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‘Way to drop a bombshell on me, Cam,’ Cassie mimicked then waved her hand in dismissal. ‘Never mind that, tell me what the hell is going on! I thought you liked Hope. I mean you two are spending an awful lot of time together and I was only saying to Ed last night how well suited the pair of you are.’
He started laughing, he couldn’t help himself.
‘What? This isn’t funny, Cam! You’ve left that poor woman hanging and now you’re laughing about it. Who even are you?’ Cassie sounded properly outraged, which only made him laugh harder.
When she opened her mouth to berate him again, Cam held up a hand to give him chance to draw breath. ‘Jeez, Cass, I can’t tell you what’s going on if you don’t let me get a word in.’
‘Oh.’ She seemed to consider that for a moment before nodding her head once. ‘Point taken.’
Cam outlined what had happened with Hope earlier. ‘My brain was buzzing,’ he said as he tried to explain how he’d felt as he stood there watching Hope drive away. ‘There were just too many thoughts, too many emotions and by the time I figured out how I felt, it was too late.’
‘Why didn’t you call her?’
He scrubbed a hand through the back of his hair, trying not to shift awkwardly under Cassie’s laser focus gaze. ‘I was going to text her, but that didn’t feel quite right.’
‘Text her?’ Cassie raised her eyebrows in plain exasperation.
‘I know. I know.’ Cam held up his hands. ‘I’ll go and call her now.’
He hadn’t made it out of the cabin before Adam appeared on the steps below him. ‘Can you smell that?’ Adam snuffled his nose. ‘I’m sure it’s smoke.’
‘Like cigarettes?’ As Adam backed away, Cam followed him down the steps, drawing a deep breath in through his nostrils. The groundworkers were the only ones who smoked and they had a fire bucket set up in the far corner of the compound, away from everything else. They were busy with Declan, so any cigarettes should’ve been extinguished some time ago. Still, he supposed they’d better go and check. He sniffed the air again, there was a faint whiff of something…
‘I don’t think so,’ Adam said, keeping pace with him as they headed towards the smoking area. ‘More like a bonfire or something?’
They didn’t need to get too close to the fire bucket for Cam to tell it wasn’t the source. A handful of butts were sticking up from the sand, but other than that, the area was spotlessly clean. As he turned away, a gust of wind blew in from the west and he curled his lip at the acrid scent. ‘God, where is that coming from?’ He turned towards the dig. ‘Are they crop burning?’ It seemed far too early in the season for that, and come to think of it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen anyone burning off the stubble. ‘Do they even do that any more?’
Adam shrugged. ‘I dunno. I guess Rhys would. Shit! Look at that!’
Cam followed the direction of where Adam was pointing towards a thick column of black smoke. ‘Christ! Isn’t that over where the campsite is?’ They started running towards the dig. ‘Declan! Declan!’ Cam shouted towards the site manager.
The big man took one look at them sprinting towards him and waved his hands at Paul to shut down the digger. The machine shuddered to a halt, the sudden silence almost a shock. ‘Wha…?’ Declan didn’t even finish his question. He must’ve already caught the smell of the smoke, which was growing stronger with every step Cam took. ‘What the hell is going on?’
Cam halted behind him, trying to catch his breath and trying not to cough as the first hint of smoke in the air hit them. ‘We don’t know, but we think it’s over near the campsite.’
‘Bloody hell, let’s hope not. Come on, we’d better go and check it out.’
Leaving Cassie and a couple of the others to secure and close down the site, the rest of them piled into their vehicles and Cam led their little convoy along the winding estate road towards the campsite. As they drew nearer, it became increasingly obvious that’s where the smoke was coming from and it was all he could do to stick to the low speed limit and not race along. The last thing they needed was to have an accident on top of whatever else was going on. The screaming wail of a fire engine reached him as they pulled into the campsite car park and were greeted with a nightmare scene.
People were running everywhere, stuffing their belongings into open boots, kids crying, dogs barking, frustrated parents yelling at each other. Cam jumped out of his car and just managed to grab a young boy of around five or six out of the way of another car which was reversing without any care. ‘Watch what the hell you’re doing!’ Cam yelled at the man behind the wheel. All he got was a mouthful of abuse in return as the man shoved his car in gear and drove off.
Smoke was billowing over the car park now, making it even harder to see, but as far as Cam could tell, it was coming from the other side of the boundary wall from one of the arable fields. Thank God. His relief was short-lived, as the kid he was holding began to struggle and Cam had no choice but to let him go. ‘Don’t run!’ he called, to no avail as the boy charged across the car park and into the arms of a woman next to a red estate car. She shot Cam a glare, but he was already turning away to speak to the others. ‘Declan, can you take a group and start trying to instil some order here?’
The site manager nodded grimly and beckoned to Paul and Tony, the groundworkers. ‘You take this side, I’ll take the other. Tell everyone to calm down and to wait in their cars once they’re loaded and we’ll get them all out as quickly and as safely as possible.’ Cam watched the three of them stride off, and silently wished them luck. At least they still had their high-vis vests on, which might give them a modicum of authority.
Cam turned to Adam. ‘I’m going to see if I can find Hope.’ He was sure she would be down here, drawn to the problem the same way they’d been. ‘Take the others over to the campsite and check everything is safe. Grab what you can but only if it’s safe to do so. I want you back here in five minutes, okay?’
‘Got it. We’ll walk the long way round rather than trying to cross the car park.’
‘Good idea.’ Cam coughed as a gust of wind sent another cloud of smoke overhead. ‘Have you got something to cover your mouths with?’
‘We’ll grab something as soon as we get to the tents.’ Adam tugged his T-shirt up over his mouth and nose, then turned to the others. ‘Come on, let’s get our stuff and get the hell out of here.’
Cam pulled his T-shirt up as well and made his way towards the top of the car park where he could see Declan in his bright-yellow vest talking to three tall, familiar-looking men. A fire engine was parked near the drystone wall which marked the boundary estate while offering what would normally be an idyllic view across rolling fields. Today it was a hellscape of heat and flames. The engine was connected to the campsite water supply and the firefighters had hoses aimed over the wall. From what Cam could make out through the billowing smoke, it looked like they were trying to create a fire break by damping down the wheat nearest the wall. He went straight up to Rhys. ‘Where’s Hope?’
‘She’s up at the Hall with Mum and Stevie. The guests up there are demanding to know what’s going on, so they’re trying to keep them out of the way.’ He shoved his hands on his hips and glared out over the wall towards the burning field beyond it. ‘When I find out who did this…’
‘Calm down, son.’ Zap’s tone was even, but his face was a mask of anger to match Rhys’s. ‘We’ll worry about the how and the who later, once we’ve got everyone away safely.’ He lifted his head. ‘Is it me or is the smoke lessening?’
