Winter Wishes Read Online Free PDF Page A

and not passing out. The open window was just ahead of her but, now that she was closer, Jules realised there no way she could possibly fit through it. Even if she remained up here starving for a month, she’d still be too big. Her heartbeat accelerated. If she couldn’t squeeze through the window and she couldn’t move a muscle to get back down the ladder either, then she was stuck.
    How on earth was she going to get down? The world began to spin around her, with the ladder as its axis.
    “Jules!” Alice shouted.
    “Hurry up!” cried Ivy. “My saucepan!”
    “Bugger your saucepan,” Jules heard Issie say. “Can’t you see she’s stuck?”
    Jules tried to speak but the only noise she made was a strangled gasp. The sensation in her hands had changed from tingling to numbness and she felt faint. She couldn’t faint. She’d fall off the ladder. How was she going to get down? Polwenna Bay didn’t have a fire brigade to execute a Trumpton-style rescue and Superman was too busy trick-or-treating to help. Time seemed to run slow, the panicky conversation of the trio below rising and falling in the breeze and washing over her in a meaningless tide of sound until Jules wasn’t sure how long she’d been up the ladder. It could have been five minutes or five hours. All she could do was cling on, as tightly as any limpet might cling to the rocks of the bay.
    Help me Lord , she prayed.
    Then a voice called up to her and it really was all she could do not to pass out. Surely not?
    “Hold on Jules. I’m coming!”
    It was Danny, and Jules could have wept with relief. It didn’t matter anymore that she was supposed to be giving him a wide berth or that the atmosphere between them had been frostier than tonight’s weather: all that counted was that he was her dear friend and she trusted him more than anyone else.
    “You can’t possibly climb up there,” she heard Alice gasp. “You’ve only got one arm.”
    “One’s better than none, Gran,” Danny said mildly. “I can climb one-handed, anyway. How do you think we manage on manoeuvres carrying weapons? It’s all in my amazing core strength. Watch and marvel.”
    “I can’t watch,” Alice wailed. “Hold the ladder for your brother, Issie, and let me know when he’s at the top.”
    The ladder jolted and Jules inhaled sharply. Her fingers were claws now and her knuckles looked a very odd green through her white flesh. All the blood was no doubt sloshing round her head. She’d not felt this odd since the Pollards had insisted she sample their home brew.
    “It’s fine, Jules. It’s just me on the first rung.” This was followed by a couple more wobbles. “That’s the second and the third. There’s the fourth. You’re doing really well.”
    Jules couldn’t reply. It was taking every ounce of strength she possessed not to tumble to the ground. She was growing resigned to the fact that she might well spend the rest of her life stuck on a ladder propped against Poison Ivy’s cottage. She’d be a phenomenon, a bit like one of those mystics from the Middle Ages who’d gloried God by sitting on the top of a pole for years. Admittedly Jules had never really understood the point of this before, but now she totally got it – they’d been stuck.
    “So, what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”
    Danny was on the rung below her, his left arm brushing past her waist to hold the side rail. Although he wasn’t holding her, Jules felt safe. Danny always made her feel safe.
    “Don’t answer that,” he continued. “You’ve taken up a shady career as a burglar to raise money for St Wenn’s, haven’t you? Was the naked calendar not risky enough for you?”
    Jules couldn’t help laughing.
    “That’s better,” said Danny, sounding relieved. “Just breathe as steadily and as normally as you can for a moment. In and out. In and out.”
    Jules did so and, to her amazement, her heartbeat started to slow. “Sorry, Danny,” she whispered. “I