All he wanted was his own bed, he thought, and suddenly he wanted it very, very much. Shock was starting to hit home, and he had to clench his hands into fists to stop Rob seeing the sudden tremor that ran through him.

But Rob wasn’t noticing. His mind had moved on.

‘What can we do with the kids?’ The police sergeant was still beside Matt, but he was speaking to Erin. The doctor and the ambulance officers were attending the children.

With immediate health fears eased, it was time to concentrate on the next problem, which seemed, Matt gathered, to be accommodation for Erin and the children.

Erin was tightening her lips, thinking it through. Or, she was trying to think it through. She looked like her mind felt full of smoke.

‘I don’t know,’ she managed, and then she looked up as someone else darted through the jumble of fire-hoses and fire-fighters. Her strained face slackened in relief. ‘Wendy…’

Wendy was an ex-House Mother, now happily married and immersed in domesticity. She was followed by her husband, Luke. Luke strolled languidly through the chaos, lifted a trembling Michael into his arms almost as an aside-marriage to Wendy meant that Luke and the Orphanage kids had met each other heaps of times before-and he hugged the little boy close.

‘Hey, Michael. Been having some excitement, then? Wow! It’s great that you’re all okay. And this is a great fire engine.’

Then he looked down at Matt in admiring amusement. ‘And here’s our Matthew out for the count. Been playing heroes, have we, kids?’

‘Shut up, Luke.’ But Matt grinned. It suddenly did feel good. Heroic even. The feel of those four little hands clutching his arms from under the bed came sweeping back, and he knew where they’d be now without him…

His grin faded and the tremors swept back. He’d been lucky to get them-and himself-out alive.