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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] slowly. She must not think about death. A sound made her stiffen, listening intently. It came again, a faint sound, barely audible. Breathing! she thought, with a leap of the heart. Someone was breathing nearby. 'Is someone there?' she whispered, then swallowed and tried again, in a stronger voice. 'Hello? Who's there?' No reply. She turned her head that way and felt the rubble under her shift, so she lay still for a second, her eyes trying to pierce the darkness. She couldn't see anything at first, and then she began to see a shape, a solidity which was different from the gloom around it. 'Hello? Who is it? Hello!' she said, almost shouting. The silence made her shiver. Whoever it was could be too badly injured to be conscious, could be dying. She nerved herself, then stretched out her hand. In this darkness it was hard to judge the distance between herself and the other person; it seemed a long, long time before her fingertips touched something. Skin, she thought, tensing. Skin which was cold and damp with sweat. Her fingers delicately explored, traced the shape of cheekbones, eye sockets, a mouth, nostrils through which warm air was being breathed. A deep sob shook Annis. She knew that face, even in the dark. She knew it as intimately as he knew her own, and she put her fingertips on his mouth, moaning his name. 'Raphael... darling... oh, my darling... Don't die...you can't, I couldn't bear it. Raphael, can't you hear me? Raphael... it's me...' His lips moved faintly and her heart turned over as she realised he was kissing her fingers. 'Oh, Raphael, thank heavens...' she whispered huskily. There was a silence, then she heard him shifting slightly, turning his head her way as if he, in his turn, was trying to pierce the darkness. 'Annis?' His voice was thready, weak. It made her stomach clench in fear was he badly injured? 'Yes,' she answered and heard the sigh he gave. 'Are you in pain?' he asked with urgency, and she told him what she had worked out about her injuries. 'I've been lucky,' she ended with a wry humour. 'Lucky?' he repeated, half laughed, then coughed. 'Well, it could have been much worse!' 'Could it?' he whispered drily. 'What about you, Raphael? Still in one piece?' She was trying to keep the tone light, but she was terrified of what he might tell her. 'No idea yet,' he said, and she sensed that he was saving breath by saving on words. 'I...I suppose I'd better...' he took an audibly painful breath and finished '... find out the worst.' She lay listening to his careful movements as he explored the extent of his injuries. Her nerves were stretched to breaking-point. He might be badly hurt. He might be dying. Oh, if only she could get to him, look after him! The waiting was like being stretched on the rack. 'Well,' Raphael said unsteadily, 'I think I've broken my legs, both of them.' Annis bit her lower lip to stop herself crying out. She heard Raphael breathing for a few seconds, then he went on in that shaky voice. 'Something's wrong with my shoulder, my chest hurts like the devil. I must have broken ribs. My face is bleeding and I think I'm covered in bruises from head to foot, but otherwise I'm OK.' She was weak with relief because it did not sound as bad as she had been dreading it would be. 'So, what's the good news?' she joked, and Raphael laughed faintly. 'I'm still breathing!' She felt very odd then, and had to close her eyes while a wave of faintness passed over her. When she came out of it she heard Raphael urgently saying her name. 'I'm OK,' she said with an effort and heard him sigh. 'Did you pass out?' 'I felt faint, but it's gone now.' They were both silent. They could hear the voices far away, and other sounds the clatter and hum of engines, the crash of masonry. 'They've begun a rescue attempt, anyway,' Raphael said. Annis suddenly gave a cry of shock. 'Oh, I'd completely forgotten Loveday and Carl... They were in the ballroom, the whole weight of the hotel must have fallen on them. What if -?' 'Stop it!' Raphael said harshly. 'Don't let your imagination run away with you. They probably got out safely. They were downstairs, remember, and there were Greeks with them, local people who may well have been through an earthquake before. They would have realised what was happening, and given the English guests a warning in time, whereas we were too busy to notice a little thing like an earthquake.' He began to laugh, and she was grateful for the darkness which hid her face from him. Raphael suddenly stopped laughing, a groan escaping him. 'What is it?' Annis asked anxiously, wishing she could see him. 'Nothing,' he said in a ragged voice, and she recognised the note of pain. She was in great pain herself. 'Are you cold?' she asked, her teeth chattering. 'I'm frozen. Isn't it odd? When you think how hot it was earlier today. The temperature must have dropped like a stone. If only we could move!' 'Just as well we can't,' said Raphael in a weary voice. 'We might start an avalanche of rubble.' She shivered violently. 'Don't! How long do you think it will take them to...?' 'They'll get to us as fast as they safely can,' he said gently, his voice fading away in the distance. How odd, she thought. Surely she wasn't going deaf? Or was Raphael going to sleep? Somewhere above them something crashed and the reverberations of the sound made her wake with a wild start. It was only then that she realised she had lost consciousness, and she called out, 'Raphael!' in blind terror. 'I'm here, darling!' His voice was much clearer, firmer. She turned her head and suddenly she could make out a pale shape glimmering in the darkness. 'Raphael, I can see you!' she burst out and saw his mouth move. He was smiling. 'I can see you, too.' 'I must look terrible!' He laughed, a weak, shaky sound, but laughter all the same. 'How like a woman! As if it mattered how you looked!' He was breathing audibly, as though it hurt. 'They must be using arc lights,' he added. 'Or it could be daylight,' Annis suggested. 'How long have we been here?' 'Who knows?' Annis lay staring at where the light was filtering down to them. Not daylight, she thought. That was an artificial light. 'You're right,' she said. 'They're working by arc lights.' Raphael didn't answer; she heard him breathing very faintly and fear almost stopped her heart. 'Don't die, Raphael!' she broke out but he didn't answer that, either. He was either asleep or unconscious, she realised, and lay very still, listening to him breathe. While he went on breathing, however lightly, he was alive, so she held on to consciousness herself to listen to him, as though that might keep him alive, but it was hard. She kept drifting in and out of a light doze. The sounds above were getting stronger, coming closer. The mechanical sound of digging stopped and someone called out in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |