Part 15

Seconds passed like minutes and minutes like hours, as Eliza stood in the overgrown garden, staring at the doorway that William, Phillips, and Moses had disappeared into. The daylight was fading fast and the sky turning from blue to a dusky orange. Behind the house a smoke funnel was appearing like a grey twisting cloud, and the smell of burning was becoming heavier.

Eliza held onto William's watch tightly as if it were saving her own life, as she tried to keep her breathing steady. Johan was clutching her side as he gripped a fist full of her skirt, while Charlie was steadfastly staring at the house. She briefly took her eyes off the door to look down at the top of his head. They had no idea if Mari was inside but didn't matter to him.

She looked back at the door and prayed with all her heart that her friends would emerge quickly, but her heart was sinking with every tick of William's pocket watch. The wind was picking up and rustling the trees, sending shivers down Eliza's spine.

"Come on…. Come on…" she whispered, feeling her grasp on the watch tightening.

Where were they?

The lighting was so dim as William, Phillips and Moses made their way through the house they could barely see anything. They moved through a dilapidated kitchen, the long servant's corridor and made it to the main staircase. Once upon a time, it would have been large and grand, with its tall ceiling and grand wooden staircase with plush carpets and daunting paintings hanging on the walls. Now it was dull, with windows boarded up and only the odd beam of light peeking through, and if they could see they would have noticed a disused and broken chandelier hanging high up from the ceiling, torn wallpaper, cracked walls, and dusty squares where paintings would have once hung.

"Shall we split up?" Moses asked as they stopped and assessed which direction to go.

William tried his best to examine the house and he didn't like the idea of anyone being alone. It was large with likely multiple rooms on each floor and would be impossible to search completely without splitting up, but the smell of burning was a clear sign that there was a fire somewhere and time was of the essence.

He was tempted to call out, but would anyone hear him, or if Stephen and any other men were here, it would just alert them to their presence. At this point did that even matter, he wondered, the main thing was helping anyone here get outside.

"No, we stick together. Where did you see the smoke was coming from?"

"It was a broken window from a lower floor, possibly the basement," Phillips responded.

"Then we stick together and head down here, if the fires on the lower floor if there is anyone upstairs, they should be able to smell the smoke and get out, so hopefully that means anyone here is together where you saw them."

With a last look, he hoped he was right, and headed past the grand stairs to a doorway in the corner behind it and further into the house, with Phillips and Moses following.

They continued quickly behind the stairs and down a long corridor. There were lots of doors, and cautiously they each touched a door to check for heat before opening them. William found on one side of the corridor small rooms full of rails and clothes, but no signs of people. The outfits looked expensive and of good handmade quality. He was certain that Oswald had the missing women making these outfits, the question was, were all these women here or somewhere else?

"Inspector…" Moses called as he opened a door further down.

William hurried towards him, and Phillips too. On the opposite side was a large wide room full of tables with individual sewing machines and small oil lamps along with large tables with patterns and cloth spread out. William made a quick count of space for at least 12 to 14 workers. The room itself was probably once a ballroom with large floor-to-ceiling windows that would have looked out on the old garden, but they had been covered from the outside and instead only let in dim rays of sunbeams. How anyone was able to sew in that light was beyond him.

Before he could comment, there was a sound of breaking glass, followed by screams for help from female voices.

The three men didn't hesitate as they headed down the end of the corridor to where the screams were coming from. It got darker as the hallway was beginning to fill with smoke, and they had to crouch down. They all quickly untied their cravats and covered their mouths, which was likely to only give a slight benefit.

"HELP!" A woman called out, seemingly seeing them through the smoke.

Phillips made out through the fog the doorway with the broken side panel, which from what he could make out had people behind it. He moved towards the door and tugged at it, but it was either stuck or locked.

"Please help!"

"We're here!" Phillips reassured her. "Where is the fire?"

"It's downstairs. It was just meant to heat some water, but stray ash must have caught on some oil and fabrics. It is getting worse!" a woman said through the broken glass. "The door won't open,"

"We're here to help!" Phillips reassured her. "Stay calm."

Smoke was stinging their eyes, so they used their hands to feel for a doorknob and they tried to pull at it. William could only assume it was locked as it barely even shook.

"Are there any other ways out?" William asked.

"It's blocked by the fire…." The woman said with desperation.

Moses crouched and felt with his hands down the door, it had two lower panels that felt thin and with a bit of luck, big enough for the women to crawl through.

"Tell everyone to stand back," Moses told them.

Moses stood and looked towards William, but they could barely see their own hands let alone the look on each other's faces. He touched his arm and directed him backwards, and William moved without hesitation.

Moses braced himself on the door frame, stepped backwards and swung his foot to kick the panel. The first kick made a dent, and he kept going, kicking with all his might.

"It's okay, tell everyone to keep back and remain calm," Phillips reassured the woman, and he touched her hand. He could hear the other women coughing, and they were running out of time.

Moses put all his weight behind his kicks, and finally, with relief, he felt it begin to give. It took a few more strong kicks before it caved and created a gap. Moses attempted to take a breath to recover but instead descended into a cough. William touched his shoulder and then bent himself through the gap.

"You two, lead the women out, I'll keep back and make sure everyone's out," he told Moses and Phillips before he disappeared on the other side of the door.

William kept himself low and helped the women one by one duck down through the broken half of the door, counting them as they moved. The woman who had been speaking to Phillips stayed and helped direct everyone.

"How many women?" William asked her.

"There are about twenty-five of us," she told him with a cough.

"Do you know if anyone is missing?" He'd counted four out, but he couldn't make out how many other women were there.

"I can't tell, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, you've done well! Get yourself to safety with the others."

William continued his mental count of each woman he helped through the doorway and tried his best to keep his breathing light, but he could feel himself struggling in the smoke.

Phillips on the other side was almost sitting as he tried to touch everyone on the shoulder to help direct them forward. He'd made Moses take the lead to get the women to safety.

"All of you keep low to the ground, and follow the person in front," Phillips told them as they moved past him.

"Is there anyone else in the house?" he asked one woman as she passed through.

"The men were taking the goods to the stores; I doubt they would be back…"

"Okay, keep moving," that was a good sign, they wouldn't have to stay much longer.

William wiped some sweat from his brow, as he could feel heat rising from the fire, and the sound of wood cracking was becoming louder. He was feeling light-headed as he continued counting the women, twenty so far, so they were getting to the last of them.

"HELP!" He suddenly heard screaming.

"Who's that?" he asked the last woman.

"It must be Sandra, she was trying to signal for help from the window."

"Keep going, I'll get her." He pushed her through, then poked his head through to Phillips. "I'll be right behind you," he told him before moving back to get the last of the women.

William kept low as he moved down the corridor and then down the stairs that opened to a large basement room that in the light of the flames he could see was where the women were sleeping. Windows had been broken releasing some of the smoke but also giving the flames fuel to burn. The heat was overwhelming, but William kept going.

"Help!" The woman shouted again. She was standing on top of a table in the far corner near a broken window.

William could just make her out in the light of the flames and she appeared to be stuck with the fire burning around her. Knowing what he was about to do was incredibly stupid, he shook off his overcoat and placed it over his head. It would give him limited protection, from the fire, but it might buy him some time. As quickly and carefully as he could he made his way across the room and as near as he could. He was almost in reaching distance, and he could see the woman was immobile with fear, but he needed her to help herself.

"Sandra," he called out remembering her name. "I need you to make your way towards me,"

"The flames are too hot!" she cried back.

William looked around as best he could to see if there was a better path for her to escape, but his options were limited and getting worse by the second.

"I know, but I can't get any closer to you. I need you to jump over onto the bench, move away from the flames to your right, and crawl down, under the table just here in front of me…"

"I'm scared!" she called back.

"I know you are, but there is no other way out of here. I'm with you, trust me."

He held his hand out and waited with sweat dripping down his forehead from the heat of the flames. Sandra didn't take her eyes off him, and with a big push, she did as he instructed and jumped to the bench. William threw his coat towards her, and she managed to grab it

"Take that and wrap it around, that will help with the heat of the flames, okay, you're doing great."

She wrapped it around her head and shoulders and then moved carefully around the flames and then under the table and William crouched to help her. As soon as she reached him, she threw her arms around him, knocking him off balance a little.

"I've got you; you did great. Now let's get out of here!"

He wrapped his coat over Sandra's head and his own, and with an arm around her shoulders, he moved them quickly through the room towards the door to escape. As they moved down the corridor the creaking sound behind them rattled him with concern as it became louder and as they crouched to crawl through the door panel, while a loud bang shook the building.

Eliza's heartbeat was pounding in time with the ticking seconds. Just thirty more seconds and she was blowing that whistle with every fibre of her being. There was no sign of anyone coming out of the door that William, Phillips, and Moses had disappeared through. She had a bad feeling growing in her stomach that she was trying to ignore. The smoke was billowing out of the back of the house. Needing to do something, she took her hand off Johan's shoulder and pulled on the necklace chain that William had given her, freeing it from her shirt. She started nervously rhythmically rubbing the gold E pendant and twisting the chain around her fingers.

As the last of the seconds ticked by, she put the whistle to her lips and took a breath in. The sound of carriage wheels and pulling up stopped her. She turned to see two men on a horse and cart, and one jumping down to unlock the gate.

She froze momentarily as she was almost certain one of them was probably Stephen Oswald. She stayed still until the gates were opened and then she did the only thing she could. Play the damsel in distress card. She moved to crouch down with the boys and quickly made them sit so they wouldn't be seen in the long grass.

"Stay here boy and keep an eye out for them." she moved from his side and started to run towards the cart.

"Help! Help! The house it's on fire," she called out as she moved towards them.

The three men looked at her stunned and confused, while Eliza gave the best damsel in distress performance that she ever had.

"Oh, thank goodness! You need to get help, please!"

"What?" One of them said, confused by her presence.

"There's smoke coming from the building. I saw it from the passageway." The three men looked at her blankly. "The house is on fire, you need to get help," she told them plainly with urgency in her voice.

They didn't look like they trusted her, but they looked past her and indeed could see and smell the smoke from the building. They all took one look and while the youngest one of them looked dutifully concerned, one man who was standing in front of her and a man who was sitting on the cart just looked at her guilty with hesitation to help.

"Please, don't just stand there! We need help," she insisted when it looked like none of them were going to move.

"I'll go get help." The younger of the men said as he turned back, only to be grabbed on the arm by who she thought was Stephen Oswald.

Stephen glared and whispered something to the young lad. He looked angry and it didn't take much for Eliza to realise that he wasn't about to let anyone help them, so she took a step backwards and in an act of pure defiance picked up the whistle from her chest, placed it on her lips and began blowing as hard as she could.

Long. Short. Long. She said as a mantra over and over. Long. Short. Long.

The three men stared at her as they realised what she was doing. They all knew that within seconds someone would hear her and come running.

After a moment of Stephen's face staring at her in dread, he did what she knew he would. He turned and fled in the opposite direction, planning to save his own skin, and it seemed the man in the cart felt the same because he jumped off it quickly and started running for his life after Stephen. It was only the younger man who remained, and he looked towards Eliza resolute that he was there to help.

"You need to take your cart and get help and water, as quick as you can," she told him.

"Yes mam," he nodded and jumped up into the cart. As he started to move, Eliza resumed her blows. Long, short, long, and prayed that someone would hear her quickly.

Within a minute or two of Eliza's whistleblowing a constable had come running under the arch and down the passageway towards her at full pelt.

"This house is on fire. We need help now! We believe there are women stuck inside, and three officers from Scotland Yard have entered to try and help. I've not seen anyone come out," Eliza said urgently to the constable. He nodded his understanding, and he turned back on himself ran back up the passageway, and Eliza picked up her skirt and rushed back towards Charlie and Johan.

When she reached them, she noticed neither had moved from their spot and there were still looking at the house. There was no sign of anyone leaving the building while she'd been gone and her heart dropped. With help alerted, Eliza had nothing to keep her mind off the fact her friends were still inside, and fear was overcoming her. It had been too long. There was no way they could be okay in all that smoke.

Her eyes focused on that door only as Charlie threw his arms around her and buried his head into her stomach while Johan stared helplessly at the house. The longer the men didn't come out the worse she believed the situation inside the house, and it wasn't lost on the boys.

Tears pricked in Eliza's eyes, as she tried to hold everything together, if not for herself, but for Charlie and Johan. The world seemed still for an infinite amount of time, as the only movement was the grass in the wind and smoke filling the sky.

It felt like an age until the side door suddenly swung, and Eliza almost burst into tears of relief as Moses stumbled out and almost instantly doubled over choking as he stumbled away from the building, but he was followed by a string of women. She heard him yell at them to keep moving away from her house, taking care of them despite his state. One of them regardless of her ordeal put her arm around him, looked at him softly and helped him move away.

Woman after woman ran out of the house, and finally, Eliza and the boys moved towards them, calling them for them to keep moving towards them. They watched as each woman escaped safely. Johan, despite his age, sprang into action running towards them and following the lead of Moses began talking and helping the women.

"Mum!" Charlie called out. He sprinted from Eliza's side and made his way towards a woman before Eliza could stop him. The woman, whom Eliza assumed was Mari, dropped to her knees as she made it to the grass and Charlie fell into her arms, burying his head into her shoulders.

Eliza's relief was doubled when she saw Phillips running out the door, his arms wrapped around another woman's shoulders. She seemed to see Eliza and he nodded and ran with her toward her. She looked around and noted everyone coughing and covered in dirt and ash as they laid out on the grass like half-dead bodies and relief was flooding her.

Finally, she moved to Moses who was standing with the aid of a young woman, and Phillips came to a stop with them. He sat the woman he was holding on the ground, before doubling over to catch his breath. He smiled at Moses, and the pair chuckled before they patted hands in victory in a scene that days ago, she would never have believed given Moses' indifference to him.

Eliza watched with a smile, but her relief was short-lived as she looked towards the door and realised someone was missing.

"Where's William?' She asked quickly, looking from the door to Phillips and back again.

Phillips and Moses shared a look of concern before they looked towards the door.

"He said was right behind me…" Phillips said breathlessly in disbelief. "He was right there when I got the last woman," he coughed.

"So where is he?" Eliza asked in terror.

Phillips looked at her blankly because he had no idea. There was no reason he knew of that meant William wouldn't have followed him out.

Eliza went to step forward but both Phillips and Moses stepped to grab her around the waist to stop her. Just as they caught her an almighty sound of a crumbing building rumbled in the air and vibrated the very ground they were standing on.

Fear rushed through each of them, as they looked towards the house, and as the noise quietened the only sound that remained in the air was a female voice screaming.

"WILLIAM!"

To be continued…..