Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [27]
She pulled back the lace curtain, and while there wasn’t enough light to make out anything more than a dark shape against the privy wall, she could see a glint of chrome, so that satisfied her that the bicycles were still there. But as she dropped the curtain she heard another sound, and snatching it up again, this time she saw a silhouette as someone ran across the yard, pulled open the gate and disappeared through it.
The shape was in her line of vision for no more than a second, but she felt certain it was a woman. Yet while she knew thieves could be of either sex, she couldn’t imagine a woman prowling around at this time of night. She stood there for a moment in puzzlement, considering whether she should go and wake Sam. Deciding that was pointless as the intruder had gone and Sam had to be at work early in the morning, she turned to go back to the bedroom.
But as she reached the door she smelled paraffin and heard a whooshing sound.
It could only be fire.
In horror she ran to the top of the stairs and looked down to see flames flickering. It hadn’t been a thief, but someone intent on burning them all alive.
‘Fire!’ she screamed at the top of her voice. ‘Sam! Ernest! Peter! Fire! Get up now!’
Chapter Seven
Scooping Molly out of her cradle, Beth snatched up a blanket and ran along the passage to the parlour where Sam was sleeping.
‘Wake up, Sam!’ she yelled, shaking him. ‘There’s a fire!’
He hadn’t drawn the parlour curtains before going to bed and there was enough light from the street lamps outside for her to see him clearly. He opened his eyes and looked blankly at her for a second, but when she repeated the warning he leapt out of bed, snatched up his trousers and jumped into them.
‘Get Ernest and Peter!’ she shouted, and he was off down the passage like a shot. Smoke was billowing up the stairs now, and Beth knew she had to think of an alternative way to escape.
Shutting the parlour door and putting Molly down on Sam’s bed, she flung up the sash window as wide as it would go and screamed out, hoping a policeman or anyone nearby would hear her. But the street below was deserted, with not so much as a cat prowling around.
The boys came thundering down the stairs and burst into the parlour. ‘How did it start?’ Peter asked, his voice shrill with fright.
‘Never mind that now,’ Ernest said as he leant out of the window. ‘It’s too high to jump from here. Maybe the back windows would be easier?’
‘I’ll go and look,’ Sam said, taking command. ‘You stay here, use the sheets and anything else to make a rope. Beth, carry on screaming for all you’re worth.’
He was gone in a flash, only to return seconds later coughing from the smoke and carrying a pile of bedding. ‘The fire’s got the whole staircase and it’s too dangerous to try to get out of the bedroom window because the flames are right beneath it,’ he gasped. ‘We’ll have to get out this way. Beth, stop up the gap under the door with the rug. Ernie, help me throw the mattress out to soften our landing, then we’ll lower you. Beth and Molly can go after that.’
Beth did as he asked, ramming the rug against the door bottom as tightly as she could. Ernest and Peter had already got two sheets knotted together, and they tugged at it to make sure it was strong enough, yelling for help at the top of their voices as they did so. Beth snatched Molly up again as the boys manhandled the mattress out of the window, then Ernest got out on to the window sill and took the end of the sheet, and with Sam and Peter holding the other end, they gradually lowered him down.
As the boys were busy at the window Beth looked for something secure to put Molly into. Seeing the coal scuttle, she grabbed it and tipped out the coal into the fireplace. Molly was crying now, frightened by all the noise and panic around her, Beth sat her in the scuttle and wedged her in with a pillow.
‘Good girl,’ Sam said approvingly. Ernest was yelling fit to bust down on the street, Peter joining in at the window. Sam quickly tied the sheet rope around the coal-scuttle handle and tested it for strength.