The sky was bleak and the wind carried a flurry of snow so that looking back toward the lake was like looking at the scene through a gauze bandage.
The wind wasn't in full force yet though it had effectively sealed the door to the cabin with snow drift. He dug away the obstruction with his gloved hands desperate to get the door open before all the light faded from the sky and the temperature got any lower. It seem to Lucien the temperature had dropped at least several degrees in the last 200 meters but he supposed that could be because the both of them were damp, well he was damp Jean was positively soaked which terrified him and made his digging hands shake.
"Hold on Jean, Just hold on" his words puffed like smoke in the rapidly chilling air.
"For god sake! Hold on!"
Earlier that June Lucien had learned his father and uncle were part owners in a remote hunting lodge next to a lake. The last surviving owner of the 3 way partnership had left Australia for a position as chief surgeon in Chicago, America, and he had left the title deed to the property to Lucien with a note of condolences on passing of his father and uncle and wishing him the best for his future.
Lucien's future was as yet unknown; it was the present he was having all the trouble with.
Lucien's inquisitive nature and downright nosiness had caused him to discover Jeans love of ice skating. He had been helping her down with the boxes kept high on the linen press shelves and after handing down the required box had continued to open the lids and peek into contents finding a pair of Jean sized skate boots in white leather with red and blue trimmings. As Lucien ran the ball of his thumb over the skater blade he began to form an idea.
Later that evening after the meal when Mattie had retired to her room to study a new nursing text and Jean had settled in front of the television in the sitting room on the lounge beside him with her knitting in her lap and to the side her small evening sherry and he his black coffee dashed with whiskey he told her of his inherited cabin and its proximity to the frozen lake and put it to her that they could drive out there, make a day of it and enjoy the ice to themselves.
Jean had beamed at him with her bright green eyes and radiant smile, her lips curved in a smile lips healthy with colour, so very different then to the awful shade they were at present.
They had been skating on the ice for hours, they broke for a lunch of tuna salad and sandwiches that Jean had prepared and had only just resumed skating when a frightening crack resounded across the lake and Lucien watched helpless as Jean and her full stomach disappeared below the broken ice surface and into the frigid waters below.
He screamed her name and ran toward where she had been flinging himself against the ice, thrusting his hands into the punishingly cold water and finding nothing. Just as he was preparing to dive under the ice Lucien snagged her hair and grasped it with all his might. (A torn scalp was repairable if only he could save her life!)
Moments later he hauled her slight frame onto the ice and franticly back peddled them to safety lest the ice near the opening give way. The 200 yard distance to the rustic cabin seemed an eternity away and Lucien muttered prays to a god he'd not trusted in for years the entire journey.
With growing desperation he pried open the door to the rustic cabin and dragged Jean inside thankful to be out of the wind. Immediately he went to the fire place and shouted in triumph to find dry wood and matches in the hearth. He worked frantically to build a fire all too aware that time was not on their side every minute passing jean could be slipping from him. As he waited for the fire to catch he vigorously rubbed her arms and hands, wrapping arms around her to warm her back immediately realising the uselessness of his efforts as long as Jean was wrapped in chilled soaked garments.
Tears welled in the doctors eyes as he removed her sodden garments, he bravely joked "Please forgive the impropriety Jean but needs must".
The fire behind them had thankfully sputtered to life and it was bright enough to show her form, so slender and naked in the firelight and so very vulnerable. Now was not the time to appreciate her delicate frame he only registered the awful paleness it had acquired and set about warming her.
He dragged one of the hunted skins (he knew not what it was only it was dense and dark in colour) off the wall and set it in front of the fire then brought the blanket he'd found to wrap around her. He looked aghast as the light of the fire show how lifeless her body appeared and Lucien knew he had to stop time wasting and get on with saving her life.
He had dried her body but he knew that until the fire really began to throw out heat the best way to warm a hypothermic case was either a warm bath or skin to skin contact. Without hesitation he pulled his damp clothes off, dried as best he could with newspaper he found then lay on the pelt in front of the fire and pulled Jean atop him (for decency sake he placed handkerchief between them) swaddled them in blanket then wrapped the pelt around them, turning it such a way as to catch the heat from steadily gaining fire.
At first she remained completely motionless which dishearten him. Without a shiver reflex she was further into hypothermia then he could hope to help with. The doctors mind was racing Warm the axillary artery under the arms and the femoral artery in the groin He wrapped his arms around her, threading his arms under her arms and pushing a warm leg between hers and for the only other thing he could try trying to push his face against her throat so he might warm the jugular vein. The light flutter of pulse he felt against his face was a lot slower than his, his heart was thudding wildly in his chest.
Outside the last of the light ebbed from the sky and the wind began to die away.
"Please Jean" he whispered "Please don't go away just yet"
She was unresponsive but Lucien refused to give up, instead he held her tighter and talked to her "When you wake up Jean I guess I have some apologising to do to you don't I? Dragging you out all this way to the middle of nowhere where and I haven't though ahead enough to bring proper supplies. Not much of a boy scout am I?"
Was that a shiver I just felt or only wishful thinking?
Night was at the windows the cabin steeped in deep shadows, the fire encompassed them in what seemed the only corner of light left in the world.
"I'll make it up to Jean, I absolutely will. I'll drive us to Melbourne Glaciarium and we'll skate on the ice rink right there in the city, they say there's a grand piano there, we can skate to music!" His voice dropped to a whisper "When you've had enough skating I'll find you a hotel room, one with roses on the pillows and a huge bath tub, put this old cabin to shame eh?"
Lucien continued to talk to Jean telling of all the ways he'd make it up to her, fine chocolates fancy restaurants, French champagne. Her little shivers were growing more apparent each one brought to Lucien a sense of relief which quickly gave way to exhaustion. Suddenly it all caught up to him and he let his eyes close for just a minute. One minute became two, two became three… then Lucien was a drift on sleep.
It was after midnight when jeans eyes opened. Disorientated but unalarmed she wondered where she was?
Why I'm lying atop a sleeping Dr Blake! She realised and instantly remembered hearing the terrible crack of ice and trying to claw the sides of the hole she'd fallen through. Her life had flashed before her as her hands slipped and scraped but found no purchase and she'd felt herself sink into the dark cold water sure she was as good as dead.
Jean had no memory of her rescue but it would seem Lucien had come through for her. Lucien her good doctor, Lucien her rescuer, Lucien her saviour.
Lucien now practically naked and thoroughly entwined with her own body!
She should wake him but she took a moment to enjoy the contact, not since her late husband Christopher had Jean felt a man's body this close to her own. It's nice feeling the expanse of his chest; she can feel his heart beating away in there strong and steady. Every breath he takes she can hear and feel and it makes her feel part of him, it's like she's drawing strength from him; and comfort. The fire still burns but lower now, it gives a low crackle as it bathes them in a sunset like glow and Jean fights the urge to snuggle against him. No I mustn't! It feels so natural so right that it wouldn't matter if her hand just drew across his chest, just tried her nails gently through the coarse blonde hair there. Don't you dare!
Jean came to her senses soon enough, they certainly weren't home and dry yet.
Sitting up very slowly, withdrawing from him very gently (and regretfully) she made as to begin tidying their things and packing for the journey home but the chilled air shocked her a little and she instinctually crouched by the fire. Looking into the flames was hypnotic, the crackle so soothing reminding her it was warm in here, windy out there. The world was out there; while in here was just him. For a time she only crouched facing the fire and trembled slightly.
From behind her Lucien stirred (or pretended too, he'd woken at the same time she had) "Ah your awake, you gave me quite a fright you know…. Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes and no" she replied without turning. She found she didn't have the words to express what she felt right now. She felt if she turned around and looked at him instead of looking at the fire the spell that briefly bound them together would be broken.
"It's very cold outside" Lucien said quietly "We can't leave till the sun comes up". He sees the back of her head twitch in a slight nod. He tells her "You're still recovering Jean. Still weak, we have to keep you warm".
He sees her nod at the fire again then says with what he hopes is his best authoritative doctors voice "Jean come back here and lie down with me please your losing heat".
No nod of the head this time just a quick and fluid like compliance, in a flash she was beside him giving her no time to second guess her actions.
Wrapped in the blanket and pelt and of course Lucien, Jean felt the excursions of the day crash over her and without guilt snuggled contentedly against him and fell promptly asleep.
Over the top of Jeans head that was tucked against his chest Lucien watched the flames flicker away in the darkness, thinking how very lucky they had been and how they had gotten off lightly all things considered. After a while sleep claimed him.
In the early hours of the morning Jean was up (covered enough to be decent) and busy stoking the fire.
The dawn light filled the small cabin and neither had much to say at first.
That didn't last, Lucien stood and gathered each of them a covering and draped one over Jean he began exclaiming over her near death experience and sharing his moments of terror and sheer luck that had them both prevail. Lucien rambled on about the medical side of the whole experience as the dried clothes were donned and they each took very small nips from the flask as they warmed by the fire.
"I thought I'd lost you" he solemnly told her as he started the car (luck on his side again it started first try) "I don't know what I would do without you".
Jean quietly agreed.
"Would you like some more whiskey" he asked holding out the flask "just to fortify."
"Yes" she said and nipped from the flask "and then some Dom Perignon."
"Don Pereion?" He exclaimed confused "I don't have any Don Perignon."
"Well I guess you'll have to take to me to Melbourne then, I'm sure we can find a hotel there that serves champagne".
She'd heard every word! Lucien beamed "I'll have it brought to you room service". He promised her and meant every word.
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