A Sanctuary for Elle (6 page)

When the landslide had hit, Elle had momentarily forgotten the mess her life was
in.  She was adamant that was going to change.  She would get her life in order and start living the life she had been dreaming of for so long.

When Elle had been a teenager she had had wild dreams of an adventurous lifestyle, jet setting around the world
with the rich and famous.  She had developed into a beautiful, young woman and people would comment to her often of her rare and stunning visage.  Elle had been flattered and with her grandmother's encouragement she had pursued the world of modelling.  E
l
le had started small and entered local contests in Wales.  When she came first in every single contest she entered she had soon gained the attention of some modelling reps.  She was soon signed up by an elite modelling agency and her career took off.  Ell
e
began to travel for the modelling she did.  For many years she loved her job, it was exciting and new, she would meet so many people, felt like she was doing something fulfilling and she was travelling the world.  She saw all the countries she had dreame
d
of visiting and became very successful in what she did.

Elle began to lose passion for her job after about ten years.  She began to hate constantly travelling, living out of a suitcase.  She began to wish she could have a house of her own, a home to retur
n to at night.  Friends she did know began to settle, met and married their husbands, began to start having babies, children.  Elle had realised she was jealous.  Jealous of their families, their homes.  She began to tire of the modelling world too.  The
d
emands had become too great.  When she had started it had been exciting, fun often.  Now pressure was placed on her, she needed to be thinner, younger and it was no longer the fun job it had once been.

Elle had pretty much come to the conclusion about wha
t she needed and wanted to do when her grandmother had called.  The phone call had spurred her on to retire early from her agency. She had packed up her things in the apartment she was temporarily staying in and got herself on a plane.  She would go home.
She could go and live with Nen for a bit.  Little did she know that her grandmother didn't have that much time left.  In the time it taken to organise her affairs and fly back to Wales, Elle had lost her grandmother.  She knew then that she should have c
o
me home sooner, wished beyond words that she had made the decision sooner.

The journey began and the driver headed out to the winding roads of North Wales.  Breathtaking scenery was all around her.  To her left the rise and fall of mountains, their tips
touching the clouds.  Beautifully craggy rocks gathered in formation. Winding footpaths, created by years of exploration by climbers and walkers.  The base of the mountains were thick with forest, deep olive green trees which spoke of the mystery within t
h
em.

Through the other window fields and fields of green, sheep in their hundreds grazed.  Open country gave way to a small coastal villages, traditionally welsh in appearance with small white houses and stone dwellings with slate roofs. 

Through and out t
o open country, the roads wound through the mountainous coast roads. Eventually they came to a small town with the sign Pistyll depicting it.  They past a beautiful old chapel to the left and as soon as they past it the view of the sea became clear and do
w
n on the hills she saw it. 'The Sanctuary,' Morfa Nefyn.  Her Grandmother's home, her home once.

Memories came flooding back.  The house stood proudly halfway down the hill facing the sea.  It lay derelict and broken now but Elle remembered it in the glory
days of her childhood when she used to play on the hills surrounding the house and spend hours exploring the huge old house, looking for nooks and crannies to hide in and make stories about.  The driver took the next road left, little more than a gravel
p
ath in fact.  The path headed down to the sea, halfway down two small houses now stood and beyond there a medieval church and graveyard.  Tiny in its appearance and nestled into the ground like it had stood for hundred of years.  Elle made a mental note t
o
find out more about the church.

The path wound around and there it was before her.  Two castle turrets created a gate like opening for its drive.  It gave the place a majestic feeling.  The car climbed the gravel pathway up to the entrance of the house. 
He stopped the car.  Elle climbed out, paid and thanked the driver as he lifted her suitcase out of the boot.  He drove away and Elle allowed herself to take in the wonderful surroundings.

The house lay before looking like a shadow of its previous grandeur
.  She could see crumbling brick and broken windows.  The white columns that had so proudly stood either side of the grand front door were blackened and broken.  The door itself was old.  The handle lay half off, swinging back and forth in the gathering w
i
nd.  The gardens were strewn with weeds and had clearly been left untended for years.  And there, to the side of the door.  There was the plaque.  'The Sanctuary' it said.  The once beautiful sign was on the floor, dirty, brown with age.  Elle picked it u
p
and wiped across with her fingers.  The words lay there, looking up at her.  They challenged her to follow through with her plans, to make 'The Sanctuary' a sanctuary again.  Elle spoke to herself, 'You will be beautiful again.  I will bring you back to
l
ife.'  She tucked the wooden plaque under her arm and started down the gravel path to the little cottage her Grandmother lived in till the end.  It still looked the same, a quaint white bungalow, tended garden and white picket fence. 

This was a quiet, se
rene place.  Only two other houses, side by side and The Sanctuary.  That was all the housing that overlooked the bay.   Originally only the hotel had stood on this plot on the cliff.  As time had passed, her grandmother had grown more affluent and had pl
o
ughed her money into building two houses which stood neighbouring Sanctuary.  She and Elle had moved into one and lived their for many years together in the house.  It gave them more space to live in and an escape from the busy world of the hotel as and w
h
en they needed it. 

The house next door to her Grandmother's was home to Margaret and Keith, a wonderful elderly couple who had lived there for years.  Their own children were grown and gone, they had retired and stayed in the bungalow, looking out for Jo
y in her later years.  As she approached the bungalow, Margaret came out. Elle had been expecting this.  Margaret was a kind, wonderful woman and would surely be concerned about how Elle was doing.  Margaret had also been like an auntie to Elle, had babys
a
t her as a child and had always been present as someone she could turn to.

'Elle, my dear child.  Come here sweetheart.  Keith and I are so sad about Joy.  Your Grandmother was a wonderful woman.'

'It's good to be home.'

'Home?  You set upon staying then?
What about all your jet setting? I thought you were some kind of super model these days.'

Elle chuckled, 'Not exactly Margaret.  To be honest, I'm homesick.  I've travelled all over the world modelling and now all I want to do is settle down.  I don't nee
d to work thankfully and Nen left me a small fortune so I plan to settle here.  Begin rebuilding The Sanctuary.  I hope you won't mind having me for your neighbour.'

'Mind? It will be wonderful! It's been a bit too quiet around here lately. Having you near
by will be a treat and to have 'The Sanctuary' up and running again, well, it'll be like the good old days.'

'I'm glad you agree.' Elle smiled, glad that her neighbours would be supportive.  It would have been hard to go ahead with her plans if they had an
issue with them.

'You may have some competition though.  There has been a lot of interest in developing 'The Sanctuary.' Joy had several people sniffing about looking to 'help' buy it and take it off her hands. Treating her like an old woman, someone they
could diddle a fortune from.'

'I know.  She told me all about it.  The thing is, I own it now. Nen left it to me.  That means they can try as hard as they like.  I'm not budging.  No sale.  Not now, not ever.'

'Good girl.  You tell 'em.  I'm happy you're
back Elle.'

Margaret gave her a quick hug and headed back down the garden path. Elle watched her leave then headed down her garden path.  It really was so picturesque here, the soothing sea air lifting her hair with its gentle breeze.  She looked at the little white
g
ate and beyond to the well maintained garden. She felt a sense of peace gather within her.  She had missed the feeling of having a home.  Travel had its perks and benefits but it was now time for building a home, a nest.  Somewhere she could feel safe and
secure.  No demands and pressure, a life where Elle was the boss, creating the life she had dreamt of.

Modelling had secured her the financial independence to be able to retire early from the career.  She had enjoyed it at times but recently had tired of
the constant demands it entailed.  The travel, the monotony.  She yearned for something more fulfilling.

As she gazed at the quaint little house she felt that special something in the pit of her stomach.  She knew this was the start of something amazing, s
omething life changing.  The times she would have in this house would change the course of her life for the better.  She just knew it.

Elle dragged her wheelie suitcase up the little stone path and fumbled around in her purse for the keys.  They were still
with the paperwork the solicitor had given her with the deeds of the house.  Everything was transferred to Elle upon her Grandmother's death.    Her grandmother's generosity meant that not only was she financially secure, but that she had a home now too.
No huge deposit to find, no mortgage to pay off.  No, she had a beautiful, picturesque home in an idyllic setting and a magnificent hotel which despite being in need of renovation had the most amazing potential imaginable. 

Elle finally located the key a
nd turned it into the lock.  She dragged her suitcase inside, closed the door and turned to look at her grandmother's home.  It was not so much the way everything looked the same that got to Elle first.  No, it was the smell.  Her grandmother's smell, a f
r
agrant smell of roses which was all around her and reminded her heartbreakingly of her loss.

Elle made her way to the sofa.  She sat and then lay down.  She brought her knees up to her chest as the sobs of grief bubbled their way to the surface.  She let
the heartbreak out, crying until she was weak.  As her heaving chest relaxed from sheer exhaustion she let herself go and fell asleep.  She didn't notice the sun going down or the darkness arrive.  Elle slept and slept, the previous days adventures having
caught up with her.  She dreamt of rocks falling, of her grandmother holding her, of hospitals and of a handsome face smiling at her.

When Elle awoke it was morning.  She felt much better having slept for almost ten hours.  Looking around her gaze fell on
her suitcase in the hall.  Resolved she took it upstairs and unpacked it.  She wanted to feel at home even when it didn't quite feel like hers yet, not with all her grandmother's things around her.

What an awful thing to contend with.  When someone dies al
l their possessions are suddenly something to consider.  Elle wondered what she should do with all the clothes, ornaments, knick knacks that her grandma had around the house.  How much to keep?  How much to give away?  The photos she found would be incred
i
bly important to keep.  The stories they told were memories that triggered Elle back to moments in her life when she had been so happy.

It was overwhelming to look at all the items that had congregated to form her grandmother's worldly possessions so Elle
took a shower, cleaned up a little and threw on jeans and a t-shirt.  It felt wonderful to dress down, no make up, no hair styling. It was liberating.  She let her hair fall wet and long down her back and wandered slowly out to the front garden.

The garden
had been well-tended.  Elle's grandmother had been a keen gardener and had enjoyed hours in her garden's, making them pretty and welcoming.  As she walked out she saw some weeds, begging to be obliterated.  Suddenly eager to rid them from her grandmother
'
s beautiful garden, she collected gardening gloves and a trowel and got to work.  She weeded and tidied for a long time, really putting herself into the work, grateful for something to do with her time.  Elle lost herself in the work until a sound interru
p
ted her.  She stood from her hunched position to see what the noise was.  It came from down the gravel path.

Chapter 6

A car crawled up the gravel path, its wheel's crunching noisily and drawing Elle's attention.  It was a sleek powerful sports car and a
s it drew closer Elle had a horrible feeling she knew who it might be.  Not now she thought, inwardly cringing.  She felt unprepared for the confrontation that surely was about to occur and was completely naked faced, covered in dirt, a mess.  He was a go
r
geous man and it hurt her dignity for him to see her like this.