The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) Page 8

  Adrian shook his head, and looked more stubborn than she had ever seen him. “You’re far too noble. Emer. And he needs to know exactly who and what she is. I also hope you’re not saying this because Madeleine’s been here trying to scare you off Dalton.”

  “She was this afternoon, but I sent her away with a flea in her ear.”

  “Then why did she come back?” Adrian asked, puzzled.

  Emer stared. “What do you mean?”

  “I saw her in the woods just a few minutes ago.”

  Emer rose from the sofa and went to look out the window. “Are you sure?”

  “Please, Miss, I saw her too, as I was looking out at the moon while you were doing the accounts,” Sissy piped up.

  “And I saw her as well,” Charlie said, rousing from his slumber for a moment. “She looked like a big pink ghost.”

  “Well, she didn’t call in here, did she, Sissy?” Emer said, looking to the little maid for confirmation.

  “No, Miss. She was running away from the house, through the woods, just before the doctor here arrived.”

  “What on earth could have taken her out here at this ungodly hour?” Emer mused aloud. "And into the woods, no less."

  “Perhaps she wanted to have another little private chat with you, but then changed her mind?” Adrian guessed.

  “Well, no matter.” Emer shrugged. “She would have been wasting her time anyway, regardless of what she had to say.

  "So come on, I think Charlie is ready for bed, and I know I am. We’ll put him in the invalid’s room at the back of the house, and I’ll get one of the women on watch upstairs to come down and keep an eye on him overnight. Leave the medicine on the sideboard with some written instructions for us all, will you, Adrian, and I’ll see to it that he's up and around again in no time.”

  Charlie smiled wanly. “Thank you, Emer. God bless you.”

  Emer grinned. “I’m delighted to see you, Charlie. You be a good boy and get well. There will be plenty of work for you around here once you are.”

  Emer led the way out of the library, but as she turned into the corridor, she almost dropped her lantern in astonishment.

  Terror gripped her soul, for she saw with horror that the entire back of the house was crackling with flames.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Emer turned around with lightning speed, and ordered, “Adrian, get Charlie outside. Sissy, ring the fire bell. I’ll go up and start clearing the house.”

  The big bell in the front hall was rung with abandon by the terrified maid, while Emer hoisted her skirts up over her knees and took the stairs two at a time, shouting, “Fire! Fire!” as she ran.

  The two women on duty on the first floor ran out to see what the commotion was.

  Emer ordered, “Clear the children out room by room. Get them down the main stairs and out the front door, and make sure they stay together. Tell them to take their cloaks and shoes, and hurry. Try to make sure they don’t panic. I’ll go upstairs and tell the others.”

  Emer ran up the second flight of stairs, and hurriedly repeated her orders. The nurses followed her instructions, and started at the front of the house, while Emer began at the back.

  She banged on the maids’ door loudly, and told them to grab a cloak and shoes, because there was a fire. Then she went into her own room, and woke Joe, Cathan and the boys.

  “Come on, Joe, get up! The whole back of the house is burning, and it's spreading fast!” she urged.

  Joe came awake, but was still in a daze, and Emer ran into the girls’ room, and grabbed Ailbhe and Blinne.

  She threw the blankets around them, and took them down below, where she thrust her tender burdens into the waiting arms of Sissy before running back upstairs past the stream of scared children descending, in order to make sure the boys were safe.

  Joe had by now come awake and taken control of the situation. With Cathan’s help, he carried Daig and Oisin down below.

  Emer ran from room to room making sure that all the children were out, with the fire licking at her heels all the way. The walls of her room exploded into flames, and the whole blaze raged ferociously as it devoured the straw mattresses and wooden beds hungrily.

  The old floor boards too went up instantly, and Emer could see there was no way that the house could be saved now.

  Stuffing a few of the items she had lovingly sewn for the new baby into a pillowcase, along with her mother’s carved wooden rosary beads, and her best cloak and black gown, Emer ran from her room, and went to look in the other rooms to make sure they had all been cleared.

  She found one girl crouching in fear in one of the bathrooms, and scooped her up to carry her out. As she did so, Emer felt a stitch in her side, and prayed, “Please God, not now. Let me have the baby tomorrow, just not now.”

  Emer got the girl down to the ground floor and pushed her out of the front door with the pillowcase. Sissy grabbed hold of the girl to bring her to safety, while Emer returned to check the upper rooms, crouching low amid the curling acrid smoke.

  Her breath was coming in gasps, and her legs felt like they were made of jelly. But she had to be sure the children were safe, and so she pounded up to the top floor again, checked the rooms one last time, and then ran down to the first floor.

  The back four bedrooms had already been consumed by flames, and Emer prayed that no one had got trapped in the conflagration.

  She ran through the other rooms checking to make sure that no one had been left behind, and the fire followed her, eating up the old floorboards like a hungry lion devouring its prey.

  Once she was sure there was no one left in the burning building, Emer ran down the stairs, and out the front door, and then insisted all the children line up to be counted.

  “Is there anyone missing?” she called, her hair tumbling down around shoulders, and her black gown scorched and torn in several places.

  The children got into their teaching groups, and Emer turned around to look at the blaze again, watching all of her hopes and dreams go up in flames.

  Patrick came around to the front of the house, and said, “The outbuildings and houses are fine out the back. They didn’t catch fire. I’ve got the workers clearing their cottages, and putting in fresh straw from the barns. We can bed the children down for the night there and in the classrooms, and we will all sleep in the barn.”

  “Thank you, Patrick, I know I could rely upon you,” Emer said, hugging her friend in relief that all were safe, and glad the damage had not been any worse. Had it been a windy night, the fire might have destroyed the whole estate, including their vast grain crop.

  “Come on, children, follow Patrick, and the women, and we will get you bedded down for the night,” Emer called.

  In their rooming groups, the children numbly did as they were told, and headed towards the rear of the house in a daze. She knew they would be too excited and worried to sleep, but it was best for them to lie down and at least try to rest.

  Another stitch in her side caused her to gasp in pain, and then she looked around, and grabbed Sissy.

  “Saoirse, the children, where are they?” Emer demanded.

  “Joe has them safe. They’ve gone to Marion’s cottage.”

  “Saoirse as well?” Emer asked, for the one room she realized she hadn't checked was the infant nursery under the stairs.

  The maid shook her head as if trying to clear it. “I don’t know.”

  Emer turned back to the fire, her eyes wide with fear.

  She called to the other women, but no one had seen her infant niece. Another labour pain doubled Emer over, and she clutched Adrian for support.

  “What is it?” Adrian called to her, seemingly from a great distance, as she clung to him weakly.

  “The baby’s coming. No, I’ll be all right,” Emer said firmly, as she stood tall again. “But I need to find Saoirse!”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  After all of Frederick's revelations regarding his machinations against Emer, Dalton had finally dragg
ed his protesting father into the waiting carriage, and headed for the river.

  After what had seemed to him an interminable delay, he had persuaded the sleepy ferry man to take him across to the opposite bank.

  As Dalton steamed across, he was alarmed to see an unusual glow in the distance in the vicinity of Emer's home, and urged his coachman not to spare the horses.

  By the time Dalton and his father drove their carriage up in front of the orphanage, the entire building was fully alight.

  “Emer! Emer!” Dalton called.

  To his relief, he finally caught a glimpse of her auburn hair amid the smoke and fumes billowing out of the upper windows, but suddenly he heard her scream, “My God! The babies!”

  “No, you can’t go back in there, Emer, you’ve done enough!” Adrian counselled, hanging onto her arm tightly.

  But Emer frantically shook herself free, and throwing her shawl over her face and hair to protect herself, she ran through the blazing front doorway toward the back of the house to the nursery under the stairs.

  Miraculously, the stone-lined base of the stairs and tight-fitting new door had kept them safe, and Emer was relieved to hear the four infants screaming in their cots as the heat in the small room grew unbearable.

  Emer grabbed each in turn and held all four tightly to her, draped in her shawl, as she bent low over their little bodies to avoid the shower of sparks which cascaded down from overhead. She skirted along the wall with her elbow jutting out, trying to find the front door again through the thick blinding smoke.

  But just as she neared the exit, the entire doorway gave a creak and a groan. She jumped back with her precious bundle as the entrance collapsed in on itself, and her way was blocked by a flaming girder.

  “I’m here, but I’m trapped,” Emer called above the roar of the fire, and heard Adrian’s voice coaxing her.

  He doused the flames with a bucket of water that splashed everywhere, then urged, “Come on, Emer, duck under. Try to squeeze through!”

  Emer’s distended abdomen prevented her slipping through the small gap above the ground, but she pushed the first blanketed baby through and said, “Grab it! The others are on their way! Hurry!”

  “Come on, now you, Emer!” Adrian begged as a rumbling could be heard all over the building.

  “The windows are going to blow out!” Emer cried, passing the second child through to Sissy, then the third to Adrian. “Tell everyone to take cover!”

  Suddenly she heard Dalton’s voice. “Emer, it’s me, Dalton, Come on, you must try! Here, take my hand!” he pleaded desperately, haunted by visions of her nearly going up in flames when he’d first met her on the Pegasus.

  His hand snaked through and began to flail around for a grip on her.

  “I can’t! Take the baby!"

  She handed him Saoirse. "You saved her once before, remember," she said with a small wan smile.

  Dalton stared back at her with eyes full of love. "I remember. I remember everything. Oh, Emer—"

  His emotions choked him for a moment at the recollection of all they had shared, all she meant to him. And now his beloved was in danger once again.

  "Come on now, love, come out. You've done enough."

  "I can’t squeeze through,” she called, her heart aching and her lungs bursting from the thickening smoke.

  “You must try, Emer, you must! You can’t expect me to have travelled half the world with you, thought you dead only to find you again, to now stand here and watch you die like this! I love you! Take my hand, and I’ll pull you out!”

  Emer knew it was impossible, but her will to live had never been so strong as it was now.

  Looking at the fire axe at the entrance to the building, she smashed the glass with her elbow and seized the weapon.

  Attacking the loose creaking floorboards in the foyer which she had never got around to having the carpenters fix, she hacked at them with the last strength she possessed, and was at least able to make a hole big enough for her to slip down through. Though the drop was a good six feet, she landed relatively safely on her hands and knees on the dirt ground under the floor of the foyer, and crawled to the front of the ornamental trellis which decorated the porch.

  A huge explosion signalled the windows blowing out, and she could see the entire area showered with splinters of broken glass. Fortunately, most of the children had already gone to the workers' cottages to rest, and the rest had ducked, so few people were injured.

  “The porch roof is starting to go!” Adrian cried out, as he bundled Dalton out of the flaming doorway.

  “Emer! Emer! We can’t leave her! We can’t!” Dalton shouted in anguish, as Adrian attempted to drag him away

  “I’m here, Dalton! I’m here! Help me!” Emer shouted desperately from under the house, tugging on the trellis impotently in an effort to get free.

  “Quickly, Dalton, she’s over there,” Adrian urged, pointing.

  "Oh, thank God."

  They tore at the wooden trellis with their bare hands as the flaming remains of the building began to sway.

  Emer stretched her arm out and felt her wrist being grasped, then her elbow and arm as Adrian and Dalton tugged her out head first on her distended belly.

  The sparks continued to rain down on them, but Emer had such severe labour pains that she could hardly move, let alone get to her feet and run.

  “It’s coming down, get out of the way!” Adrian yelled. He pulled at Dalton’s sleeve.

  Emer lay stunned, and suddenly felt a heavy weight crash down onto her back, as a flaming timber from the porch landed on her.

  “Emer! My God. Adrian, help me!” Dalton cried, pulling the beam off Emer’s back with all his might though it was still burning. He never even felt the pain to his hands or arms as he lifted, and clung on tightly until Adrian managed to pull Emer out from underneath it.

  Then Dalton scooped Emer up into his arms and ran with her to safety, Adrian following close behind, as the majestic old building collapsed into a heap of flaming debris which showered sparks in every direction.

  “My love, you’re safe,” Dalton breathed as he showered Emer’s face with kisses.

  "Oh, God, Dalton, the baby is coming."

  "Are you sure?"

  Her reply came out as a strangled scream. "Yes!"

  "Adrian, Adrian! The child is coming."

  As Emer felt herself losing consciousness, she begged, “Please, Dalton, don’t let anything happened to our baby.”

  Dalton stared stunned at Emer’s face, but she had already fainted.

  “Our baby?” he murmured. “Oh my Lord, the child is mine!”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Dalton’s father had observed his son’s behaviour throughout the entire incident, but was not inclined to be generous, and admit he had been wrong about Emer’s character, even though she had gone back into the flaming building in order to rescue the four infants.

  He saw Emer’s limp body taken from the wreckage, and prayed for her to die.

  “I’m not letting someone like her pollute my family,” Frederick muttered to himself darkly.

  He stormed out of the carriage and marched up to his son as he cradled the prone woman in his arms. “Dalton, Dalton, are you coming? There's nothing you can do here, and I wish to leave now,” he demanded impatiently.

  “Then go, Father, but if you leave now, without trying to help these poor unfortunate people, then understand that this will be the last time I ever see you.”

  He didn't even look at Emer. “She has friends. They can look after her. You have other commitments and responsibilities!”

  “My commitment is here. She’s in labour, with my child, mine, do you understand.”

  “I never thought you could be so gullible, Dalton,” Frederick said coldly. “You’ll believe any lie this strumpet tells you!”

  “Goodbye, Mr. Randall, and may we never meet again,” Dalton spat.

  He swung Emer up into his arms and tried to find a place for her to r
est more comfortably than on the hard ground.

  Adrian insisted, “She can’t have the baby out here. I have nothing at the moment, not even boiling water. Quickly, get her into my carriage, and we’ll take her back to my house.”

  Adrian and Dalton sat silently in the carriage, Dalton cradling Emer against his heart as he willed her to be all right. The shock of the fire and Emer’s near death as a result of her saving the infants began to sink in, almost overwhelming them both.