Chapter Seventeen
‘Anna! Anna!’
She could hear a voice but it sounded like it was far away, as though it was underwater. Further behind that she could also hear muffled screams. And it was raining too — she could feel water dripping onto her face. She tried to open her eyes but it was too dark to see. Exhausted, she shut them again. The air smelt acrid and tasted of smoke. Her chest tightened and she began to cough.
‘Anna!’ There was the voice again, familiar but still sounding distant. She tried harder to open her eyes, this time managing to keep them open. Bending over her was a familiar shape, and a hand came out to clutch at her shoulder.
‘Anna!’
She groaned, unable to form any proper words.
‘Oh, thank God! I thought I’d lost you.’
She heard a scrabbling sound and suddenly her body felt lighter.
‘You’re covered in rubble. Let me get it off you.’
‘Daniel?’ She croaked his name, overwhelmed by the sound of his voice, relieved that she was not alone.
She started to pull herself up but his words stopped her. ‘Lie still until a paramedic has checked you over.’
‘No, I need to get off the floor.’ She needed to get away from the dust that was filling her lungs. Gradually she pulled herself up until she was in a crouching position, then leaned on Daniel’s arm as she managed to stand up.
‘What happened?’
‘Some kind of explosion, I think,’ he replied. She tried to make out what was going on around her, but it was too dark to be clear.
‘Why is it raining?’
‘It’s the sprinkler system.’
Through the ringing in her ears she could hear low moaning and intermittent screams.
‘Let’s try to get you out of here. You need to be checked by a medic.’
‘No, I’m fine,’ she said. Her head felt muzzy and her body battered and bruised, but she sensed there were people worse off than her and she had an overwhelming need to help them. ‘It’s so dark.’ She felt at a loss. ‘How can we help if we can’t see?’
‘Have you still got your phone?’ he asked.
She reached into the back pocket of her jeans. Miraculously her phone was still there. She pulled it out and flicked on the torch, shocked at the sight of the devastation around her. ‘Oh, Daniel!’
Daniel too had switched on his phone and seemed to be at a loss for words.
‘We’ve got to help,’ she said, suddenly galvanised into action. Taking a tentative step forward, she moved towards a body that was almost completely covered in rubble.
‘Hello, can you hear me?’
The body made a slight groan.
‘What’s your name?’
When she didn’t receive a response she asked again. Eventually a faint voice said, ‘Eva.’
‘Okay, Eva, we’re going to get you some help. But a lot of stuff has fallen on top of you, so the first thing we’re going to do is to try to get it off. At least make you a bit more comfortable.’
‘’Kay.’
It looked as though half the ceiling had fallen on the woman. Anna was afraid of what they would find under the debris, but both she and Daniel worked diligently at trying to release the weight of it from Eva’s body.
Realising how quiet Eva had become, Anna said, ‘Eva, are you still awake?’ When there was no response, Anna said again, ‘Eva? Eva?’
The woman groaned.
‘Eva, you need to stay awake.’
After a while Eva mumbled, ‘Tired.’
‘Yes, I know. But you need to stay awake.’
‘’Kay,’ Eva said.
‘What were you doing here?’
‘Model,’ she mumbled.
Daniel continued to work at removing the debris, but as Anna looked across she saw that his hands were slick with a dark liquid. She could only assume it was Eva’s blood. From the expression on his face she knew it was not looking good.
‘Go and see if you can get some help,’ she whispered to him. ‘I’ll stay here and keep her talking.’
Daniel moved hesitantly away as Anna tried to clear the rest of the debris from Eva’s body. When her leg was clear she could see the blood pumping from a gash just above her knee. Silently thanking the recent first aid course she’d attended that no one else at The Whigmore was bothered about, Anna quickly pulled off the belt from her jeans and tried to slide it under Eva’s leg. Eva moaned in pain.
‘It’s all right,’ Anna explained. ‘You’ve cut your leg, but I’m going to stop the bleeding if I can.’
‘’Kay,’ Eva mumbled, and Anna tried to keep her talking while she tightened the belt in a tourniquet above the wound. After what seemed like an incredibly long time, Daniel returned with a paramedic by his side. Anna explained what she’d done and the paramedic nodded and said, ‘Good job. I can take it from here.’
‘Her name’s Eva,’ she said before turning away to where else she might be needed.
Daniel and Anna worked long into the evening, trying to help as many people as they could. For some they were too late and, although she wasn’t religious, Anna offered up a silent prayer for them. As she held the hand of one young woman, who paramedics were desperately trying to save, she realised how lucky she was to be one of the walking wounded. If she’d been standing in only a slightly different space, her fate might have been very different. Most of those who had been badly injured, it seemed, had been lining up at the start of the catwalk at the time of the explosion, taking the full force of whatever it was.
Eventually, when it looked as though the paramedics had control of the situation, Daniel and Anna made their way outside into the dusk of the June evening. For a moment they looked wordlessly at each other, both in shock at the events of the last few hours. After a moment Daniel said, ‘Your cheek, you’re bleeding.’ She reached up to where she now realised there was a dull throbbing. Her fingers came away wet.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a hanky, gently wiping the blood from her face.
A sudden flash caught Anna’s attention and she realised they had just been photographed. Daniel put his arm around her.
‘Come on, let’s get away from here. I think we both need to be somewhere we feel safe, followed by a hot shower and a stiff drink.’
‘I like the sound of that,’ Anna said. And, shaken though she was by everything she had just witnessed, she too wanted to be as far away from the carnage as possible. And most of all she wanted to be with Daniel. Today she’d experienced the gentler side of him, which she’d seen when he was around Ben. He had a compassion towards other people that she admired, and he made her feel safe.
‘Excuse me, Miss, we need to get you checked out before you can go anywhere.’ A paramedic moved towards them.
‘I’m fine,’ she said.
‘That’s a nasty cut you’ve got there. At the very least, let me clean it up and put a Steri-Strip on it.’
‘Haven’t you got more seriously wounded people you need to see to?’
‘The worst are on their way to hospital now. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let someone with an injury walk away untreated.’
Realising he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, Anna allowed herself to be led away into one of the many ambulances that were parked in front of the entrance to the building.
* * *
Anna sat in Daniel’s dressing gown, after having showered away the grime of the explosion. Too shaken to travel home, Daniel had offered her his spare room for the night.
‘Have you phoned your father? You need to let him know that you’re okay.’
‘No, I’ll do it now.’ She should have done that before now, she realised. The news of the explosion was all over the television and, knowing she was working at London Fashion Week, he was bound to be worried about her.
‘Anna, thank God you’re safe! Were you in it?’
‘Yes, Dad. Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to phone before. It’s all been a bit of a blur.’
‘That’s all right. As long as you’re okay. Were you injured?’
‘Just a few cuts and bruises. Nothing to worry about.’
‘Oh, that’s a relief! Where are you?’
‘Daniel has offered to put me up in his spare room to save me having to travel across town.’
‘That’s good of him.’
‘Yes. I didn’t feel like getting on a train on my own tonight.’
‘I’m not surprised. Well, you take care and ring me tomorrow.’
‘I will, Dad.’
Although she’d doubted him in the past, the concern in his voice told her how much he loved her.
She went back into the kitchen where Daniel handed her a glass of wine.
‘Here, I think we could both do with one.’
‘Thanks.’ She took a sip, savouring the cold and crisp taste.
‘Do you want anything to eat?’
She shook her head. ‘No, I’ve got no appetite.’
‘Me neither. I think we’re both in shock . . . I’ll never forget tonight.’
‘Nor me.’ She remembered how she held the hand of a woman as she slipped away while the medics were trying to save her. Then she thought of Eva and wondered if she was okay.
On the wall of the far side of the kitchen, the television burbled away with repeated news of the night’s events. At first it had been assumed it was a terrorist attack but, as no one had claimed responsibility, it was looking more likely that it was a tragic accident. Investigators were already trying to piece together what caused the explosion at the start of the runway.
So far ten people had died and many more were injured. How easily it could have been them. They sat in silence watching the scenes unfold on the television. Scenes that, only a short time earlier, they’d been at the centre of.
‘What about the photos?’ She suddenly remembered what they’d been doing before the blast. ‘Have they been lost?’
‘No, the camera around my neck was damaged but the SD card is still intact, and all the earlier photos were already uploaded to the cloud.’
‘Well, at least that’s something.’
‘Yes. All the equipment is ruined, but it’s covered on my insurance. Not important.’ He paused. ‘Anna?’
‘Yes?’ She turned to face him, concerned at the worried expression on his face.
‘This might sound crass, but we’re going to need to get the photos uploaded as soon as possible. They might be needed as part of the investigation, but as they have been commissioned by Fashionista , they’re the ones who are going to have to send them to the police. Then it will be up to them what they do with them, and we owe it to the models to send the best versions across as we can. Do you feel up to helping me or have you had enough?’
‘Of course I’ll help you.’ She didn’t need to think twice.
‘We both deserve some sleep but we’ll need to start editing first thing in the morning.’
She drained her glass. ‘Whatever you think best.’
‘In that case, I’ll show you to your room and give you a call in the morning. The sooner we can get them over, the better. I think we should take the rest of the week off. There’s nothing in the diary for the next few days, so I thought I might head up to Cheshire. I know I’m not due to see Ben, but under the circumstances Lucinda might let me have some extra time with him.’
‘Of course you must. You’ll want to give him lots of hugs after what you’ve been through and I’m sure he’ll want to do the same. It’s just . . .’ She paused, not really knowing how to broach the question she wanted to ask him.
‘What?’
‘Well, I think I’d like to keep busy. I know this is your home and everything but, while you’re away, would it be possible for me to do some work in the studio? I’d like to finalise the photographs for the exhibition and it will help me take my mind off what happened.’
‘Of course you can. I think we have to do whatever works for each of us to get through this. I’ll let you have a key and the security code, and you can come and go as you please.’
‘Thank you.’
She got up to make her way to bed. For a moment they were standing so close to each other and he was looking at her as though he was about to kiss her. It felt as though time was standing still and she leaned towards him, longing to feel his lips on hers.
But Daniel took a step backwards and she flushed at the thought of what she’d wanted to do.
‘I’d better get some sleep.’ She turned away from him so he wouldn’t see her blushing face.
‘Good idea,’ he replied.
* * *
Daniel couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, images of the previous evening flashed in front of him. The initial bang, followed by the dark silence and the strange floating sensation, then the buzzing in his ears and feeling like he was choking on black dust, before the sprinkler system turned the dust to mud. Then had come the terrible realisation that Anna, who had been standing by his side before the explosion, wasn’t there anymore.
In a panic he’d shouted her name, but she hadn’t replied, so he’d begun to gently explore the debris around him until he’d found her lying half-submerged under fallen rubble.
The relief when she’d answered him was overwhelming. How they had both survived relatively unharmed was a miracle. But if tonight had proved anything to him, it was how fragile life was. There one minute, gone the next. Over the last few weeks his feelings for Anna had grown dramatically. But he was her boss, so he’d always tried to push thoughts of her to the back of his mind. Like the way she crinkled up her nose when she was concentrating, and tucked her gorgeous auburn hair behind her ear when she was editing a photo. Or the way her skinny jeans fitted her long legs and neat little bottom to perfection.
Daniel groaned and tried to ignore his arousal. But tonight, after fearing he’d lost her, after seeing how compassionate she was, how her immediate response had been to try to help those who had been less fortunate than themselves, he’d begun to realise — boss or no boss — he was falling in love with her. And he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to keep that under wraps. Tonight, in the kitchen, he had been so close to her, breathing in her apple-shampoo-scented hair, that he had almost kissed her. Almost. At one point he’d felt as though she would welcome his kiss, but then his courage had failed him. The moment was lost and he’d moved away.
He groaned again as he thought how much he had wanted to kiss her. And how pointless his feelings were. One night over a glass of wine, Anna had gone into more detail about her previous relationship with her boss at The Whigmore. And while Daniel’s blood boiled at the way she had been treated, what had really stuck in his mind was how emphatic she’d been about never mixing work with a relationship again.
Eventually Daniel slept but woke several hours later with a start, dreaming of the explosion and the horrors of the night before. Realising he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep for a while, he pulled on a bathrobe and padded downstairs.
The light was on in the kitchen and he wondered if he’d forgotten to switch it off before going up to bed. Then he saw Anna’s figure huddled at the breakfast bar, her hands wrapped around a mug. She looked up when he walked in.
‘Couldn’t sleep,’ she said as an explanation.
‘No, me neither.’
‘Kettle’s just boiled.’
He walked over to switch the kettle back on and began to make a cup of tea. There didn’t appear to be any words to express what they were both thinking and feeling, but he desperately wanted to talk to her, to tell her about the sense of loss he’d felt when he couldn’t find her after the initial explosion, but he didn’t know where to begin.
‘I suppose as we’re both up we could make a start on the photos.’ She interrupted his thoughts.
‘Yes, I suppose so.’ He didn’t want to think about the photos, didn’t want to see the glamour of the night before, when in his head all he could see was the horror afterwards. But he knew they had to be done, that they were especially important after what had happened, and that time was of the essence.
They made their way upstairs and started to sort through them. He imagined that the police would want them in the order they had been taken so that they could identify the positions they had all been in, directly before the explosion. Anna gasped as they came across a shot of Eva, tall and glamorous, her soulful eyes looking into the lens as though she was seeing the person beyond.
As they waited for the images to upload Daniel was hyper-aware of his closeness to her, doing everything in his power to resist the urge to reach out and touch her. The sooner they could get these photographs over to the magazine, the better. A few days in Cheshire with Ben would give him the time and space he needed to get his feelings back under control. Maybe this was just a reaction to the night before and, after a few days, his feelings would settle down and they would be able to carry on working together as normal.
* * *
Anna was struggling to concentrate too. Her mind was just a whirlwind of emotions, and she couldn’t stop comparing what was in front of her to the destruction of what had happened afterwards. They didn’t even know whether the pictures they were looking at were of people who had survived.
‘I think we should send these photos through to the magazine as they are. As soon as possible. Let them decide what they want to do with them. They might even decide not to run the article under the circumstances.’
‘Yes, of course, you’re right. My head’s all over the place. As soon as they’re uploaded, I’ll ping them over to the magazine. Let’s get something to eat while we wait, and I’ll give the magazine a ring.’
When they reached the kitchen, Daniel flicked on the screen and the room was filled with scenes of devastation from the night before and the sombre voiceover. They watched in stunned silence as the faces of the dead appeared on screen, some of whom were the faces they had been looking at upstairs.
‘I’m going to phone the editor. I imagine he’ll be in the office already, despite the hour.’
Anna listened as he was put straight through. It was difficult to make out what was being said as Daniel merely answered, ‘Yes,’ then, ‘No,’ then, ‘I’ll send them over and let me know which ones you want me to edit later.’
When he switched the phone off he turned to her and said quietly, ‘They want to run an article focussing on all the models who were killed or seriously injured in the blast. They want to run a sensitive tribute to them, with the correct permissions of course.’
Anna nodded. ‘Better than some rag who is only going to sensationalise it all.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ he agreed. As he turned to leave the room, he was stopped in his tracks as another image flashed up onto the television screen. It was the two of them outside the venue, Daniel looking tenderly at her as her hand touched the wound on her face. Anna’s stomach lurched and her mouth went dry. Daniel Redfern looked like a man who was in love. She turned her gaze away from the screen and back to him. He was looking at her in exactly the same way as he had been last night.
Silently they moved towards each other. Just as they were only inches apart, and seconds away from the kiss she was aching for, his phone rang. Looking startled, he answered it, but after a few curt responses, switched it off.
‘Gutter press,’ he said in answer to her unspoken question. ‘They won’t get anything from me.’
She nodded. ‘Me neither.’
‘I’d better get those photos sent over and then I’ll give you a lift home.’
When he left the room she felt bereft. His words had left her in no doubt that she’d been dismissed. Once more the moment had been lost — she wondered if they would ever be able to get back to that point again.