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Chapter 5
Eventually they decided to head back to the manor. The horses, rested and contented from their quiet couple of hours, were happy to head back to the stables at a leisurely pace and so the riders decided not to push them.
The folly end of the Croft estate was rather hilly, and the riders found themselves on top of horses who were picking their way down the still slightly damp grass, aware that a false step might send them careering down towards the stream on the west side. The horses sensed that they were on their way home, and so they were in no hurry to slip. In fact, the ride back would have been utterly uneventful had it not been for the sudden rise of the pheasants from the opposite field.
Midnight, young and unaccustomed to sudden noises, started and shied at the sight and sound of the birds. Arrow, who should have known better at his age, suddenly took off. Struggling to hold the powerful young horse, Lara was distracted for a moment.
"Come on, Mid, stand, come on old son, stand still." Pulling him around to face the direction they had been going, Lara was gripped with worry as Hillary and Arrow were nowhere to be seen.
"Hilly!" Lara called, kicking Midnight into a trot. "Hillary!" Sensing his rider's mounting panic, Midnight picked up the pace, cantering back up the hill and stopping as soon as he reached the top.
"Hilly!" Lara shouted again, but there was no response.
Turning the horse around, she quickly made her way down the hill. As she did so, she caught sight of a riderless Arrow picking his way down the stream in the direction of the Croft estate. The panic that had gripped Lara initially now doubled as she scanned the surrounding area for Hillary.
"Hillary!" She cried again. As quickly as she could, she dismounted and tied Midnight's reins out of the way. There was nothing to tether him to, so she let him drop his head, praying that he would be satisfied enough with the grass on top of the hill not to wander too far.
Clambering down the grass bank, Lara's natural agility only just kept her upright. Her concern for Hillary was making her clumsy, and she didn't take any notice of the twigs and branches that she was tripping over on her way down. If Hillary had fallen into the stream…
She kept calling as she neared the river, but there was still no sign of him. Checking, with rising panic up and down the stream but seeing nothing, she scrambled over the rocky streambed and kept shouting Hillary's name.
Then, she saw him. He was lying just at the edge of the stream and he lay absolutely still. There was no sign of injury except for a livid gash down one side of his head, just below his hairline. Faint with relief, but her heart pounding with new worry, Lara reached his side in seconds.
"Hilly," Lara spoke gently. "Hilly, please, can you hear me?" No response. Automatically, Lara checked Hillary's pulse and airway. He was breathing, which was a good sign, but he was unconscious. Gingerly she tried to check the injuries that he had sustained. Apart from the gash on his head, and a possible sprained wrist, there were no other outward signs; but Lara knew better than to be too optimistic. If Arrow had fallen onto Hillary when he fell off, Hillary may have all kinds of internal bleeding. Biting back a howl of anguish, she tried to get a grip on herself. She must focus if she was to get the man she loved to safety.
Thankfully, she had been trained enough in recent years never to leave home without a mobile phone, and she quickly located it in the pocket of her jodhpurs. In very little time she had contacted the emergency services. This area on the Croft estate was inaccessible by ambulance, so Lara knew that the Air Ambulance was on its way.
As she had spoken nonsense to Midnight while she was tacking him up, so she spoke to Hillary. She didn't know why, she was almost certain he couldn't hear her, but it was as much to stop herself losing her composure as for his benefit.
"Come on, Hilly, open your eyes," she repeated, over and over. "You can't leave me now, there's so much we need to do. Please, open your eyes and show me that you're going to be alright."
Hillary was deathly pale, and the angry red gash on his forehead was looking more and more livid. It was so unlike him, Lara thought, to loose control of Arrow, but the horse had spooked, and once again she was reminded of how unpredictable horses could be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lara gently wiped some of the blood from his head with her sleeve.
From her training with the Marines, she could tell that his neck wasn't broken, so she very gently began to cradle him in her arms. She was aware that, in the small valley by the stream, the temperature was far cooler than up on the hill, and she didn't want to add exposure to Hillary's list of injuries.
"You can't leave me now, Hilly," she said softly. "I lost one friend in Africa, I'm buggered if I'm going to let you die too." Lara swallowed painfully, the memories flooding back of how she had held Terry's lifeless body in her arms after his death. Even though she had been responsible for Sheridan's demise, she still mourned him. She was not going to allow Hillary to slip away from her.
It seemed an eternity until the throbbing hum of the Air Ambulance announced its presence overhead. Lara looked up, weak with relief, and waved an arm to signal her location. She hoped that they had noticed Midnight up on the hill, and that they would keep their distance from him. In very little time, the ambulance crew had landed and were heading down the steep bank to where Hillary lay.
One of the ambulance crew, a young man in his twenties, helped his colleague to load Hillary's unconscious form onto a stretcher. "How did it happen, Ma'am?" He asked Lara.
"The horse he was riding just spooked and I found him down here about twenty minutes ago." She stood, rather shakily, once Hillary had been strapped in to the stretcher. "Even an experienced rider couldn't had stopped Arrow once he'd started."
The Air Ambulance crew were all efficiency, and had soon loaded Hillary into the helicopter. For a moment, before they cleared for take off, Lara sat beside Hillary's still unconscious body. "Hilly," she whispered, placing the gentlest of kisses on his lips. "I love you. Please come back to me."
A quiet cough from the flight deck behind Lara brought her back to the present. "We're ready to take off, Lady Croft," one of the crewmen said.
Fortunately, the Air Ambulance had radioed ahead to Croft Manor as per Lara's instructions, and a Land Rover containing three of the stables staff was clearing the hill just as the helicopter was ready to leave. Weak with relief, she knew that they would catch the horses and take them back to the house as quickly as they could. Rather spuriously, she made a mental note to give both horses a packet of Polos as soon as she knew Hillary was out of the woods. After all, it wasn't Arrow's fault; he had just been caught out.
The helicopter covered the ground to Hertfordshire hospital in very little time. Throughout the journey, Hillary remained still and silent. Lara didn't let go of his hand once. She had never been a religious person, but she was praying with all of her heart and soul that Hillary would open his eyes.
Chapter 6