Page 92 of Taming the Heiress
"Leave me be!" She broke loose and began pacing again.
"I want to help," he said.
"That seems hard to believe. Just stay back and let them do what must be done."
"I am not so heartless as you think," Frederick said. "I was wrong. I was desperate, loving you. I may have acted poorly—"
"Poorly!" She laughed bitterly.
"Madam, I regret my behavior. I thought ill of Stewart, but now he's in great difficulty. Let me help."
She stared at him in mistrust. Norrie joined them, and stood staring equally at Frederick, who looked uncomfortable.
"If you've had a change of heart," Norrie said, "go help with the cranks and the pulleys—and leave Meg be."
Frederick turned away with a brisk nod, and took off his coat, quickly offering to lend a hand on the crank arm of one of the giant spools that held the hoses and ropes. Norrie turned away to help the men who were guiding the ropes and hoses that spilled over the side of the rock into the water.
Noticing that Alan was still speaking to Dougal through the funnel and hose, Meg ran to him. "Please, let me talk to him," she said, and Alan handed her the funnel.
She held the metal cone to her mouth. "Dougal," she said. "Dougal!" Then she moved the cup to her ear for the reply.
"Meg?" His voice sounded strange, tinny, so far away. The funnel smelled of the rubber hosing.
"Dougal!" she gasped, and Alan set a cautioning hand on her shoulder. She drew a breath and calmed herself. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. My boot is caught. Evan is here. We will work it free, my love."
"My love," she echoed. "I'm here. I'm waiting." She handed the speaking tube back to Alan and stood by while he spoke with Dougal about what was next to do with the ropes and the great steel crane, which the men were now wheeling into place to help haul the stone away and free Dougal.
The wind tore over the rock, whipping at her skirts and cape. Meg set a hand on her bonnet and braced her other arm over her chest, looking west, seeing where the sky roiled, gray and foreboding. Far out to sea, the breakers rose, white with froth, peaking and rushing toward the reef. Droplets of rain spattered her, cold and stinging.
She remembered, suddenly, vividly, standing on top of this very rock in another lashing storm. Dougal had been with her then, his body and his courage shielding her.
Alan spoke into the funnel again and looked toward the crews who worked furiously on the machinery, ropes, and hoses behind him. "We need more hands on the ropes to help Evan haul that stone off of Dougal!" Men moved around quickly, intensifying the effort above the water.
Meg turned to Alan. "How can they move that stone at all down there? I don't understand. Can we not just lift it up using the ropes and cranes?"
"It's not so easy," he said grimly. "The stone has to be trussed with ropes to lift it. But Evan and Dougal can shift it just enough to free Dougal's foot."
"But it weighs tons!"
"On land," he said. "Down there 'tis different, the weight of things is lighter. The stone can be shifted by two men." He stripped off his coat as he spoke and unbuttoned his vest. "I beg your pardon, Miss MacNeill—er, Lady Strathlin, but I'm going down there to help." He pulled off his boots and tossed them aside, so that he stood in shirtsleeves and stockinged feet. His thick ash-blond hair ruffled in the wind, and his linen shirt blew flat against his broad chest and heavily muscled arms.
"But Alan," she said, "you are... bothered by the water."
"My friend is in danger and I canna stay up here a moment longer," he said firmly, and turned to inform the men that he was diving in to help. "Dougal is but forty or fifty feet down!"
"You have no gear," Meg said.
"A man can go down that far without gear, just holding his breath—but he canna stay down for long. I'll do what I can, then come up for a breath." He handed the funnel to Meg. "Talk to him. Let him hear your voice. And pray for us, lass. It is a grim thing, this, and I will not lie to you." He turned away.
Pausing on the cliff edge, beaten by winds and dappled by the rains, Alan then dove cleanly over the side. Meg watched him cut through the water.
"Dougal," she said into the funnel, "Alan is coming down."
"What the devil!" Dougal replied.
"He says he can help you push the stone," she told him.
