One-Night Pregnancy Read Online Free PDF

knew she had to pay a visit to the outside toilet, much as she wished otherwise.
    It was raining again, so she put on Adam’s rain jacket, which covered her voluminously, and unhooked a lamp.
    It was when her mission was accomplished and she was scurrying back to the shed that she came to grief—courtesy the mud and Adam’s jacket. She tripped on the edge of the jacket at the same time as there was an ominous crack—the kind of crack she’d heard before, earlier in the night. She fell over in the mud and the source of the crack—a branch of the gum tree from the hill behind the shed—rolled down on top of her, bringing with it a smothering shroud of debris.
    She got such a fright she blacked out for a couple of moments, and when she came to she couldn’t see anything. The tentacles of hysteria started to claim her, and claustrophobia kicked in.
    ‘Bridget, are you all right?’ Adam called urgently. ‘Bridget, answer me!’
    She wriggled a bit. Nothing seemed to hurt desperately but…‘I seem to be pinned around my waist. I can move my legs, but I can’t get out—oh, no,’ she cried, as there was another crack and more rubble cascaded down the hillside.
    ‘Bridget—Bridget, listen to me,’ he instructed. ‘Protect your head with your arms, if you can, while I get you out. Try not to move. I will get you out, believe me.’
    But she didn’t believe him, even as she heard chopping and sawing noises, even though she knew there would be more tools in the shed he could use, even though she’d seen what he’d done to another tree. That one had been much smaller…
    There was something about being trapped that seemed to convince her she was going to die under the weight of all the rubble the hillside could rain down on her—including, she suddenly remembered, the ruins of the old building she’d seen while showering under the rainwater tank.
    For a terrible moment even her legs wouldn’t move, she couldn’t feel them, and she all but convinced herself she must have broken her back. Later she was to realise it was hysterical paralysis, but at the time her life started to unfold itself in front of her. During the half-hour it took Adam to release her she became more and more convinced this dreadful night was finally going to claim her.
    Her ridiculously short life, with no goals achieved, rolled before her eyes. Nothing much of importance to report at all, she thought groggily, and tears flowed down her cheeks.
    She didn’t immediately believe she was free, until Adam scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the shed.
    ‘Am I dreaming? Is this heaven? Or the other place?’ she asked dazedly.
    He didn’t answer, but put her gently down on the bed. Then he said, ‘I’m going to undress you and assess any damage there may be. Try not to make a fuss.’
    Bridget heard herself laugh huskily. ‘I don’t think I’m capable of making a fuss. I got such a fright—I thought I was going to die.’
    Adam turned away and put the kettle on the stove. Then he turned back and pulled off the rain jacket and the sodden, torn pyjamas with as much clinical precision as he was capable of. He tested her limbs and her ribs. And when he was assured nothing was broken or twisted he told her she extremely lucky.
    Bridget bore it all in silence, even when he filled a bucket with warm water and washed her. She was still grappling with the horrible feeling that she’d been about to die.
    She hadn’t noticed that he’d warmed one of the towels in front of the stove until he wrapped her in it and put her under the blanket.
    She slipped her hand under her cheek and stared unseeingly into the shadows.
    Adam gazed down at her for a long moment, then turned away to load the last of the wood into the stove. She had been extremely lucky, he thought to himself.
    The strong PVC material of the rain jacket, even while it had actually become impaled on a sharp piece of wood and trapped her as much as the branch had, had also