55

I wasn’t heroic enough to wait for everyone else to go first; I jostled with the rest as we flooded out into the atrium.

There the doctor, finally, was coming down the great staircase and watched this exodus through bewildered eyes. ‘Is anyone else upstairs?’ I shouted.

‘Just the earl,’ he said, mystified.

It was too late for him. ‘Get out!’ I said.

There was pushing and shoving as the panic spread. As we emerged into the snowy night, I breathed a lungful of frigid air with relief. But I kept going. I was in the front now, leading everyone up the drive, marching ever forward, shrugging off questions from lords and ladies, politicians and princes. I kept going, and we were nearly at the frill of the forest before I looked back. When I stopped and turned, everyone else did likewise. I watched with infinite relief as all the footmen, kitchen maids, under-butlers and cooks hurried up the drive until the flow trickled, then stopped and there was no one left. I saw Doctor Morand physically holding Caro de Warlencourt back from returning to the house, talking and talking until she collapsed against him, convinced at last that there was no point going back for her husband. So that was everyone.

Everyone.

I found Nel and grabbed her wrist. ‘Ty came down to dinner, right?’

She looked at me blankly.

‘While we were upstairs, Ty came down, right?’ My voice rose. ‘She was at the dinner, right?’

She spread her manicured hands. ‘I don’t know. That is, I didn’t see her. Look, Greer, what the hell are you –’

Then I ran.

I ran back down the drive, pushing through all the people running away, swimming against the stream, a trout in the tide. Shafeen and Nel were at my heels, but I was too fast for them. I had to get to the house, had to get back to Ty, before –

The force of the blast blew me back.

I threw an arm across my face against the incredible heat, then took it away to see tongues of fire licking through the windows, and an inferno taking hold of the roof.

I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my face. All I could think of was Missy Morgan. If her shining girl was in that conflagration, I might as well have lit the fuses myself. Shafeen’s and Nel’s arms enclosed me in a strong circle. The three of us clasped each other on the icy ground, our backs frozen, our fronts warmed by the fire, like on Bonfire Night.

‘No,’ I moaned. ‘No, no, no, no, no,’ over and over again. No one could survive that blaze.

And then, indistinct at first, then clearer and clearer, a silhouette formed in the heart of the flames like a phoenix. The blur resolved into the shape of a figure carrying another figure. As they came closer I recognised the one being carried first, her Afro hair a dark halo. And, carrying Ty, his hair as golden as the fire, was Henry de Warlencourt.

We all rushed forward. Henry was breathing heavily, staggering with the strain, his face black with soot, his blue eyes shining out. Ty was conscious but coughing harshly. Shafeen took her from Henry’s arms. ‘We’ve got her,’ he said. Then, ‘You did great, Henry. You did great.’ He looked, in fleeting disbelief, from Henry to me. I let out a half gasp, half sob. Ty was safe. And Shafeen had finally seen Henry.

But there was no time to lose. Shafeen, fully in medical mode, took Ty to the grass to lay her down and shouted to Nel to run and find Doctor Morand in the crowd. Henry, still gasping for breath, wordlessly took my hand and smiled. Face filthy with ash and soot, only his eyes were unchanged. Then, before anyone else could recognise him, he pulled his fingers from my grasp, turned and walked away in the direction of Acre Wood. My hand released, I found I could no longer stand. I sat back heavily on the cold ground, unable to speak or move. I sat and watched the fire and it was some moments before I realised I wasn’t alone.

Tame as a lap dog, a fox sat by me.

He was watching too, with eyes of fire.

We were just a girl and a fox, sitting together as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And together we regarded what, in another story and another land, his kind had done, the fiery foxes among the Philistine corn.

And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind of the sea.