In the Eye of the Storm

27. Trapped

'No!'

My heart almost stopped. There wasn't a trace of Mr Ambrose left. None! The sickly, biting mist of stone around me, dark brown by now and getting darker by the minute, had swallowed him up completely.

Stay calm, Lilly! Think logically! He was just in front of you, right? So, if you keep going straight ahead, you should stumble over him sooner or later.

How wonderful!

There was just one problem: Where was straight ahead, exactly? And since we were on the subject of directions, where were left and right? All directions were swallowed by the roaring cataclysm around me. Just as he had been swallowed. Swallowed, chewed, and digested.

No! No, please not that!

Well... if he was chewed and digested, he had to be excreted again sooner or later, right? Maybe even in one piece?

And maybe you are taking this whole bloody metaphor a little too far, Lilly Linton! Get your butt moving!

So I got it. My butt moving, I mean. Or rather the camel's. It bleated in protest as I urged it to go faster, but we sped up, and a moment later I saw something in the sand right in front of me that made my heart jump: footprints! They were barely discernible, and disappearing as I looked, but they were there!

'Faster! Faster, Ambrose!'

Another few steps and bleats of protest later, and the sand parted, revealing a prone, black-clad figure, already half-buried in the sand.

'Mr Ambrose!' Slipping from the camel's back, I fell to my knees beside him. 'Mr Ambrose, Sir! Are you alive?'

'Go away,' he growled.

Yes. Definitely alive.

'Why on earth should I?' I demanded.

'It's not safe wandering around in this kind of tempest!'

'Oh, you've only just figured that out, have you?'

'I told you to stay where you were!'

'And I didn't listen. Now come, get over here.'

'Didn't you hear what I said? Go!' He tried to push himself up, to push me away, then sank back down with a half-groan, half-cough. 'Go, I said! My lungs are being shredded! You have a camel; maybe you can make it out of here alive. Leave me to die in piece!'

'Not a chance in hell! If you're going to die, I'm going to make sure your last minutes on this earth are as miserable as possible!'

'How very kind of you!'

I tried to tug at him, tried to pull him towards the camel, who was visible only as a dark form through the haze several feet away. But, opening his eyes, he stared up at me with those deep, dark, sea-coloured eyes of his and shook his head. 'No! Leave me! Save yourself!'

I narrowed my eyes. 'Are you being unusually noble, or do you simply not want a girl to save your stony behind?'

Silence.

Well, I guess I had my answer.

'So that's the way it is, is it? Well, I've got news for you, Dick, my dearling,' I told him, and tugged firmly at his arm again. He slid a few inches in the right direction. 'I've still got a wedding ring on my finger, and so do you, however temporary it may be. Do you know what that means? That means that right now I vow in the presence of God, a camel and a buttload of sand, to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, in happiness as well as in sadness, and even when you behave like a bloody arrogant idiot! I promise to hate you unconditionally, to support you in your aspirations as long as you pay me for it, and to honour and respect you as long as I get a free day off every week. This –' I gave another tug, and he slid closer to the shelter of the camel 'is – my – solemn – vow!'