Lone Pine Bride (The Brides of Lone Pine #1)(13)

“I think I’d like to go to the vicarage,” Jasmine said. “God is more likely to be there.”

“God is with us wherever we are,” Hannah said, standing. She lifted her spade and started to walk towards the next house. What would they find there, she thought. More trapped people and would anyone have died? So far there were no deaths, as far as she knew, but the couple of double storey houses she had seen would be worse unless the people were upstairs at the time.

Seth ran after her. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the Reverend’s house?” he asked.

She frowned as she looked at him. “Why would I want to do that?” she said.

“The other ladies are going and there are a lot of men here now.”

“I don’t want to go,” she said. “Have many gone to see how things are in Lone Pine?”

“I just spoke to Rex. It’s very bad there, he said, but all the men have gone from Lower Pine and a few from here. Also the men in Lone Pine who are not affected are helping. Probably many of their houses have fallen but a lot of them work outside the town.”

“We have to keep doing what we can,” Hannah said. “And we have to get everybody out quickly because it’s terrifying for them.”

They worked down the houses systematically while the other men did the same in different directions. Seth wrote names as they went along and Hannah could see Rex also doing it further along the village where he was working.

It was a long and laborious task and the time seemed to pass slowly. It was hot. The work was slow. There were quite a few injuries. Reverend Barnsley kept coming back to the village and taking people to Lower Pine. The ladies in the houses there, he said, were taking in families and said they would keep them until somewhere could be found for them to stay or they could rebuild. He was now going to Lone Pine to collect some more people because only a couple of houses had survived. Those who were able had taken people to the surgery but they would need food which he was taking to them.

He was wonderful, Hannah thought, and so were the others in Lower Pine. So was Mrs. Barnsley because she was taking everyone in and organising who would go where, the Reverend had said. Would that happen where she came from because it was a big place and people wouldn’t know one another as well as they appeared to here?

She bent over the house where she was working, her eyes half on the men who worked on the other side of the road. They were attaching large pieces of wall to the horses and getting them to pull them away, moving on and doing the same to all the houses. It made things a bit easier though the final clearing had to be done by hand.

There was a faint cry from below which was more than worrying. It sounded as if whoever was there was deeper than most of them had been. Hannah turned to look at Seth as he knelt beside her.

“Did this house have two storeys?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. By the size of the rubble I think maybe it did.” He beckoned Rex. “Can you get the horses to haul off a lot of this rubble?” he asked.

“Yes, of course.”

Hannah stood back while they did it though every couple of minutes she asked them to stop in order for her to call down. Each time the voice below became clearer, much to her relief. But she had no details as to the person’s welfare and maybe there was more than one. The pile of rubble slowly decreased until they reached ground level.

“We’re in the cellar.” A voice came from below.

“Only one person lives here,” Rex said. “He must have visitors.”

A lady, they were to find, who came out with her face covered. The man put his arm round her protectively and both were covered in dust.

“I want to go to the vicarage in Lower Pine,” he said. “Can the Reverend take us? Is he anywhere around?”

“He’s just come into the village,” Hannah replied, looking down the road. She took the woman’s hand for an instant. “I’m pleased to meet you. My name is Hannah.”

The woman nodded, walked towards the Reverend’s wagon and the man followed her. “We want to get married,” he said, turning back for an instant. “It was my fault that we didn’t before.”

“Well, if it took an earthquake,” Seth muttered.

“Pardon?” Hannah asked.

“Just a joke.” He moved towards the next house, obviously a bit embarrassed, and Hannah followed him. She wasn’t as naive as he might think, she thought, and she could only be pleased for the woman. She was relieved when Rex said that the occupants had been accounted for.

But as she went to move on she heard a faint sound and fell on her knees to listen. It was a meow and there was a cat in there. She beckoned to Seth.

“There’s a cat,” she said.

Now he was going to say they couldn’t waste their time on an animal and she was all ready with a reply. Of course animals were important. How could anyone think they weren’t? Nobody had a right to dismiss them and she wasn’t leaving until they could get it out.

Seth knelt beside her once again, in the way he had many times. She looked at him briefly. He really was good looking but he hadn’t a right to dismiss animals. He began to remove rubble, his face screwed in concentration.

“The poor little thing must be terrified,” he said.

“Yes.” And she had got it totally wrong and felt resultantly guilty. He did care and he was a nice man. He was obviously caring for both people and animals and he had proved himself over and over again where people were concerned. She circled the remains of the house and found a window which hadn’t totally collapsed. As she went to call through it a furry little head appeared.