Homecoming (46 page)

Sam turned back and squinted at the skyline. ‘It looks like it.'

‘You didn't see anything suspicious?'

‘Not a thing.' Sam kept his face turned towards the smoke. ‘You telephone the fire brigade; I'll go and see what's going on.'

Sam only ran until he was out of sight of Mike, then he stopped, hands on knees, ostensibly getting his breath back. When he straightened up a minute later, he heard a fire engine, bells clanging, hurtling towards him and realised that one of the neighbours must have telephoned the emergency services at the first sight of smoke. He continued to run towards the end of the street, then he saw it – a grey Morris Minor parked higher up and on the opposite side of the street to the spot Judy usually used.

Quickening his step, Sam reached the pavement outside the salon the same time as the fire crew. Thick, grey smoke poured from the roof of the building. Broad bands of fire snaked up the curtains of her living room, streaks of livid, brilliant life in a dense, smouldering, smut-filled atmosphere.

‘Leave it to us, son.' A middle-aged fireman pushed him back, as he charged towards the building.

‘You don't understand, that's my girlfriend's flat,' he cried, forgetting Brian.

‘Is she in the house?' the fireman asked urgently.

‘I have to see …' Breaking free, Sam rushed towards the side door. Before he reached it, a deafening, ear-splitting crash rent the air as the glass burst outwards from Judy's living-room window, sending a fireball roaring into the street. In the silence that followed, all that could be heard was the musical rattle of glass shards falling to the pavement.

Sam ran to the side door, hammering on it, just as another rush of flames burst through the glass panel.

‘Was that a good meal, or was that a good meal?' Brian offered Judy his arm, as they left the Mermaid.

‘It was good, although I'm surprised you noticed.'

‘And what is that supposed to mean?'

‘You stared at me the entire time.' She sniffed the air. ‘Can you smell burning?'

‘Yes.'

They looked at the smoke billowing above the roofline and realised it was coming from the direction of her salon. Quickening their step, they turned the corner, and Judy stared, transfixed in horror at the sight of her salon and the flat above it engulfed in flames.

‘You can't go any further, sir, miss.' A policeman held Brian back, as he tried to push his way forward.

‘That is my house,' Judy shouted.

‘Why didn't you say so, miss?' He looked up and bellowed to a fireman down the line. ‘This is the lady's house!'

As Brian pushed forward still holding Judy's hand, Roy appeared at their side.

‘Thank God you're both safe.' Roy gripped Judy's shoulders and held her firmly. ‘No further, love, not unless you want to be burned to a crisp.' Even from across the road they could feel the heat of the flames, as they consumed the building. ‘We're evacuating the street.'

Judy glanced down the road and saw groups of people huddled together, some in their dressing gowns, watching the fire.

‘I am so sorry, darling,' Brian breathed, ‘but there's no chance of rescuing anything from that.' He wrapped his arm around Judy's shoulders.

‘It could have been much worse, you could have been in it when it went up,' Roy observed. ‘From what the woman who alerted us said, it was burning out of control within a minute of her seeing the first plume of smoke.'

‘Someone's hurt!' Judy exclaimed, as an ambulance clanged around the corner.

‘Sam,' Roy revealed. ‘He tried to get in but he was beaten back by the flames.'

‘He must have been crazy …'

‘Hysterical, or so the firemen said,' Roy interrupted Brian.

Judy ran up the pavement to where Sam was lying stretched out on his back on a blanket.

‘Judy,' Sam croaked in a hoarse, cracked voice. ‘I'm sorry. You parked your car on the wrong side of the road. You weren't meant to be there …'

‘Meant to be where, Sam?' Roy questioned.

‘In the flat. I just meant for the salon and the flat …'

‘You bastard.'

‘Leave him, Brian.' Judy helped her stepfather pull Brian away from Sam, as the ambulance driver and his mate walked towards them carrying a stretcher.

‘You heard?'

‘We all did.' Roy looked Brian in the eye. ‘Leave it to me. I'll ask the sergeant to send a couple of the lads down to the hospital to interview him. Arson is a serious crime.'

Brian watched the ambulance leave, then looked at Judy. ‘I'm sorry, love, you've lost everything.'

‘Only things that don't matter.' She gripped his hand. ‘I have you.'

‘And I'll help you to replace the rest. Your clothes, books, records, jewellery …'

‘Thank heavens the pieces my grandmother left me are with my mother.' She allowed him to lead her away from the building that was still smouldering despite the fire brigade's efforts.

‘If it takes for ever, I'll make it up to you.'

‘It won't take for ever because everything's insured. The salon, the contents of the flat, all except …' She stopped suddenly.

‘What?'

‘My photographs. They were in albums. Photographs of me when I was a baby, growing up, with the girls …'

‘Won't your mother and the girls have copies?'

‘Some, but there's one that can't be replaced.' She twisted her mouth into a grimace. ‘The one we had taken in London at that Policeman's Ball.'

‘Judy,' Roy shouted, running to catch up with them. ‘Are you going back to Carlton Terrace?'

She looked down ruefully at the brown sack dress she was wearing. ‘Seeing as I'm homeless, with only the clothes I stand up in to my name, it looks as if I have no choice.'

‘You still have your car. Pure luck that you parked it so far up the street.'

‘Someone was moving in when I came home. Their lorry was blocking my usual space.'

‘You sure you are up to driving?' Roy asked.

‘I'll drive her,' Brian volunteered. ‘I doubt Martin will have gone to bed, he can run me back to pick up my car.'

‘I am perfectly capable of driving myself …'

‘Down, girl,' Brian commanded. ‘It won't hurt you to take a little help now and again when it's offered.'

‘No, it won't,' she muttered, looking back at the wreckage of what had been her home and salon.

‘Go and tell your mother that you are all right before she hears any different.' Roy hugged her.

‘I will.' Judy opened her handbag and searched for her car keys. Finding them, she handed them to Brian.

‘I guess I'd better ask Martin how he feels about letting his attic flat to an old married couple after Monday.'

‘Think he'll mind?'

‘Only if we try to keep greyhounds up there. Hey,' he opened his arms and held her as the first tears ran down her cheeks, ‘it could have been worse.'

‘Much worse,' she sobbed, as the shock finally sank in. ‘You might not have listened to me and Roy and thumped Sam and ended up in prison …'

‘And miss my wedding night, love? Never.'

As soon as the doors to the ward opened, Martin walked in and made a beeline for the nearest cubicle to the sister's office. When Lily glanced up from the book she was reading and smiled at him, he beamed.

‘How are you feeling?' He set the bags he was carrying on to the floor and pulled a chair as close to her as he could get.

‘To be truthful, a bit of a fraud. I wish I could get up, if only to go to the toilet and have a bath.'

‘All this will be worth it if we have a baby.'

‘That “if” is just the problem, when I've nothing to do except lie here, hour after hour, not daring to even hope too much in case the worst happens and I do lose our baby.'

‘I've brought you something to help you pass the time.' He handed her one of the bags. ‘It was Katie's idea, not mine, so if you don't like it, you can blame her.'

She opened it suspiciously. ‘What is it supposed to be?' she asked, pulling out a handful of brightly-coloured, pre-cut felt.

‘The patterns, whatever they are, should be in there as well. They are a pile of glove puppets Katie cut out. They need stitching in something called …'

‘Blanket stitch.' She opened the pattern book Katie had sent along with the felt cut outs. ‘They are gorgeous,' she murmured, flicking through and studying the animal shapes. ‘Have you seen them, Marty? That tiger is adorable and the panda, the cow – look at those horns. Glyn is going to love them.'

‘Yes, he will.' Martin tried not to think of another child who would love them – if everything went well.

‘Tell Katie thank you, and tell her I'm really sorry to be missing Glyn's christening and Brian and Judy's wedding. It is so unfair.'

‘It is, but Katie's promised to send you a piece of the cake and, as Brian and Judy haven't even ordered one, Brian's promised to see the baker about a joint welcome home and wedding cake when you come out.'

‘He would. I know he's only been living with us for a couple of weeks but I'm going to miss him when I get home.'

‘You're not actually.' As he told her the news about Judy's flat burning down and John having to open up the warehouse that morning just so Judy could replace the essentials in her wardrobe, he couldn't help thinking that Lily looked brighter and more animated than she had done since she'd collapsed in the hostel and he dared to hope that perhaps fate was going to smile down on them after all.

‘Over here, Judy, smile and hold Glyn up, I'm taking one for the absent godmother,' Martin shouted, standing in prime position in front of the church with his camera. ‘John, Katie, Jack, Helen, Roy, Joy, Brian, stand behind her.'

As they all dutifully lined up behind Judy, Helen self-consciously moved to the opposite end of the row to where Jack was standing, but during the quarter of an hour that it took for everyone to take photographs of Glyn's christening, she was aware of him watching her.

When Glyn started grizzling, John put an end to the proceedings by helping Katie and the baby into his car, after repeating his invitation that everyone go to his house. As Helen hung back, she saw Jack walking with Martin.

Bracing herself for rejection, she went up to him and asked, ‘Can I give you a lift?'

Jack looked at his brother.

‘We'll see you at the party.' Martin helped Joy and Billy into the back of his car.

‘We'll be right behind you.' Helen unlocked her car, climbed into the driving seat and flicked open the lock on the passenger door. ‘About the other day …' she began after Jack had climbed in beside her.

‘I don't want to talk about it.'

‘But –'

‘After what I did to you, I have no right to ask you about it, and I really would prefer to forget it ever happened.'

‘But I want you to know.'

‘Please, Helen.' Resolutely staring through the windscreen, he watched Brian drive away.

‘Are you still prepared to move in with me?'

‘Are you still prepared to have me?'

‘Yes.'

‘Then I'll ride my bike over after the party.' He nodded to the road. ‘If we don't join the others, they'll wonder where we are.'

‘Lily loved the puppet idea,' Martin confided to Katie, as she carried a couple of plates of sandwiches into the kitchen where the men had congregated, as usual.

‘I hoped she might. She loves sewing and she's much better at it than the rest of us. When she's finished those, I'll get her something to embroider. I wish it could be baby clothes but –'

‘That would be tempting fate,' Martin interrupted. ‘Are these ham?'

‘They are, take two.' She looked at the rest of the men standing around the kitchen table. ‘As you won't go to the food, I've brought it to you. We're cutting the christening cake in ten minutes.'

‘We'll be there.' Brian glanced across to the corner where Jack was standing, brooding with an untouched beer glass. ‘More beer Roy, Martin?' He opened a bottle and refilled their glasses before his own.

‘It doesn't feel like you're getting married tomorrow,' Katie complained to Judy, as she and John saw the last of their guests to the door. ‘You should be burning up in excitement … oh!' Katie clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘What a stupid thing for me to say.'

‘What a funny thing for you to say,' Judy laughed, kissing Katie good night. ‘As Brian said, we have each other and the insurance money – when it comes. What more could any young couple want to start married life?'

‘A congratulations card and a cheque.' John slipped his arm around Katie's waist and handed Judy an envelope. ‘We were thinking of getting you some silver, but in view of what's happened, that might prove more useful.'

‘As we're not having a big do, we weren't expecting presents,' Brian said. ‘But we are going to throw a party in a couple of months when we have somewhere to throw one.'

‘We are?' Judy looked up at him.

‘My mother's coming tomorrow but the rest of my family aren't going to be so easily done out of a wedding. The only way I could keep them away was to promise them a big do as soon as we're settled in our own place.'

‘Thank you for telling me.' There was no malice in Judy's comment. She kissed his cheek. ‘See you tomorrow, bridegroom.'

‘Tie her to the bed, Joy, so she can't run away or be kidnapped. And get her to the Guildhall on time tomorrow, I'll take her from there,' Brian joked.

‘I'll see what I can do,' Joy answered, as she walked up the street with Roy, Judy and Billy.

‘So, who is going to this wedding tomorrow?' John asked Katie, when she'd closed the door on Martin and Brian.