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Nat. Please help us?”
    “Calm down, Jean, we’ll take you to the hospital now…” said Esme.
    “No, Esme,” shouted Nat. “No, we can’t spare the time; we have to get you to safety.” He looked across at Jean and asked, “Can he walk?”
    “No, Nat. I think they broke his leg or his ankle or something, but his ribs are damaged too and look at his face...he needs a doctor!”
    “Ok, turn round, Nat,” Esme butted in. “Take me back to the house with Bob and Jean; I’ll patch him up and take him into hospital in Newcastle. I’ll leave them there and make sure I’m back for you in a couple of hours. Go on, we’ll be OK. Otherwise, Stuart will be waiting; you can’t get hold of him now - he will have left. Go, Nat! Get Amber to safety.”
    Nat looked at the old couple, and, while he cared for them, he didn’t want to leave his wife. Esme pounced on his hesitation, exclaiming,
    “Come on, Nat! We haven’t got time for this! I won’t leave these people.”
    Nat bowed to the pressure from his wife, his mind chaos.
    “Ok, Jean, go on up to the house, I’m turning round.”
    He spun the wheel and turned in one motion, riding onto the grassy verge at the side of the road. The wheels tore up the sodden ground, but the heavy tires found traction and the Jeep began to move with a lolloping action.
    At the house, they made Bob and Jean comfortable in the kitchen, Amber remained in the Jeep, and Nat stood next to the open driver’s door as it idled. Esme approached him to see him off, and her beauty gripped his heart like a vice. His head was a mess, and he did not know what to do for the best, but his wife had serenity, a confidence that reassured him.                                                
    “Get her to safety, Nat; that’s the most important thing. We’ll be out of the house for most of the time you’re away anyway. You’ll only be a couple of hours.”
    Nat saw the flash of fear in those beautiful green eyes, and he gripped her shoulders.
    “They come back, you take this.” He held up a lighter. “And, you light that fuse poking out of the floorboards in the hallway. Then you get out of there, head up the hill to our place and wait for me there. Do it, Esme, with or without Bob and Jean. You stay safe, woman.”
    “Don’t be soft, Nat. I won’t need that.”
    “Take it anyway.”
    Nat had one foot in the idling jeep; he turned with one large hand on the door.
    “You use it, Esme, if you need to.”
    Reluctantly, she put the lighter in her pocket and moved in close to Nat; she hugged him tight and kissed him hard on the mouth.
    “I love you, Nat.”
    “Don’t worry. You stay safe, and I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
    He climbed into the Jeep fully and closed the door behind him; the window was open from earlier, and Esme approached it and put her hands on the frame. Nat took her hand and squeezed it looking at her face. It was taut with stress, glimmering in the dull light; he had nothing more to say, he didn’t have any answers or any time to think this through. He just had to go and get back as soon as he could. He attempted a smile and released her hand. She stepped back, and then she saw Amber in the back and was overwhelmed by love once again; she pulled open the heavy door and grabbed the young woman's face in both hands.
    “You listen to your Dad and Stuart, do whatever they say…ok?”
    Amber nodded.
    They both smiled, and Esme kissed her daughter’s face over and over again. Then reluctantly allowing her hands to slip away from her daughter’s cheeks, she closed the door and took a few paces backwards with tears welling in her eyes.
    Nat’s battered old jaw formed as near a smile as it was ever going to manage and with a nod he slammed his foot on the accelerator. The village of Great Whittington was quiet as he passed through. A little too quiet for this time of night.
    There was an eerie orange glow in the middle