Scarred Beginnings (12 page)

Geraldine looked up at him and he nearly lost it as he saw her eyes fill with tears.

“It’s my job.” Her voice quavered. “It’s what Ellen employed me to do.” She cuffed her tears with the back of her hand. “I didn’t mean to fall in love.
I thought… I’m sorry that you feel you ‘ave to go. This is yours and Ellen’s project; I should be the one leaving if that’s ‘ow you feel.” She choked as she finished speaking.

Davi
d held his hands at his sides. All he wanted to do was to haul her into his arms and comfort her but if he knew if he touched her he would be undone. He gulped back his own sobs and smiled gently as he held back a tumult of emotion.

“Silly woman, and leave all my colleagues without a fabulous nurse
to look after them? I would never do such a thing. You have to stay here and do this with Ellen if I can’t.”

Geraldine began to wrap his legs in a soft bandage. She lifted her chin and indicated for him to lie back to make it easier for him to lift his sore thighs as she wound the
cotton around him. She dropped her gaze as she worked and spoke again.

“But I don’t understand why you can’t stay. I thought that everything would work out.
We are good friends, yes? I don’t understand what ‘as ‘appened.”

David shook his head.
Friends was not what he wanted to be.

“It’s not you Geraldine. It’s me.
I just can’t do this. I can’t face seeing you here every day. Call me weak, call me whatever you like but I just can’t stand to see you in another man’s arms. It’s killing me just knowing that you are with Jules and it shouldn’t be like that. You should be free to choose whoever you want without me acting like a love sick fool in the background. I’m so jealous I could kill the guy and I’ve never even met him. I have to get away from here”

Geraldine suddenly
stopped winding the bandages, her hands suspended in mid air. She lifted her chin and frowned at him.

“Jules?
My Jules? Is he why you ‘ave been avoiding me these last two weeks, why you didn’t join us for dinner. You are jealous of Jules?”

David nodded
guiltily as he bit the inside of his cheek and held back the spleen he wanted to vent at her new man.

“If only you knew how much. Look, I know you have your job to do but I can see to myself now that I have the antibiotics. You shouldn’t come near me. I might not be able to control myself if you do.”

Geraldine sat back on the bed. She had finished wrapping his legs but she stared at them for several moments longer. She lifted her chin and David saw that her beautiful green eyes had cleared. She was obviously relieved that he would be leaving.

She cut the bandage and pinned it carefully
.

“Okay, I understand your position but I must check on your legs
at least twice a day. I am your nurse as well as your friend. If you miss anything it could spell disaster for you so please let me do this service for you. I promise that I will make my examinations as brief as possible to allow you the least discomfort. Agreed?” She stood up as she spoke and David followed her with his eyes.

“Fine, and thanks for being so kind to me.
I really don’t deserve it. I shouldn’t have assumed so much.”

Geraldine walked slowly towards the door
, her head dipped, her shoulders slumped. She glanced back over her shoulder.

“I’ll drop back in this evening. Do you want me to bring you some books or are you happy with the television?”

David stared at the big, vacant screen and then shook his head.

“I’d prefer
Ellen to bring me some books. I can’t be bothered to watch the television now I don’t need to learn French.”

Geraldine narrowed her eyes for a second and then nodded.

“Okay, I’ll ask her to bring some. I’ll see you later but if you feel any more discomfort, anything at all, you must call me immediatment, do you understand? You must not argue with me over this David. Your future could depend on it.”

David
gulped. He knew that she wasn’t playing any games now. He nodded seriously.

“Okay. I promise I’ll call for you if anything changes at all. N
ow stop wasting your time pandering to me. I’ll be fine.”

She left the room and closed the door
without looking back and David heaved a huge breath into his lungs as his heart tore in two once again.

Geraldine didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The relief almost overwhelmed her as she discovered what was wrong with him, apart from the stupid man’s infected legs. She walked away from his room feeling better than she had in over a fortnight. It had been two weeks of excruciating personal torture. He had ignored her, avoided her and done everything he could to stay out of her way and all because of her lovely Jules.

She laughed in sudden happiness. If he was that affected by the situation it could only mean one thing. She wasn’t mistaken about all their emails and texts. When he had first arrived back at the château she had begun to wonder if her English was as good as she had initially thought. Ellen never seemed to have a problem with it but she had begun to worry that she hadn’t been understood.

The late summer and autumn had been a serious of hilarious and sometimes very naughty messages and she had been desperate to see David again. She had never felt so engaged with someone in the whole of her life. He was passionate and funny and so open that she had built an image in her mind of their next meeting but it had been a dismal, disappointing reunion and for the next few days she had wondered if someone had played a trick on her and she had been messaging another person entirely all summer.

She blushed at the
very thought. Some of the messages had been more personal than she had imagined ever writing but David made her feel so comfortable, so alive that she hadn’t been able to resist his outrageous charm. That he had been moody and unapproachable when he arrived back at the château had shocked her. It was as if he were a different person entirely.

When he had fallen asleep during his facial she had gone to him as he called her name but he had suddenly become frantic, screaming in
apparent pain and anguish and thrashing to get away from her. She remembered his heated gaze searing her breasts as he glanced down at her when he eventually woke. Maybe the pain wasn’t all of his dream. Maybe he had held something back.

She narrowed her eyes. What a fool she had been not to question him earlier and what an id
iot he had been to hide his fears from her. She had assumed that he knew about Jules. She had imagined that Ellen shared most things with him but maybe not this. Ellen was still sad about the loss of her own boyfriend, perhaps she wouldn’t share things about men, even Jules, with her brother and David had been far too upset to ask her a thing about him.

Two weeks
had gone by and the stubborn man hadn’t said a word to her. Maybe he had been too proud or felt inadequate in some way. To be so jealous as to risk injuring his legs even further just because of Jules was beyond ridiculous. She could have slapped him up the side of the head for being a fool.

Well, if he insisted on acting like one and threatening to go home
over another man’s love for her then she would let him believe what he wanted. It might even serve him well if she carried on with it all until he was recovered enough to leave the place. At least now he was confined to bed he couldn’t avoid her. It might even give him a chance to pluck up his courage and fight for her.

She pressed her lips together. Yes, he should fight for her
, should show some passion. She had suffered miserably this last week, wondering what she had done to deserve his cool attitude. She would let him suffer for just a few days longer just to make him appreciate her sacrifice all the more.

Chapter Twelve

Ellen stood with her hands on her hips as she glared at her brother from the end of the bed.

“No, you can’t get up. I’ll take
away both the wheelchair and your legs. You will stay there resting until the doctor or Geraldine says you can get up. Joe’s not arriving for another week and you are going to be better by the time he arrives so don’t you dare argue with me.”

David folded his arms across his huge chest
and glared right back at his sister.

“
I am sick to death of lying here. I want to go out. I’ve left you to finish everything. I’m lying here like some kind of useless, decrepit lump. I need to do something constructive or I’m going to go mad,” he grumbled for the umpteenth time.

Ellen glowered at him even more fiercely.

“You are doing something constructive, you stubborn fool! You are getting better. Do you have any idea how much worrying I have done this week? I nearly lost you once already David…It’s not happening again. Ever! I’ll send Geraldine up to read to you or something or maybe you want Delphine to come and give you a facial and a manicure. She’d do wonders with your hands.”

David glowered right back at her.
He puffed up his chest and made himself as big as possible.

“I do not want another facial.
I’ve already had three and this week. I’ll look like a bloody five year old by the time our guests arrive. I’ve had a manicure too. My nails look fabulous! So flipping fabulous that Joe is probably going to ask some very embarrassing questions! There’s only so much relaxation a guy can take. My skin is already softer than a baby’s arse. Go and ask Geraldine if I can get up. She wouldn’t answer me this morning when I asked. If I don’t get out of this bed soon I am going to go stark staring mad.”

Ellen felt th
e frustration rippling off him. She turned towards the door.

“Okay. I will go and ask
Geraldine to give you a definitive answer on whether you can get up or not but if she says no then it’s no and you will stay right where you are. I’ll bolt the blasted door before you can do anything so foolish as this ever again. I don’t know what’s got into you recently. You’re behaving almost as badly as when I first brought you home after your accident.” She opened the door and walked out.

David grabbed hold of the pillow beside him and threw it at the door as it closed behind her.
His mind raged at the injustice of it all.

“
It wasn’t a fucking accident! Some poor kid was blown up, right in front of my fucking car on fucking purpose!” he bellowed to no one, angrier than he had been in months. He slammed his fists into the mattress and took some deep breaths as silence fell around him. “It wasn’t a fucking accident!” he shouted again and slumped back onto the pillows. He closed his eyes and tried to banish the terrified Afghan boy’s face from his mind as unexpected tears pricked the back of his eyelids. For a moment he wondered where the boy’s father had been. Had he been the one to detonate the blast, killing his son for what he thought was a greater cause? Had the boy any relatives there or was he just another of the thousands of orphans left by the war? Whoever it had been forcing the lad, the boy had been petrified. “Bastards! They killed a fucking kid!” he yelled into the empty bedroom and pulled one of the remaining pillows over his head. “God damned fucking bastards!” he mumbled into the soft cotton pillowcase.

“Who is a God damned b
astard?” Geraldine spoke suddenly and David whipped the pillow from his face again as he blinked back the tears of frustration.

He
glared at the woman he wanted so much that it hurt his heart to even think of her.

“Everyone! Every fucking one!” He yelled his frustration again.

Geraldine stared at him silently for a second and then stepped away from the bed.

“Oh! Well, I think I will leave if you are going to cast aspersions on my ancestry.” She turned back towards the door and David surged forwards.

“No! I didn’t mean you. I didn’t mean anyone in particular except those bastards that left me like this.” He was breathing hard.

Geraldine stopped but didn’t
turn around or say anything.

David took in a huge lungful of air
and controlled his riotous temper. He waited until he was sure that he wouldn’t shout again.

“Sorry…Sorry I yelled at you. I didn’t mean it.”

Geraldine turned back to him and gave him a brittle smile.

“Of course you didn’t.
I know that but you really can’t go around yelling at everyone who crosses your path. The more you rest the quicker you will heal. You’re making excellent progress but you’re not out of the woods yet. Your legs still look sore and there’s no way you are going to be wearing your prosthetics for a few more days. We’ll ruin all our progress.” She came and sat in the chair beside the bed.

David groaned as her perfume assaulted his senses. He hung his head.
His emotions were all over the place.

“I just need to get out. I feel like I’m in a prison. There’s no air in here.”

Geraldine looked up at the wide open window and raised her eyebrows at him as her hair wafted in the cool breeze. Then she stood up again.

“Okay. I give in. I will take yo
u for a walk around the estate.” She held out her hand and pushed him back onto the bed as he lurched forwards, swinging his legs out of the bed and reaching for his prosthetics. “In the wheelchair, David. I will push you along the new paths. You will not attempt to walk and you will not exert yourself. You will talk to me and observe the wildlife and then we will come back and eat an excellent dinner with Ellen and you will go to bed like a good boy and never shout at me again. Understood!”

Her hand was hot on the flesh of his shoulder, branding him with her touch. He had to steel himself against reaching forwards and pulling her into the bed with him. He
glared at her for a moment as he fought for control. She raised an elegant eyebrow and he suddenly realized that he was up against someone far more powerful than himself.

“Fine. You can
push me. Now get me out of here,” he spoke irritably.

She didn’t move.

“And the talking and resting and eating?” she asked quietly.

He nodded quickly but she still didn’t move. She raised one dark eyebrow
and waited.

David rolled his eyes. He wasn’t going to get away with a thing.

“And I will never shout at you again,” He added quickly, his voice already softening.

Geraldine smiled.

“Excellent. Now I will ‘elp you dress and we can spend a pleasant afternoon together in the grounds.”

Walking with Geraldine was a new form of torture that he hadn’t ever considered. For three hours her voice caressed his ears as she talked to him about life in the small town.

She
had him roaring with laughter as she revealed the shocking truth about their local policeman’s regular Thursday meetings with the butcher’s wife, while the butcher was at the market in the next town, regaling him several outrageous anecdotes from eyewitnesses confirming that the policeman wasn’t just taking down her details each week.

She made his eyes widen in surprise
and pleasure and he made a mental note to check out her information when she informed him of the secret angling group who were considering asking Ellen to set up some competition days with her guests.

He actually cried laughing at
the story of the mayor’s recent antics with Antoine’s enormous prize pig after it escaped from its pen at the local stock fair. The mayor swore that the pig had an unhealthy fascination for men who wore wellingtons.

H
er laugh sang through the trees at the memory of the scattering men as she re-enacted the women flapping their aprons in a failed attempt to distract the animal from its quarry and David’s heart nearly broke all over again at the injustice of it all.

She was perfect for him. She shared his sense of humour, his love of all things ridiculous. They enjoyed the same music, the same films. He even discovered that they liked the same types of food once she
laughingly confessed that she actually detested the strongly flavoured, traditional Breton sausage that she had made him and all his friends try on their initial visit. He made another mental note never to trust her to give him food again before he remembered that he would be leaving as soon as his legs were healed.

She pushed his chair
back up to the château as the light began to fade, their breath making clouds of condensation as they breathed in the cold air.

Ellen waited ne
ar the front door, standing beside a tall, dark haired man. He appeared to be listening intently to something Ellen was telling him but they both turned as David and Geraldine came through the front door.

Geraldine immediately stopped and then pushed David forwards again
as she spoke over the top of his head.

“Jules! ‘
ow lovely! We ‘ave been out walking. David was becoming an old dragon being cooped up all the time. I wasn’t expecting you today.” She parked David beside his sister before she reached up and kissed Jules on both cheeks.

Jules brushed her hair with his hand and looked tenderly at her before clasping her against him and giving her a hug.

“It has only been a few days but I decided to come down anyway. Once I knew that I was going to work here I started packing up the flat.” His English was excellent, not as heavily accented as Geraldine’s. He turned to David whose face had gone from flushed with the cold air to deathly pale. The man took a step forwards and held out his hand. “It is an honour to meet you at last Monsieur. Geraldine has told me so much about you.”

David raised an
eyebrow and tried to ignore the hand but found he couldn’t. He shook it grudgingly. Jules looked almost exactly as David had imagined. Like some kind of Adonis. Well over six feet tall, dark hair, bright turquoise eyes. His cheekbones looked as if they were chiselled from pale stone and his dimpled chin was covered with the exact amount of stubble to suit his style.

David’s insides churned. No wonder Geraldine hadn’t been able to resist the guy. He was perfect in every
single way. Broad shoulders with thick muscles in his arms and thighs that showed through his casual but elegant clothes. Flat stomach, slim waist, great style. David’s throat burned as he desperately held back the rising bitterness. It was only after he had taken a few breaths that he realized what the man had said.

His eyes burned into Ellen.

“You’re working here? Doing what exactly?” She hadn’t told him anything about Jules working with them. Joe was arriving on Christmas Eve, some gym guy and a few household staff were starting as they opened for New Year but apart from them and the girls in the treatment rooms that was all he knew about. He suddenly realized what his own thoughts meant. “Oh! Sorry, of course, you must be the personal trainer, the gym guy.” The man was clearly made for the job.

Jules
grinned and nodded enthusiastically..

“As soon as Geraldine told me what was happening here I begged to be part of it
and Ellen was kind enough to offer me the job. I’ve been working in Paris but I am so fed up with it. There’s no challenge, no job satisfaction and I’m sick to death of frustrated older women trying to grab hold of my backside. I think I will be permanently bruised if I don’t get out of there.” Jules laughed.

David was surprised as Geraldine laughed
with him. He didn’t think he would laugh if he heard about some dirty old men squeezing his girlfriend’s backside…He’d be outraged and probably want to punch them. He tried desperately to think of something to say.

“Well, I don’t suppose you’ll have that
many aging, frustrated women to deal with here, unless you count Ellen of course, so your backside should be safe.” He ducked Ellen’s hand as it swept across the top of his head.

Jules laughed but then t
here was another short silence and David began to push himself towards the lift. He just wanted to get out of this man’s sight, couldn’t bear the thought of him being with Geraldine, touching her, kissing her, more than just kissing her. He held back a shudder. “I think I’ll go and have a lie down. This afternoon has tired me more than I expected. I won’t bother with dinner, I’m not really that hungry anyway.” His head jerked around as someone caught hold of the back of his chair and began pulling him back towards the dining room.

Geraldine’s beautiful voice whispered into his ear.

“That is not what we agreed David. You haven’t eaten properly all week. You are becoming too thin.” She turned his chair back towards Ellen and Jules.

David sat there fuming.

“Don’t! Just leave me alone Geraldine. I don’t want any food. I feel sick. I just need to rest,” he hissed back at her.

She wasn’t accepting any of his complaints as an excuse.

“Rubbish! You felt fine just ten minutes ago. You even said that you were famished,” she spoke quickly and ignored his protests. “You must be starving, a great big man like you living off two poached eggs and a few biscuits with your tea. That’s about all you have eaten this week and it’s going to stop right now. You will sit and eat with Ellen, Jules and myself and you will damn well enjoy it.”