but I’m back now,’ Rob said, and Julie knew he could see the exhaustion on Amina’s face. He’d have taken in her worry at a glance. ‘And if anyone’s going to massage my wife it’s me. Forty minutes?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Amina, I came to ask if there was anything precious, any jewellery, anything that might have survived the fire that you’d like us to search for. The radio’s saying it may rain tonight, in which case the ash will turn to concrete. Sputnik and I could have a look now.’
Julie choked. Sputnik? She glanced in the mirror. She was wearing one of Rob’s shirts, faded jeans, and her head was covered in silver spikes. Okay, yep. Sputnik.
‘I could be a Christmas decoration instead,’ she volunteered. ‘One of those shiny spiky balls you put on top of the tree.’
‘You’ll be more help sifting through ash. I assume you can put a towel around the spikes—the wildlife has had enough scares for the time being without adding aliens to the mix. Amina, is that okay with you?’
‘I will look,’ Amina said but Rob caught her hands. He had great hands, Julie thought inconsequentially. He was holding Amina and Julie knew he was imparting strength, reassurance, determination. All those things...
He was a good man. Her husband?
‘The ground’s treacherous,’ he told her. ‘Your house is a pile of ash and rubble and parts of it are still very hot. Julie and I have the heavy boots we used to garden in, we have strong protective clothing and we’re not carrying a baby. You need to take care of your little one, and of Danny. We won’t stay over there for long—it’s too hot—but we can do a superficial search. If you tell us where to look...’
‘Our bedroom,’ Amina told him, meeting his stern gaze, giving in to sense. ‘The front bay window...you should see the outline. Our bed started two feet back from the window and was centred on it. The bed was six foot long. On either side of the bed was a bedside table. We each had a box...’
‘Wood?’ Rob asked without much hope.
‘Tin.’
‘Well, that’s possible. Though don’t get your hopes up too much; that fire was searing and tin melts. We’ll have a look—but only if you try and get some rest. Danny, will you stand guard while your mum sleeps?’
‘I want to help with the burn.’
‘There’ll be lots of time to help with the burn,’ Rob said grimly. ‘But, for now, you need to be in charge of your mother. Go lie down beside her, play with your toys while she sleeps, but if she tries to get up, then growl at her. Can you do that?’
Danny considered. ‘Because of the baby?’
‘Yes.’
‘Papa says I have to look after her because of the baby.’
‘Then you’ll do what your papa asked?’
‘Yes,’ Danny said and then his voice faltered. ‘I wish he’d come.’
‘He will come,’ Rob said in a voice that brooked no argument. ‘He will come. I promise.’
‘IT SHOULD HAVE been ours.’ Julie stood in the midst of the devastation that was all that was left of Amina’s house, she glanced across at their intact home and she felt ill.
‘Fire doesn’t make sense,’ Rob told her, staring grimly round the ruin.
‘No. And I understand that it was your design that saved it. But Amina’s house was...a home.’
‘Our place will be a home again. If we rent it out to them, Amina will make it one. I suspect she’s been making homes in all sorts of places for a long time.’
‘I know. Home’s where the heart is,’ Julie said bleakly. ‘They all say it. If you only knew how much I hate that saying.’
‘We’re not here for self-pity, Jules,’ Rob said, hauling her up with a start. He sounded angry, and maybe justifiably. This was no time to wallow. ‘If it rains, then there’ll be little chance of finding anything. Let’s get to it.’ He handed her a pair of leather gloves and a shovel. ‘Watch your feet for anything hot. Sift in front of you before you put your feet down. Don’t go near anywhere that looks unstable.’
There wasn’t much that looked unstable. The house had collapsed in on itself. The roof was corrugated iron, but Rob must have been here before, because it had been hauled off site.
The bedroom. They could see the outline of the bay window.
‘You focus on either side of where the bed would have been,’ Rob told her. ‘I’m doing a general search.’
What a way to spend Christmas afternoon. Overdressed, hot, struggling to breathe with the wafts of smoke still in the air, her hair in spikes, covered by a towel, squatting, sifting through layer upon layer of warm ash...
She found the first tin almost immediately. It had melted—of course it had—but it had held enough of its shape to recognise it for what it was.
Who knew what was inside? There was no time now to try and open it. She set it aside and moved to the other side of where the bed would have been and kept on searching.
And was stopped in her tracks by a whoop.
She looked up and Rob was standing at the rear of the house, where the laundry would have been. He’d been shovelling.
‘Jules, come and see.’
She rose stiffly and made her way gingerly across the ruin.
It was a safe. Unmistakably it was a safe and it must be fireproof, judging by the fact that it looked intact, even its paintwork almost unscathed.
‘It must have been set in the floor,’ Rob said. ‘Look, it’s still in some sort of frame. But I can get it out.’
‘Do you think Amina knew it was there?’
‘Who knows? But we’ll take it next door. How goes the tin hunt?’
‘One down.’
‘Then let’s find the other.’ He grabbed her and gave her a hard unexpected hug. ‘See, good things can happen. I just hope there’s something inside that safe other than insurance papers.’
‘Insurance papers would be good.’
‘You and I both know that’s not important. And we have five minutes to go before sputnik takes off. Tin, Jules, fetch.’
And, amazingly, they did fetch—two minutes later their search produced a tin box even more melted than the first. Three prizes. Rob brought the barrow from their yard, then they heaved the safe into it and carted it back. ‘I feel like a pup with two tails,’ Rob said.
Julie grinned and thought: fun.
That had been fun. She’d just
