‘I’m not risking another person unless I have to. It’s bad enough Ryan going down there, but at least he knows what he’s doing. You have no cliff rescue skills—’

‘I’m her mother,’ Jenna said icily. ‘That counts for a great deal, believe me. Get me down there, Nick.’

He slid his fingers into the collar of his jacket, easing the pressure. ‘If someone has to go it should probably be me.’

‘You need to stay up here to co-ordinate with the coastguard. I don’t know anything about that—I wouldn’t have a clue.’ Jenna glanced down again and saw that Ryan had secured the boy and was now abseiling to the bottom of the cliff. He landed on shiny deadly rock just as another enormous wave rushed in and swamped both teenagers.

Instantly Ryan’s voice crackled over the radio. ‘Get Jenna down here, Nick. It’s an easy abseil—’

Easy? Torn between relief and raw terror, Jenna switched off her brain. To think was to panic, and she couldn’t afford to panic. Her daughter had climbed down there, she reminded herself as she leaned backwards and did as Nick instructed. All the same, there was a moment when her courage failed her and she thought she was going to freeze on the black forbidding rock.

‘Just take it steady, Jen.’ Ryan’s voice came from below her, solid and secure. ‘You’re nearly there.’

To stop would be to disappoint him as well as risk lives, so Jenna kept going, thinking to herself that if he genuinely thought this was easy she wouldn’t want to do a difficult abseil. The cliff fell away sharply and she went down slowly, listening to Ryan’s voice from below her, thinking of Lexi and not of the drop, or of the man who had died when his rope was severed. As her feet finally touched the rocks strong hands caught her. Ryan’s hands.

He unclipped the rope and the sea immediately swamped her feet. If he hadn’t clamped an arm around her waist she would have stumbled under the sudden pressure of the water. As it was, the cold made her gasp. Above her the cliff face towered, blocking out the last of the sunshine, revealing only ominous clouds in the chink of sky above. Here, in the slit of the rock, it was freezing.

She guessed that if the helicopter didn’t manage to get to them soon, then it would be too late. The weather would close in and make flying impossible.

And then what?

‘The tide is coming in—Ryan, I can’t hold his head any longer—’ Lexi’s voice came from behind them and Jenna turned, her stomach lurching as she saw the blood on her daughter’s tee shirt.

‘It’s not mine.’ Lexi read her mind and gave a quick shake of her head. ‘It’s Matt’s. His legs—both of them, I think. He jumped in and hit rock under the surface. I didn’t know what to do—he’s too heavy. Mummy, do something!’