Forever Scarred (13 page)

Joe barked out a laugh and
lowered a still dripping David to the ground again. He disappeared into the forest and came back ten minutes later with another leg in his hand. David took a few seconds to reattach the new one and then stood up, about to carry on with the afternoon session. He looked at his watch. They just had time to do some bridge building before they would need to start the long walk back to the chateau.

He was about to begin with a talk on the concept when Joe help up his hand. He looked along the track and a few seconds later
the Land Rover appeared and a frantic Geraldine screeched to a stop beside the group.

She leaned out to the window and spoke to David rapidly. David paled for a moment and then turned to the group.

“I’m really sorry but we will have to cut the session short. My sister has gone into early labour and I’m afraid that I will be needed up at the chateau. You are most welcome to come back to the chateau now and use the leisure facilities for the rest of the afternoon. I’ll leave you with Joe to accompany . Freeman, can I rely on you to bring up the rear and make sure everyone gets back to the chateau please?”

Carter Freeman actually looked pleased at being given some responsibility at last, and nodded his head.

“If you speak to your sister or brother in law please give them out best wishes.” He sounded almost genuine and David nodded in return as he climbed into the car and set off back to the chateau with Geraldine.

Joe looked at a loss for a few seconds and then rallied the group. They set off a
t a smart pace for the chateau, stopping every few minutes for him to make sure the group was keeping pace.

Everyone immediately set off to use the hotel facilities when they arrived bac
k. Some of the women booked themselves into the treatment rooms for massages or beauty regimes, while the men enjoyed the squash courts and the swimming pool.

Joe went
straight into the kitchen to see if he could glean anymore information from David about Ellen’s condition. He walked in to utter chaos.

Geraldine was
struggling as she attempted to haul a huge pig onto the spit roast while their over-burdened helper Vanessa held the prong at the other end as gamely as she could. Robbie was jumping up and down on a chair and singing ‘Frere Jacque’ at the top of his quavering voice while David flapped around, his clothes still dripping river water with the telephone stuck to his ear, being completely unhelpful.

Joe quickly washed his hands
at the sink and grabbed then the pig from Geraldine. He lay it on the table and took the lethal looking prong from Vanessa who looked relieved until Robbie picked it up again and looked as though he was about to stab his father with it. Joe rolled his eyes and shook his head at the boy who dropped the prong quickly and sat down on the chair.

Joe pushed Geraldine into another chair and took the phone out of David’s hand. He waited until there was relative calm before he spoke.

“We don’t have to do the hog roast tonight. It’s far too late and far too complicated to get it going and I wouldn’t even like to guess what Patrick puts in the marinade. There’s loads of stuff here that would make dinner easier. I don’t think anyone will complain about the change in plans given the circumstances. There’s that huge pie Patrick made yesterday that we only need to heat and we can take something from the freezer. There’s always loads of prepared stuff in there. I’m sure there he made a massive lasagna just last week. The veg is already prepared and only needs a light steaming. We can serve fruit and cheese for desert.”

Geraldine slumped into a chair obviously glad to have someone take over.

“I am sorry Joe. We just panicked. I think this pregnancy ‘as made my brain stop working. Yes, of course you are right. David is ‘opeless as he is so worried and he can’t get through to Patrick to find out what is ‘appening to Ellen.”

Joe put a comforting hand on her shoulder before he turned to his friend and spoke in a gentle but commanding tone.

“Dave, we need cups of tea and Robbie needs some milk and a biscuit. It’s useless trying to contact Patrick right now. His phone will be turned off if he’s in the hospital. He will let us have any news as soon as he can. Now you make the tea while I find that lasagna.”

He grabbed up the pig
, slung it over his shoulder and marched through to the huge larder. By the time he came back with a massive dish of lasagna, calm once again reigned in the kitchen.

Vanessa
was tipping mixed veg into a steamer and Geraldine was moving a vast saucepan of new potatoes onto the huge stove. She spoke over her shoulder.

“I’ll do a load of garlic bread and a tomato
and fresh ‘erb salad as well. I think that will suit everyone.”

They all took a moment to drink their tea and
Geraldine made up some sandwiches for Robbie.

David looked pale but he was holding himself together and he looked over at Joe gratefully.

“Sorry about that. My mind went into overdrive. I’m just so worried about her. They have waited so long for this baby.”

Geraldine sat by her husband and put a hand on his arm.

“I am sure she and the baby are going to be fine. It’s just a little early, that’s all. Babies come at their own pace not at anyone else’s schedule.”

David nodded and calmed visibly.

“Yes, of course. I know you’re right.” He looked around the kitchen and checked that everything appeared to be underway before going across to the computer to see if Patrick had anything special planned for that evening that they needed to use up.

He opened
the open pages on the tabs and was a little surprised to see a set of wage slips appear before his eyes. He turned to Geraldine.

“Was Lucy using this today?
She’s left herself logged on. If you think she’s finished I’ll shut it down for her.”

Geraldine came up behind him
and peered over his shoulder curiously.

“She finished hours ago, but you would know that. She left here
just after lunch to join you lot at the ravine. She only came down here to check something on her bank account.”

David frowned at Joe.
Something felt wrong.

“
Did you see her up at the zip wire?”

Joe was already shaking his head.

“She wasn’t there at all. I knew she didn’t like the sound of it so I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t show up. Someone said she was using the computer and I just assumed that idiot Freeman had given her some work that stopped her from coming with us. I haven’t seen her since she left the bedroom and I escorted to lunch this afternoon. Geraldine had asked me to go up there because she wasn’t happy about something Freeman had said.”

Geraldine broke in.

“That vile man just wants to get into ‘er underwear. He is disgusting and she detests him, I know it. I sent Joe up because I thought he was going to cause a problem. He ‘as already asked me to move his bags into her rooms. I refused yesterday, but this afternoon he was going on about ‘aving her send some emails. I do not trust that man and that’s why I asked you to go and look for her. She said she was too tired to walk back up to her room so I showed her down ‘ere after lunch to check some personal banking things and then she left to go with you.”

Joe looked over at David.

“I never saw her this afternoon, but there are a lot of them. If she had been at the back of the group I might not have noticed her. I went down the zip wire pretty early.”

David would have laughed if he hadn’t been quite so worried.

“You, not notice her? Come off it Joe. If you didn’t see her then she wasn’t there. She must have gone to have a treatment or something. We should go and ask the girls there before they go home for the evening.”

Geraldine shook her head.

“She didn’t have any treatments. I had a meeting with all the beauty room staff. We thought it would be a good time as everyone was out. Naomi and Rebecca had a brilliant idea for a ladies event when our next group comes over. We wanted to run over the details with the other beauticians before we go ahead and suggest anything to Ellen.”

Joe
glanced at Geraldine once more. She shook her head and gave him one of her Gaelic shrugs indicating that she knew no more before he moved towards the door.

“I’ll go and check her room. Dave, can you go and quietly ask if any of the other staff saw her leave with the group.
Geraldine, stay here and keep cooking. I’m sure there’s just a mix up but I really think we need to find her.” He looked out of the window at the darkening sky and tried not to think of her being outside somewhere.

It was only at dinner time, two hours later, that they were sure that Lucy as not in the chateau. Several of the company remembered her not eating her lunch and looking dreadfully pale. They thought she had returned to her room but couple of them disagreed with this and remembered her being with them as they approached the top of the ravine, but it was only as Freeman entered the dining room with a flushed but simpering Jessica that her whereabouts was confirmed.

Jessica twirled a wisp of bleached blonde
hair as she spoke to the men.

“She w
as too yellow to do the zip wire challenge. It’s so lame but she’s scared of heights so I told her that I’d seen the sign for the steps down to the river and I assumed that she’d gone down them and just come back here.” Jessica didn’t even seem bothered that Lucy was still not around.

David walked up to her.

“And what the hell made you think those steps would be a good idea for someone with a fear of heights? Jesus! She’d have been a million times better off coming down the wire with one of us.”

Joe stood beside David, his heart in his mouth
as he glared at Freeman.

“
You were at the rear making sure all of your staff were accounted for. What the hell happened? Did you just forget about her?”

Freeman actually managed to look apologetic.

“I just assumed she had made it down and walked back to the chateau. We were down there for over two hours. It wouldn’t have taken her that long to walk back here.”

Joe clenched his fists at his side so that he couldn’t strangle the man in front of him, and spoke to David.

“I’ll go to the ravine now. She could have fallen or anything. She may even be there on those bloody steps still or lost on the path back up here. You stay here Dave and make sure this lot stay put for the evening. I’ll go and see if I can find her. I’ll take a phone and check in every fifteen minutes. If she turns up just let me know.” He jogged out of the dining room door and ran through to the scullery.

He
tamped down his rage at Jessica and Freeman and grabbed up a couple of big flashlights, then he checked the phone in his pocket and ran out through the back door into the forest.

It
took him ten minutes at a good run before he was at the bottom of the ravine steps and it had darkened considerably by the time he arrived there. He shone the torch upwards and studied the rock face before he set off up the steep and narrow steps.

Ellen had been the first one to see how
steep and dangerous the steps were when she had bought the chateau five years previously. It was one of the reasons why she had installed the zip wire and the cable car. He was over a third of the way up before he heard the plaintive whimper. Another dozen steps and he could hear her gentle weeping. It was only a few more seconds before he found her clinging to the rock face, her fingernails broken and bleeding, her arms trembling under the strain of hanging on to the narrow ledge.

He managed to stan
d on the same step as her and tried to pull her into his arms, but she had locked down everything she had and was now in an almost trancelike state.

“Lucy.” He spoke as softly as he could. “Lucy, it’s me, Joe. You’re safe now sweetheart. I’ll get you down. Just let me take your hands and I’ll hold you as we go down together.” There was no response but he noticed that her weeping had stopped. He tried again. “Lucy, just nod if you know I’m here, okay? I know that you are petrified but I’m here now. You’re safe with me.
I won’t let you fall.” He waited for a few seconds more and then was at last rewarded with a nearly imperceptible nod of her head.

He breathed out a sigh of relief and suddenly Lucy spoke through clenched teeth.

“I can’t move. I thought I was going to fall.” He voice was a whisper of fear.

Joe placed his hand over one of hers.

“No, we are not going to fall. We are going to walk very carefully down these steps together. You are going to place both of your hands on my shoulders and you will come down with me on the step behind.”

She shook her head quickl
y and Joe noticed that her beautiful hair had fallen from its band once again. It glistened like silver in the moonlight and he couldn’t resist. He reached up his free hand and touched the wayward strands. Her hair felt like the softest silk he had ever touched and he couldn’t resist raising it to his nose. It smelled of sunshine and flowers and he took another breath before he tucked it back up behind her ear. It was only then that he noticed that she was staring at him with her deep, doe like eyes.