Lone Pine Bride (The Brides of Lone Pine #1)(9)

“Thank you,” the lady said and someone called from across the road to Robert.

“Could you give us a hand here?”

“Yes, of course.” Robert ran towards the house and Seth followed the lady to where she had fallen on her knees and had her head to the ground.

“I can hear something,” she said. “Though it’s very faint. Can you hear it?”

He put his face near hers and listened hard. She was outstandingly beautiful, he thought irrelevantly, and from the point of view of looks would be most acceptable by whoever she was going to marry. Was it Gavin Ridgewell? At least if it was him her looks would make up for the mundanity of his appearance. He heard a faint noise below and frowned. “It’s Esmé Long,” he said.

“How old is she?”

“About eighty, I think. She lives on her own and is a bit frail. She appears to be further down than Lillian and the children were.”

“Yes. Can you shout to her? Your voice is deeper so it will be louder.”

“Yes, of course.”

He shouted but there was no reply, just a groan, and he felt a bit desperate. The woman must be injured and how were they going to get her out quickly after the first house taking so long? How were they going to get round all the houses in time to rescue trapped people, and what was it like in Lone Pine?

“Most of these houses have one storey, don’t they?” the lady said.

“Yes.”

“That might give them more of a chance because there won’t be bedrooms on top of them. However, we have the roof to get through which will make it more awkward.”

“Yes.” Seth went to lift a heavy length of bricks but it wouldn’t budge, nor could he move anything else without shifting that. The lady pointed to a broken piece of doorframe.

“Would that help?” she asked.

He lifted it, pushed it under the adobe and pulled with all his might. She came to stand right against him and put her hands next to his.

“Sometimes two are better than one,” she said, and they pulled with all their might. The adobe shifted, they jumped back and it rolled a bit. Below were smaller pieces along with roof slates which they began to lift out between them.

Her face was very close and he was glad it wasn’t Rachel’s face. If it was he could have been sidetracked. Not because this woman wasn’t beautiful because she was even though by now her hair was a bit dishevelled and there was dust on her face.

But he had a lady to rescue and he must not think about the bride waiting for him. He started to pull at the rubble a bit more energetically and the lady put her hand on his arm.

“Slowly,” she said. “We don’t want it to collapse and totally hem her in or kill her.”

“There are so many houses,” he replied.

“Yes, but the other men are doing all they can. I’m sure they will cover them as soon as possible. What’s the lady’s name?”

“Esmé Long.”

“Oh yes, you said. I’m sorry. What is your name?”

“Seth, and yours?”

“Hannah. I’m meeting a Seth.”

“There are two Seths. How old are you?”

“Twenty three.”

“My lady is nineteen and her name isn’t Hannah. Your Seth went down the other end of the village.”

“How old is the other Seth?”

Thirty five at least, Seth knew, and not that good looking. He was beginning to bald though that, of course, didn’t make a man look less good looking or masculine. He was short but height didn’t matter. He was altogether nondescript but then Seth himself was not that much of a catch.

“Not much older than me,” he said.

Hannah pushed back her hair as it fell round her face. “Do you have any string in your pocket?” she asked.

“A bit of twine. Why?”

“Could you pull back my hair and tie it? I did have it pinned up but the pins have gone.”

“Yes, of course.” He smoothed it back and it was beautiful, he felt. Thick, wavy, the colour the deepest brown he had ever seen though not black. Pulling it together he wound the string round it and tied it, not used to doing such things and not sure if it was seemly to be doing it even in these circumstances. She turned to smile at him after he finished before bending over her task once more.

“Thank you.”

It was a nice smile but Rachel’s would be better and why did this have to happen just when she arrived? It was a terrible welcome for her and the other ladies. It was terrible for the people in the town. He pushed the thoughts from him and carefully and methodically moved the rubble while Hannah did the same.

“This is taking far too long,” she said after a while. “Can you think of a way to speed things up?”

“You said we should go slowly,” Seth replied.

“Yes, I know I did, but I can’t hear her anymore and I’m getting rather worried about her. Where do you think the sound came from initially?”

“About there,” he said, pointing.

“We have some spades,” Rex said, walking up behind them. “It will take far too long using just our hands.” He lay two beside them. “We’re also going to attach some of the larger piles of bricks to the horses so they can pull them away. Has Esmé said anything?”