Then an alarm burst to life, another and another with their shrill and piercing sound. She clapped both of her hands over her ears.
Enough.
‘We don’t have a choice.’
This was taking too long. He stepped forward and simply swung her into his arms. She didn’t fight. There was no struggle. Louisa went limp as he held her tight. His phone in one hand attempting to light the way as he tried to keep as low as possible, the air a flare of grey, thin smoke in front of him as they both coughed. Finding the stairs. A crash sounded. Falling masonry? Louisa flinched in his arms. He gripped her tighter, her body soft against his.
‘We’ll be okay.’
It was a promise. When he made those, he kept them, since so often in his life promises made to him hadn’t been met. By some miracle he found the stairs, began walking down as fast as he could, reaching the bottom and heading through the house towards the front door as voices called out.
‘We’re okay,’ he shouted. As he did, a beam of light cut across them.
‘No one injured?’
He shook his head as firefighters and police milled about in the entry, escorting them towards the front door.
‘Anyone missing?’ a firefighter asked. Droplets of water on his uniform glittering in torchlight.
‘Not us.’ Matteo drew Louisa closer to him, ‘There are some staff who live here. It’s their day off. I don’t know if they got out.’
‘They all seem accounted for, sir. You might check, after we get you seen by the paramedic.’
Matteo nodded as they walked through the front door into a carnival of flashing lights of emergency services. The frigid gale hit him like a slap. He’d forgotten he was only partially dressed, the weight and heat of Louisa against him keeping him warm. Somehow tethering him, not letting the fear of what might have been get too much of a grip on his consciousness.
Around them, emergency services worked. Kept him moving forwards. The gravel of the drive was sharp and cutting on his bare feet. Someone wrapped a blanket round him. Led him to an ambulance. He told them their names. Relinquished Louisa even though he didn’t want to lose the sensation of her in his arms. The perfect fit. Sat as the adrenaline that had been rocketing through his body bled away and the world simply spun round them.
Against the backdrop of night, flames licked the roof of the house. Then hoses. Water jets. Shouts and movement. The warm glow of fire guttering. Dying. Igniting again in a fight to remain alive.
Little by little he came back to himself. Turned round as Louisa was huddled on a gurney.
If he hadn’t been awake. If the fire alarms hadn’t worked. If emergency services hadn’t been close...
If he hadn’t been here at all and Louisa had been alone in the house.
No.
Louisa coughed. Eyes wide as the ambulance officers asked questions. Not answering them.
‘We’ve inhaled some smoke.’
They came at him with an oxygen mask but he waved it away. ‘I’m fine. Look after her. I think it may be shock.’
The ambulance officers nodded, placing a blanket round Louisa too, covering her soft, sheer nightgown. It struck him then how out of place she was in all of this. How breakable she appeared.
Something of himself seemed to break inside too. At how fragile life could be. How one day everything seemed fine and the next, everything changed. One moment he’d had a healthy little sister, then came the unexpected bruising. The listlessness. Till her awful diagnosis. The chemo. The infections. Constant terror that one day he might come home and she’d be gone, for ever.
He stood. No. He’d hardened himself to it all and the pain of that time had gone away. He didn’t need to remember. Tonight, there were things he had to do. Plans to make. He’d wanted to get Louisa out of the house, and the universe had granted him the perfect opportunity.
‘I have staff to check on,’ he said to the ambulance officers. ‘Can I go?’
Louisa seemed to wake up from her inertia. Sat bolt upright on the gurney.
‘No!’
‘They need to check you over,’ Matteo said.
She shook her head violently, her hair swirling round her shoulders. ‘I’m fine.’ Tried to get up. Swayed. Her breaths short and shallow.
