Winter on the Mersey(94)
‘We don’t know that. Sound does funny things underground. We mustn’t jump to conclusions or panic.’
‘No. No, of course not.’ She closed her eyes again, willing herself to stay in control. Panic wouldn’t help. She had to breathe slowly. She tried to hear Rita’s sensible voice in her head, explaining how a steady breath helped you stay calm. It was hard to concentrate on that while the noise of stone on stone grew louder and closer. ‘Frank, I’m sorry but I’m scared, I’m so scared.’
‘I know. It is frightening. It’s natural to be scared, but we’re going to get out of this.’
‘Frank … I—’ She couldn’t keep the depth of emotion from her voice. The effort of pretending was too much.
But Frank cut in on her garbled thoughts. ‘Kitty, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I must tell you something. This isn’t exactly how I’d planned to say this, but, well, lying here in the dark makes you realise what’s important, doesn’t it?’ He must have caught her tone and understood it for what it was. ‘And the fact is, you are. You’re the most important person in the world to me, Kitty. I know I’ve had the accident with my leg and I’ll never be the man I used to be, but I have to say this anyway. I can’t go on kidding myself I think of you just as a friend. Sylvia could tell that wasn’t so, even if I wouldn’t admit it. You’re the woman I love, Kitty. You always have been.’
Kitty gasped, in shock and yet in delight that his words echoed exactly what she’d been thinking. The terrifying darkness seemed to recede. ‘Frank, I don’t … I can’t believe it. Really? I thought you looked down on me, like a kid sister or something. I never dared tell you how I felt. I don’t care about your leg. It makes no difference to me. How could you even think it?’
‘Because I was stupid and had my pride,’ he said ruefully. ‘I thought I couldn’t condemn you to spend your life with a disabled man, especially when you’d known me before, in the days when I could dance and box and everything that normal men do. I never looked down on you, ever. Yes, you were like a sister to start with, but then things changed. I always wanted to take care of you, but it’s something different now, you have to believe me.’
‘Frank, you’re the only one for me, I don’t care about anything else,’ Kitty breathed. ‘If we get out of here—’
‘No, when we get out of here,’ said Frank staunchly. ‘They’ll come for us soon. They’re bound to. Then we’ll get your arm sorted, and after that we can make up for lost time. We can be together properly – as long as that’s what you’d like, Kitty.’
‘Of course, it’s what I want more than anything.’ She gave a small laugh. ‘Really? Are you sure? Oh, Frank. We can’t lose each other now. Do you think we would have ever said this if we hadn’t been trapped like this? Would we have gone on misunderstanding one another and being unhappy? Perhaps we should be grateful that fate has done this.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘We’re going to be all right, Frank. Fate couldn’t be so cruel as to harm us any more now we finally know we’re going to be together.’
‘Exactly,’ he said confidently, not allowing any shadow of doubt to colour his voice. ‘They’ll be here in no time. All we have to do is wait. Pretend I can hold your hand. Imagine I’m doing that, and giving it a good squeeze. That’s what I’ll do when we get out of here. I’ll give you a big hug; I’m never going to stop hugging you, protecting you.’
‘I’ll hold you to that. I won’t care about my arm, as long as we get out of here.’
‘We will, Kitty. We’re going to be safe any moment now.’ But she could hear his voice was fading once more. He must be as thirsty and hungry as she was. They hadn’t eaten since the biscuits at the meeting. At least they’d had those. Her mind began to drift again and she could feel her eyelids drooping, the welcome muzziness of sleep – or was it just that she had no strength left? The lack of air was playing with her senses. Time was stretching away from her. Then Frank’s voice came again.
‘Kitty. Can you see it?’
She came out of her stupor, realising his voice was sharp now, stronger once more.
‘See what? I can’t … oh, perhaps, though. There’s something on my left-hand side, a patch of … I don’t know, it’s not quite as dark.’
‘I’m sure it’s a beam of light. It is, Kitty. I’m going to call out. Over here!’ he shouted, his voice croaky but full of force.
‘Hello! Over here!’ Kitty echoed as loudly as she could, tasting dust and dirt as she did so. Now she could make out the light more clearly. It moved around. It must be the beam of a torch.
‘Hello there, miss,’ came a man’s voice. ‘Shout out again so I can tell where you are.’
Kitty could have cried with relief but instead she called to him, ‘We’re over here. There’s two of us – or at least that’s all we know of. There could be more.’
‘Steady on, then. We’ll be with you in a jiffy.’ The man sounded closer, and then there were muffled noises, perhaps as he turned and spoke to the other rescuers. ‘That’s it, that’s it – almost there.’ More stones fell nearby and then, with a grunt of effort, the man and his team rolled back a huge pillar. As the torchlight broke through their prison, Kitty could pick out the markings of the stone, and then the ARP uniforms of the men.