Forever Scarred (16 page)

“No, I’m sure you don’t. I can’t say that I do either
especially as I know what you have on offer, but I have to go and help Dave. We don’t even know if Ellen is okay and Geraldine is as sick as a dog every morning. It’ll be chaos up at the chateau if I don’t show my face there quickly.”

Lucy sat up in the bed and pushed her hair from her face
. She gave a great sigh and shifted to the edge of the bed. The muscles in her legs shrieked in defiance and she grimaced slightly.

Joe came and squatted in front of her, his eyes full of concern.

“You okay?” He rubbed his big hands up and down her thighs barely resisting the temptation to push her backwards in the bed, spread her legs and feast on her delicious womanly places.

She smiled up at him and caught hold of his face. She let her lips linger on his for a moment.

“More than okay Joe, you know that. Come on, hand me my clothes. I can’t just sit about here naked while you ogle me.”

He began flinging the covers about
wildly until he came up with her knickers and her bra. She slipped them on and scrabbled around for her t-shirt and trousers.

Joe lugged on a shirt and pulled his combats over his lean legs. He shoved his feet into his
boots and helped Lucy into her trainers. They were just about to walk out of the cabin when they heard the Land Rover pull up outside.

David stepped out of the car and grinned as Lucy twisted her hair in
to a low bun and tied it with a band.

“
So, safe and sound then? No nightmares about being stranded in the dark?”

Lucy gave an
embarrassed smile back.

“Of
course not. I was in Joe’s capable hands.” She ignored David’s guffaw of ribald laughter. “Have you heard anything from Patrick?”

David smiled warmly.

“Little girl at about five thirty this morning. Ellen is exhausted and they will be keeping her in today and tomorrow for checks but everything went well. Baby weighed just under seven pounds so not even a problem there. They must have had the dates slightly wrong.”

Joe slapped David on the shoulder.

“So Uncle Dave, what’s on the agenda today for our victims? Apart from you making breakfast that is.” He dodged David’s fist and opened the car door for Lucy.

They were back up at the chateau in minutes and Lucy immediately ran up the stairs to shower and change
before she went to the kitchen to help with breakfast. She opened her room door and was about to walk through to the bedroom when Carter Freeman appeared just inside the door.

Lucy stopped dead and stared
at him aghast as she realized that he was wearing only his dressing gown. She cast her eyes towards the bed and suppressed a shiver when she saw that the covers were rumpled and the pillow indented.

“What are you doing in my room?” She hissed when she eventually found her voice.

Carter let out a grim laugh.

“Well I would have thought that was obvious. I was waiting for you. I assumed that you would come back here last night but I understand you spent the night with that poor excuse for a man who is helping run this
idiotic course.”

Lucy stood her ground. Being with Joe
for the night had made her a lot stronger.

“If it’s any of your business, yes, I did spend the night with him
and I bloody enjoyed it. He a thousand times the man you will ever be.” She spat out the words with as much venom as she could muster.

Freeman walked forwards and Lucy nearly vomited as she saw his pale
, hairless legs appear beneath the robe. It looked as though he waxed them; they were far smoother than her own.

He stood very close to her and lifted a strand of her hair. He leaned in and sniffed at the side of her neck. He jerked his head back
quickly.

“I can smell him on you, you filthy tart. Did you enjoy having a freak between your legs? Did you make him feel
like a real man for once in his miserable life?” His voice was low and menacing.

Lucy tore herself away from
her odious boss and walked back to her door. She opened it wide and stood back.

“Get out! Get out now before I tell someone what a lowlife shit you are. And don’t come back to my room. I don’t care how you got in, just don’t try it again or there will be consequences.”

Freeman sauntered over to her. He stood by the doorway for a moment as he looked her up and down.

“Oh I will enjoy the day when you are
homeless and penniless, begging on your knees before me. I’m in no hurry Lucy. I know how tight you are for money. Don’t forget that I hold all the aces here. You will lose everything if you don’t do as I say and don’t think this is just a threat. I will have you sucking my cock and licking my ass before long my dear, and you will be grateful that I let you do it.” He suddenly stormed from the room and Lucy slammed the door quickly behind him.

She stood with her back against the door breathing hard. She was beginning to believe that giving everything up
and declaring herself bankrupt was worth it just to escape this man’s vile clutches, but then she thought of her own self esteem. How would she ever be able to hold her head high knowing she had walked away, turned her back on her problems and taken the easy option out? She just couldn’t do it to herself. She had to find a way to bring Carter Freeman down. She didn’t know how she was going to do it, but there had to be a way.

Lucy stood in the kitchen dishing rashers of bacon into a heated tureen and tipping mountains of mushrooms into the biggest frying pan she had ever seen in her life. She turned them as they sizzled and a few moments later was scooping them into heat proof glassware and carrying them through to the dining room.

She avoided eye contact with the people giving her curious stares and she quickly returned to the kitchen to fetch the pots of tea and coffee.

An hour later they were all outside and down by the river again, this time wearing life jackets and waterproofs.

Joe gave her a small smile before he spoke to the group.

“We’re going canoeing this morning. Along the route you will be given various tasks to complete as a group. The river leads right into town and the Fol Anglais restaurant is expecting us for lunch. The amount of points your teams raise will amount to the menu on offer at the restaurant. It could be ‘a la carte” or ‘repas du jour’ depending on how your team gets on.” He looked over at the woman sniggering in the back of the group. “And would you mind explaining what’s so funny?” He asked her.

“
I know a little French. The Mad Englishman’s restaurant. I was wondering who thought that title up.”

Joe smiled widely.

“Huh! Actually that’s Ellen’s idea of a joke. It’s Ellen’s and Patrick’s restaurant. They opened it three years ago when the chateau restaurant became so popular the quantity of bookings couldn’t be accommodated. The chef at the Fol is brilliant, more geared up to French cuisine but still on our wave length, so don’t worry, whatever meal you end up getting, none of you will starve.” He began steering the group towards the canoes that were stretched along the river bank.

Freeman tried to get himself paired with Lucy but Joe was helped by the ever attentive Jessica and he managed to get Lucy accompanied by another young and capable woman.

The morning went well with both of the teams doing their best. Everyone took part in all the various tasks and there was great excitement as the scores were added up.

Joe had to take a sneaky grin when Freeman’s group actually won the ‘A la carte’ menu
. None of the group realized that the whole affair would be conducted entirely in French. The restaurant served very traditional French cuisine and there were lots of laughs when Jessica was faced with a plate of some pale, spongy delicacy. It was only as she gamely reached the halfway mark of her dinner that the waitress pointed out that she was actually eating jellied calves brains.

Freeman
had ducked out of his squid when it turned up very lightly cooked in its own ink. He moved several inches away from the now gagging Jessica.

Lucy congratulated herself on
coming in the losing group and for remembering from school lessons that dinde was turkey and she dug into her ‘meal of the day’ with gusto, but she also remembered to share her portion of delicious fries with those who made less fortunate choices.

The highlight of the meal was when the
genuinely delighted chef brought out a huge, struggling lobster from the fish counter. He placed it on the table in front of the lucky recipient, speared it through the back of its head with a wicked looking knife, then immediately plunged it into the boiling wine and onions that had been brought out in a huge pot on its own gas ring. The horrified diner had nearly passed out in shock when the lobster was laid upon his plate three minutes later and dressed with a little of the cooking sauce, stir fried samphire and what appeared to be a pair of nut crackers.

The canoes were taken by truck back to their docking point and the teams spent the afternoon traversing the tree
walk and attempting to erect and abseil down the block tower. They all made their way back to the chateau for a late afternoon seminar on team building and problem solving and then split up to enjoy the relaxing facilities at the chateau.

The evening hog roast came too soon for both Lucy and Joe
. While they had managed a couple of smiles at each other during the day they hadn’t had a moment to talk privately. Lucy had no idea what she was going to say to him. She was desperate to tell him that she loved him but she knew that her personal problems would keep her silent. There was no way she could burden him with her past. She sat miserably in the long dining room trying to avoid his gaze but at the same time desperate to throw herself into his muscled arms.

It was no easier for Joe. His heart was screaming at him to do something
, say anything to keep her here with him. She was leaving in the morning. He couldn’t bear the thought of her out of his sight and if he didn’t act now he knew he would lose his chance.

He sidled around the
room making his way towards her but was constantly stopped by the members of the group wanting to shake his hand. They had all gained so much, had come out of their shells, found new friendships and vowed never to be downtrodden again. Joe wasn’t quite sure if that was the effect that Freeman was hoping for but the group felt strong and resilient and they all wanted to come back in the future. Not one of them backed away from him now. Not one of the shuddered as they took his scarred hand. There were laughs and promises of meeting in the future. If he hadn’t been so desperate to talk to Lucy he would have actually enjoyed the evening.

In the end, as the local band turned up, he gave up attempting to talk to her. He knew actions would speak louder than words and with only hours to make his feelings known there was no way he could afford to be shy.
At near midnight he ducked out of the dancing and general celebrations and went for some air outside at the front of the hotel. He looked up to Lucy’s window and noticed that it was open. The drapes fluttered slightly in the breeze and a lump in his throat hitched as he saw a light come on and a shadow pass across the front of the window.

He was about to call up to her when he noticed that the shadow was unusually large for a woman. A second later the curtain swished back and
Joe shifted back into the shadows as Carter Freeman stuck his head out of the window. He glanced around at the formal gardens and then his head disappeared back inside the room.

For a moment Joe wanted to be sick. She had invited her boss to her room. Geraldine had been wrong. Lucy did want the vile man.

His heart collapsed in his chest and he was about to turn away from the window and walk back to his cabin in the forest when he heard a stifled shriek. There was a short masculine chuckle and then silence. The light went off above him and he would have walked away if his super sensitive hearing hadn’t picked up the sound of flesh striking flesh. He’d seen and been involved in enough bar fights to know that sound when he heard it.

Every nerve in his body exploded. Ten seconds later he had climbed the outside wall
of the chateau, grateful for the huge forsythia that grew against the stone, and was standing posed on the stone window frame. Ten seconds after that he was inside Lucy’s lounge, pressed against the wall, ears alert for any sound. He could hear voices coming from the bedroom. One low and graveled, the other higher and panicked.

He moved silently around the room, stepping carefully so as not to make a sound. He came up to the bedroom door and listened, breathing as shallowly as possible so as to keep his presence a secret.

He pressed his ear to the door panel and listened as Lucy spoke.

“You can’t do this Carter. I’m going to take legal advice as soon as I am home again.” Her voice was steely but still scared.

Freeman growled back at her.

“Slap me again woman and you’ll lose more than your precious virtue. You’re daft if you think any lawyer is going to take your case. No one is even going to look at it. I don’t even know why you are objecting so much. At least I am decent to look at. I can’t believe that you actually slept with that guy. He is hideous, needs to be put out of his misery. If he’d been a dog they would have put him down along with the rest of this patched up crew.”