He wondered if Tansy would remember much about what had happened. She had already been in shock when he found her kneeling on the grass in the garden. The chances were that she had been blown out of the house by the explosion. It was possible that she might not have registered much happening around her after that. She might even think that he really had died in the fire.
For a moment MacLean considered that it might be a good idea to let her continue to believe it and take the chance to disappear from her life altogether but he couldn’t do that. It was too late. The worst had already happened and Tansy and Carrie meant too much to him. He would call the hospital.
He feared that they wouldn’t tell him much if he admitted he wasn’t a relative. Things would not be that much better if he said that he was, but at least he should be able to discover whether or not Carrie was still alive.
MacLean could see that the rain had started again as he waited for his call to be transferred to the relevant ward.
‘Are you a relative?’ asked the nurse.
‘Mrs Nielsen’s brother.’
‘Her brother?’
‘Victor Nielsen. I’ve just arrived back from the United States.’ MacLean remembered that Carrie had spoken of an uncle Victor and Tansy had added that he worked in the USA.
‘Mrs Nielsen is improving,’ said the sister. ‘She has no serious injuries and she will probably be released in a day or so.’
‘And her daughter?’ asked MacLean, feeling sweat break out on his brow.
‘Carol’s condition is serious but stable. She’s been transferred to a burns unit at another hospital.’
‘Has my sister been told?’ asked MacLean.
‘Not yet,’ replied the nurse.
‘Can I see her?’
The nurse hesitated and said, ‘I really don’t thing that’s a good idea at the moment. Mrs Nielsen is heavily sedated. Might be as well to give it a day or two.’
‘I’d like to leave my phone number for her if she improves before then. Is that all right?’
‘Of course. When she’s well enough I’ll tell her you called.’
MacLean put down the phone. At least Carrie was alive.
On Thursday evening MacLean was lying along his bed, fully clothed and with a glass of whisky in his hand. He had read nearly every word in the evening paper and was now reduced to reading the business section. He was looking at the share prices of pharmaceutical companies when the phone rang.
‘Victor?’ said Tansy’s voice uncertainly.
MacLean felt his throat tighten. The pause seemed to go on and on before he could summon the courage to say, ‘Tansy, it’s not Victor. It’s me… Sean.’
‘Sean!’ exclaimed Tansy with a sob in her voice. ‘They told me you were dead! The papers…’ A torrent of disjointed words flowed from her. ‘They told me but I knew… I knew from the dreams… You pulled Carrie from the flames… I saw you… You weren’t in the house. Oh Sean!’ She broke into more sobbing.
MacLean did his best to soothe her until she began to calm down.
‘But if you didn’t die in the fire. Who did?’ said Tansy.
‘Lehman Steiner’s man. They found me, Tansy. They sent a man to fire bomb the house. It was his body they found.’
There was a long pause before Tansy asked, ‘Where have you been Sean? Why didn’t you come to the hospital?’
MacLean heard the note of accusation in her voice. He said, ‘It was best to let people think it was me who died in the fire. Lehman Steiner will see the newspaper reports. They’ll stop looking for me and we can be free of them forever, the three of us.’
MacLean hoped to prompt Tansy into saying something about Carrie but she didn’t. He had to ask, ‘Have you seen Carrie since the fire?’
‘No, they transferred her to another hospital but she’s out of danger, thank God.’
MacLean knew from Tansy’s voice that the hospital hadn’t told her the full story. ‘Did they tell you why they were transferring her?’ he asked.
‘No,’ replied Tansy innocently. ‘I supposed they were taking her to the children’s hospital. Why?’
MacLean screwed his eyes tight shut and said, ‘They’ve taken her to a serious burns unit Tansy.’
‘Oh my God!.. Oh God no! Not her face!’
MacLean heard a hysterical note creep into Tansy’s voice. The distance between them was like iron bars. It would have been so much better to be able to hold and comfort her. ‘It’s early days yet,’ he said. ‘It’ll take a couple of weeks to assess the damage properly.’
‘You must know!’ accused Tansy. ‘You saw her when you brought her out of the fire.’
‘It was dark and she was covered in soot. I couldn’t really tell,’ said MacLean.
Tansy calmed down and MacLean did his best to reassure her in spite of his own misgivings. He gave her his address and asked her to come there as soon as she was discharged from the hospital. He would warn the landlord that his wife would be joining him this weekend.
In the event Tansy arrived at ten-thirty next morning. There was an awkward moment when she and MacLean faced each other in the hallway for the first time since the fire but it passed when MacLean took her into his arms and they held each other tightly. The tears ran freely down Tansy’s face. ‘When they told me you were dead I just wanted to die myself,’ she whispered.
MacLean wiped away her tears and started to lead her upstairs with his arm round her shoulders. He noticed his landlord had his door ajar and was watching them. ‘Don’t see each other much then?’ he asked.
MacLean pretended he hadn’t heard.
Tansy asked the questions and MacLean filled in the blanks in her memory.
‘So Vernay told them where we stayed?’ said Tansy.
‘They tortured him,’ said MacLean, remembering the awful scene in Vernay’s apartment.
Tansy shook her head and said in exasperation, ‘It was all going so well. We were so happy, the three of us together and now…’ Her expression changed to one of deep sorrow. She asked sadly, ‘Do you think we’ll ever be able to get it back, Sean?’
‘If we want it enough,’ said MacLean softly. ‘We can do it.’
His words seemed to give Tansy strength. She started thinking positively. ‘We could rebuild the bungalow with the insurance money,’ she said and then almost immediately realised why that was not a good idea. ‘No,’ she said distantly, ‘It would have to be somewhere else. No matter, as long as the three of us are together.’
The mention of the three of them brought Carrie into the conversation again. Tansy started to probe MacLean about Carrie’s chances of a complete recovery. She asked how long the treatment would take. Would there be much pain? Would she miss much schooling? MacLean fended off the questions saying that there was no way he could answer them without seeing Carrie.
‘I’m being allowed to see her next Wednesday,’ said Tansy. ‘Will you come?’
‘Of course,’ said MacLean.
MacLean and Tansy spent the weekend together and separated on Monday morning. The fire at the bungalow had caused many of Tansy’s former friends to ‘rally round’ as they put it. She had told them that she was being discharged from hospital on Monday morning rather than the previous Friday so that she could steal the weekend with MacLean but, on Monday morning, she dutifully appeared on the hospital steps to be picked up by Nigel and Marjorie, friends from what seemed like a hundred years ago when she and Keith had been members of a local tennis club.