Page 56 of Happily Ever After
From inside, a blue eye blinked amid the smoke.
‘He’s in there, he’s alive!’ Lady Tanith shrieked from her position on the ground.
Jay swore a bit more and clutched his elbow.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ Hugo said. He climbed off Lady Tanith and ran to join Jay, recoiling once at the sheer heat, but pressing on until both the men were wreathed in the smoke which now encompassed the whole building. Hugo went back, collected one of the dropped Jimmy Choos and scampered towards the window. ‘Stand back,’ he shouted.
Jay stood back. The shoe hit the window, heel first. Hugo battered the steel tipped point against the glass, once, twice, and finally the window shattered, the flying glass being accompanied by a flying Siamese, who hurtled through the broken frame as soon as the gap was wide enough, and flew out onto the lawn as though rocket launched.
‘Master!’ Lady Tanith cried, getting elegantly to her feet and ignoring the fact that her silk nightwear was mud stained and tattered. Her voice was creaky with emotion and smoke.
The cat ran a few steps, stopped, stared at us, sneezed once and then sat down to begin licking its paws. Hugo and Jay followed, until we were all hunched together against the wall of the pond. At least, the men and I were hunched, Lady Tanith was bolt upright and quivering like an arrow that had just been fired into an oak door. The villagers, I noted, had backed even further off, although they were still filming with notable glee.
‘We’ll need to get further back,’ Jay said, his voice a little tight, although I wasn’t sure whether it was from emotion, confusion or pain. ‘The fire brigade are here and they’ll use the fountain connection for water.’
We stood up again and retreated further. I looked at our little smoke-stained group, Hugo in his now slightly ragged dress and carrying one shoe, his arm around his mother as they limped out into the broad reach of the gardens where the air was fresh and clean and not glowing. Lady Tanith, her back ramrod straight despite the gravel under her bare feet, wasn’t leaning on him in the slightest. The estate workers who’d helped Jay with the ladder were, without a word, gathering up the collection of dresses that we’d flung from the windows and moving them away from the slowly collapsing walls.
I looked at Jay. ‘What the hell is happening?’ I asked.
He was also watching Hugo and Lady Tanith’s limping and smoke-stained progress into the darkness. ‘Right now, I haven’t got the vaguest idea.’ He put an arm around my shoulders. ‘But you’re out. You’re safe. That’ll do.’
The part of the house where the library was currently blazing, slumped further inwards. Ash flew out, little sprinkles of pale grey floating up on the breeze and encircling the building, blurring into the smoke and the flame and the additional spray from the water hoses, where the fire brigade were beginning to try to extinguish some of the fire.
‘I need to go over there,’ I said.
‘But the place is falling down!’ Jay clearly felt me tugging against his embrace. ‘You can’t! Anyway, the firefighters won’t let you.’
‘They won’t see.’ I ducked out from under his arm and ran around to the front of the house. There, the fire engine, still flashing intermittent blue lights, stood while people in uniform dashed around unspooling more hoses to attach to the pond supply. Firelight flickered out into the dark, echoing the blue strobe. Two people in helmets and masks moved me gently aside and then passed on. I waited until they were out of the way and then I got as close as I could to the flaming library.
The windows were all broken; flame was belching out through the gaps. The house was almost down to rubble here, the roof and the upper floors had collapsed to lie among the burning books, stone and wood and paper all glowing orange and red and giving off an immense heat. I had to shield my eyes and hold my elbow up to my face. It was like walking up to the biggest bonfire in the world.
‘What are youdoing?’ Jay made a grab for me but missed, probably because his eyes were screwed up against the heat.
‘Just… this.’
I loosened my burden so that it was held by the two handles, then, with a degree of effort, I swung it until momentum took over and then let go.
The bag, with its incriminating contents, flew higher and wider than I thought it would, through the long-gone window and deep into the conflagration beyond. I almost thought I could see it ignite as it went, but that was probably my imagination. I also thought I saw, as the final wall collapsed, the face of Sir Oswald, eyes aflame, dropping onto my hurled bundle but that was almostcertainlyimagination inspired by years of narrative structure and carefully rounded endings.
‘You are crazy.’ Jay pulled my arm again, now with more success, and I backed away with my eyebrows beginning to singe, until we were behind the fire engine and the bulk of the local fire brigade, who were running hoses everywhere amid lots of organised shouting. ‘And you’ve got a lot of competition.’
Away, over past the bushes, I could see Hugo, his arm still around his mother. She was standing absolutely straight and immobile, watching her house go up in flames. She didn’t even seem to be crying now. The only movement from them both was the passing breeze tugging at his velvet and her chiffon.
Two of the estate workers approached them, gentle hands held out and, in shock, the pair were helped away towards the village. Everyone was carrying dresses draped over arms and shoulders, looking like a costume department on the move.
‘Let’s go back to mine,’ Jay said. ‘We need to wait until the fire is out, and it might be morning before the place is secure.’
‘But…’ I gestured hopelessly towards Templewood, flaming and flaring out of every window space, walls gradually tumbling, like a hotel in hell. ‘All the things…’
‘The fire brigade will rescue what can be rescued.’ Jay gave me a look. ‘But the diaries will have gone up with the rest of the books.’
‘That’s all I could think of to do,’ I said, taking his hand as he held it out to me. ‘Destroy them with everything else. I came this close to telling Hugo, you know.’
Jay looked back at the house where plumes of water were being sprayed onto the burning remains. ‘For the best, I think,’ he said carefully. ‘It all being gone, I mean.’
I stared back too. Most of the roof was gone now, fallen into the attic space. That table covered in photos, gone. The portrait, gone.And,I whispered to myself,the diaries, gone, along with any evidence that they ever existed…‘Definitely for the best,’ I said, and then sagged against his supporting arm. ‘I think I might be in shock.’
‘My house then, for strong sweet tea and a shower. You smell charred.’
