‘Wilfred…’
Frantically Jess tried to haul herself away from Niall’s encircling arms to see. The fire was all through the front of the hospital-but Jessie’s flat was at the rear. Maybe…
‘Let me go,’ she screamed. ‘Niall, let me go.’
‘Wilfred?’ Niall’s voice was blank. He was still lying prone, his arms restraining her with absurd ease.
‘My animals. They’re in my flat. Let me go!’
‘If you think I’m letting you go near that…’
She lashed out then, shoving with fists and elbows and feet, clawing like a wild creature. The attack was fierce and unexpected and Niall’s hands released their grip for a fraction of a second.
It was all she needed. Jess was on her feet and running barefoot, her charred nightgown tattered around her. If she could get through the garden…
Jess was lithe and fit and running was something she could do well. It would take Niall Mountmarche a mammoth effort to catch her, especially as she knew her way round every inch of this garden.
She had to beat him. She couldn’t let him stop her.
The heat was almost overpowering. The wind was coming from the north, pushing her along with its blast and Jess knew that most of its strength was from the fire.
There was no saving the hospital now.
There were only her animals.
She couldn’t let them be incinerated. They trusted her absolutely. She was all they had.
They were all she had…
Heaven knew what Niall was doing. She couldn’t care. Jessie’s feet flew, careless of flying cinders or gravel on the paths. Here was the gate to the back yard-and here the path leading to her flat door. There was a glass pane in the door. If she smashed it…
The flames weren’t here yet. Soon…
The smoke must be unbearable inside…
Jess stooped to grab a rock by the path and raised her arm to smash but her arm was stopped in mid-air.
The stone was lifted effortlessly from her nerveless grasp.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
Niall’s voice was hoarse with smoke. She could hardly see him for billowing clouds of acrid fumes.
‘I’m going in.’
‘The hell you are!’
‘They’ll die,’ Jess sobbed.
‘Jess, they’re animals.’
‘Yes, they are,’ she screamed at him. ‘And they’re helpless. They’re locked in their pouches. They depend on me and I can’t let them die…’
‘You can’t go in. OK, it’s not burning yet but if he’s spread the petrol…Jess, it could go up any second.’
‘I’m going in. There can’t be petrol. I was in there while he was spreading it.’ Frantically she fought him, wild with grief.
Fighting was useless. The only reason she’d broken from him before was because she’d surprised him. This time he was ready.
Niall stood holding her against him in an iron grip, one of his hands holding both of hers behind her back and the other encircling her body.
‘You don’t care,’ she sobbed. ‘You don’t care about anything.’
‘I care about you. And you’ll die in there.’
‘So what?’ she screamed. ‘At least I’ll die trying-and they need me. No one else does. It doesn’t matter about me. Let me go!’
‘Jess, you haven’t even got shoes on.’
‘I don’t care. Let me go.’
He took a deep breath then and steadied. His dark eyes perused her frantic face. ‘Tell me exactly where they are, Jess. The same place as I saw them last night?’
‘Why?’
‘I’m going in.’
Jess stared through frantic tears. ‘You…you can’t.’
‘I can. Tell me, Jess. The same place…?’
‘Y-yes. But…’
‘Stand back, then.’ Niall stooped to find Jessie’s rock again, then raised his arm with it held high.
The world was turning somersaults. He couldn’t. He didn’t care…
‘No!’ She clutched his arm and he paused for a fraction of a second. ‘Niall, you’ll be killed.’ Jessie’s voice broke in fright. It was OK for her. But for Niall…’No!’
‘Better me than you.’
‘But…’
‘Don’t you understand?’ Niall said fiercely. He smashed the rock into the window, sending a shower of glass into the room. ‘It’s me or you. And if you die…It’d be a damned sight better to be dead myself.’
‘But Paige…’
‘She has Hugo-and you. Look after her like you look after your wild animals if anything happens to me, Jess,’ he said roughly as he hauled himself up and over the sill. ‘That’s all I ask. Don’t follow me in. Promise me, Jess. Promise!’
‘I…’ Jess could hardly make her voice work for confusion. She felt dizzy and sick with fear.
He paused for a fraction of a moment.
‘Promise.’ It was a harsh command.
‘I…I promise,’ she made herself whisper.
‘My love…’
Niall leaned to give Jess one last fierce kiss-a kiss that bruised her lips-and then he was gone.
What followed was the worst three minutes of Jessie’s life. She stood by the shattered window, fighting for breath through the smoke, and her world shifted crazily on its axis. Shifted and spun so fast that she was in danger of falling off.
This wasn’t the Niall Mountmarche she’d condemned.
This man…
This man was risking his life for her animals. For two wild creatures.
She heard him coughing desperately as he stumbled through the room and smoke was pouring from the shattered window. It was all Jess could do not to climb in after him.
Crazy…
She had to force herself to stay outside.
She couldn’t go in because of Paige.
One of them had to be safe for Paige. Niall had made her promise and she had.
Please…
Please…
There was the sound of shouting from the other side of the building, frantic through the roar of flames. She opened her mouth to scream a response but no words came out.
How could it?
There were two hands at the window, a closed pouch in each.
Jess seized both pouches and laid them gently on the ground.
Then she took Niall Mountmarche’s grimed and bloodied hands in hers and helped him out of the window.
Somehow they got away from the fire.
They lifted the pouches back onto the lawn and staggered back away from the worst of the smoke.
There were no words said. When the wriggling pouches were laid on the lawn, safe, they turned as one to watch the end of the Barega hospital.
The flames were in possession of the building. Their smashed window was spewing smoke with fiercer and fiercer force-and then crimson flames spurted through the gap and the shattered window disappeared into the
