Sadie’s surprised at how calm her voice sounds. “We’ll have to put the fire out, won’t we?” She turns to Joe. “We’ll need water.”
Joe squeezes the bridge of his nose. “Okay, yeah. There’s debris on the stairs—it looks like someone piled up wood or something, to get it started. It’s spreading up the carpet, and the banister’s starting to burn. But”—he gives Sadie a wide-eyed look—“if we can smother it with blankets—wet blankets . . .”
“Everyone,” Sadie says, “get the bedding off the beds. Curtains, anything you can find. Run the baths to soak them.”
“Will it work?” Zach says.
For a split second, Sadie feels paralyzed by his doubtful expression. Her head buzzes with a host of other questions: Can that really be her mum outside? Who started the fire? Where’s Mrs. Shrew?
“For God’s sake,” Nazleen snaps at Zach. “We’ve got to try something. Go and fill the baths.”
They form a ragged human chain along the corridor, passing sodden sheets and blankets along, and then they surge forward—all but old Everett, who’s still punching numbers uselessly into his phone. They take it in turns to dash closer and hurl the dripping items over the flames. It takes almost every item of bedding from eight bedrooms, but the fire is gradually dampened until they can tackle the final patches with less panic.
“I think we’ve done it,” Nazleen says.
But Joe urges caution. “As long as the staircase can still take our weight.”
Sadie is the first to make her way down the stairs, her feet squelching on the still-smoking blankets. She runs to the front door and pulls back the lower bolt, but her hands are sore from getting too close to the flames, and the upper bolt is stiff and repeatedly slips in her grasp.
“Who locked us in?” she says, her voice high-pitched, as Everett reaches the ground, puffing loudly.
Halfway down the stairs, Nazleen holds up a big bunch of keys with a confused expression. “Not me. But I do have keys . . .”
“It’s the bolt that’s stuck.” Sadie tries it again, panic rising in her chest like boiling water in a pan. “It’s too stiff. Can someone help?”
Zach springs down the last few stairs behind Nazleen, and Joe is close behind him, but as they move toward Sadie, a door creaks open farther down the hall, and they all swing around. A figure hovers in the study doorway, her pale blue dressing gown lending her a ghostly appearance in the dim light.
“What’s going on?” she says peevishly. “You woke me up.” It’s Mrs. Shrew.
Sadie presses a hand over her heart. “What are you doing down here?”
“I couldn’t sleep in that room . . .” Mrs. Shrew’s voice falters as she peers up the staircase. “What on earth—?”
“There’s been a fire,” Joe says, and he sounds almost apologetic.
Sadie grabs Zach’s arm. “Just get the door open. Please.”
Zach yanks back the bolt and tries the handle. It isn’t locked, and the door swings wide open. Sadie is the first to run out into the freezing night air. Her attention is immediately caught by the metallic grinding of a car engine turning over and over and failing to catch. A moment later, the woman in the big coat hurtles out of the mini and sprints toward Sadie.
“Mum?” Sadie says. She falls straight into the woman’s arms.
“Oh, Sadie,” her mum cries. “I thought I’d lost you.”
Sadie presses her face into her mum’s coat and hugs her hard, utterly speechless. But from somewhere behind, she hears the wonder in Joe’s voice as he greets her mother.
“Beth, is that really you?”
Sadie’s mum sounds equally amazed. “Jonas?”
And Joe’s words trip over one another then. “I thought I’d never see you again. I looked for you for months, Beth. I tried everything I could think of . . . and then tonight—what are you doing here? You woke us up.” His voice takes on a new tone of wonder. “You saved our lives.”
Sadie pulls away from her mum and studies her face. “You were throwing stones at the windows. But how did you know—?”
“Your last letter,” Beth says. She sounds exhausted. “I tried ringing you from the retreat before I set off, but you didn’t answer. I drove all the way down to your flat—I’ve still got my key. I saw the invitation on the table . . .” Her gaze slips over Beth’s shoulder, past Joe, and on to the other guests, and suddenly she rocks backward as if she’s been slapped.
“You,” she says. “I should have known. This is all your doing, isn’t it?”
Leonora sways gently from side to side, soothing the baby wrapped against her chest. For the hundredth time, she leans forward and peers around the corner of the stable block, but nothing has changed. The front door still yawns open; the chauffeur continues to leaf through his newspaper, oblivious to her presence. She’s tempted—so tempted—to shuffle back a few meters, to let her knees unlock, to sink into the warm, damp grass and close her eyes . . . She hasn’t slept for more than two hours at a time since the baby was born. But the one thing she desires even more than sleep is to see Hendrik leave Raven Hall for good.
Finally, voices float from the hall, and here is Hendrik stepping out, closely followed by Markus. Hendrik’s chauffeur springs up the steps to take a box from Hendrik’s arms, and all three men descend to the gravel with somber faces.
She shrinks back against the sun-warmed wall, unseen, but listening intently.
“I’ll keep the job open for you anyway,” Hendrik says. “For when you change your mind.”
“Dad.” Markus sounds weary. “Will you stop staying that? I want to live here . . .”
Hendrik makes a scathing noise. “She wants to live here, you mean.” His voice softens. “She’s taking advantage of you, Son. Can’t you see that?”
“Dad, stop it, please. I love her. I told you.”
The silence stretches. She stands very still. When the baby stirs, she kisses the top of her head softly. Stay asleep a little longer, Nina.
“Well, like I said . . .” The car door clunks open, and Hendrik’s voice grows muffled. “You can join me as soon as you’re ready.”
It takes all her willpower to stay hidden until the engine noise has faded beyond the top of the driveway. When she finally emerges, Hendrik’s car is out of sight, and Markus is already on the top step, about to retreat indoors.
“Leonora!” He’s shocked; he thought she was staying at her lodgings until tomorrow. “Is Nina okay? What are you doing here?”