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understanding and concern in his voice and the reassurance she gained from that. His hand came across and rested on her upper arm as if to transfer calmness. From a man she didn’t trust it shouldn’t have helped that much. But it did. Like a lifeline.
    Funny how she’d never felt that mixture of empathy and support from Brad’s touch and she’d been engaged to him.
    Inexplicably steadied, she nodded, and allowed herself to sag more into the seat and close her eyes. Think calm thoughts. Take deep breaths. Everything will be fine.
    That was when the engine spluttered, coughed and died. Her eyes flew open. Slow motion from that moment on.
    Suddenly there was no background noise except the wind and the rotors turning without an engine. She watched in horror as Levi kept his hands glued to the controls, correcting the cabin’s inclination to yaw. Levi’s voice travelled down the tunnel of her frozen mind. ‘Have to land fast.’ His voice was much louder without the sound of the engine, then she couldn’t hear him at all because he’d switched the radio from the cabin to transmit the distress call. But she could watch his lips move, grimly, as he enunciated their position.
    Unwilling to stare frozenly out of the Perspex beneath her feet she kept her eyes on Levi.
    Glide. Helicopters can glide like planes but not as far. She remembered him saying that. She believed him. But he did lie. Had he lied then too? Surely not about this?
    They weren’t falling like a stone at the moment, still going forward, but the altimeter was unwinding like a top, much, much faster than it had wound up. Then she remembered that Odette and Smiley were in the back but she couldn’t turn her neck to look. They’d all die. Odette’s baby too? No. They had to survive. That thought steadied her. She was the midwife. The only medical person. They’d need her. Odette’s baby needed her. She’d better survive in one piece.
    She stared at Levi, who looked as if his face was hewn from the same stone as the escarpment they hurtled towards as he wrestled with the controls. No panic, just fierce, implacable determination to win. Thank God he’d decided to be the pilot. Even now he inspired confidence.
    Then there was no time for thoughts. Just the sickening rush of the ground towards them, and she tucked her chin onto her chest and hugged her knees, so she must have listened to all those hostesses on flights she’d tried to block out. Thank you, hostesses.
    They were coming in too fast.
    The impact flung her head back as the helicopter slammed into the ground. Someone screamed and she wasn’t sure if it was Odette or herself, then they clipped a boulder and the cabin flipped up and tipped sideways and landed once more with a larger crash and, finally, with agonising slowness, tipped back to settle on its base with a rattle of rocks and debris. They’d stopped. Intact.
    That first few seconds of cessation of movement was more frightening than the seconds before, where at least she’d known she was alive. She straightened her aching neck to look at Levi. He didn’t move; his long lashes were resting on ashen cheeks, and for a horrific moment she thought he was dead. Then she saw the rise and fall of his chest and the relief made the nausea rise in her throat. She reached across for his hand that lay limply pointed at her and felt for his pulse. It was fast but steady and she heaved a sigh of relief.
    A soft moan came from behind her and, gingerly, she turned her head. ‘Odette? Smiley? You both all right?’
    â€˜I think William’s unconscious. What about Levi?’
    â€˜His pulse is strong but he’s out too. We hit some scrub on their side of the aircraft so I think they bore the brunt of it.’ She didn’t know whether to ask or not. ‘Your baby? Everything all right there?’
    â€˜I think so.’ Odette’s voice cracked. ‘We