Running Scarred (19 page)

There was more of the whizzing sound and then David hit the water with a huge splash. He moved towards the riverbank and launched himself at Justin, landing a massive punch to the man’s nose. Justin was still woozy from the smack in the chest and the dunking in cold water. The punch on the nose finished him
. He slipped off the riverbank and back below the surface of the river.

Patrick pulled him up again and threw him back onto dry land, where he
lay, his nose bleeding, gasping like a stranded fish.

Joe roared up in Da
vid’s car. He slammed on the brakes, leapt out and pulled Ellen back from the water’s edge. Then he leaned over and stuck his hand out to David, hauled him up the muddy bank then went back for Patrick. He saluted again and then stuck out his hand to help. Patrick waved him away as he climbed out of the surging, chest high torrent.

Ellen had fallen against David’s soaking body. She was shaking so violently her teeth were
rattling.

David pulled her into his arms, holding her tight to him.

“Come on, let’s get you back home. Patrick, can you and Joe deal with this pile of scum? Bring him back to the Chateau. I’ve somewhere we can keep him until we decide what to do with him.”

Patrick looked at Ellen for a long, silent moment and then nodded once. He bent and picked Justin up by the back of his soaking collar and dragged him towards David’s car.

Chapter Eleven

Geraldine was bringing steaming mugs of tea to the kitchen table. Joe and David were sitting either side of Ellen. They were waiting for Patrick. He had volunteered to take Justin to the cellar and lock him in one of the rooms. Patrick was a little unhappy to discover that the rooms were now comfortable and clean. He would have much preferred to chain the man to the wall, or string him up by his thumbs.

Joe nodded his thanks to Geraldine and heaped in three spoonful’s of sugar. He stirred the tea vigorously.

“Thank God Reeves was here. We might not have even seen the clip if he hadn’t kicked it. And he handled that zip wire like a pro. I bet he hasn’t done that in a few years.” Joe slurped his tea and pushed a mug towards Ellen. She was still shaking, looking dazed and confused. The mug shook in her hand, tea slopped onto the table and she put the mug down again. Geraldine wiped a cloth across the spilled tea.

David wrapped his hands around his cup and leaned forwards to give Geraldine a kiss of thanks.

“Yeah, maybe, he was pretty good on it, but what the hell is all that saluting stuff about Joe? I know he’s been in the army but it’s all a bit over the
top now.” David was watching the door carefully.

Joe wiped his mouth and spoke in an exaggerated whisper.

“I can’t help it. It’s automatic. He outranks me and you too for that matter. Major Pat Reeves. You probably don’t know him, not being in the same regiment, but I do. He was one of my commanding officers for a time, before he was put in to lead a Special Forces team. Bravest man I ever saw. We used to call him Super, as in “Superman”. It started out because of his name, you know, Reeves, like the film star, but it soon meant something else. He seemed completely invincible. You should have seen him in Afghanistan. He really was like the “Man of Steel” He was awarded the Victoria Cross two years ago for his outstanding bravery, but only received it in December. He didn’t think he had deserved it because he thought it was his fault that his patrol was blown up in the first place. Rubbish of course.” Joe was watching the door too. “He managed to save the rest of his men even after having his leg blown to smithereens. They were about to take out a group of warlords, when a roadside bomb went off. Same sort of thing that did for me.” Joe brushed his face with his hand. “The shrapnel massacred his leg and covered the lot of them in this vile burning fluid the bastards were using then. The whole patrol were injured horribly, and the hostiles were down on them in seconds, but somehow he managed to strap his leg and fight them all off single-handed. Shot seven of them and killed the last two with his bare hands apparently. Then, even when he must have been in agony himself, he administered as much first aid to his chaps as was possible. He kept the men together and himself functioning until they could raise some help. My mate Alex was there, said his whole stomach was literally hanging out. Reeves shoved it all back in and sat there for over three hours  holding the wound together. Alex knows that he would never have survived without Reeves. About a month ago he was eventually persuaded to accept the medal, had to go to Buckingham Palace for it.”

David gulped and glanced nervously towards the door.

“Christ! The man’s a hero! And I called him a shit and threatened to kill him. I might have to apologize. Depends on what he’s got to say about himself and what he’s been doing for the last few months.” He frowned a little.

Joe raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“I doubt if you could kill him. He’s much more likely to kill you. He’s had a load of special training. His group were the elite. Hard as nails, all of them, and him more than the rest. As to what he’s been doing, he’s been getting himself divorced. It was all round the office. There was a right old “hoo har” because he didn’t want his awful wife at the medal ceremony. He said they were divorced, but she denied it. Apparently she was making all kinds of fuss about it. She reckoned she was entitled, but he wasn’t having any of it, said he’d rather not have the medal if she was going to be there. Wouldn’t accept it until the divorce was finalized and she agreed not to go. Apparently the Queen was not amused with his ex-wife’s antics and she agreed to the delay.”

David pinched the top of his nose and grimaced.

“God! Now I feel really terrible. If only we’d known all this earlier. How come you didn’t tell us about him before?” David looked accusingly at Joe.

Joe shrugged expansively.

“Well I didn’t know it was him before, did I? I don’t have a crystal ball. Nobody gave me a photo or anything. He’d dropped off the radar completely after the bomb. We all just thought he’d been pensioned off. Or perhaps his injuries were too bad for him to come back. None of us could contact him, we didn’t know he’d moved out here and when we saw Ellen earlier on in the year, he’d already gone back. We didn’t see him at all. I don’t remember his last name being mentioned either, Ellen only referred to a Patrick. But that wouldn’t have helped much either. I don’t think anyone ever called him that in the regiment, we only ever used his nick name so it just didn’t click.” Joe defended himself miserably.

The door opened and Patrick strode into the kitchen.

David and Joe immediately leapt out of their chairs, stood to attention and saluted.

Patrick gawped at them and waved them down quickly. They fidgeted uncomfortably before sitting again. Patrick walked towards the table.

“Would you stop doing that. We’re not in the army now. I don’t want you to salute me every time I appear. It’s embarrassing.” He pulled out the chair opposite Ellen and sat down himself. He grabbed a mug of tea and wrapped his hands around it. He was still wearing his wet clothes and he shivered as the heat of the mug warmed his hands. “Ellen, tell us what happened earlier. We need to know.” His tone was gentle and warm.

Ellen looked up from the table slowly. She had been listening to David and Joe trying to comprehend that they were talking about the man now sitting in front of her. She stared at him, still not quite believing he was there. Then she glanced over at David, feeling very nervous. He picked up her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

She looked back to Patrick.

“David had gone to get my things from your cottage. Justin came through to the kitchen only five minutes after he’d gone. I didn’t hear him arrive or anything. He was just suddenly there by the door. I was setting up the table so I was ready for the pig.” She shook a little and then carried on. “I don’t know what his plan was when he first arrived, but he took one look at what I was doing and had the knife in my
side in a second. I though he was going to cut me.” She sobbed with renewed fright. David scowled murderously. Ellen choked before she carried on. “I had to go with him. The only thing I could think of doing, to leave a clue that I was in trouble, was to tug out my hair clip. I knew David would know that something was wrong immediately. I left it on the table, but it caught the light. Justin saw it and was furious. He hates it.” She looked up at David. “He doesn’t even know that it’s real. He thinks it’s the original one you gave me years ago, David. He threw it onto the floor and dragged me away. I didn’t know where it had landed and I didn’t think you would find it. When Joe just waved us off, I was terrified. I knew if we left the estate you would have no idea where he had taken me.” She stopped and shuddered violently.

David put his hands around her arms and rubbed them up and down.

“Patrick nearly stood on the clip. We all knew something was wrong immediately, it wasn’t just me that noticed. It was as good as any distress flare. But why did you direct him to the river? You were trapped down there. It doesn’t seem very logical.”

She looked at her brother patiently.

“I thought it would be the first place you would go after you had finished clearing my things. You’ve been mucking about on that zip wire every day for weeks, trying to get it to go faster. It’s practically on free fall now, you’ve pulled the wire so tight. If you had got back here and found I was out and not asking you to do anything in particular, even if you hadn’t seen the clip, you’d be up there like a shot for a bit of fun.”

David laughed out loud at being found out so easily.

“Ha! Got me, but actually it might have been more difficult if Patrick hadn’t been at home when I went down there. He was expecting you to leap into bed with him so was a bit shocked to see me. He came charging straight up here to find you. We reasoned it out between us because nobody had seen the car go past. I hadn’t heard a thing while I was going to the cottage and Patrick had been awake for a while before that. He hadn’t heard anything either. Geraldine had the avenue covered picking flowery stuff, so that just left the track to the river crossing. I had Joe block the road and Patrick and I went to take the quickest way down.”

Patrick laughed at David.

“Quick! That’s the understatement of the year. It’s so fast I nearly crapped myself. Last time I did anything like that was back in my first lot of training.” He smiled at the memory but was suddenly quiet again. He reached out a long finger tentatively, and touched the back Ellen’s hand. “Ellen, David says that you don’t want me anymore, that you haven’t had my letters. I can’t believe it, I’ve sent so many. He says you’d given up on me. Please tell me it’s not true.” His voice was suddenly strained to the point of breaking. “Ellen, for God’s sake tell me.”

Ellen wiped a tear that had sprung to the corner of her eye.

“I didn’t know what to think any longer. I didn’t know what your original letter meant. You had just gone off with your wife and I thought that you weren’t coming back. I haven’t had any letters from you Patrick. I thought that you must have got back together with her.”

He wiped his hand across the side of his face. He glanced between Joe and David, his expression strained.

“I just don’t understand it. I’m not lying about this. After I realized that I had left my phone behind I decided that it wasn’t worth buying a new one. I didn’t think I was going to be quite this long and I swear I wrote every week. I even asked Ellen to come for the medal thing with me, but then I heard some my old mates talking about your hotel. One of them was thinking of booking. I just assumed you must be so busy that you didn’t have time to reply or because I’ve stayed in a few different places, I may have missed your replies. What with the new leg and all, I even went back to my parents for a week, so I was thinking that perhaps your letters hadn’t caught up with me. It never crossed my mind that you thought I wasn’t coming back for you.”

Joe scratched his head.

“We all read your first letter mate. It was pretty crap. I didn’t have a clue what you were going on about, sounded like a load of old boll…” He stopped and shrank back as Patrick nearly leapt out of his chair. David jumped up and pushed Patrick’s chest hard with the flat of his hand. He glowered for him to calm down and then nodded back at Joe, who carried on nervously. “But whatever you wrote then, I still I don’t get it. If it was Afghanistan, I could understand a few letters being mislaid, but here? This is France, and while I know it’s a little old fashioned, it’s not as if we’re in the back end of a war torn, God forsaken country. Are you sure you’ve got the right address?”

Patrick raised his eyebrows at him.

“Of course I’ve got the right bloody address. I’ve lost my leg not my brains. I know where I live.” He sounded more than a little exasperated.

Geraldine suddenly gasped and flapped her hands excitedly. They all looked up at her. She started gabbling on in rapid French.

“Mais, l’address n’ est pas la meme d’ ici. Chez toi, ce n’est pas Le Chateau.” David stopped her as Joe looked very confused. She carried on in English. “Your address. Why ‘ave you been writing to your address, when Ellen lives ‘ere? They are not the same place you know.” There was silence around the table.

Ellen shook her head.

“But I’ve looked in the box every day. I’ve had loads of other letters. Including some of Patrick’s own mail. There’s been nothing from Patrick.”

Geraldine sighed.

“But that is because the cottage never used to ‘ave a separate address. Now, since you ’ave made this ‘otel and given Monsieur Patrick ‘is own land, the cottage ‘as its own box. It is on the track out by the road. I ‘ave seen it myself when I go to the market. You ‘ave checked that one?”  It was obvious that Ellen hadn’t. “La! I will go and look now.” Geraldine turned and ran out of the door.

Ellen looked around the table miserably.

“Well, why would I look anywhere else? I didn’t even know you had your own box.” She looked at Patrick accusingly. “I assumed everything of yours came here. And why would you send letters there anyway?” Tears were now running down her face. Joe passed her his handkerchief.

Patrick took her hand from David and massaged her palm with his thumb.

“I put up my own box after you signed all the land over to me. I put it in one day when you were out looking at furniture. And I sent the letters to our house, because it was our home. We’d been there together for weeks Ellen. You didn’t even have a bed up here, so why would I send them anywhere else?” He spoke so gently, so sincerely that Joe turned away and studied the floor with determined concentration.

Ellen was still doubtful.

“But you left with your wife. I thought you had gone back to her. She was so beautiful, so elegant, and the way she kissed you! What else was I meant to think? Why did she come and ruin everything anyway?” Her tone was accusing.