Here’s the excerpt
These final paragraphs from the end of Chapter Two show main character Emma trying to escape a burning building and she’s made it to the flat roof. It’s 1911 and firemen have placed a wooden ladder across from the neighbouring building. She is thinking of her dead twin brother as she contemplates her own likely demise. This plot point was inspired by the true story of one woman’s survival from the real Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York in March 1911…
Emma focused on the fireman’s face, beaded with adrenalin, kind yet full of urgency for her to succeed. She searched for strength in arms which raged with pain.
‘Keep looking at me. Slowly does it…’
Her breathing faltered and she shuddered. The wooden rungs gave a little and bounced when she moved. Her thighs started to wobble and she felt lightheaded.
‘Not far now, keep coming.’
The fireman’s hand was reaching out to her.
‘You’re nearly halfway, good girl.’
She focused on the soot-smudged fingers and inched herself closer. Clouds of smoke closed in, wrapping their warmth around her, not wanting to let her escape. Snapping and crackling behind found her digging deep for a final effort John would have been proud of.
‘Don’t look back. I’ve nearly got you.’
She saw the fireman’s sooty hands, the sweat on his own face, felt her lungs pulling life from the tiny breaths she was taking. It hurt, and she thought about giving up and letting her body fall.
‘Hey!’
She gritted her teeth and pulled her aching body once more along the ladder. When he could finally reach her, the fireman pulled her from the lifeline and wrapped her in a blanket, supporting her body when she collapsed. She turned in time to see the flames crackle towards them and watched the ladder as it fell away like a box of lit matches.
A few minutes later, she was led out of the building and onto the street. Her left arm had blistered, little weeping domes of red flesh. The slash on her right wrist where she’d forced her hand through the door had stopped bleeding, but splinters stuck out at crude angles, embedded in muscle. The pain was pulling her towards death, of that she was sure.
The policeman steered her past bodies, charred limbs twisted.
‘Oh, my God… I saw these people jump.’ Emma covered her mouth with her hand.
‘Don’t look.’ He was taking her to where the horse-drawn ambulances were queuing across the end of the alley, waiting to take the injured to hospital. ‘Poor things jumped, but some are from the fire escape.’
Emma stopped walking. ‘The fire escape?’
‘That mangled mess.’ He pointed to a skeleton of bent and twisted metal. Torn fabric pieces hung from spikes of broken steel. ‘It broke under the weight of too many people.’
Physicians and nurses were busy covering bodies with blankets as police tried to keep the crowds back. The cries and sobbing which filled the air were testament to the unfolding horror. Emma scanned the walking wounded, praying.
Then she stopped.
Strands of hair stuck to her face and she had to drag it away from her eyes three times before she could be sure that the skirt was that of Martina. It lay in ripples across unmoving legs, one of which no longer had a foot. Use the window! Emma had told her, convinced it was the safest route out of the fire.
They had a lifetime of shared memories yet to make: the vote to win, husbands to find, children to bring into the world.
How could this be the truth?
Emma slumped to her knees, but the policeman pulled her back to her feet. Even the nurse’s kind attentions could not console her or stop the howling sobs. Life wasn’t life without Martina in it. Her presence had made the loss of John more bearable – she couldn’t possibly have lost her too.
Here’s the blurb
It’s 1911 and, against her mother’s wishes, quiet New Yorker Emma dreams of winning the right to vote. She is sent away by her parents in the hope distance will curb her desire to be involved with the growing suffrage movement and told to spend time learning about where her grandparents came from.
Across the Atlantic – Queenstown, southern Ireland – hotelier Thomas dreams of being loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice’s father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It’s been eight years. But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don’t include the fight for equality or her dull husband.
Emma’s arrival in Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma’s path to suffrage was never meant to lead to a forbidden love affair…
Purchase Links
Publisher’s link: https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/book/486/maid-of-steel-SMwd/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/191535269X/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/191535269X/
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/maid-of-steel/kate-baker/9781915352699
Meet the author
Maid of Steel is Kate’s first full length novel to be published. She also writes short stories and is presently drafting a second novel.
She writes at a desk covered in to-do lists and lights candles in the hope the lists disappear in the shadows.
She lives in East Anglia in the UK with her husband where they attempt to look after farmland for generations to come.
A small, very small, dog can be frequently found on Kate’s lap. Otis is her first miniature dachshund.
Connect with the author
https://twitter.com/katefbaker
https://www.instagram.com/KateFrancesWrites
https://www.facebook.com/KateBakerAuthor
Giveaway to Win a signed copy of Maid of Steel, candle and lipsil (Open to UK Only)
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MJ Porter 