“Everyone’s okay though? The hay shed’s not near their house, is it?”

“No, but the smell will be all through it.”

Paula wondered if she could go and help Heather do some cleaning. The smell of burning was bad enough here in her kitchen. It was so strong on Dan when she’d met him at the door that she’d peered at his clothes to make sure he wasn’t smouldering. She’d wanted him to have a shower and get some sleep but he’d refused both, saying he needed to sit for a while. So, here they were, back in the kitchen.

After the men had left to fight the fire, Rowena and Dara had swung into action, making sandwiches and packaging up anything they could scrounge from Paula’s pantry. Rowena had said she’d deliver it and told Jane to take the children home. Dara had given Louise a ride back to town. After they’d all gone, Paula had taken herself off to bed but had slept in snatches until she heard the sound of Dan’s truck returning.

It had been four am when he’d come home. She’d rushed to meet him, desperate for some news. He hadn’t said much, just despaired over their lack of effect at saving the hay.

“Why would someone set fire to a haystack way out of town?” she asked.

Dan turned his bleary eyes to her. “It wasn’t deliberate.”

“Well, fires don’t just start themselves in the middle of the night in the middle of a downpour.”

“They can. Besides, it’d probably started well before the rain and had been smouldering for hours before Bridget noticed it.”

Paula looked at him but didn’t speak. He was picking up the cup of tea and she didn’t want to say anything to distract him from drinking it. He only took one sip then put it down.

“Please drink some more,” she said.

He took one more sip then stared into the cup. “Spontaneous combustion.”

“What’s that?” She stared at the cup he clutched with two hands. He wasn’t making any sense.

“It gets hot in the middle of the bale to such a degree that it starts to burn.”

“How?” Paula’s thoughts went to the hay Dan had recently stacked in their shed.

“Hard to imagine but, if the conditions are right, hay ignites all by itself.”

“But Ted must have had some idea.”

“There are obvious things not to do. Ted baled too soon and probably didn’t let it cure properly. We talked about it at the time but he can be pig-headed sometimes.”

Paula gave a little snort. “Sometimes!”

“Now’s not the time to point the finger. He’s beating himself up about it but sometimes even the experts can’t predict what will cause it; hay self-combusts because of a whole range of factors.”

“What about ours?”