Jen's Legacy.
Near the top of the world.

The climb away from the river had taken longer than Royce expected. It had been the same when he’d got Jen up those same cliffs in a similar fashion five years earlier, and it had taken them just as long, but for other reasons.

Claire sat at the top, trembling so hard she was unable to stand. He helped her move back from the edge.

She had been terrified, and she did not want to let go of him for even a moment, now that they were at least near the top. She could see that there were other cliffs behind them across the rocky bench; a kind of plateau they were on. She had done very little actual climbing, but her leg muscles still screamed in complaint, and were shaking.

He was smiling down on her, then knelt in front of her looking up into her face, his hands resting on her knees. His hands were hurting and trembling, just as she was.

‘Oh god, she was beautiful.’ She was also crying. Crying in relief, he hoped.

“You did well.”

She was still terrified, but what she saw in his face helped calm her. She felt that she must be in paradise to be so well looked-after and admired.

“There is no more climbing like that; just a little, easy scrambling by comparison.” She was glad to hear that. They really were at the top, for them.

The river had been frightening enough, but this… this was something she could never have imagined. This man had saved her from that river, and was still saving her from her own fears.

She reached out and touched him, trembling—it would take her a while to get over yesterday and today. He took her hand and held it tenderly up to his face, even kissing it unconsciously as he looked at her in a strange way.

Why was her heart beating so fast? Why was she having difficulty breathing? Why was he looking at her like that?

She reached out to him, and let her pent-up emotions out, feeling his arms go around her to pull her close to him.

“Thank you.” She could say no more for a few moments, crying in relief.

“I’m sorry I was so difficult yesterday; questioning... being… resisting what you were saying.”

He laughed and looked at her in open admiration. “I’d have been disappointed if you hadn’t questioned everything I was telling you.”

She touched his face unconsciously. “How did you manage to get down so fast to get to me?” That thought had been on her mind with each succeeding stage of the climb as the true extent of his Herculean-effort became obvious to her.

He laughed again and easily; surprising himself that he could laugh at all after three months of feeling nothing.

“I keep asking myself that too. Something to do with a protective guardian angel who looks after those too stupid for their own good.” That described her too.

He wondered. A guardian angel? Or had it been, Jen, guiding him down and pushing him into the enervating company of this woman, helping him to discover her, as well as rediscovering himself?

She had a similar thought. The same angel must have been watching over her too, and had brought them together.

He had a nice smile, and he had been only kind and considerate of her from the very beginning, without much thought of himself.

They rested briefly at the top as he looked her over, assessing her condition as he carefully untied her from his rope, taking care how he removed it from around her legs, before offering her a drink, taking one himself.

Out here there was no room for being fussy or offended by anything personal, as she discovered when he’d untied her from that rope, checking that her legs behind her had not been pinched or chafed by that rope, by slowly running his hands up the legs of her shorts behind her, up to her swimsuit, checking for rawness or tenderness where the rope had been. He unfastened her lifejacket and shirt, and then pulled her swimsuit away from her to check around her middle for bruising from that rope being snug around her. There was none.

He would put the lifejacket across his pack when they went on from here.

She knew enough not to object or to take offense as he did that very personal thing for her, and to stand still for that. She was still well-covered, and there had been nothing questionable about what he had done or the reason for it, but she’d stopped caring about that in just the last few hours with them being thrown so close together.

“I’ll be a few minutes at least, preparing to go on, Claire, so you may as well rest. How do you feel about what we did? Not too shaken up I hope?”

She was recovering, but she was able to chuckle as she shook her head. “I was terrified and apprehensive so many times on that climb, but not now. You made it seem easy, and I know it wasn’t.”

The state of his knees; bloody and scraped, and of his hands, told their own story of how difficult it had been for him, if not for her, but he said nothing about that.

She may have stopped caring about many personal things, but she was still shy and was not used to being looked at the way he was looking at her, sweeping the tears off her cheeks, then, as she still held him, not wanting to let him go, he leaned in to her to kiss them away, taking her by surprise.

He knew he shouldn’t have done that, but she was not fighting him away from her. She was looking at him in a way that would have had him walking over red-hot coals to please her.

His first impression, of her not being used to the company of men was probably close to the mark, but his other first impressions of her being a typical young woman, were far off, and were even then being re-evaluated. There was nothing about her that could have been anticipated.

“I should check your feet and your sneakers before we start out so that I can gauge how well your footwear and your feet are holding up after we’ve covered a few miles. The walking is difficult up here, and the sandstone is hard on soft rubber. We must protect your feet above all else.”

Something had just changed between them. She held onto his arm, still marveling that she’d actually got up to the top with his help, unless all of this was just a dream, except those kisses had been real; the way he was looking at her was real.

He did not want to let her go.

She had never felt this way about anyone before, or been looked at as he looked at her. No one had ever kissed her tears away except for her grandmother, and that had been different. Never had her heart beaten so fast as it was beating now.

She knew why she was feeling this way. If they could only go back a few hours, back to that previous night on the beach, she would know how to behave with him now. He had needed her last night in a special kind of way, and she had not known in what way, or known how she should have responded. She knew now. She should have pulled him closer to her and given in to what he had most needed; confirmation that he was alive, and that he could still 'feel', in that special way. She was beginning to frighten herself with what she was feeling for this man.

She would have a limited time in his company, and an opportunity such as this would be presented to her only once in her life. In just a matter of a few hours she had been presented with everything she wanted in life, and she was not about to waste that opportunity. All she needed, was courage and an opening, and he would do the rest.

She extended a foot out to him as she kept her balance, putting her hands onto the rock on either side of her. He picked up each foot in turn and undid the lace before easing her sneaker off her foot, shaking some sand out of it, tapping it, blowing into it, feeling around inside it, checking for raised edges, or sand still sticking to any dampness, and then took off her ankle sock to see the bottom of her foot and her heel, doing the same with that, shaking her sock out, turning it inside out and repeating it before he rested her sock over her leg as he wiped off the bottom of her feet and around them. It was all exceptionally personal, and she could see that it was affecting him in a way she could not speak about, and in a way he would never wish to admit openly.

“Let’s try this for you instead.” He dug out his spare socks; lighter than the ones he had on, and pulled them over her feet before he put her sneakers back on.

“Those socks will stop most of the movement of those sneakers which might raise some blisters.”

He did the same with her other foot, shaking any sand out of that sneaker and from her sock, wiping over her foot again as she watched him, before he replaced them, lacing up her sneakers for her to make sure that there was no looseness, and then re-did his own boots and socks after getting rid of all sand from them too. He was very careful and attentive to detail in everything he did.

“A little sand can do a lot of damage, abrading against your skin and it was impossible not to get some sand into things as we climbed those slopes, and even on those other climbs.”

She’d felt small particles of sand blowing into them, stinging her face as they got up closer to the rim, and as the wind picked up.

He looked up at her. “How do you feel? Can you go on?

She nodded. “I’m recovering now. You did everything, and made it seem so easy.”

He had to close his eyes, seeing the way she was looking at him, setting his heart pounding.

He dug out his map and consulted it again, more for her benefit than his, as he pointed out their route.

The next stop, if they could get there, was Badger’s Crossing, where her concerned friends had stopped last night. Then after that, Marsden, and they would always be a day or two, or more, behind the rafting party.

After that, if they hadn’t been found by Rangers or a rescue party, it was Witches' Cauldron and then, Culver. Four days, maybe five. It depended on the weather and their progress.

However, two lives would be radically transformed long before then.

Royce looked around them, observing the peaks he could just see to the south of them in the far distance beyond the south rim.

“I’m not sure what the weather is going to do today with those clouds moving in, and I can see a light dusting of snow on those peaks from last night. That snow wasn’t there yesterday when I went over the edge to help you, so we shouldn’t be surprised at whatever nature throws at us.

“The weather at this time of year can be unpredictable; either blistering hot, or numbingly cold, and sometimes, the storms can go on for a couple of days. We will be exposed to the winds and whatever the weather throws at us up here. Today looks like it will be hot, so we’ll take it easy.”

He helped her to her feet.

“We’ll walk steadily for an hour or two, or you can stop me at any time for a breather before we go on and I’ll check you again. I’ll have to rely upon you to tell me if you have any problems like blisters or chafing at the back of your heels, though those socks will help protect you.”

She knew he was concerned. If she suffered any injury that would make it hard for her to walk, then they would be caught in a difficult situation. If she were injured, he may have to leave her, and go for help, but that was not something he would choose to do.

“I have my jacket easily accessible if you need it.”

It would not get cold enough for that until tonight, and they’d be in a campsite by then.

He shouldered his pack and let her walk ahead of him to set an easy pace for herself, and they walked steadily without doing anything too strenuous, and with no difficult climbs, though they had to be careful. It was a rugged area, and not an easy walk.

Each time they stopped, he made sure she drank some of the water, reassuring her that water was not so far away if they needed it.

Her feet were holding up well, but they still had a long way to go.

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