Page 11 of A Fresh Start on Crumcarey
‘There – that must have done the trick!’ he said, having endured several minutes of rather harsh brushing-action. Grabbing his flannel in his other hand, he sluiced some of the soap away.
‘Hallelujah!’ he grinned as the grime wiped away with it.
A hammering on the door of the barn made him turn in surprise. That didn’t sound like the wind…
‘Anyone in?’ came a high-pitched voice that definitelydidn’tsound like his uncle. ‘Help?’
In his haste to grab his towel, Luke fumbled with the soap-slick scrubbing brush and dropped it into the sink – getting a face full of sudsy water in return.
‘Damn!’ he spluttered, scrunching his eyes closed against the dripping, stinging water. He felt around blindly for his towel, but he couldn’t find it.
‘Help? Anyone home?!’
‘Coming!’ he called, giving up on the towel and doing his best to fist the water from his eyes as he hurried in the direction of the door.
Grabbing the handle, he threw it open and squinted out at a bedraggled shape. He couldn’t really see much, what with the wind whipping at him and his soap-filled eyes. He brought his fists up again, doing his best to rub some sense into his eyeballs. Then he blinked… and the figure came into focus.
‘Maggie?’ he gasped.
‘I’m sorry to bother you—’ she started.
‘Come inside!’ he said, stepping out of the way and beckoning for her to step in out of the storm. The minute she slipped past him, he closed the door firmly behind her.
‘How can I help…’ he turned to her, and his jaw dropped.
She wasn’t just a little bit wet – she was soaked through. Her long hair hung over one shoulder just as it had earlier, but now a steady stream of water poured from it as if she’d just climbed out of a river rather than a car.
‘Wait… did youwalkhere?’ he gasped.
The beautiful, drowned rat in front of him nodded morosely as she continued to drip all over the floor. She looked done-in. A strange mixture of exhausted, completely resigned, and seriously close to tears.
‘Are you hurt?’ said Luke, as his confusion was nudged out of the way by his ever-present practical mode. If there was an accident on Crumcarey, time was of the essence – especially in a storm. It would be a nightmare to get the air ambulance out in weather like this.
‘Not hurt,’ muttered Maggie.
‘Okay, good,’ said Luke, silently instructing his rising panic to calm back down. ‘Is anyone else hurt?’ he added, just to be sure.
Maggie shook her head.
‘And there’s no fire?’ he said.
Maggie snorted out a laugh that sounded like it came from underwater. Or maybe it was a sob. It was hard to tell.
‘Definitely no fire,’ she said.
‘Okay. Good,’ said Luke.
‘If you say so,’ muttered Maggie.
Luke gave her a wry smile. ‘I didn’t meanthatkind of fire.’
‘I know,’ she sighed. ‘Sorry.’
‘Just… stay there two secs,’ said Luke, dashing through to the bathroom and grabbing the largest clean towel he could find.
‘Thanks,’ said Maggie as he handed it to her. She instantly wrapped it around the sodden length of her hair, doing her best to squeeze as much water from it as she could. Then she dried her face and glanced back up at him.
Luke bit his lip. Maggie looked like she’d just waded across the bottom of the sea from the mainland, and her mascara had trickled onto her cheeks… and yet she was breath-taking. He was having a hard time tearing his stinging eyes away from her.
