They both agreed and Kelly went to hand over to the police cordon, who’d stay here all night, for their sins, guarding the crash site. It wasn’t all bad. They were fresh, well clothed, and warm, with plenty to eat and drink. They’d set tents up, and part of Kelly wished she was camping on the mountainside tonight, if only to pay respects to those who hadn’t survived. She felt a weird connection to the site, but she knew that it was a passing folly: her emotions processing the adrenalin-fuelled rush of the day. Tomorrow, waking in her own bed and fresh from sleep, she’d have a clearer head. The descent from the Col was just over an hour for three fit individuals. They gathered their things and Kelly radioed to Eden House that she was done for the day.

‘Two casualties just passed away at the Penrith and Lakes hospital. The three airlifted to Manchester are stable. Lord Reilly is still critical,’ the operator informed her. Two of the bodies stuck underneath the fuselage had been freed, deceased. That took the total to fifteen dead and seventeen wounded. It would be huge news and the police were struggling to keep journalists away. They’d already turned away reporters posing as climbers, but nothing could stop video footage and photographs leaking online. That was how it was.

‘Ready?’ she asked her two walking companions. They nodded. The steep hike down was all paved and it made for hell on the thighs and the knees. But the three of them were used to their leg muscles screaming. Kelly was thankful for her base fitness level, thanks to hiking these hills since her return from London, six years ago now. The exercise settled her mind, and her body, and it distracted her from the fact that she was facing motherhood essentially alone, at forty. There was something about connecting with nature and the outdoors that soothed the demons that told her she was a failure. Now, as the punishing slate pounded her feet and the reverberations vibrated up her weary body, she knew that she’d keep it up. Her body felt stronger than it had in ages. Was it true that those in love let themselves go a little? Of course it was. Comfortable in romance, eyes were quickly seduced away from the other little necessities in life. It had certainly happened to her, and then she’d been pregnant. Her body had been through so much in the last year; it was enjoying being treated well again. She was no longer breastfeeding, having given it up recently, and she was eating good regular meals, thanks to Millie, who insisted on making her packed lunches before work. She smiled to herself. Maybe she’d never needed a husband at all, but a wife.

Chapter 13