Chapter 19 #2
Riona had seen it as well. “James, the roof’s on fire!”
The horses were nearly screaming now, and the other animals were desperately kicking or butting at the stalls in an effort to escape. Riona began to pound on the doors with her fists, shouting over the din.
The barn wasn’t that far away from the house. Even if no one heard anything, the fire would be seen. But they might not have that much time.
“The only way to save the animals is to get out of here, Riona,” James said.
He pulled her away from the door, helping her to the ladder to the loft. She climbed up hurriedly, then stood beside him at the open window. Squares of thatch were beginning to fall to the ground in a rain of fire. The roof was now fully ablaze.
Darkness obscured the distance, but he knew the drop was at least a dozen feet and there was nothing to break the fall, no piles of hay, no mound of earth.
James knelt and motioned for her to do the same. “You have to make it to the door, Riona,” he said, getting to his stomach. “I’ll get the horses and meet you there.”
When she didn’t move, he turned and looked up at her.
“You must promise me,” she said, her voice sounding desperate, “if I’m not fast enough, you will jump for safety.”
“An easy promise to give,” he said, smiling.
Gripping her wrists, he held her as she dangled her legs out the window.
He lowered her down as far as he could and only then released her, watching as she fell to the ground.
For a horrified instant, he thought she’d been injured, but she scrambled to her feet and raced around to the front of the barn.
James descended the ladder. There was no way to save all the animals, so he made his way to the horses first. Each of them was panicking in its stall, hoofs flailing as they reared and screamed.
He managed to grab the reins of his own mount.
As one of the double doors opened, he half pulled the horse to the door, surrendering the reins to Riona with a shouted caution before going back for the others.
The second horse had managed to knock some of the boards of his stall loose. James opened the gate and set the animal free, replicating the gesture twice more with the other horses. They shot through the door, escaping to freedom through the choking smoke.
Finally, the horses rescued, he went back for one of the newly born calves just as Riona raced to the other pen. Scooping a sickly lamb into her arms, she made her way back to the door, its mother trailing fretfully behind her.
Everything was oddly muted beneath the fire’s growing voice, a low grumbling roar as the inferno consumed everything in its path. If the animals screamed, he could no longer hear; if Riona called to him, the sound was lost.
A movement high above them, a shadow limned by flames, was the only warning they had before a timber fell. The roof beam crashed to the hay-strewn floor with such an impact that the earth vibrated beneath his boots.
He turned, seeing Riona out of the corner of his eye. Lunging for her, he pinned her against the east wall as another part of the roof caved in, falling heavily and blocking the doors.
His eyes were watering so fiercely that he could barely see. His chest felt on fire, each laboring breath more difficult than the last. If they didn’t escape soon, they would die here.
The barn was an earthly hell filled with unimaginable heat.
The clouds of thick, black smoke were so dense that he could no longer see the doorway.
He’d been aboard ship once when a galley fire had spread.
The terror of the sailors had been nothing in comparison to what he felt at this moment.
He had no intention of dying, however, or of allowing Riona to perish.
She’d dressed for dinner in a more formal garment than she wore during the day. This gown had an underskirt of quilted fabric. Without explanation, he began to pull on the fabric, cutting it away from her waist with his knife when it refused to rip.
“What are you doing?” she asked, batting his hands away.
“If we’re going to survive, we’re going to need a way to get through the fire,” he shouted.
“My dress?”
He nodded, slicing her underskirt free, leaving her attired in nothing more than her shift and stockings below the waist. After ripping the skirt down the back seam until it was a large semicircle of material, he dipped it into the water trough.
When it was soaked, he returned to her side, draping it over her head.
Wrapping his arm around her waist, he joined her beneath the dripping cloth.
Not an appreciable protection against the fire, but better than nothing.
“Are you ready?” he asked, bending his head so that his lips rested next to her ear. A strange time to feel so exultant. This might well be the last moment of his life.
“I’m ready,” she said, her arm reaching around his back.
Together, they raced for the flames.
With God’s good grace, they were heading for the back door, but there was no way to tell since the acrid smoke made the disorientation complete.
Holding Riona’s waist even tighter, James began to pray as they ran.
An invocation to God to show pity to those who sailed.
The words were wrong, but the sentiment was the same.
Save us.
Suddenly they could breathe again, the smoldering clouds blown away by a brisk evening breeze.
But that same wind fanned the flames atop the barn.
The rest of the roof abruptly collapsed, falling within the four walls, immediately killing those animals they hadn’t been able to save.
Sparks and flames surged skyward like the devil’s talons.
The west wall abruptly sagged and fell, sending stones tumbling to the ground in a low-throated roar that sounded too much like laughter.
Half naked and trembling, Riona stared wide-eyed at the scene of destruction. “You saved us.”
“A narrow escape,” he said, turning and looking back at the burning building. “Too narrow.”
There was only one way the door could have been locked, and that was deliberately. Only one person wanted him dead: Drummond. They’d both nearly died because of his hatred.
Slowly, he removed the scorched material from his shoulders, did the same for her. Her hair should have been sodden, but the heat had been so intense that both of them were nearly dry.
“You saved my life,” she said solemnly, the light from the fire casting an orange glow over her face, rendering her hair red and her eyes dark and mysterious.
“But I probably endangered you in the first place,” he told her, wishing that she wouldn’t look at him in such a fashion. There was no fear in her gaze, only amazement, and another look that James told himself he didn’t see. “An ignoble end to die in a barn. I’d much rather perish aboard ship.”
“You’ve given up the sea.”
“That I have,” he said, grateful that she was smiling now. But her regard of him hadn’t changed. She was still watching him the way Iseabal sometimes studied Alisdair.
Wishes, James. You’re only wishing for something that can never happen.
She moved before he could divine her intent. Or perhaps, he told himself later, he knew it well enough but didn’t want to halt her. Reaching up with both hands, she pulled his head down and kissed him.
“I owe you a kiss,” she said against his lips.
“I thought the debt paid,” he said, pulling back and smiling into her face. “But I’m not a fool to question my good fortune.”
Hardly a place to lose his senses, scorched, and singed, and smelling of fire. This brief, incandescent second would vanish only too soon. He pulled her closer, and lost himself in a heated, openmouthed, passionate kiss.