Flora felt colour flooding into her cheeks, and sighed inwardly. If only she didn’t blush so easily. She knew it made her look like a bumbling fool, and she wasn’t. She was a good nurse and she was fine with the children—and the teachers, now she’d got to know them. She just found herself shy and tongue-tied with adults she didn’t know very well. Stupid, at her age, she knew, but she couldn’t help it. Pulling herself together, she said, ‘I know all the staff and most of the children—I’ve either worked with their class or seen them for the usual check-ups.’
‘That’s good—you’ll be a familiar face and that will help them feel less scared,’ Megan said.
As they rounded the corner, they could see a woman leaning against the wall, her face white, nursing her arm.
‘Patience, this is Megan, one of the doctors from St Piran’s. Megan, this is Patience Harcourt. She teaches Year Three,’ Flora introduced them swiftly. ‘Patience, what’s happened to your arm?’
‘I’d gone to the storeroom to get some supplies. I’d just switched on the light when it went bang—I went straight for the fire extinguisher, but before I could do anything the whole thing went up. I got out of there and closed the fire door to contain it.’ She grimaced. ‘Thank goodness one of the Year Five classes was doing PE and the other was in the ICT suite.’
‘Was anyone in the quiet room?’ Flora asked.
Patience shook her head, looking white. ‘I hope not, but I don’t know.’
‘Let’s have a look at your arm,’ Megan said, and sucked in a breath. ‘That’s a nasty burn.’
Patience made a dismissive gesture with her other arm. ‘I can wait. Check the children over first.’
‘Your burn needs dressing—the sooner, the better,’ Megan said gently. ‘Will you let Flora do it while I check the children?’
The children were shivering because it was cold outside and the teachers had taken them straight outside away from the fire, not stopping to pick up coats; some were still wearing their PE kit. Some were crying, and all were clearly frightened.
‘We need to get them huddled together to conserve warmth,’ Megan said. ‘Under that shelter would be good. And then I can see if anyone needs treating. Flora, when you’ve dressed Patience’s burn, do you want to come and help me?’
‘Will do.’ Again, Flora could feel the hated colour flood her cheeks. She was glad of the excuse to turn her face away while she delved in her medical kit; then brought out what she needed to dress the burn and make Patience more comfortable.
Tom was training one of the hoses on the flames. He didn’t have a clue whether Joey was safely in the playground with the other children because he couldn’t see. Although he was frantic to know that Joey was all right, he had a job to do and his colleagues were relying on him not to let them down. He had to keep doing his job and trust his colleagues to do theirs.
I swear if he’s safe then I’ll do better by him, he promised silently to his sister. I’ll change my job, give up firefighting and concentrate on him.
And then the headmistress hurried over towards them.
‘Is everyone safe?’ Steve asked.
Rosemary Bailey looked grim. ‘There’s still part of one class missing. Some of the Reception children. ‘
Tom, overhearing her, went cold. Joey was in the Reception year. ‘Is Joey all right?’ he asked urgently.
Rosemary bit her lip. ‘He’s not with the others. There’s a group of children who’d gone to the quiet room at the end for extra help with reading. He must be with them. ‘
Tom swallowed hard. ‘The quiet room. Is that the room at the end of the corridor?’ The room that was cut off, right now, by flames.
‘Yes.’
‘It’s near the storeroom where the fire started. Right now, it’s structurally unstable,’ Steve said. ‘How many children are there?’
‘Five, plus Matty Roper, the teaching assistant in R2.’
R2. Definitely Joey’s class, Tom knew. And he knew Matty—he’d had twice-weekly meetings with her about Joey since he’d become Joey’s guardian. Joey had been struggling at school for the last month, just shutting off, so Tom and Matty had been trying to work out how they could help him settle back in.
Ice slid through his veins. The children were stranded.
Including Joey.
CHAPTER TWO
‘RIGHT, I’m going in,’ Tom said. ‘Gary, can you take this hose from me?’
Steve grabbed Tom’s shoulder to stop him. ‘You’re not going anywhere.’
‘My nephew’s trapped in that room. No way in hell am I leaving him there!’ Tom snarled back.
‘Nobody’s saying that you have to leave him, Tom. But nobody’s going into that corridor until we’ve stabilised the area—otherwise the whole lot could come down. And we can’t afford to let the flames reach the really flammable stuff.’
Steve was making absolute sense. As an experienced fireman and the station manager, he knew exactly what he was doing. Tom was well aware of that. And yet every nerve in his body rebelled against his boss’s orders. How could he just wait outside when his nephew was trapped inside that room?
‘Tom, I know you think Joey might be in there, but you can’t afford to let emotion get in the way.’
Ordinarily, Tom didn’t. He was able to distance himself from things and stay focused, carrying others through a crisis situation with his calm strength. But this was different. This was Joey. The last link to his elder sister. No way could he let the little boy down.
‘You either keep doing your job as lead fireman and getting the flames under control,’ Steve said softly, ‘or you’re off duty as of now, which means you go back to the station. ‘
And then it would be even longer before he could find out if Joey was safe. Waiting would drive him crazy. Tom dragged in a breath. ‘Right, Guv. I’m sticking to my post.’
The fire crew that had arrived as back-up started to get the supports up; Tom forced himself to concentrate on damping down the blaze. Abandoning his job wouldn’t help Joey. Focus, he told himself. Just focus.
It felt like a lifetime, but at last the area was stabilised and they were in a position to rescue the trapped children and their teacher. Steve had already vetoed the door as the access point; although the flames were out, the corridor was still thick with smoke, and until the fire had been damped down properly it could reignite at any time. The window was the safest option, now the area was stabilised.
But there was no way Tom’s muscular frame would fit through the window. His colleagues, too, were brawny and would find it an equally tight fit.
‘Um, excuse me?’
Tom looked down at the woman standing next to him. She was a foot shorter than him, and her face was bright red—whether through embarrassment or the heat from the fire, he had no idea.
‘I’m the school nurse,’ she said. ‘Look, I know I’m a bit, um, round…’ her colour deepened and she looked at the floor ‘… and I’m not as strong as you, but the children are only little. Matty and I can lift them up between us and pass them through to you. And I can check them over while I’m in there and make sure they’re all right.’
‘I see where you’re coming from,’ he said, ‘but you’re a civilian. I can’t let you take that risk.’
‘But