She almost sobbed again in relief and the sheer delight that he was alive. ‘I’m stuck under rubble,’ she called, ‘and one arm is painful, but otherwise not too bad.’ She forced herself to sound cheerful. She didn’t want him to worry about her. ‘What about you?’

‘Not too bad either.’ He coughed. ‘I’m caught under some stones but I can move one arm. Hold on.’ There was a scrabbling noise and then the sound of something moving over to her left. Suddenly she could hear him much more clearly. ‘Is that better? I’ve managed to shift a brick or something like that.’

‘Frank, that’s much better. I can hear you properly now.’ She breathed out slowly. ‘Are you really not hurt? Can you see anything?’

‘Only a patch of light coming from behind somewhere. I can’t twist around to see any more, though. Not because I’m injured, more because I’m pinned down and don’t want to move any more stones in case I set off a rock fall.’

‘I’m the same. I hope it’s daylight but I don’t know. How long have we been in here, do you think?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ Frank said. ‘I must have passed out for a bit. I only came to when I heard you calling.’

‘Me too,’ said Kitty. ‘It was like I woke up in a dark fog. I’m getting used to it now though. It’s not so bad, is it? It could be worse.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ Frank said at once. ‘And we’re bound to be rescued soon, you know.’

‘I thought that too,’ said Kitty immediately, trying to believe it. ‘They’ll be out there now, won’t they, working out how best to clear the rubble and everything.’

‘We’ll be out of here in a jiffy.’ He sounded so sure of it. Kitty prayed he was right. She didn’t know how long the air would last in here or if there were more falls to come.

‘Frank …’ she said hesitantly. ‘Frank, I meant to say.’ She gulped. Somehow it was easier to talk here, in the dark, when he couldn’t see her face. She was ashamed of how she’d felt over the past few days and couldn’t bear for him to blame her. She knew that given the circumstances it should be the least thing on her mind, but her feelings seemed magnified down here somehow and it helped to think about something else other than the tons of rubble above and around them. ‘I’m sorry. I was offhand with you yesterday and I was being silly. I was just upset that you’d wanted someone else to come on the trip with you; that you didn’t think I was good enough.’

There was a moment’s pause before Frank asked, ‘What do you mean?’