Forever Scarred (14 page)

“Joe?” She asked in a wondering voice.

Joe came to his senses at last and took her other hand into his then he twisted her gently until she was turned around on the rock. He slowly placed her hands on his shoulders as he took a step down. He kept eye contact with her all the way as he stepped backwards and at last they reached the bottom of the ravine. He immediately pulled Lucy into his chest and cradled her there while she wept tears of relief.

He had been ignoring the buzzing of his phone in his pocket for several minutes but now he snatched it out quickly without letting Lucy go.
He kept her held tight to his chest with one arm while he murmured into the phone.

“I have her, yes stuck on the steps. She’s b
een there hours and she’s in shock. I’m going to take her to my cabin. I can give her some tea and check that she’s not injured. I’ll call you back…no, don’t worry about coming down. I’m sure she’ll be fine in a while. She just needs some hot fluids and plenty of sugar. You stay there and entertain the guests. Keep Geraldine and Robbie company. We’ll be fine down here. In fact it’s probably best if we stay here for a while. If I see either that Freeman or that idiot Jessica I will probably strangle them.”

He put the phone back into his pocket and lifted Lucy into his arms. It wasn’t far to his cabin. He shouldered through the door and immediately walked through to the small bedroom at the side. There was just about room for the double bed and he imm
ediately pulled back the covers, tugged off her trainers and slid the trembling Lucy between the sheets. He tried to pull himself away from her so that he could go and make tea, but she clung on to his neck tightly and he ended up lying on the bed with her. 

“Don’t go.” She
whispered, her lips hot against his neck. “I just want to feel safe.”

Her sweet breath against his skin had his heart pounding inside his ribs. It came to the point where it was almost painful. He nudged her arm and spoke into her soft hair.

“Let me make you some tea Lucy. You’ve been up there hours. You need something to drink. And we need to bathe your hands too.”

She sighed into his neck an
d her arms slipped from him at last.

“Okay, if you insist. I confess that I am a little thirsty.”

Joe slipped back out of the warmth of the bed and tucked the big duvet in around her. He walked into his kitchen and ran water into the kettle before he took out a small first aid kit from the cupboard. He walked back to the bedroom and tended to her bleeding fingers. They didn’t look nearly so bad once they had been cleaned up. He cut one or two of the nails where she had scraped them ragged and dabbed some antiseptic ointment over her skinned knuckles, then he walked back out to the kitchen and took a look in the fridge. He was relieved to see that he had some milk. He quickly made mugs of tea and took them through to Lucy who lay in the bed staring up at the wooden ceiling.

She struggled to sit up against the pillows and Joe put the tea down on the bedside cabinet and lifted her against the headboard, plumping the pillows behind her back before he let her go again.

She glanced up at him shyly.

“I am so sorry to cause all this fuss. I thought I was going to be there all night.”

Joe took a big slurp of his own tea as he swung his legs up on the bed and settled in beside her.

“Why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped you. If you had only let me know how you felt I would have worked something out. We wouldn’t have made you do the zip wire if you were truly that scared.” He gazed down at her
tear stained face, wanting to kill Freeman and Jessica as Lucy snuggled in beside him.

Lucy
gave an involuntary shiver then she shrugged, took a quick gulp of the hot sweet tea and spoke quietly.

“Phobias don’
t make people rational Joe. I was simply petrified. I can’t explain it because it’s doesn’t happen in situations you might expect. I can be in an airplane and thirty thousand feet high but that’s fine. I can be on the ferry looking down into the water from behind the rail and that’s fine too. I know because I did it on my way over here. But I can’t walk across the Millennium Bridge in London and I can’t stand on the pier at Southend On Sea. I can see the water moving beneath me through the slats of planking. It maybe only ten feet beneath me, and even knowing that I can swim, I will be in a blind funk about falling off the damn thing. I’m fine on an escalator in the shopping centre but not when I was trying to get to the top of the Eifel Tower or standing six feet above the river on the canal and before you ask about the leaping across the river on the rope swing this morning, that was fine because I felt safe hanging onto the rope. I don’t know what triggers it. It wasn’t the zip wire that made me chicken out this afternoon. It was the drop from the edge over the ravine.”

Joe sat quietly, listening to her reason things out
and then he answered as she sipped at her tea.

“Well, it’s not rational to be afraid of spiders either but loads of people are. One of my mates actually called out the fire brigade once. There was a big hairy one sitting on the door frame to his bedroom and he
couldn’t walk past the thing. When the fire brigade told him they would fine him for wasting their time he ended up calling me to come and get it out. He said if he left it and it wandered off, he wouldn’t know where it was in the house. Reckoned he’d never sleep again. It never occurred to him that he probably had twenty others in the house already but just hadn’t spotted them.”

Lucy gave a nervous chuckle.
The hot tea was making her feel a lot better really quickly.

“The fire brigade?
Really?”

Joe nodded
and smiled slyly.

“You can imagine what they said. Especially when
they asked his name and he answered Major Marcus Tennant. He was so angry when they wouldn’t come out and rescue him. Of course I never told a soul back at barracks. He’s as big as Patrick but his nickname is now Incy!”

Lucy nearly spluttered her tea as she laughed out loud at Joe’s innocent expression.

“You sod! I bet he loves you for that.”

Joe smiled down at her and finished his tea.

“I’m going to look for something for us to eat. There’s a trout I caught early this morning if you fancy that, or I can get something out of the freezer if you would prefer something else.”

Lucy suddenly looked embarrassed.

“I don’t want to put you to any more trouble Joe. I can survive until I get back to the chateau.”

Joe laughed.

“It’s nothing to do with you believe me. Ellen went into labour this afternoon. Geraldine and David are cooking with the help of Vanessa who is actually the chambermaid and not on very good terms with anything in the kitchen except the washing machine. Now Geraldine is an okay cook normally but she’s a bit irrational what with being in the early stages of pregnancy and not liking smells or anything at the moment and David wouldn’t know how to fry an egg. As I am starving and you must be as well, due to not eating any lunch, I am going to cook something. I’ll put the trout on the barbeque. It’ll be delicious.” He pushed himself out of the bed and slipped his boots back on.

Lucy immediately slid to the side of the bed after him.

“What do you mean, Ellen went into labour. It’s too early surely?” She pushed her own feet back into her trainers.

Joe stood and held her arm to make sure she was steady
before she stood up.

“I don
’t know exactly what happened. Geraldine came and told us as we finished the zip wire runs. After we discovered you were missing and I didn’t bother finding anything else out. We know that Patrick has taken her to the hospital so she’s having the best care available. He’ll call Dave as soon as there’s any news. Right, feel up to sitting outside under the stars while I cook?”

Lucy nodded. She knew she would sit anywhere with this man. Her heart had been pounding in her chest the whole while they talked and it had nothing to do with getting over the shock of being scared witless by the steps.

“Yes, that would be lovely.”

Joe had a glowing
fire going in minutes and then he took the trout from the fridge and skewered it on willow twigs. He waited until the flames died and there were just hot coals in the grate and then laid the fish across the metal frame of the barbeque. He brought out plates and cutlery and even a bottle of wine. He warmed a loaf of bread, apologizing for having to serve that morning’s baguette rather than fresh, but it tasted delicious toasted over the fire.

They ate the fresh
ly grilled trout, picking it straight from the bones and dipped the bread in melted garlic butter that Joe had prepared with freshly chopped garlic cloves and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

Lucy wasn’t sure that she had ever had a more delicious meal in her life. She sat back in the wooden chair and stared up through the trees to the stars above.

“This is just so beautiful Joe. No wonder you love it here so much. It’s the perfect place to live.” She sighed contentedly and sipped at her wine.

Joe nodded his head, but he wasn’t looking at the stars. He was staring at Lucy, drinking in her beauty
as he listened to her soft voice, loving her luscious curves as her breasts rose and fell as she breathed inside her t-shirt. He was having difficulty keeping his hands to himself and he wrapped them around his wine glass for safety.

He began telling her about the cottage that he was helping build
further up the river. She adored the sound of it and asked him for every single detail.

After a couple of
hours of gentle conversation, he picked up their plates and walked through to his kitchen. He ran water over the dishes and stacked them back in the cupboard. When he turned Lucy was standing behind him. Her eyes glowed in the dim lighting of the cabin and her hair shone like strands of gold. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

“We should get you back up to the chateau. You must be
shattered after hanging onto that blasted cliff face all afternoon. You’ll be missing that fabulous room.”

Lucy took a visible gulp of air and shook her head
, sending her hair tumbling around her shoulders.

“No. I actually prefer the simplicity
down here. I’m not really that type of girl. It’s okay for a day or two but all that splendor can be a little overwhelming.”

Joe laughed
gently.

“Well, I never heard anyone complain that the chateau was too fabulous before. Everyone else loves it.
Ellen is even thinking of upgrading some of the other rooms to suites. She thinks she can manage it if she uses a few more of the attic rooms for our more mobile guests.”

Lucy smiled up at him.

“I’m sure that would be lovely if you were coming on a holiday, but all the time? I’m not so sure. I know David and Geraldine live there but Ellen and Patrick clearly prefer their little cottage on the estate and you don’t want to live there either so maybe it’s not just me that likes the simple things in life.” She suddenly seemed nervous and she hesitated, her eyes dropping to the floor before she spoke again. “Joe, can we stay here for the night?” Her voice came out in a strangled whisper.

Joe was silent for a moment. He
dragged the air into his lungs and tried to keep his heart rate somewhere near normal.

“There’s only the one bed Lucy…though I suppose I could sleep on the floor.”

Lucy gave a small quizzical frown as she looked back up at him and then she breathed out slowly before she spoke.

“I don’t take up that much room Joe. We could keep our clothes on if you’re worried I might attack you in the night or something. I just don’t want to go up to the chateau. Everyone will make a fuss and I will feel so stupid. That flipping Jessica will be gloating at me and Carter will be a nightmare. It’s just one night Joe.” She knew she sounded desperate, but she wanted to stay in the cabin so much she just couldn’t help herself.

Joe hesitated for a second more and then gave up fighting her. This might be the only time he ever had her in his bed. He knew it didn’t mean anything to her, but to have her lying by his side, to smell her scent on his pillow, to hear her breathing next to him throughout the night, it was more than he could have ever hoped for and the temptation was impossible to resist.

He ducked his head in agreement.

“Okay. I’ll just call Dave and tell him we’re staying down here. Don’t want him panicking about anyone else. Why don’t you get yourself comfortable? I’ll be back in five.”

Lucy breathed out a relieved breath
that she wasn’t aware that she had been holding. She knew that Joe didn’t really want her there and that he was just being polite but she had to be beside him for one night. She needed to keep the feeling of his hot, hard body, to feel his breath on her face and to hear his heart thumping steadily, close to her for just a few hours more.

She quickly walked to the bathroom and washed her face and body in the cold water from the tap. She rubbed her teeth as best as she could with her finger and the toothpaste then she folded her clothes and crept back to the bedroom. She slid between the cool sheets wearing just her knickers and bra.