‘Is Sam still here?’
‘No, his grandfather’s taken him home. He had a bit of a shock but once he was cleaned up he seemed all right. We gave him one of the kids’ T-shirts.’
‘That’s nice.’ They only had a few of those, and they’d been saving them. But Sam deserved one.
‘One of the police dog handlers came over with a children’s activity pack as well. We all made a bit of a fuss of him and he cheered up.’
Kate knew that the guys would have done their best to lift Sam’s spirits. They all had children of their own, and knew that Ethan couldn’t be there for his son. She wondered how he was going to feel about that, when this was all over.
‘Is Ethan going to the hospital?’ Mike broke into her thoughts.
‘I don’t know. Do you have another T-shirt? Ethan got the worst of the blood spillage.’
‘Yep, no problem. Wait here, I’ll bring it to you.’
She waited for five minutes, knowing that Ethan would come as soon as he could. He would want to know that Sam was all right. When he finally appeared, he made straight for her.
‘He’s still in a bad way, but you helped give him a chance, Kate.’
It took five seconds to say it. But it was five seconds in which Ethan could have asked about Sam, and he’d chosen to tell her what she needed to hear. She proffered the T-shirt with trembling hands.
‘Sam’s okay. Your dad cleaned him up and everyone made a big fuss of him. They’ve gone home.’
‘Thanks.’ Ethan stripped off his T-shirt, dropping it onto the ground.
Wow. The way Ethan filled a shirt, it had been impossible to conclude that he didn’t have a good body. The reality of it exceeded Kate’s expectations. And she shouldn’t be thinking that, because there were much more important things to concentrate on.
‘You’re going to the hospital?’
‘Yes.’ He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and handed it to her. ‘Would you be able to take my dad’s number and call him, let him know? Tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can and ask him to text me and let me know how Sam is.’
‘Yes, of course.’ He was trusting her with this, too.
‘He’s under “d”—for Dad.’ One corner of Ethan’s mouth twitched and Kate realised that she was staring at him. He took the clean T-shirt from her and pulled it over his head. Too late. Ethan wasn’t someone you could un-see in a hurry.
He was looking over his shoulder, back to where John and the ambulance crew were carefully transferring the young man onto a stretcher. Kate found the number, transferring it into her own phone and checking it.
‘Got to go...’ For a moment, Ethan was still, his gaze locked onto her face. Then he turned and was gone.
* * *
The ambulance left, and she called George, letting him know where Ethan was, and receiving assurances that Sam was fine and that he’d text Ethan and let him know. And then there was nothing more for Kate to do. Mike shooed her away from the mountain rescue stand, which was rapidly being packed up and dismantled, telling her to go and get a cup of tea.
‘You want a decent cup. Not a couple of mouthfuls.’ The middle-aged woman who had been busy wrapping uneaten biscuits in cling-film ignored the cups and saucers that were still laid out on the tea table and reached underneath it, producing a mug.
‘Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.’
‘From what I hear, you and Ethan Conway are lifesavers.’ The woman smiled at her and Kate shivered. Hearing herself and Ethan mentioned in the same sentence was new, and oddly exciting. ‘How is the young man?’
‘I don’t really know. He’s on his way to hospital and Ethan’s gone with him. He says that he has a chance.’
‘Good.’ The woman produced a hip flask from her pocket. ‘Would you like some of this to go with it, love?’
‘What is it?’
‘Nice drop of brandy. Only, don’t tell the vicar. Church premises...’
There was no particular reason why she should find it incongruous that the tea ladies were surreptitiously downing brandy in the church kitchen, but it made Kate smile all the same.