‘Eva, you need to stay awake.’
After a while Eva mumbled, ‘Tired.’
‘Yes, I know. But you need to stay awake.’
‘’Kay,’ Eva said.
‘What were you doing here?’
‘Model,’ she mumbled.
Daniel continued to work at removing the debris, but as Anna looked across she saw that his hands were slick with a dark liquid. She could only assume it was Eva’s blood. From the expression on his face she knew it was not looking good.
‘Go and see if you can get some help,’ she whispered to him. ‘I’ll stay here and keep her talking.’
Daniel moved hesitantly away as Anna tried to clear the rest of the debris from Eva’s body. When her leg was clear she could see the blood pumping from a gash just above her knee. Silently thanking the recent first aid course she’d attended that no one else at The Whigmore was bothered about, Anna quickly pulled off the belt from her jeans and tried to slide it under Eva’s leg. Eva moaned in pain.
‘It’s all right,’ Anna explained. ‘You’ve cut your leg, but I’m going to stop the bleeding if I can.’
‘’Kay,’ Eva mumbled, and Anna tried to keep her talking while she tightened the belt in a tourniquet above the wound. After what seemed like an incredibly long time, Daniel returned with a paramedic by his side. Anna explained what she’d done and the paramedic nodded and said, ‘Good job. I can take it from here.’
‘Her name’s Eva,’ she said before turning away to where else she might be needed.
Daniel and Anna worked long into the evening, trying to help as many people as they could. For some they were too late and, although she wasn’t religious, Anna offered up a silent prayer for them. As she held the hand of one young woman, who paramedics were desperately trying to save, she realised how lucky she was to be one of the walking wounded. If she’d been standing in only a slightly different space, her fate might have been very different. Most of those who had been badly injured, it seemed, had been lining up at the start of the catwalk at the time of the explosion, taking the full force of whatever it was.
Eventually, when it looked as though the paramedics had control of the situation, Daniel and Anna made their way outside into the dusk of the June evening. For a moment they looked wordlessly at each other, both in shock at the events of the last few hours. After a moment Daniel said, ‘Your cheek, you’re bleeding.’ She reached up to where she now realised there was a dull throbbing. Her fingers came away wet.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a hanky, gently wiping the blood from her face.
A sudden flash caught Anna’s attention and she realised they had just been photographed. Daniel put his arm around her.
‘Come on, let’s get away from here. I think we both need to be somewhere we feel safe, followed by a hot shower and a stiff drink.’
‘I like the sound of that,’ Anna said. And, shaken though she was by everything she had just witnessed, she too wanted to be as far away from the carnage as possible. And most of all she wanted to be with Daniel. Today she’d experienced the gentler side of him, which she’d seen when he was around Ben. He had a compassion towards other people that she admired, and he made her feel safe.
‘Excuse me, Miss, we need to get you checked out before you can go anywhere.’ A paramedic moved towards them.
‘I’m fine,’ she said.
‘That’s a nasty cut you’ve got there. At the very least, let me clean it up and put a Steri-Strip on it.’
‘Haven’t you got more seriously wounded people you need to see to?’
‘The worst are on their way to hospital now. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let someone with an injury walk away untreated.’
Realising he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, Anna allowed herself to be led away into one of the many ambulances that were parked in front of the entrance to the building.
* * *
Anna sat in Daniel’s dressing gown, after having showered away the grime of the explosion. Too shaken to travel home, Daniel had offered her his spare room for the night.
‘Have you phoned your father? You need to let him know that you’re okay.’
‘No, I’ll do it now.’ She should have done that before now, she realised. The news of the explosion was all over the television and, knowing she was working at London Fashion Week, he was bound to be worried about her.
‘Anna, thank God you’re safe! Were you in it?’
‘Yes, Dad. Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to phone before. It’s all been a bit of a blur.’
