From a distance a voice called, ‘Open your eyes, Miss. You’re all right. We caught you. You fainted. We’ve got the young woman you were helping. She’s badly burned, but hopefully she’ll make it. Well done, you’re a very brave young woman.’
‘M – my baby.’
‘Is your baby inside the ’ouse, darlin’?’ This was another voice. Flora patted her stomach.
‘Oh dear, she’s in the family way. Let’s get her to the ambulance. Don’t you worry, I’m sure everything will be all right.’
The other man spoke then. ‘In my book, though you were foolish to put yourself and your baby in jeopardy, you’re a ’ero, Miss. A true ’ero.’
‘Sh – she saved lives in the war, Officer. She’s one of the bravest women on earth.’
Dear Cook.
‘Is she going to be all right?’
‘She is, love; now move yourself. Let’s get her into the ambulance.’
Showing no concern for her, Harold shouted, ‘Officer, there are others in the house, and one of them is my brother.’
‘I’m sorry, sir, there’s nothing that can be done for anyone in there. My officers will concentrate on bringing the fire under control.’
Harold’s protest was meant to show concern, but to Flora it was sickening, as she knew how hollow his pleas were.
Poor Francis. Harold knew you had threatened this action, and probably took himself out of the way to give you a chance to do it. Using me as an excuse for why he was out.
Harold came into Flora’s view. ‘Officer, the girl who’s burned – can I go with her to the hospital? She needs me.’
In that instant Flora felt rage enter her. A noise came from her, rasping her sore throat and giving her the taste of the smoke she’d inhaled. ‘I HATE YOU!’
Harold’s face registered his shock. Is he so self-centred that he can’t see what he does to others?
‘Now then, don’t go upsetting yourself. I don’t know what has ’appened between you and this gentleman, but, darlin’, you have to think of your unborn child. He’s had a jolt and must be scared stiff. He don’t want his mother giving in and sending bad feelings through him, now does he, darlin’?’
This sounded strange to Flora – that a man should think like that.
‘I’m from a big family, and me sisters are always ’aving kids. Me ma gets on at them if they don’t keep a ’appy disposition; she says as the baby can sense it. She should know: she birthed fourteen.’
Flora felt safe with this man and didn’t want him to leave her. He was right, there would be time enough to live without Harold in her life, and to grieve for Francis. At least the Francis that she remembered as a child. Reaching down to her stomach, she gently massaged her bump. In doing so, she hoped she conveyed that everything was fine.
As they lifted her onto a stretcher, she looked over at Harold once more. Still he stared at her as if she’d gone mad. And although she didn’t want to speak to him, she had no choice. ‘If you never do anything else for me in your life – and, God knows, I don’t ever want you to – will you do one thing for me? Please go to the St Pancras Hotel and tell Cyrus what has happened. Harold, please, I beg of you.’
‘Still hankering after him, are you, Sis? Anyway, I wouldn’t if I could. But in any case, I’m going to the hospital with Susan – she needs me more than you do.’
‘Harold!’
‘Don’t you worry, love. I’ll get the ambulance driver to get a message to Cyrus for you. Is he your man?’
‘No! He’s not her “man”, he’s her brother, who—’
‘Harold!’
‘Oh, as you please. I wouldn’t want anyone to know, either.’
Thankfully, the officer didn’t respond to this, but inside, Flora wished with all her heart that it had been Harold who’d died in the fire, and vowed never again to have anything to do with him. In coming to this decision, she felt a release, and yet sadness, because in cutting him out of her life, she knew she was cutting Mags out, too.
This left her feeling further bereft, but she was so tired, and the blessed relief of sleep called to her as the vehicle trundled along. Not even the clanging of its bells could keep her from drifting off.
The feeling of hands on her had her opening her eyes. ‘I’m the doctor. I’m just checking you over. You’ve been very lucky, from what I have heard, and very brave, too. Everything seems fine with your baby.’
‘Thank you, Doctor. Can you tell me how the girl is; she was brought here, she was in the fire and – and was anyone else . . . ? I – I know about my . . . my brother, but –’
‘Yes, I’m sorry about your brother. I understand he didn’t get out. But there was no one else injured in the fire, or any other deaths. They found a man and a young girl, on the lawn at the back of the house. The man had carried the girl to safety. Both were fine, if a little shocked. The girl you saved is badly burned and in shock. She faces a long road to recovery, but she will recover. She has her young man with her, and he is helping her. Now, I think you are well enough to go home. There is a man in reception – a Cyrus Harpinham. Is it all right to let him in? He says he is your friend.’
The relief Flora felt, knowing that Cyrus was here, had the effect of breaking down the barrier she had put up to prevent acknowledging the true horror of everything that had happened. She couldn’t answer the doctor’s question; she could only stare at him, without really seeing him.
‘Nurse! She’s going into shock: wrap her up, and elevate her legs. She’s breathing all right at the moment, but give her oxygen if there is any sign of that deteriorating.’
Knowing what shock can do, Flora tried to keep calm and breathe slowly and deeply to steady herself. Inside, she wanted to scream out and rid herself of the tight knot of emotional pain that clutched at her, but she knew that to do so would leave her out of control, and she needed to fight.
‘That’s better, love; your temperature’s back to normal and you’ve stopped shaking. I reckon you’re all right now. You helped yourself with your breathing technique. Where did you learn that?’
‘It’s a long story, Nurse, a very long story.’
‘Well, I’ve no time for one of them, but it stood you in good stead. I’ll fetch the doctor to check you over, and then we’ll let your friend in, eh?’
Her friend . . . My Cyrus, the best friend I’ll ever have. With him by my side, I can get through this. I can.
When they got into the car, Cyrus told Flora that from tomorrow he would never leave her side. ‘That’s if you feel well enough to take the first step of our journey into our new future tomorrow, darling. I have everything ready.’
‘I will. Nothing will stop me. Only, can we possibly go? I – I mean . . . oh, I want to, my darling. I want to go now, this very minute, but, well, Francis . . .’
‘I’m so sorry, darling. But there is nothing we can do. I know you will grieve for Francis, as you have told me how good your relationship with him was as a child, but, darling, there will be no funeral, as there were no remains. And knowing what I know of Harold, no memorial service, either.’
‘If there was, he wouldn’t invite me. And neither will he think of the livelihoods of the staff. At least, with a sale, they could have been kept on by the new owners. I worry about them, especially Cook. I’ve always loved her.’
‘Did she live in?’
‘No. She used to, but she married. But her husband is a lot older than her, and she is the breadwinner.’
‘Well, at least she has a home, which is a blessing. And we can help her. I’ll go to the bank and draw out a sum of money and we can drop it in to our solicitor, with instructions to give it to Cook. He can tell her that it is from you, to tide her over till she gets another position.’
‘Oh, darling, you’re so thoughtful, thank you. With that done, I can go with a clear conscience. Although Cook does need more than money; she needs support, after what she witnessed yesterday, but I will have to hope that her husband can give her that. I think she will understand that I had to leave, as she knows more than anyone what I have suffered.’
‘Good girl, thinking of yourself for a change. Sometimes we have to. We and little Freddy – and our unborn child – are the important ones now. It has to be so. No matter what happens, no one is ever going to part us again.’
‘Will our sin corrode us in time, Cyrus?’
‘We were sinned against, especially you. I won’t let guilt at our situation enter me at all. I love you. You are my wife, and nothing else, and yet you are everything . . . everything. I can’t live without you, and that living has to be complete – we have to be as one.’
‘Oh, Cyrus, I’m so glad you feel like that, because it is the same for me. Finding out about our relationship means nothing to me, because who we are is nothing to do with that. We are husband and wife, and I love you dearly.’
‘That’s that then. We must make a pact never to speak of this again, ever!’
‘But the children: will they have to know?’
‘One day it may have to be addressed, but I hope not. I hope they grow up as French citizens and never learn the truth. And as long as no one who would harm us ever finds us, then there is no reason why they should ever know.’
‘There is one thing that I worry about, darling. I have read that children born of incest can be defective in some way. Alice wasn’t, and nor is Freddy, but our unborn child . . . I am afraid.’
‘Don’t be, Flora. I think that as our first two were fine, that must show we haven’t done any harm by coming together.’
Flora snuggled into Cyrus. It felt so good to be held in his arms. All her worries left her as she thought about how God would view them. What was meant when the words Let no man put asunder were spoken at their wedding? Innocent then of the truth of their birth, had they done wrong? At this moment she didn’t care. She had a lifetime of being with her Cyrus, and that was all that mattered.