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‘Felicity,’ he said firmly. ‘You have to come with us now, or we’ll all die.’
Felicity lifted startled eyes at his voice. ‘Oh, it’s you, Nicolas. Look, maybe you can get the fox out. You have longer arms than me.’
‘Leave the damned fox, girl!’
Felicity speared him with a mutinous look. ‘I will not leave the damned fox!’
‘Felicity! For pity’s sake!’ Serina screamed at her daughter. ‘Just do what your father says!’
Nicolas gaped at Serina’s immediately stricken face, then at Felicity, who looked more than a little confused.
‘Silly woman,’ Nicolas said straight away. ‘Doesn’t know if she’s Arthur or Martha at the moment. It’s Nicolas here, Serina, not Greg. Still, it’s a shame Greg isn’t here, given his wealth of experience with bushfires. So tell me, Felicity, what would your dad have done at this moment?’
‘He’d have saved my fox if I’d asked him to,’ she replied, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. ‘But he’s not here, is he? He’s dead.’
‘That’s true,’ Nicolas agreed. ‘But I think he’d save his lovely daughter, too, wouldn’t he? So let’s get your fox out of that hole and get us all safely out of this forest.’
The fox wouldn’t cooperate. Pain and fear were making it panic. Nicolas lifted it out of the hole in the end, though not before the animal had bitten him on the hand.
Not that he cared. Nothing mattered but getting the people he loved to safety.
When Felicity hesitated to leave again, he glared at her. ‘What now?’ he demanded to know.
‘My mobile phone. It’s at the bottom of the rabbit hole.’
Nicolas almost swore. Instead, he gritted his teeth and prayed for patience. ‘I’ll buy you another phone,’ he said. ‘A better one. Now go, girl. And take your mother with you,’ he said, only then noticing that Serina was still standing there in a shocked silence.
This time Felicity did as she was told, grabbing her mother’s arm and pulling her towards the trail, Nicolas hot on their heels carrying the fox.
Not that they were out of the woods yet. The winds had whipped the fire into a fireball that was moving at tremendous speed towards them through the bush.
‘Run,’ he screamed at Felicity and Serina. ‘Run faster.’
They made it, just, bursting out onto clear ground with the flames licking at their heels. Even so, they didn’t stop running till they reached the house where Janine and Kirsty were waiting for them with anxiety on their faces.
‘I’m so glad you’re all right,’ Janine said, then shot Nicolas a rueful glance. ‘I see you brought the fox.’
Nicolas shrugged. ‘Felicity wouldn’t leave it behind.’
‘He was wonderful,’ Felicity said. ‘Here, Nicolas. I’ll take the fox now. I know what to do with it. Kirsty and I have a makeshift hospital in one of the sheds.’
‘Excuse me, missy,’ Janine said firmly, nodding towards where the fire had reached the grassy surrounds of the property. ‘But we’re all going down to the cellar till this fire is under control. Ken’s just rung. He said they’re on their way here and they’re bringing a couple of water-bombing helicopters, but he doesn’t want us taking any chances. My husband’s one of the volunteer firefighters,’ she explained to Nicolas.
‘Well, the fox comes, too,’ Felicity insisted. ‘Kirsty, we’ll need a beach towel to wrap her up in. And a dish of water for her to have a drink. She’ll be very thirsty.’
‘We’re all pretty thirsty,’ Nicolas said, and wrapped a tender arm around Serina. ‘Aren’t we, sweetheart?’
‘What?’ she asked, her voice somewhat vague.
Still in shock, he realised.
‘I said we’re all thirsty.’
‘Oh. Yes, I suppose so.’
‘There are drinks down in the cellar,’ Janine informed him. ‘And a cupboard full of food. But no toilet. So anyone who wants to use the bathroom had better do so now. We might be down there for a while.’
No one did. Possibly because they were all dehydrated.
It was a large cellar, with a wine rack along one wall, an old sofa along another, boxes and bits and pieces stacked along another and several chairs around a table in the centre. Temperature wise, it was lovely and cool.
Nicolas pulled out a chair for Serina at the table whilst Janine got some cans of drink from an ancient bar fridge. Felicity sat next to Kirsty on the sofa with the towel-wrapped fox in her lap, stroking its ears and singing some kind of song. There was not a peep out of the mesmerised animal.
