Jack Harte’s death follows a warehouse fire at the Fairley mill, where he was badly burned while saving Edwin Fairley from a falling bale. The account reaches Emma Harte only after the event, through Frank Harte and Winston Harte, and its revelation transforms her grief into fury: her father’s final act of courage was to save one of the family she despised.

The fire and Jack’s injuries

The fire happened on the Saturday after Emma had left. Frank explains that he and Jack had been working at the mill when Jack was burned across his back, shoulders, and legs. Dr Mac described the burns as third degree; Jack had also inhaled a great deal of smoke. Frank recounts the injuries and the care Jack received, including the attention of Adam Fairley, Dr Mac and his wife, and the doctors at the valley hospital. The family’s account establishes both the severity of the injuries and the attention given to him, without suggesting that medical care could reverse their course.

The fire was not in the mill building itself, but in the big warehouse. Jack had been crossing the yard when he saw flames raging there. Edwin was struggling to open the warehouse door and had gone inside. Jack followed, warning him of the danger. A blazing bale fell from the gantry near Edwin; Jack threw himself over him, taking the impact and shielding him. The Squire later described the rescue as an act of selfless courage. The cause of the fire is not specified in the account: the decisive action within it is Jack’s choice to put himself between Edwin and the falling bale.

Jack’s last words and death

Frank and Winston had visited their father every day after the accident, travelling in the Squire’s carriage. On the Wednesday, Jack still seemed to be getting no better. Lily urged him to make an effort, warning that otherwise he would be where Elizabeth was, in the cemetery. Jack answered, “I wish I was with Elizabeth, Lily.” His words make plain the depth of his bereavement, which had continued after his wife’s death.

Before Frank and Winston left, Jack gave each son a final charge. He told Frank, “Goodbye, Frankie. Always be a good lad.” To Winston, he entrusted the younger children: they were to look after one another and stick together. He also asked that, when Emma returned from Bradford, she pick a sprig of heather for him and Elizabeth at the Top of the World and keep it as a remembrance. His hands were burned and bandaged, so he could not take Winston’s hand; instead, Winston bent down to receive his kiss. Jack said, “I love thee all, Winston. But I love Elizabeth the best and I can’t live without her.”

The doctor then asked the children to leave. On the journey back to Fairley, Lily told them that Jack would die of a broken heart, not his burns, because he had never stopped grieving for Elizabeth. He died peacefully in his sleep that same night. The story does not establish that grief alone caused his death; it presents Lily’s interpretation alongside the grave physical injuries Frank has described. To Winston, Jack’s apparent happiness and bright look before they parted made the death seem, in retrospect, almost chosen: he had said he would be with Elizabeth.

The news reaches Emma

Emma learns what happened from Frank, who tells her about the fire and the injuries, while Winston supplies the details of their father’s last visit. Their account also explains why Emma had not been there. She had gone to Bradford; Jack knew she had not returned, but, Winston says, was not upset. He had told his son that he did not need to see her because she was “locked in his heart for ever.” Emma responds with a question about whether any other men died. Frank reassures her that he was unharmed, a few men had minor burns, and Jack was the only person who died.

The delayed telling makes the news a second ordeal: Emma must imagine her father’s pain and then confront the circumstances of his death. She grieves that she was absent when he needed her, wondering whether she should have waited a few more days. Yet Winston’s account gives her a measure of reassurance: Jack understood where she was, did not blame her, and held her close in memory. His request for heather also gives his children a concrete act of remembrance to carry forward.

The rescue and its aftermath

The decisive revelation is that Jack died saving Edwin Fairley. Emma reacts not with gratitude for Edwin’s survival but with shock and anger that her father had sacrificed himself for a Fairley. She repeats the fact in disbelief, then turns it into an accusation against the Squire, Gerald Fairley, and Edwin, insisting that none of them would have risked their lives in return. Her brothers stare at her; Frank draws away, and Winston tries to answer that anyone might have done the same. Emma rejects that reassurance and erupts into rage.

The rescue thus holds two meanings that the scene refuses to reconcile. It is an act of courage that preserves Edwin’s life, and it is the death of Emma’s father in the service of a family she regards as her enemy. Jack’s action does not resolve the Harte–Fairley hostility; for Emma, it intensifies its injustice. The warehouse fire is therefore both a family bereavement and a turning point in how she understands the feud: her father’s generosity toward Edwin becomes inseparable from her sense of the sacrifice imposed on the Hartes.