LITMIR.BIZ

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tightening her lips, thinking it through. Or, she was trying to think it through. She looked like her mind felt full of smoke.

      ‘I don’t know,’ she managed, and then she looked up as someone else darted through the jumble of fire-hoses and fire-fighters. Her strained face slackened in relief. ‘Wendy…’

      Wendy was an ex-House Mother, now happily married and immersed in domesticity. She was followed by her husband, Luke. Luke strolled languidly through the chaos, lifted a trembling Michael into his arms almost as an aside—marriage to Wendy meant that Luke and the Orphanage kids had met each other heaps of times before—and he hugged the little boy close.

      ‘Hey, Michael. Been having some excitement, then? Wow! It’s great that you’re all okay. And this is a great fire engine.’

      Then he looked down at Matt in admiring amusement. ‘And here’s our Matthew out for the count. Been playing heroes, have we, kids?’

      ‘Shut up, Luke.’ But Matt grinned. It suddenly did feel good. Heroic even. The feel of those four little hands clutching his arms from under the bed came sweeping back, and he knew where they’d be now without him…

      His grin faded and the tremors swept back. He’d been lucky to get them—and himself—out alive.

      ‘The other homes are all full,’ Wendy was saying. She was right back in House Mother mode, as though she’d never left. She was hugging Michael’s little sister, Tess, to her breast as if she was her own. ‘Erin, Shanni was at the hospital with Nick when the call came through. The nurse in charge told her what was going on, so she rang us first thing. I rang Lori on Luke’s cell phone on the way here. Lori’s on her way, but we need to sort the kids out.’

      ‘Yes.’ That made it through Erin’s fog. Lori was House Mother at Home Number Five, and the only one without tiny tots to care for. They’d need her, but Erin was in no state to concentrate.

      Wendy recognised it. She came forward and gave her friend a hug like her husband was giving Michael, then she kept right on holding her, Tess somehow squashed in the middle. Which Tess didn’t seem to mind at all. ‘Hey, kid, you and Matt got them all out,’ she told her friend. ‘Everyone’s safe. You did good.’

      ‘The twins…they must have been making something.’ Erin was trembling in her friend’s arms, and, from where he was lying on the ground, Matt had an almost unbearable urge to rise and take over. He wanted to hug her as well.

      Which was crazy. He grabbed the oxygen mask and took two more deep breaths. He wasn’t himself here.

      ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Wendy said into her friend’s hair. ‘Tess and Michael are only with you until their mother gets out of hospital at the week-end. Luke and I talked about it as we drove here and we can take them until then. They know us.’

      Tess and Michael’s mother was on her own, and she was a severe asthmatic. She was in and out of hospital often, and Tess and Michael were frequent visitors to the Homes. They’d be happy with Wendy, Erin knew. But…

      ‘That still leaves Marigold and the twins.’

      ‘Tess and Michael will be shocked,’ Wendy said gently, gathering Tess closer as she spoke. The doctor was checking the twins, and the little girl was starting to tremble. ‘They’ll need lots of care, so I don’t think Luke and I can do much more than take them. I talked to Lori and she said the same. She’s thinking about the baby and the twins now. And speaking of Lori…’

      Lori arrived then. Thirtyish and competent—as all the house mothers were—she might be shocked, but she took right over where Wendy left off.

      ‘It’s fine for Michael and Tess to go with Wendy,’ she said directly. ‘It makes sense. But the other Homes are packed. Maybe we can use the hotel as an interim measure.’

      ‘Erin can’t look after Marigold tonight,’ Wendy told her. ‘Look at her. She’s shocked to the core. The last thing she needs is two o’clock feeds. She needs to sleep. And the twins—’

      ‘No one but Erin can control the twins,’ Lori said bluntly.

      ‘Yeah, look at how I controlled them,’ Erin retorted. ‘That’s control?’ She gestured to where the flames were dying and leaving a charred and smoking ruin, and she shuddered.

      ‘And the publican’s heard of the twins,’ Lori added. ‘I guess we might have trouble persuading him to take you.’

      ‘You bet we’ll have trouble.’

      ‘But the baby’s up for adoption and her placement’s due on Monday,’ Lori said, brightening. ‘I guess I could squeeze Marigold in with me until then. She’s such a great baby.’ She glanced around to where Valda was holding her at arm’s length, a look of complete disgust on her face. The baby, it seemed, had started to smell.

      They all knew it didn’t matter. Lori had decreed Marigold was a great baby, and so had her prospective parents. She’d survive a few more minutes of Valda’s disgust. ‘That just leaves Erin and the twins.’

      ‘I don’t know about the hotel,’ Erin said doubtfully. ‘Maybe we could stay with Shanni.’

      ‘Shanni has two kids, is pregnant and has a sick husband.’ Wendy was suddenly in charge again. ‘And I can’t take any more than Michael and Tess.’ Then she looked down at Matt and her brow grew thoughtful. ‘Hmm.’

      Hmm?

      Matt gazed upward and he didn’t like the way Wendy was looking at him.

      Wendy, Erin, Shanni, Lori… Even Doc Emily. They were all the same. They were organising, bossy women, in a sensible, non-Charlotte type of way that you couldn’t just ignore by going outside and heaving a few hay bales until it was time for dinner.

      Frankly, they scared him to death.

      He took two more breaths of oxygen from his mask and tried to look pathetic. It didn’t come off. In fact, it seemed to make things worse.

      ‘Doc says you’re not to go home alone, and I know you live in that great rambling place all by yourself.’ Wendy was onto her good idea like a hound on a scent and she wasn’t to be distracted. ‘What could be more appropriate than Erin and the twins coming home with you to keep you company?’

      ‘The twins?’ He’d seen enough of the twins!

      ‘You saved their lives,’ Wendy said, her voice softening, as she crouched beside him. Her eyes met his. They were inches apart and he couldn’t argue if he wanted to. ‘And maybe you saved Erin’s, too, as I know she’d have tried to get them out herself if it wasn’t for you. So you can’t just turf them out on the street, now can you?’

      ‘I…’ It was too much. ‘No,’ he said weakly. ‘I suppose I can’t.’

      ‘So you can have them?’

      He forced himself to think. He wouldn’t make much of a host. ‘I need to be away occasionally, for cattle shows and things…’

      ‘But they can look after themselves with ease. So that’s that,’ Wendy said triumphantly, and she rose and hugged Erin harder. ‘It’s all sorted, my love, so you can stop shaking this very minute. All of you. Drama over. All we have is one burned house to rebuild and we’ll be back to normal. Now as soon as the doctor’s cleared the lot of you then you can go out to Matt’s. I can see the Welfare Shop lady over by the fire chief. Good old Edna. She’s always armed with a stockpile of emergency clothes. I’ll see how she can help and then we’ll send you all home. Together.’

      CHAPTER TWO

      FOR how long?

      All we have is one burned house to rebuild and we’ll be back to normal.

      It occurred to Matt as they started out to the farm that this might be no short undertaking. The Bay Beach Home lay in ruins, and finding accommodation in this town was next to impossible. Rented

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