by Pamela Pope
'I love Edencombe, too,' she said softly. 'It's my home, but I can't live here. You've seen to that.'
She walked away from him, crying inwardly. She was afraid he might follow her and there was a pain in her chest as she hurried, but when she glanced round he was among a throng of people, only a glimpse of the green check shirt visible as he bent to talk to a child. Why was it that children liked him so much?
Her heart was thudding erratically and she didn't know which way to go. The woodsmoke stung her eyes. She was still in love with him, that was the trouble. This madness was something she couldn't control, and she couldn't possibly start each day fearful of bumping into him, so how could she even think of staying on in the village?
Some friends stopped to chat and she stood beneath the coloured lights trying to concentrate on everyday conversation, but Joss was still too near for comfort and she made an excuse to move on. A space had been cleared on the lawn and a local group had started up with a disco beat that drew the crowd and set them dancing. Meredith looked longingly towards the sanctuary of the stables, but Joss hadn't even left her that refuge, for memories of the last time she had gone there were like a barricade, and the thought of setting foot inside was electrifying.
All the same, she walked a little way down the path towards the stables, irresistibly drawn to the place where she had given herself to Joss. Away from the coloured lights there was an oasis of quiet where she could linger a minute to regain her composure, but as she stood in the shadows she became aware of stealthy movement over by the door. She watched curiously, thinking it was a young local couple in search of privacy, and when she heard giggles she felt a stab of envy. They didn't know how lucky they were to be carefree. But then as her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she saw two small figures emerge from the shrubbery and dart inside the stables, and she realised it was Gary and Shaun up to their same old tricks.
She was about to go after them when there was a tap on her shoulder and she turned to see a young man she had known since schooldays.
'I've been looking for you,' he said. 'Everyone's dancing. Why aren't you?'
Meredith liked him. He had always made her laugh, she remembered, and what she needed was some light entertainment to revive her. She held out her hand, which he took with alacrity, and gave him a brilliant smile.
'I take it that's an invitation,' she said, and let him lead her back to the illuminated lawn where most people were now gyrating in time to the music.
She was popular. Partners vied with each other for a chance to dance with her and for the next half hour she succeeded in pushing Joss to the back of her mind. The last time she had seen him he had been turning sausages on the barbecue alongside her father, and she hoped that was where he would stay for the rest of the evening. She also hoped he would notice the attention she was receiving and believe he meant nothing to her, for if he knew of the comparisons she was making each time a new partner claimed her, it would be too much of a boost to his inflated ego.
No one took much notice of the smoke at first. There had been a haze of it swirling among the lights all evening, and when heavier drifts caused coughing fits it was just assumed the next batch of sausages would be browner. So the alarm was not raised until the first flame was seen licking through the stable roof, and then there was pandemonium. Not that anyone was in a panic; there was no need for it. But everyone shouted for buckets and a fire-fighting team was already under way while Howard was phoning for the fire brigade.
'Must have been a spark from the barbecue,' someone said. 'Though I can't see how it could have happened.'
Meredith had gone straight to an outhouse near the stables where old buckets had been kept for animal feed in the days when they had kept horses, and was passing them out to willing hands when she heard the comment. The roof had quickly caught hold, and she had been so concerned about preventing the fire spreading she hadn't given a thought to how it might have started.
'Oh, my God!' she breathed. 'The boys are in there!'
She dashed outside and round the pond where people were filling buckets with water. Sparks were flying now, showering down like fireworks, and she could hear the crack of burning timber. Someone was shouting for them all to move back, but the chain of people handing buckets up to two men in a tree was not broken. Meredith dipped her handkerchief in one of the buckets of water and pushed between them.
The door was open far enough for her to slip inside. Only the upper part of the stables was alight, but the whole place was filled with smoke so that it was impossible to see, and she quickly tied the wet handkerchief over her nose and mouth.
'Gary! Shaun! Are you there?' she yelled, coughing before she could repeat their names. It was possible they had left before the fire started, but somehow she was convinced they were still there, too terrified at the outcome of their mischief-making to move.
She went further in, shouting all the time, and she stumbled against something in the dense smoke. It was the ladder to the hay-loft, fallen to the ground. She picked herself up and peered upwards through the smoke until she could make out the shapes she knew instinctively would be there. Two small boys, their eyes so wide with fright they seemed to fill their faces, were lying on their stomachs on the floor above, their only way of escape cut off. If they had been calling out before, they now seemed struck dumb with fright.
'It's all right,' cried Meredith. 'I'll get the ladder back in half a minute!'
While she was struggling with it the flames curled round another rafter and kindled the dry wood immediately. The ladder was heavy and ungainly and she staggered backwards under the weight before she could balance it. She yelled to Gary, instructing him to steady the top of it as soon as it touched the beam, but not to lean forward, and minutes later both boys were able to clamber down to safety while she held the ladder in place. They scampered out through the narrow opening of the door like terrified hares, perhaps as much afraid of the punishment in store for them as the danger they were leaving behind.
Meredith turned to follow them, pausing only momentarily to glance up at the hay-loft with its vivid memories, but as she did so there was an explosive crack behind her and a blazing piece of timber fell across the doorway, trapping her in.
She screamed and covered her eyes as sparks flew, not knowing which way to turn. The handkerchief over her mouth was now dry and she was choking, pain in her chest as if an iron girdle was getting tighter every second. She heard people outside shouting, alerted by the boys that she was in there, but it was impossible for them to move the door, and she stared at the blaze with mounting horror.
Time seemed to stand still as the heat increased. Her skin felt parched, yet perspiration ran from her forehead into her eyes and dripped down the back of her neck from her hair. Wherever she looked it seemed there were flames, and she had never been so terrified in her life.
It was just as she was contemplating a desperate assault on the burning timber to see if she could move, the end that was still only smouldering that she heard her name called imperiously from the floor above.
'Meredith! Climb the ladder, and don't waste a second!'
She did as she was told, guided by the voice, her feet speeding frantically up the rungs, and when she reached the top there were hands waiting to grasp hers. She was sobbing with relief as she looked up into the furious face of Joss Hamblyn.
'What the devil did you want to do such a damn fool thing for?' he demanded. 'If you knew the boys were in here why the hell didn't you tell some of the men, or try to find me?' He dragged her to her feet, gripping her wrist without mercy, and she was drawn along behind him to the far side of the hay-loft. 'Duck your head!'
The smoke was thicker, but the flames hadn't reached this end and he kicked aside straw that was in danger of being ignited. Meredith had thought the whole of the loft was ablaze, but she could see now that the top door through which Joss had jumped on the night of the gale was still clear of the fire. It was the way he had come for he
r.
He flung the door open again, causing a draught that fanned the flames behind them.
'It's a long drop and I'm afraid you'll have to jump,' he said. 'I'll be there to catch you. Watch how I do it.'
They were at the end of the stables away from the garden where everyone else was congregated. She heard the wailing siren of the fire engine above the roar of the fire, and the crash of the main door as rescuers attempted to get to her, not knowing Joss had already reached her. She watched him swing out on to the iron bar supported by the stanchion, his powerful arms making it seem as easy as fooling around in a school playground, and then he dropped to the ground loose-limbed, rolling over as soon as he touched.
Meredith had never liked heights. The thought of jumping as Joss had done petrified her and she was rigid with fright. He stood up and called to her, his angry, formidable tone issuing orders as if he was on a parade ground.
'Jump, girl! I've climbed up there once and I'm damned if I'm going to do it again, even for you!' He waited, legs astride and arms outstretched, like a knight fresh from battle come to claim his lady. 'Are you going to trust me to catch you, or are you going to wait until half a dozen firemen rush round here with a ladder and they can all hear me shout that I love you?'
She staggered against the door post and for a moment the ground seemed to come up to meet her, but when she looked again it was still several feet below.
'What did you say?' Dizziness and fright were making her imagine the most extraordinary things.
'You heard! And I'm not going to tell you again until you're down here near enough for me to say it properly!'
She was trembling violently, but not only with the thought of making that perilous jump. She looked down at Joss and he was as inaccessible as he had always been, yet he had uttered those unbelievable words. It must be just a ruse to get her down, like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. Yes, she could wait until firemen brought a ladder. She heard the sound of the first hose being directed towards the blaze and knew she was no longer in any danger from the fire. But Joss had asked her to trust him. If only she had done that before she might have saved herself a lot of heartache.
She had to show that she had faith in him, otherwise what hope was there of making a new beginning, and surely that was what he promised. A rush of joy surged up through her. All she had to do was jump and she would be in his arms, discovering whether he meant what he had said. She lifted her shoulders and smiled broadly, her eyes meeting his with new confidence that awakened a tingling in every nerve, and when he returned the smile and inclined his head that confidence became total.
'Okay, I'm coming,' she called. 'Watch out I don't flatten you!'
'Isn't that what you always do?' he countered.
She laughed. 'This'll be the last time, but I'll make a good job of it.'
She took a deep breath and concentrated on the iron bar so that she wouldn't see the distance it was from the ground, then swung herself on to it as she had seen Joss do. The strain on her arms was enormous and she hung there in terror, knowing the only way to go was down, but petrified of letting go. Joss was beneath her, calling words of encouragement, and feeling as if her last moment had come, she finally loosened her fingers from the bar and dropped into space.
Joss's arms closed round her as he cushioned her fall and together they rolled over the soft earth, landing up in the bushes. They laughed like children. The laurels were thick and shiny, the ground under them rich with leaf compost that smelled damp and peaty, and in the dim -light they were the perfect cover. Breathlessly they clung together, until laughter faded and he was lying above her, gazing deep into her eyes. When he kissed her the fire that immediately flared within her was as fierce as the one that raged through the stable roof, and she had no intention of checking it. The heat of his body against hers was intensely satisfying and the response he drew from her left no doubt that she belonged in his arms.
Presently he lifted his head and the old familiar frown darkened his brow.
'Don't ever put the fear of God up me again like that,' he told her, his voice low and vibrant. 'I got here just as the boys ran out and when they said you were still inside I nearly went out of my mind. Why on earth did you do it?'
'I saw the boys go in there earlier,' she told him. 'I just knew I had to go and get them. I didn't stop to think of anything else.'
His arms tightened about her. 'Darling, it was the bravest thing and I'm so proud of you, but if anything had happened to you I don't know what I'd have done.'
Meredith ran her hand through his tangled hair and down over his neck and shoulder. The green check shirt was torn and the smell of smoke clung to his skin, but he had never been more exciting than he was now.
'You mean you really cared?' she teased, her eyes widening in mock surprise.
'Cared!' He sat up, but trapped her hand on his shoulder and drew it round to his. mouth. Her clothes were dirty, her hair dishevelled and she wished she was looking more desirable, but it seemed not to matter. 'I love you, Meredith. I felt sure you knew that the night I made love to you, because it would never have happened otherwise. What made you take fright and tear off up to London like that before I could tell you? That morning I was going to ask you to marry me.'
Her fingers curled round his. 'Perhaps we've both been too quick with our tongues, Joss. We've said hurtful things to each other instead of what we really wanted to say. You taunted me with talk of Piers. Remember?'
'I was so afraid you still carried a torch for him.'
'And I thought you were engaged to Corinne.'
He groaned and pulled her against him, burying his face in her hair.
'Oh, no, my darling. How could you believe such a thing when you must have known how much I wanted you?'
'It was what Corinne told me.'
'And you didn't come to check with me? What a silly girl you are!' He gently bit her earlobe before once more seeking her mouth. 'You haven't told me yet that you love me.'
She rubbed her face against his with an affectionate touch that was new and exciting. Then she drew away.
'The last time I told you I loved you you didn't listen,' she said. 'I shouted it so loudly you must have been the only person in London who didn't hear. You were in such a hurry to leave Mac Loring's house....'
'Oh, Meredith!' He whispered her name sadly. 'I was so insanely jealous, and yet I knew in my heart I had no need to be. Can you ever forgive me?'
'I might, in time,' she smiled, her tone belying the uncertainty.
'I hope it won't take all our married life.'
She laughed at the thought. 'Not a second of it. I've forgiven you already.'
The rosy glow from the fire was diminishing as the flames were quickly brought under control and only a flickering light now played on Joss's face, but it was enough to show the love in his eyes as he bent to kiss her again. She returned the kiss softly.
She heard her name being shouted, voices coming closer.
'I really think we ought to get back to the other part of the garden,' she said. 'It sounds as if they've sent out a search party for me.'
'In a minute,' said Joss, restraining her when she tried to sit up. 'First tell me the words I want to hear.'
'Now what would they be?' she asked innocently. 'You already know the stables will have to be rebuilt before the children can use them, and....'
He put a hand over her mouth. 'The only children I want to think about at the moment are the ones we shall have.'
Meredith laughed with new delight and clasped her arms more tightly round his neck.
'Oh, Joss, I love you!'
He gave a satisfied smile and brushed leaves and straw from her hair, drawing her to her feet only seconds before the first of the search party burst round the corner and shone a torch in the bushes.
'Thank God you've got her, Mr Hamblyn!'
'Thank God I have,' echoed Joss fervently, and took a firm hold of her hand to let her know they would never b
e separated again.
