Ten
A fireman ran around the house. He ripped off his oxygen mask and shouted, “You’ve got to get out of here. These old houses can blow apart in seconds.”
Anna still couldn’t process what was happening. Flames now danced along the ridgeline of the roof.
“Come on.” Naldo tugged at her arm. “The walls are probably lined with newspaper, it’s all over.”
“I can’t! I can’t leave it. All my mother’s things!”
“Anna.” Naldo put his arm around her. “We’ve done all we can. Come away before falling debris can hurt you.” For a moment the warmth of his strong arm soothed the terror leaping inside her like the bright flames piercing the night.
“Naldo!” A hoarse shout accompanied the appearance of a soot-stained man Anna hadn’t seen before. “It’s in the old orchard-the branches are dry. It’s spreading fast.”
Naldo cursed under his breath and tugged her with him as he ran forward. “Anna, you have to go back to the house. Take my car, the keys are in the ignition.”
“I can’t. I want to help.”
“No.”
“Please!” How could she go sit in the house when he and the estate were in danger?
Naldo put his hands on her shoulders, his strong fingers gripping her with gentle force. “Everything will be okay.” His eyes flashed in the darkness. “But right now you’re just one more thing to worry about. Go to the house and tell Pilar I asked her to give you a room.”
She hesitated and glanced over her shoulder. The horrifying sight of flames blazing in the wide canopy of a mature orange tree made her throat close tighter than all the smoke billowing in the air.
“Go.” Naldo’s command wasn’t issued politely.
“Okay. Take care of yourself, Naldo.”
He looked at her fiercely for a second, pressed a hot, melting kiss to her lips, then turned and jogged across the already burnt grass to where the blaze was spreading through the groves.
Smoke stung her eyes, making it hard to see as she picked her way over the hoses trailing from the well and the pump trucks, past the shouting strangers and flashing lights.
Naldo’s car was parked off the road, out in the darkness. She managed to start the unfamiliar ignition with shaking fingers and pull onto the access road. She drove about a hundred yards before the flashing lights of more fire engines made her pull off again to let them pass.
“What have I done?” The sound of her own wail, in the dull artificial silence of the tightly sealed car, scared her almost as much as the fiery disaster spreading behind her.
The house was ablaze with lights and panicked staff members when she pulled up in the circular driveway.
“You’re hurt!” Pilar’s panicked reaction startled her. She glanced down, half-expecting to see raw, puckered flesh or oozing blood. The sight of her skin and clothes-soot-smudged but undamaged-brought a stinging wave of relief.
“I’m okay, it’s just smoke. Are there more engines coming? The fire is spreading.”
“Oh, my God.” Pilar crossed herself. “They’re trying to find trucks around the county. It’s been so dry and windy. There are other fires-” She gripped hold of Anna’s forearms. “Has anyone been hurt?”
“No one was injured when I left, but they had an ambulance standing by.” She’d seen it, with the doors open and a gurney already set up in anticipation of casualties.
Please don’t let Naldo get hurt.
“You!” A shout from the top of the stairway made her look up. Isabela stood on the landing, her long black hair streaming over her shoulders. “This is all your fault! I warned you. I knew that you staying here would bring disaster.” She clutched a big lavender handkerchief to her face. “Is my brother safe?”
“Yes.” Anna’s voice came out very quiet and subdued. “He stayed to fight the fire in the groves.”
“The groves are burning?” Isabela stared at her, black eyes boring a hole right through her.
She nodded.
“I told you to leave. I told you!” With a dramatic sob, Isabela turned in a swirl of chiffon and marched off down the hall. Anna heard a door slam.
“She’s highly strung.” Pilar placed a soothing hand on Anna’s arm. “She doesn’t mean what she’s saying. She’s just worried about her brother. He’s the only family she has left.”
Anna sucked in a shaky breath. Maybe Isabela was right, and it was her fault that the estate was under siege.
“Why don’t you go take a shower. I’ll make up a spare room for you.”
“Okay.” Anna let Pilar lead her upstairs into the brightly lit hallway. She showed her into a vast bedroom decorated with a sunny floral motif, and ushered her into the big, adjoining bathroom.
Anna avoided the sight of her shocked and dirty face in the bathroom mirror. She peeled off her clothes and climbed under the hot stream of water.
The thought of Naldo out in the heat and smoke and flames made her heart clench with terror.
I do love him. I know I do.
By the time she’d emerged from the steaming water, someone had whisked away her dirty clothes and a simple cotton nightgown-probably one of Pilar’s-was laid on the bed.
Dressed, she took a deep breath as she pulled up the window sash. The room faced away from the fire, but she could still smell smoke in the air and hear distant shouts.
The reality of the situation sucked the wind from her lungs.
Everything was gone. Not just her mother’s sentimental treasures-the old alarm clock, the porcelain figures, the silly seashells-but the cookbook, the cottage.
The jewels.
Naldo’s family treasures would be nothing but dust and ashes by now. Why had pigheaded stubbornness made her keep them back at the cottage when they would have been so much more secure here in a safe at the house?
She’d proved her point all right: the cottage and the land and the jewels were all hers. Her very own pile of smoking rubble.
And probably all uninsured, in the De Leon tradition.
Her fingers turned cold despite the hot smoky breeze pouring through the windows. She pulled down the sash.
A knock on the door made her jump. “Come in.”
She turned and saw a strange man in uniform. “Ms. Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Investigator Davis. I’d like to ask you a few questions about how the fire got started.”
“Oh.” A rush of cool fear washed through her. Did they think she’d started it? “I don’t know how it began. I woke up and smelled smoke.”
“May I come in?” He took a step into the room even as he asked the question.
“Um, sure.” She ushered him to a sofa with a cheerful leaf pattern.
He was young, with bright blue eyes and ruddy razor-burned cheeks. “I understand you and Mr. De Leon were having some kind of disagreement over the cottage and the land?”
“No, not at all. He wanted to buy it from me and I intended to sell it.”
“But you hadn’t sold it.”
“No, not yet, but I…Am I suspected of something?”
“We’re investigating the cause of the fire. There’s a possibility that accelerants were used. Traces of gasoline were found on the lawn near the cottage.”
A single name instantly tumbled into Anna’s mind.
Isabela.
Naldo’s sister obviously hated her and wanted her gone. She’d planted the article in the paper, wanting to stir up trouble. She might be just crazy enough to start a fire in order to get rid of her.
She drew in a breath to steady herself. “I think I know who might have started it.”
