Had he?
Was she hallucinating?
Perhaps the smoke had addled her mind. She doubled over at the waist, coughing until she saw stars.
Everett had just told her he loved her, and then he had rushed back into the burning orphanage to almost certain death.
CHAPTER 19
Verity found Emma curled up on her bed, weeping.
The smoke was growing thicker on the upper floor, but it was not yet as potent as it had been in the schoolrooms below. Relief washed over her as she coughed and rushed toward the girl.
Relief followed closely by fear.
She knew the fire was raging more with every second that passed. She’d heard the creaks and groans and crashes, had tried to breathe through smoke so potent and pungent that it may as well have been soup. Her lungs themselves felt as if they were aflame.
“Emma!” she called out.
Emma opened her eyes and sat up. “Lady Vitty?”
Lady Vittywas the child’s pronunciation of her name, and Verity had never possessed the heart to correct her, even if the sterner Mrs. Stevens did at once whenever she was within hearing distance.
“Yes, dear,” she managed between coughs. “You must come with me. The orphanage is burning down.”
“I’m afraid, Lady Vitty,” the girl said.
The poor, sweet dear. Her heart ached for the child, who had already lost so much and now was about to lose the only home she had, if not more. What awaited them belowstairs was terrifying and dangerous. There was every chance they wouldn’t survive. But Verity refused to allow fear to rule her.
She had to be strong enough for them both if they were to survive this.
She bent down by the child, holding her gaze. “You needn’t be afraid. You’ll be with me, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
Emma frowned. “My mama’s locket is in my coverlet, and I can’t get it out.”
She took note now of the way the child had curled in the bed, holding a tattered blanket that had been crumpled into a ball to her chest.
“I have a locket that is precious to me also,” she said, holding the golden oval hanging from the chain at her throat. Leo had given it to her, and it had never left her neck, not once in the ten years since his death. “We shall bring the coverlet with us, and you won’t lose your mama’s locket.”
“We shall?”
“Yes.” Verity extended her hand. “You hold on to the blanket, and I shall hold on to you. But we must make haste. Everyone else has already made their way out of here. We don’t want to be trapped. Come, now.”
The girl’s tear-stained face cleared, and she nodded, holding the coverlet tightly in one arm whilst reaching for Verity with the other.
Verity gathered the child into her arms and rushed toward the stairs, where more smoke was pouring upward. Emma began to cough and so did she as she painstakingly made her way downthe steps, one at a time, taking care not to trip. She would do neither of them any good if she fell down the stairs and broke her neck.
Little Emma clung to her tightly, rendering her navigation all the more difficult, between the steepness of the stairs and the heat and smoke rising from below. The building protested around then, swaying and shuddering, making her heart leap into her throat.
“Verity!”
A voice rose up to her through the din. Her brother’s voice.
But how would Everett be here?
