A pall of billowing smoke rolled across the vineyard, blanketing the hillside in a thick, grey cloud. Orange flames licked up the vines near the woods, creeping from one to the next as they watched. Flames were visible in the woods too, flaring and dancing in the muggy late afternoon air, the air above warped and billowing out of shape from the heat. Everything down there – everything for miles around – was bone dry after weeks of unbroken summer sunshine. Everything was ready to burn.

Rowan moved first.

‘Oh my God!’ There was panic in her voice. ‘The children are down there! All of them!’

She ran headlong down the stone steps, taking them two at a time, with Izzy and I following close behind. Running through the wrought-iron gate out into the vineyard we almost bowled into Alistair coming back up the other way. He was red-faced and out of breath, cradling his left arm in his right as if protecting an injury.

‘Got to get my phone,’ he said, scrambling sideways. ‘Call the pompiers.’

‘Are you OK?’ Izzy shouted back at him.

He waved a dismissive hand and stumbled on towards the villa.

We rushed through the gate and into the vineyard, Izzy in front, then me, with Rowan at my shoulder. Her panicked voice was right behind me as we pounded down the hill towards the flames.

‘Odette!’ she shouted. ‘Odette! I’m coming!’

I couldn’t see anyone. Any of the children, or the men, for that matter. All I could see was smoke, thick grey smoke rising up from the bottom of the vineyard and in the woods too, tongues of orange flame licking at the trees and the row of vines nearest to the woods. Something stuck in my head about the sight but there was no time to process it, no space in my head for anything except Daniel and Lucy.

We ran on, tendrils of drifting smoke reaching for us, trying to choke us. My breath rasped loud in my ears and at some point I lost my flip-flops, flying off my feet as we sprinted towards the woods. The stony ground cut into my feet but I barely noticed.

As we approached the treeline, Izzy shouted over her shoulder, ‘I’ll find Jen.’

She veered off left into the woods.

I went right, cutting across the rows of vines towards the path that wound through the trees, shouting as I went.

‘Daniel! Lucy!’ I waved a hand in front of me, swatting at the sheets of smoke. ‘Where are you?’

No answer.