A Girl's Guide to Gilbert Blythe ~ G.B

Chapter Three

The sound of the fire bell ringing had woken Evelyn from her slumber. Her feet padded over to her bedroom window where she rubbed her groggy eyes. Once her vision had focused she caught the flickers of brilliant red and orange flames as they danced in the distance, illuminating the house she knew to belong to Ruby Gillis. With a surprised yelp, she moved into action, sprinting to Nathaniel's room first for she was sure he'd know exactly what to do.

"Nate!" She cried, shaking her brother awake. "Nate, there's a fire! There's a fire at the Gillis'! We must go and help them." The eldest Price woke with a start, his eyes snapping open to see his sister's panicked state. 

"Fetch every bucket you can find whilst I wake Harry, but be quick. There's no time to lose." He ordered, catching sight of the monstrous flames as he hurriedly pulled a pair of socks onto his feet. He shoved his arms into the sleeves of the jacket he'd draped over the chair in the corner of his room, running to wake his brother. 

Evelyn bounded down the stairs at an almost inhuman speed, her short legs nimble and allowing her ease of movement. She reached the stack of buckets in their cellar in record time, immediately clambering to grab as many as her small frame would allow. By the time she'd made her final trip up the cellar steps with the last few buckets in her grip, her brothers were downstairs hastily putting on their boots. 

"Put on your coat and boots, Evie. Harry will ride ahead to lend a hand and you and I will sort the buckets. Quick now, come on." Nate delegated, his large hands picking up double the amount of buckets Evelyn did. Harry had already ridden off on his horse in the direction of the Gillis' by the time Nate and Evelyn had started filling the buckets with water. Within ten minutes, the two siblings had all of the buckets filled and covered in the back of their cart as they headed off to the site of the fire, willing the horses to move as quickly as the cart would allow. 

"Keep those buckets comin'! Keep them movin'. Pass these down the line! Hurry, hurry! We need more buckets!" A man shouted from somewhere amongst the chaos. Evelyn couldn't stop the gasp that slipped out at the destruction the fire had already caused. It was absolute mayhem. Bystanders of women and children alike watched the fire in horror as the flames consumed the building. All of the men that were able to were lending a hand, with some operating the hose, and others throwing buckets of water at the ruthless flames. Amongst the madness, Evelyn could make out Gilbert three-quarters of the way up a ladder and dangerously close to the flames. Her hand flew to her mouth, whimpering as the fire drew closer to him. 

"Hurry! Hurry!" A voice ordered, and Evelyn recognised it as belonging to her youngest brother. His skin was slick with sweat from the heat of the fire, and his clothes stained with mud so much so that it was clear he'd slipped in the mud. "Get the horses out of here!" It was then that he clocked his siblings had arrived and he motioned for them to bring the buckets. 

As Nate and several other men grabbed the buckets from their cart, Evelyn ran to where Diana and Anne stood, hugging the two girls who shook in fright. She'd barely registered that she was seeing Anne for the first time in a while, far too burdened with worry. "It's burning so fierce. Is everyone out of the house?"

"Yeah," Diana nodded, pointing a little way over to where Ruby stood, her cheeks streaked with the tears she'd cried. It must have been so awful to lose every belonging you held most dear. Evelyn couldn't imagine it. "The Gillis family is over there. You see Ruby?"

"Why are the doors and windows open?" Evelyn asked, recalling what her mother had once taught a younger version of herself about fire when she'd been a little too rambunctious around an open flame of a candle, causing it to set fire to the table cloth. To put out a fire, you need to cut off its access to oxygen. The doors inside Ruby's house being open was only fuelling the fire. The only way to stop it was to decrease the oxygen flow into the house.