Page 68 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

But Jack didn’t have time to worry about that now, because Bert was staring at something else on the table. A couple of glass jars had the sun directly on them and a ray of light was shining through one of the empty jars and onto the rickety wooden table top. A tiny stream of smoke was rising up to the wooden roof.

Before Jack had a chance to act, the smoke suddenly became thicker and was quickly followed by a small flame whooshing into life.

Jack looked along the counter to where the wine bottles held more of the liquid.

‘Is that moonshine as well?’ he asked.

Before Bert had time to answer, the flame grew bigger and dangerously close to the bottles of alcohol.

Jack looked around, but there was nothing suitable nearby to throw over the flame and put it out.

‘Get out of here!’ he shouted at Bert, rushing over to where Lily was looking up at them both in a drunken haze.

Not waiting to explain, Jack picked her up and rushed towards the door. Flames were beginning to lick along the table as the fire took hold.

Still holding Lily in his arms, Jack ran outside and out of danger. Finally standing her up, Jack turned around but, to his dismay, Bert was nowhere to be seen.

‘Stay there!’ he shouted at Lily, who was swaying on the grass. ‘Do not even think about moving!’

He ran back towards the shed, where he could see to his horror that flames were now licking the sides.

‘Bert!’ he shouted, peering inside.

Through the smoke he could see the older man trying to pick up the last remaining bottles from the only table that wasn’t on fire.

‘Leave it!’ shouted Jack. ‘The whole place is going to go up.’

Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed Bert around the waist and rushed the man out of the shed.

They were only a few metres away outside when there was a loud whoomph from inside and the unmistakeable sound of a crackling fire could be heard.

Still holding onto Bert with one hand, he grabbed Lily’s hand with his other as they rushed past and carried on running.

Moving in a blind panic, Jack went around the corner of the high wall surrounding the edge of the vegetable garden and through a wooden gate. They had just reached the shelter of some trees when there was an explosion behind them.

They all stopped running and stared as the shed went up in flames, sending black smoke up into the sky.

Jack and Bert looked at each other in horror.

‘She could have died!’ said Jack, glancing at Lily, who appeared to have hardly taken any of it in.

‘We could have died too!’ said Bert.

‘Unbelievable,’ said Jack, shaking his head. ‘Oh, and by the way, I think there’s fat chance of your daughter-in-law not finding out about this now.’

‘I think you could be right, son,’ said Bert with a sigh as he watched Jack bring out his mobile to dial 999 for the fire brigade.

27

Jack stood nearby as the paramedics checked out both Lily and her grandfather.

Thankfully, they had survived the exploding shed. Lily didn’t need her stomach pumped, apparently, just an awful lot of sobering up from the illegal moonshine.

However, Bert’s blood pressure was giving some cause for concern, as was the smoke inhalation he had endured. He took off his oxygen mask briefly to speak to Jack.

‘That there explosion is nothing compared to what’s coming across that grass, lad,’ muttered Bert, looking over Jack’s shoulder.

Jack turned to see Lily’s mother striding towards them.