

She was suddenly conscious that her top was thin and damp with rain and that she was cold. She crossed her arms. She saw his cheeks were flushed and looked into eyes which were sea-green, the pupils full and dark.

‘Let’s get you home,’ he said. ‘I can tow your car and look at it when we get back. I promise I won’t use my yokel sixth sense and ask you questions I already know the answers to and I promise not to let the countryside get you.’

‘Don’t laugh at me.’

‘I’m not,’ he said. ‘Well only a bit, anyway.’ he waggled her sandal. ‘You have to trust me. For a start, you can’t get far without your magic slipper.’