Page 38 of Out of the Shadows
“What? No. The more I think about it, the more I reckon it’s best if you go back for help. I can fight off the sheep and badgers.”
“You don’t have to. I’m going to crouch and you’re going to get up onto my back.”
“A piggyback? You have got to be joking.”
“It’s that or you walk, because I’m not leaving you here. It’s your choice, Cosmo.”
I look up at him, to read what’s in his eyes, but his face is in shadow. Climb onto his back… what I wouldn’t have once given to do that… My mouth has dried to dusty old leather and a stone lodges in my throat, making it impossible to speak.
“What’s it going to be?”
“I…”
Rustling noises, through the leaf fall and the branches, from animals I can’t see and probably couldn’t identify even if I could. It’s darker than it was just a minute or so ago, I’m sure of it, and this rural place is alien and strange. I nod, and Daniel positions himself in front of me and I don’t so much climb onto his back, as fall onto it.
“Hold tight around my chest, and wrap your legs around my hips.”
Despite the pain, despite the situation, I can’t help but snigger. Doesn’t he get what he’s just said? Doesn’t he get the innuendo?
“Just shut your mouth and do as you’re told,” he snaps.
Oh, he gets it. I think he gets it very much.
