In truth as they’d rounded the bend and seen the fire their stomachs had tightened in horror. Fire casualties were awful, and kids were the worst. Now, they were having trouble containing their delight that their only patient was a stroppy mate-a mate who looked like he had every intention of making it to old age.
‘Let’s get you loaded up and off to hospital,’ they said cheerfully. ‘Hey, we hear Nick Daniels is in there without his appendix. You can keep him company.’
‘I’m not going to hospital.’
‘Too right you are, even if we have to tie you down.’ Then they glanced up as a young woman came hurrying across the lawn toward them, her doctor’s bag at her side. ‘Doc, he’s saying he won’t come to hospital.’
‘Lie down, Matthew McKay,’ she said firmly.
‘But-’
‘Shut up and let me examine you or I’ll put you out for the count.’ Dr Emily Mainwaring knew her stuff, and she knew her patient. ‘Hurry up, Matt. They say you’re the one worst affected but I have five kids and Erin to examine, so let’s get this over fast.’
He was fine. Excellent, almost.
‘You’ll live,’ she told him, tucking away her stethoscope and casting a brief yet horrified glance at the still-smouldering house. ‘Just don’t push your luck any further. You need antiseptic and a dressing on that burn on your head, but it’s superficial.’ Then she peered closer under his shirt and saw what he’d stuffed there. ‘What on earth is that?’
‘It’s a toy of some kind.’ Matt managed a grin. ‘It’s not a patient-thank Heaven.’ He put a hand down to haul it out but she stopped him.
‘No. If it really is a toy, leave it there and see if you can clean it up when you get home. If you leave it here it’ll get lost in this mess, and it just may be important. These kids have lost everything, and I suspect I’m not looking at long-term physical problems here, but psychological ones.’
He thought that through and it made sense. ‘Okay.’ The toy could stay, soggy or not.
‘Can you dress that burn yourself? It’s not too bad.’ She was flustered, worrying about Erin and the kids and wanting to move on. ‘Good. Okay, you don’t need hospital, but I do want you supervised tonight. No going home to that farm alone. What about going to Charlotte’s? Shall I have someone ring her?’
‘No!’ For some reason that was the last thing he wanted. ‘I’m fine.’
‘You hear what I’m saying?’ she said fiercely. ‘Home with someone with you-or hospital. Choose.’
‘I…’
‘I don’t have time to waste,’ she said firmly. ‘Think about it while I check the rest. Though, thanks to you, I gather I hardly have a patient to contend with.’ She turned to the ambulance officers.
‘Hold him down, boys, and don’t let him go until he can give me a plan for this evening that doesn’t involve going home by himself, forgetting the antiseptic, having three stiff whiskies and passing out without anyone there to watch.’
She meant it.
Matt knew Emily well enough to accept that she was quite capable of trussing him to a stretcher, and he had enough wit-and he was feeling bad enough-to acknowledge that she was talking sense.
So what were his alternatives?
She’d suggested Charlotte’s, but the idea was distinctly unappealing. Sure, she’d put him up for the night, but she’d fuss.
All he wanted was his own bed, he thought, and suddenly he wanted it very, very much. Shock was starting to hit home, and he had to clench his hands into fists to stop Rob seeing the sudden tremor that ran through him.
But Rob wasn’t noticing. His mind had moved on.
‘What can we do with the kids?’ The police sergeant was still beside Matt, but he was speaking to Erin. The doctor and the ambulance officers were attending the children.
With immediate health fears eased, it was time to concentrate on the next problem, which seemed, Matt gathered, to be accommodation for Erin and the children.
Erin was tightening her lips, thinking it through. Or, she was trying to think it through. She looked like her mind felt full of smoke.
‘I don’t know,’ she managed, and then she looked up as someone else darted through the jumble of fire-hoses and fire-fighters. Her strained face slackened in relief. ‘Wendy…’
Wendy was an ex-House Mother, now happily married and immersed in domesticity. She was followed by her husband, Luke. Luke strolled languidly through the chaos, lifted a trembling Michael into his arms almost as an aside-marriage to Wendy meant that Luke and the Orphanage kids had met each other heaps of times before-and he hugged the little boy close.
‘Hey, Michael. Been having some excitement, then? Wow! It’s great that you’re all okay. And this is a great fire engine.’
Then he looked down at Matt in admiring amusement. ‘And here’s our Matthew out for the count. Been playing heroes, have we, kids?’
‘Shut up, Luke.’ But Matt grinned. It suddenly did feel good. Heroic even. The feel of those four little hands clutching his arms from under the bed came sweeping back, and he knew where they’d be now without him…
His grin faded and the tremors swept back. He’d been lucky to get them-and himself-out alive.
‘The other homes are all full,’ Wendy was saying. She was right back in House Mother mode, as though she’d never left. She was hugging Michael’s little sister, Tess, to her breast as if she was her own. ‘Erin, Shanni was at the hospital with Nick when the call came through. The nurse in charge told her what was going on, so she rang us first thing. I rang Lori on Luke’s cell phone on the way here. Lori’s on her way, but we need to sort the kids out.’
‘Yes.’ That made it through Erin’s fog. Lori was House Mother at Home Number Five, and the only one without tiny tots to care for. They’d need her, but Erin was in no state to concentrate.
Wendy recognised it. She came forward and gave her friend a hug like her husband was giving Michael, then she kept right on holding her, Tess somehow squashed in the middle. Which Tess didn’t seem to mind at all. ‘Hey, kid, you and Matt got them all out,’ she told her friend. ‘Everyone’s safe. You did good.’
‘The twins…they must have been making something.’ Erin was trembling in her friend’s arms, and, from where he was lying on the ground, Matt had an almost unbearable urge to rise and take over. He wanted to hug her as well.
Which was crazy. He grabbed the oxygen mask and took two more deep breaths. He wasn’t himself here.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Wendy said into her friend’s hair. ‘Tess and Michael are only with you until their mother gets out of hospital at the week-end. Luke and I talked about it as we drove here and we can take them until then. They know us.’
Tess and Michael’s mother was on her own, and she was a severe asthmatic. She was in and out of hospital often, and Tess and Michael were frequent visitors to the Homes. They’d be happy with Wendy, Erin knew. But…
‘That still leaves Marigold and the twins.’
‘Tess and Michael will be shocked,’ Wendy said gently, gathering Tess closer as she spoke. The doctor was checking the twins, and the little girl was starting to tremble. ‘They’ll need lots of care, so I don’t think Luke and I can do much more than take them. I talked to Lori and she said the same. She’s thinking about the baby and the twins now. And speaking of Lori…’
Lori arrived then. Thirtyish and competent-as all the house mothers were-she might be shocked, but she took right over where Wendy left off.
‘It’s fine for Michael and Tess to go with Wendy,’ she said directly. ‘It makes sense. But the other Homes are packed. Maybe we can use the hotel as an interim measure.’
‘Erin can’t look after Marigold tonight,’ Wendy told her. ‘Look at her. She’s shocked to the core. The last thing she needs is two o’clock feeds. She needs to sleep. And the twins-’
‘No one but Erin can control the twins,’ Lori said bluntly.