‘So lock the window,’ Jess told herself harshly. ‘Before you go nuts.’
She opened the door out into the corridor and stepped out into the darkened hospital.
It was definitely one of the French windows banging.
Out here she could hear it clearly. It was a wonder that she hadn’t heard it earlier in the night-but maybe the wind had only just risen.
She walked slowly down the corridor, nervous despite herself. The light switches were near the nurses’ station. Jess flicked them and the place lit up.
The light should have reassured her. Instead, it did no such thing.
It increased her sense of urgency.
There was a smell…
Petrol.
The hospital reeked of petrol.
Dear heaven…
Jess flung open the door into the women’s ward. This was where the sound had come from. The French windows were open wide and, as she watched, the breeze caught them and swung them gently closed with the thump she had heard.
If the place smelled of petrol…
The smell was unmistakable. She should get out. Jess walked quickly over to the windows and out onto the verandah.
There was nothing here.
So why the smell?
She frowned. She had to be right. The smell couldn’t be from a small container. It was stronger in different places-and there were dark, damp patches on the floor.
Even out here on the verandah there were damp splotches-and the lock on the French windows was splintered and broken.
Barry must have been here…
Maybe he still was. If he’d poured petrol around the place…There was only one reason why he’d do that.
To set fire to the building…
There was no fire yet. Maybe he’d put the petrol down and changed his mind. Discovered that his wife wasn’t here.
But if a spark ignited the petrol…the place would go up like a bomb.
Jessie’s heart froze in fear.
Her animals-Wilfred and tiny Wobble-were still inside.
Things-buildings and contents-could be replaced but not her wallaby and wombat. Jessie looked frantically back into the hospital, her mind racing.
From out here it looked safe-normal-but there was no ignoring that smell. She wasn’t going back through the corridors. If the petrol caught she’d be trapped.
She’d go around. Break a window from the outside and get back into her flat that way. Even if she was imagining the smell…
A light cut through the night, lighting the verandah where she stood. Jessie turned to face it. A car was screeching to a halt in the car park and a dark figure emerged.
It wasn’t the police sergeant. Jess could pick this profile anywhere.
Niall Mountmarche…
Niall could obviously see Jess on the verandah and Jess could discern relief in the way his shoulders sagged.
Sergeant Russell must have phoned him…
Why, for heaven’s sake? What use was Niall Mountmarche, except to upset her still further? Jess didn’t want Niall. She wanted only to concentrate on her animals.
What help was he?
Jess turned again toward the broken French doors. Not that way, she told herself fiercely, blocking out Niall’s presence. Don’t be stupid, Jess…You’ll have to go around the verandah…
She took one step forward toward the verandah steps-and the world exploded around her in a brilliant, molten rush of engulfing flames.
She woke to damp earth and dazzling light.
Someone was pushing her face into the grass. Jess had a mouthful of the stuff and it was threatening to choke her.
There was a weight on top of her, bearing her down.
Blind panic took over.
Frantically Jess fought against the weight and, instead of being pushed down, the weight rolled aside and she was being pulled into strong, fierce arms.
‘Lie still, you little termagant. Dear God, Jess…’
‘Let me go…Let me go…’
She could see Niall’s face above her now, glowing in reflected flame. There was soot on his jaw and his forehead-black grime, deeply embedded-and Niall’s eyes were dark slits.
‘Jess, you’re burned. Hurt. Lie still.’
‘I’m not burned…’ Jessie’s face was tingling. She put a hand to her forehead and felt singed hair. ‘I’m not…’
‘The explosion knocked you out on the verandah. I got you off just before the roof came down.’ Niall’s arms held her close and she could feel a shudder run the length of his body. ‘Dear God, if I hadn’t been here…’
‘B-Barry…’ Jessie’s voice was a choked whisper. ‘It must have been Barry…’
‘He’s torched the place.’ Niall was using his body to shield her from the worst heat. Now he shaded his face with one hand to try to see. They were lying full length on the lawn and the heat was sweeping over them in waves. ‘God knows where he is. Jess, there’s no one else inside, is there? Think.’
‘No…No one…’
Yes, there was…
‘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.’