Feeling dead to her core, Suzie allowed herself to be propelled into the shelter. The warden, a different one from the man who had tried to bring her into the shelter before, shook his head in disbelief. ‘You’re damned lucky to be alive! You can’t afford to dilly-dally when there’s a raid on …’ He fell into silence under Mrs Johnson’s warning gaze. Realising that something was terribly wrong, he changed his tune. ‘Go to the back of the shelter and see if you can’t get your head down for a bit, it’s quieter down that end.’

Suzie did as she was told, a multitude of thoughts running through her mind. Perhaps her father had had second thoughts and gone back for her grandmother after all, but even if he had, he’d never have had time to get her down the steps before the bomb fell. This in turn led her to another thought. If he had gone back, then Suzie hadn’t just lost her grandmother, but her father as well. She sat down on one of the benches and curled up into a tight ball. Tears trickled down the side of her nose and she wondered how she would cope on her own. For the first time since Roz’s departure, she thought of the other girl. If Roz hadn’t been so deceitful, she would still be living with them, and Callum would’ve made Roz guard the jewellery and not his mother. Roz didn’t have any parents or siblings, so had nothing to lose. Her tears drying, her thoughts turned to revenge. She hoped with all her might that Roz would never find her parents, and that Felix would leave her, because as far as Suzie was concerned Roz didn’t deserve to live happily ever after.

Callum had seen the flames reach into the sky from the house he had been searching. His jaw dropped as the enormity of his actions sank in. No one could survive a fire like that. His mother was now gone and all because of his temper … He swallowed hard. Just like his wife … Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked towards the shelter where Suzie was sitting, safe. At least he had got her out before the bomb hit. Another thought entered his head – his treasure. He wondered if he would be able to retrieve it, because if he didn’t, it would be found in time, and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the police would be able to trace many of the belongings back to the victims of the bombings, and no one in their right mind would believe that Lilith, an old lady, unable to make it down the stairs to the shelter, would be capable of looting bombed-out buildings. He grimaced. He would have to go back there at first light to see what he could salvage, because if they found the belongings of the person he had left to die, they would soon put two and two together.