Mel followed, and after a few moments managed to spot what Rik had already seen. A man dangled against that icy outcrop. It was one of the two men she’d seen earlier. The other—Mel couldn’t see.
‘Stop, you fool!’ Rik spoke the words aloud but they were too far away for any hope that the man might hear them.
Even so, Mel echoed the sentiment.
The prince let out a pithy curse. ‘If he keeps trying to get loose, he’ll drop to the bottom.’ He didn’t slow his pace, but he turned to glance at her. ‘There’s no one anywhere near except us. I’ve rappelled that section many times. I have to see if I can help while we wait for a rescue team to get here.’
He already had a cell phone out, and quickly called for assistance and explained the situation and that he would see what he could do until the rescue team arrived.
Mel could hear someone at the other end insisting the prince must not go anywhere near the dangerous situation, before Rik said, ‘Get help here as quickly as possible’ and ended the call.
She bit back the inclination to ask him if he would be safe enough. ‘What can I do, Rik?’
‘Keep yourself safe. Do not follow the path I take. Follow the path that’s cut into the mountain and you’ll reach the same destination. It will take longer, but I’ll know you are not at risk. When the rescue team starts up the mountain, point them to where I am.’ He strode ahead confidently.
Mel followed at the best pace she could manage. Each moment counted and Rik quickly got ahead of her, and then cut a different path towards the ice-bound cliff. After a few minutes she could hear him shout to the man first in English, and then in French. The conversation continued in French, and Mel could only guess what was being said.
She struggled on, determined to reach Rik and be of help if she could. She was within shouting distance herself when she looked back and saw the rescue team starting up the mountain. Mel waved to them and pointed to Rik’s location, and got a wave back from the leader of the team.
Mel kept going, and then there was the man, dangling in mid-air, and Rik saying something sharp and hard to a second man at the top of the cliff before taking that man’s unused equipment and kitting up.
The third prince of Braston was over the edge in a breathtakingly short time. Mel didn’t go any further, then. She wasn’t sure she could have if she tried. Instead she stood frozen in place, completely unable to breathe as all the concern for his safety that she’d pushed back rushed to the surface and threatened to overwhelm her.
She bit back the instinct to call out, ‘Be careful.’ Considering what he was doing, he would already be at the bottom of the cliff if he weren’t taking care.
Nevertheless, what followed made Melanie’s blood chill. She’d never watched ice rappelling. It looked risky, and it was obvious from the way he tried to control his slip that Rik didn’t have the right boots on his feet for the job.
The stranded man, despite Rik’s instructions that even Melanie could tell were to stay still and wait whether they were in French or not, continued to tug and pull at the tangle he was in. Did he want to end up at the bottom of the mountain?
‘Your Highness, you must wait for us!’
‘Please, Prince Rikardo, you must come away from there!’
The words were called as the rescue team came close enough to see what was happening, but it was too late. If Rik didn’t do something about this man, he would kill himself. Panic had the man in its grip. The second man showed no apparent interest in proceedings, sitting there with a blank look on his face.
Had Melanie looked like that when she’d taken that medication and faded into sleep?
He’s taken some kind of illicit drug, Mel. You’ve seen enough of that in Melbourne to recognise it. No doubt Rik recognises it, too.
‘You have to make sure that second man doesn’t interfere with what Rik’s doing or do anything stupid himself.’ She spoke the instruction to the head of the rescue team as they drew close. ‘He’s under the influence of something. It’s likely that both of them are, because Rik’s struggling to get the stranded one to listen and stop fighting to get free.’
Rik had rappelled out beside the man. He couldn’t untangle him, but he was trying to calm him. At his own risk! Even now the man reached for Rik with clawing hands!
‘Oh, please, be careful,’ she whispered.
She didn’t notice that she’d called him Rik as she spoke to the rescue team, or that she’d spoken as though she had every right to that authority. Mel didn’t care.
The next ten minutes felt like a lifetime. When the man was hauled up, Rikardo followed. He moved with confidence. Mel had made her way to the top and wanted to grab him once he got up there and …
Shake him? Check that he was unharmed?
Kiss him a second time?
‘All is well, though I have asked the team to take both men to the nearest hospital and have them checked over, drug tested and, if need be, charged by the police.’ Rik’s words were spoken across a very calm surface.
But beneath that calm must be all the anger over the stupidity of those two men.
‘Your Highness …‘ One of the rescue team approached.
‘I am well and unharmed but you must excuse me now,’ Rikardo said with respect, and firmness.
And then he stripped out of the equipment he’d commandeered, took Mel once again by the arm, and started down the mountain with her.
Mel walked at his side. ‘I’m so glad you knew what to do up there. I’d like to see you do that properly one day, with all the right equipment, because I think you would be amazing at it.’
I’d like to see you do that properly one day …
Melanie’s words rang in Rik’s ears as he put his Italian sports car through its paces on the way to his mountain retreat home.
Her words were a salve to the anger he’d bitten back over the stupidity of those two men. Had they wanted to get themselves killed? The other one, when questioned, had said he was waiting for his turn to go out ‘alone’ and that ice rappelling was ‘easy, man’.
The man had been so far gone that he hadn’t even comprehended the danger his friend was in. Well, they were both safe now.
Rik let the thoughts go and turned his attention to his driving. He’d held back until he reached the private road that led to his home. This road, he knew better than the back of his hand, every turn, just how much he could give behind the wheel to release the pent-up energy that came from that stressful rappel in someone else’s untested equipment. He’d needed this.
He’s going too fast. Mel couldn’t get the thought out of her head. Her logical mind understood that Rik had control of the car. It was clear he knew this road well. The road itself was wide with plenty of room for dual traffic and yet it was a private road. They hadn’t seen any other cars and she guessed they were quite unlikely to do so.
All of this made infinite sense. The paralysing fear inside Mel did not make sense. Her fingers curled into the edges of her seat. Her heart pounded with a mixture of apprehension and the need to get out of this situation at any cost.
‘Please stop.’ The words whispered through her clenched teeth, whispered so quietly that she didn’t know how Rik could have heard them.
All Mel knew was that she wanted out of this car. Now.
‘Melanie.’ A voice tinged with remorse broke through her fear. The car began immediately to slow and Rik said, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise