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Back The Wilderness Between Us Save as PDF
Chapters (39)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Author’s Note
  4. Glossary
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Thirty-Four
  39. Acknowledgments

She’d been gone from Clare’s side for almost six hours and, although the weather had cleared, she worried about having to nurse Clare through another night in the forest. If she had indeed punctured a lung, another night without proper medical attention could be critical. Faye hoped the girl had stayed calm in her absence. Thank goodness she was so brave about being in the wilderness. Faye couldn’t imagine Zach being as composed as Clare about staying alone in the bush. Geoffrey had told Faye years ago that his mother had taught him to love and understand the bush. He, it seemed, had passed that on to Clare. Even so, all that time alone might have unsettled her.

She worried, too, whether she’d done the right thing by promising Geoffrey she would stay with Clare until help arrived. What if the rangers were at Heuningbos and, having not yet spoken to the others, had left oblivious of the fact she and Clare needed their help? There was nothing there to alert them that any of the hikers were still in the vicinity. She wished she’d thought to leave a note before she went looking for Clare. Should she go there tonight?

Her legs were stiff and tired, and she longed to rest. It wasn’t just that she’d been hiking all day; she was hungry and sore.

“But you are not afraid, Faye,” she said quietly.

Then, as if responding to herself, she called out, “No, I am not afraid and I never was—I just didn’t know it until now!”

As the path levelled out and widened, she looked towards the mountains. The sun had already slipped behind the tallest peak. She had to face it; it was unlikely that anyone would come for Clare today. It was late and from what she’d understood, Geoffrey had a significant distance to cover. It was going to be a long night in the forest but, provided the girl was strong enough, that would be okay. What was there to be afraid of in this place where everything was as you saw it—naked and enduring because it knew no other way? The stars shine. The plants grow. The sun shines. The rain falls. The insects crawl. The animals roam. They ask for nothing but expect it all.

Was it this inevitability, the simplicity of the light, the dark, the day, the night that had brought Faye to back herself? She wasn’t sure, but she was glad it was over. Today, as she’d walked to the river, she reached the end of a journey she only recently realised she’d begun.

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Four