Scarred Beginnings (13 page)

David tried to turn in his seat
to look up at her.

“Why? Why are you making me suffer like this? I told you how I felt. I explained to you what it was doing to me. Can’
t you just leave it,” he hissed over his shoulder at her.

Geraldine shook her head.

“No. You will do as you promised or I will lock you in your room until you ‘ave recovered fully.” She smiled as they reached Ellen and Jules. “David ‘as changed his mind. He is ‘ungry after all. Mama sent over a delicious cake for our dessert and David has found that he just cannot resist.”

Ellen smiled brightly as Davi
d set his mouth in a thin line.

“Excellent. We were going to have to rely on cheese tonight. I hadn’t had time to prepare anything for pudding. Thank your mother for me when you see her again.”

Jules turned with Ellen towards the dining room.

“She does make wonderful cake, but Geraldine says that you have been learning from her too. Did you not cook much at home?”

Ellen shook her head and linked her arm with Jules’s.

“David and all his mates preferre
d quantity over anything else. So long as whatever I cooked had plenty of gravy or maybe brown sauce they were fine with it. I do a brilliant sausage and mash though. I’ll have to cook it for you sometime.”

Jules laughed.

“One of my favourites, but it will have to wait for another time. I only came down here for the evening to see that everything was on schedule for the opening and to meet your brother. Geraldine has talked of him so often and as we will all be working together I really wanted to meet him before the opening night. I think we will all get on splendidly together but I must return to Paris tomorrow morning. I’ve still some things to finish up there. I won’t be back here before New Year.”

David breathed a sigh of relief. At least he would never have to see the blasted man again. Knowing that he was going to be staying the night was bad enough.

He ground his teeth as Geraldine pushed his chair to a space at the table and sat beside him. Ellen placed a small plate with what looked like pears stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts in front of him. He sniffed suspiciously at it and then raised his eyebrows at her.

“I’m trying out some n
ew dishes and you lot are my tasters. Let me know what you think.”

Dinner conversation stayed mostly on the safe subject of food. David grudgingly agreed that the pear starter was delicious. He was even more enthusiastic at the slow roast stuffed shoulder of lamb. It was more than tasty. He would never have imagined putting apricots with the succulent meat.

Geraldine’s mother’s cake was another triumph and they decided to make it a regular order
for their expanding menu.

T
ired but replete with his first full meal in more than a week, David was surprised when they all went upstairs in the lift together. He was exhausted with the strain of keeping a civil tongue inside his head and Geraldine looked nearly as tired. Shoving him around the forest even on the made up paths couldn’t have been easy but he was still slightly surprised when Geraldine disappeared into her own room and Jules walked along to the next door along the corridor. Ellen followed him to his bedroom and held his door open for him to push himself through. She stood at his door for a moment longer.

“
Jules is great, isn’t he? I think he’s going to be perfect for the job,” she spoke quietly as she covered a yawn.

David shrugged. He couldn’t let his sister know what he really thought about the
blasted man. It would sound petty, ridiculous.

For God’s sake!
It was petty and ridiculous.
Even David had to admit that Jules seemed to be a nice guy. He frowned. He hated himself for it but he actually liked the man. He seemed to know what he was doing, he certainly looked fit enough, he was outgoing, not easily intimidated, perfect really. David ground his teeth in frustration. No wonder Geraldine had fallen for him. Any woman would. He wasn’t surprised that Ellen was gushing. He probably had a whole diary full of names he could call if he ever became lonely in his Paris flat.

Ellen said goodnight and closed the door. He sat for a long while as he contemplated his future. It looked bleak again
. He decided that he would stay for Christmas and then he’d leave before New Year. He hated to let Ellen down but by that time Joe would be over to help and what with Geraldine and the beyond perfect Jules on hand he didn’t think Ellen would have too many problems running the place.

He undressed slowly and then removed the bandages from his legs. His skin looked nearly normal again, just a few patches of dry skin. He cleansed them
carefully before he rubbed the cream Geraldine had left him into them and then he removed the excess before applying clean bandages.

He slipped into bed and rolled to his side. He picked up his
spare pillow and cradled it to him as he had every night since being there and then he suddenly pushed the pillow away. His dreams were not to be and he’d better hurry up and accept it. Geraldine would be happy with Jules and he should be pleased about that. She should have a man who was perfect in every way, who could fulfil her every wish, her every dream. She shouldn’t have to put up with half a man with half a face.

He had to accept who he was and quit dreaming of the impossible or what might have been. Ellen wouldn’t have even thought of this project if he hadn’t been blown up
. He had to think of all the good it would do his fellow servicemen. He had to suck it up, get over his disappointment and move on.

Decision made he turned out his light and
closed his eyes determined to never think about the situation again, but it proved impossible. He tortured himself even more, his ears straining for the sound of anyone creeping along the corridor as the visions of Geraldine lying naked in her bed, her dark hair spread gloriously across the pillow and her creamy, delicious skin covered in a slight sheen of post sex perspiration meant sleep didn’t come as easily as he hoped.

Chapter Thir
teen

The slamming of a car door woke him. He shivered in his bed as he looked at the still open window. The temperature had dropped in the night and he felt quite cold. He could hear voices coming up from the drive below his window.

“
‘ave a safe journey. Don’t drive too fast and make sure you stop if you are tired. Call me when you get there.”

David rolled his eyes as he heard Geraldine bidding her boyfriend farewell.
He could even hear them air kissing one another. Feeling slightly revolted at his own eavesdropping, he dragged his dressing gown from the bedside chair and pulled it around his shoulders before he manoeuvred himself into his chair and headed for the bathroom.

Afterwards he wheeled himself to the window and closed it, shutting out the cold, damp air. He moved to
his dressing table, fired up his tablet and began to write a reply to the email message Joe had sent him saying that he looked forward to seeing them later in the week.

There was a brief knock at the door before Geraldine swooped in with her bag.

David saved his message to Joe as she indicated that he get back on the bed while she looked at his legs again. She unwound the bandages slowly taking care not to pull the skin. His flesh looked pale and healthy, no redness and the dry flakes seem to have disappeared during the night. Geraldine wore thin latex gloves while she touched him but he could still feel the heat from her fingertips. She pressed gently.

“Anything? Any pain?”

David shook his head as he stared at her delicate profile. She was observing his thighs with minute concentration.

“Nothing,
everything feels fine.”

Geraldine helped him roll to his side so that she could check the backs of his thighs. She pressed again, stroked gently up towards his backside
but stopped before she reached his boxers.

“How’s that? Not tingling too much?
”

David was tingling all over but he couldn’t tell her that. Instead he shook his head again.

“I’m fine. Feels normal to me.”

Geraldine sat back on the edge of the bed and peeled the gloves off slowly as David rolled back to face her.
She looked at his stumps once more.

“I think we can get on with desensitisation again then. I want you to spend a few minutes each morning and night slapping the ends of your legs with a damp flannel. You’ve been out of your prosthetics for a week so your legs are going to take a hammering again.”

David nodded.

“Okay, just so long as I’m upright for Christmas Eve. I’m not sitting in that bloody chair like some kind of invalid when Joe arrives. He’ll have my hide and I’ll never live it down.
”

Geraldine shook her head.

“Are all of you like this? So impatient with yourselves all the time. It was the same with all your friends earlier on in the year. You should ‘ave heard the fuss Adam made when I tried to ‘elp him with his lungs. You should learn to give in a little. No one would think any less of you.”

David puffed out a long breath
and tried to explain.

“
We would think less of ourselves. We can’t give in to it. I mean, just look at the kind of men we’re up against. Mr bloody perfect Jules. It’s not easy Geraldine. He made me feel like crap.”

Geraldine gazed at him.
Her lips trembled dangerously.

“I had hoped that you would like him. He’s very special to me.”

David stared out of the window. He couldn’t look her in the eye. If she teared up again he would be done for.

“I did like him. I didn’t want to
but I did,” he admitted. “He’s a nice man. You look good together; have you known him long?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know but Geraldine seemed to want to talk about it and he didn’t see how it could make him feel any worse than he did already. Maybe it would even help him understand.

Geraldine
suddenly smiled widely.

“All my life
, of course. He’s two years older than me. He has always looked out for me and when I told him about this place he was so keen to come. I don’t think he’s very happy in Paris, he misses his family.”

David frowned.

“I remember you saying he played here at the château once. So, he’s from around here originally then?” He asked miserably. This was getting even worse. Jules was clearly a childhood sweetheart. His heart staggered in his chest as he thought of all the stupid things he had said in his messages to her over the summer and autumn. He hoped to God that she hadn’t shown them to the man. He would be a laughing stock.

Geraldine
just nodded at his question.

“
Of course. Our parents didn’t chuck him out or anything. When he finished his degree he went to where he could get the best paid work. There’s not much call for personal trainers around here so Paris was his best option. His gym was on the Left Bank. Full of old money and old women from the sounds of it.” There was a slight smile warming her features. She stood up and picked up David’s prosthetic legs. She looked inside them and tutted. “I swear you haven’t cleaned these since you took them off last week. I will go and give them a full scrub.” She picked them up and walked to the door.

David frowned at her from the bed. He wasn’t listening to anything she said about his false legs. He was more interested in what she was saying about Jules and her parents.
He remembered the two separate rooms last night. His pulse began to thump hard at his temple.

“Geraldine? Hold up a mo. What do you mean that your parents didn’t chuck Jules out? Did he live with you then?”
Curiosity was killing him.

Geraldine smiled widely.

“Yes, of course. Where else would you expect a brother to live?” She didn’t wait for his response but gave him a cheeky wave and added as she grinned at his shocked expression, “I’ll be back in an hour or so to ‘elp you with your legs. Get yourself washed and we’ll go out for another walk. You can sit in your chair but I will ‘elp you to stand for a few minutes also, just to ‘elp get your balance back.” She was gone before he could gather his senses, wafting out of the room on a breath of sensual perfume as she shut the door behind her.

David closed his mouth from where it had fallen open.

Her brother? Her brother as in a sibling brother? Why the hell hadn’t she told him? Why had she made him put up with all this misery?
Then he thought back to the day he had arrived. She had mentioned Jules had come to help her with her tyre and he had just assumed all the rest. He had assumed Jules was her boyfriend. He’d never considered any other explanation. She’d never mentioned a brother before, but then if he wasn’t around, was away in Paris all the time, why would she?

But
their conversation was imprinted on his memory. Confusions swept over him again. She had cried and said she didn’t know that she would fall in love…
With whom? Who had she fallen in love with?
She’d been at the château for the last few months helping Ellen with choosing all the right equipment. Ellen said she’d hardly left the place, she never went out with anyone except her parents or some old school friends.

His heart began to thump frantically. Hope roared i
nto his chest nearly bursting through his ribs with the agony of suspense.

“Geraldine!” He bellowed from the bed. He looked frantically for his wheelchair, reached o
ut and grabbed the handles, lugged it to the bedside and slid into it at all angles. His arm became wedged between his body and the seat, his dressing gown bunched up his back. Sweat broke out on his brow as he struggled with the contraption. He gave up trying to right his dressing gown, tugged his hand out from where it had been trapped and shoved the wheels hard, nearly shouting in frustration as the towelling belt caught in the wheel and pulled him to an instant stop. “Geraldine! Ellen! Someone!” he shouted towards the door.

The door opened a few moments later. Ellen charged forwards
almost falling to her knees in front of him as she saw the anguished expression on his face.

“What’s happened? Are yo
u okay? Are your legs infected again? I’ll call the doctor immediately.” She found her feet and ran for the phone.

“Stop!” David bellowed again. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m absolutely fine but I need to see Geraldine
now. She was just here. She took my prosthetics and was going to give them a clean.”

Ellen
turned around and stared at him.

“You mean all that yelling was because you want to speak to Geraldine. I thought you were dying at the very least.” She slumped onto the bed but then noticed the odd angle in which he was sitting
in the wheelchair. “What on earth are you doing? You’re all over the place and just look at that belt. The white towelling is covered in oil!” She came forwards, pointing in horror at the ruined fabric and began tugging at the material.

David flapped her away.

“That can wait. I need to see her, where is she?”

Ellen scowled at him
and tugged at the belt one more time before giving up.

“She’s gone to town to get something from the chemist for your prosthetics. She ordered some special powder that will help prevent perspiration build up. She thought it might benefit you and any other guests. She’s taken the car because she ordered a great load of it
especially for you. Why? What else is so flipping important? I was just making up Joe’s room. He’ll be here the day after tomorrow.”

David wiped his hand across his face.

She’d done it on purpose. When he’d told her he was leaving Geraldine hadn’t realized why. That’s why she’d cried, but he’d explained that he couldn’t compete with a boyfriend. She knew he’d assumed the worst and now she was punishing him, teasing him, driving him bloody wild!

He looked at Ellen. There were dark circles around her eyes. She clearly hadn’t been sleeping well.

“Why don’t you leave Joe’s room? He’s not expecting anything half as grand as you’re making up for him. He’ll probably have a fit at the place anyway. That four poster is going to blow him away. I’m sure he won’t mind making his own bed Ellen. He can probably make it far better than you can anyway. He’s been making his own bed for nearly ten years. We all have.”

Ellen
looked over at her brother.

“
That’s not the point and I’ve just about done it now anyway. I’ll just stack his towels rather than arrange them in the bathroom. Now what was it that you needed to see Geraldine so urgently about? Do you want me to tell her that you need to see her when she gets back?”

David shook his head.

“No, don’t bother. It’s nothing that can’t wait an hour or two.” He had the grace to flush as Ellen raised an eyebrow at him. “We’re going to go out for a walk later so I’ll just finish messaging Joe and then I’ll get dressed and meet her downstairs. When we get back I’ll make lunch for us. It’ll be something basic but I don’t want you to do it for me again. I can manage by myself.”

Ellen gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.

“Thanks David. That would be lovely.” She walked back out of his room and he struggled to get himself back out of his wheelchair and then into it again without ending up in a heap before he opened up his computer again and finished his email to Joe.

Five minutes later he was in the ba
throom washing himself meticulously and taking extra care with his shave. He checked over his chin for any stray stubble and slapped the moisturizer Delphine had given him on his cheeks. He combed his hair then ruffled it stylishly before he moved to the wardrobe to find his best denims and shirt.

By the time he was downstairs waiting for Geraldine’s return even he had to admit that he looked pretty good, better than he had done for months in fact. He took one last look at himself in the mirror inside the hall just as Geraldine’s little car came back up the drive and pulled to a stop in front of the doors.