Just A Summer Romance

by Karen Abbott

  The camera zoomed in through the open front door, just as a small group of people were emerging out of its darkened interior. One man, surrounded by police officers in bullet-proof body jackets, was obviously handcuffed and another must have been injured in some way because he was on a hastily summoned stretcher.

  Just as Lys was taking in the fact that his head and body were completely covered by the blanket thrown over him, the newscaster murmured, “Unfortunately, it seems that m. Monsigny was caught in the crossfire and unconfirmed reports are that he is dead.”

  Lys, who had never fainted before in all her life, slid slowly off her stool crumpled in a heap on the floor.

  Dani and Christian were cold and their limbs stiff. They had been given nothing to eat or drink and the morning had dragged on interminably. One of their captors, incongruous now in his clown’s outfit, had stepped outside to make numerous phone calls and was becoming more and more edgy as the morning progressed.

  They were still huddled together in a corner of the disused cottage and Dani had tried to keep Christian in some semblance of optimism by reciting endless rhymes and stories to him, but he was very distressed.

  The one who seemed to be in control of the affair had stepped outside once more with the intention of making yet another call, when a sudden round of gunfire rent the air.

  Their guard dived to the floor, rasping, “Don’t move or I’ll shoot!” over his shoulder. He pulled a gun out of his belt and waved in in Dani’s direction.

  For a moment, Dani froze.

  Christian began to whimper and Dani drew him towards her, holding him closely to her, hoping he wouldn’t panic.

  A metallic high-powered voice boomed into the silence of the wood, magnified by a megaphone.

  “We have you completely surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air and we’ll hold our fire.”

  The man was clearly panicked. His eyes darted around the room, as if looking for inspiration for his next move.

  “I think you’d better do as they say,” Dani said quietly, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “They’ve obviously got your friend.”

  “Shut up! I’ve got to think!”

  He waved the gun towards Christian.

  “You, boy, come here!”

  Christian shrank even further into Dani’s side and she clasped her hands around him, half-turning her body away from the man as he rose to his feet, to shield Christian from the threat of his gun.

  “Fetch him here!”

  He lumbered towards them, the hand holding the gun swinging from side to side.

  Dani hugged Christian tighter, unable to even contemplate letting the man get anywhere near him.

  “Get out of here!” she screamed at him.

  She stood up, her face like that of an angry tigress. She thrust Christian behind her and leapt at the man, her hands like claws in front of her. She didn’t even think of the danger she was putting herself in. She heard the sound of a loud bang very close to her head and a scream from Christian.

  The scream fired her anger even more and she flung herself bodily at the man, her hands clawing at his face. Her onslaught made the man stagger backwards, almost losing his balance.

  Behind her, the door of the cottage crashed open and suddenly the cottage seemed full of men shouting and barking orders; the sheer force of their entrance was overpowering.

  Dani was aware that her captor made a move to swing her off her feet and hold her as a shield in front of him but, in the same instant, she heard a sharp report and something slammed into her upper body, spinning her out of the man’s grasp.

  She knew she was falling and couldn’t stop herself and she collapsed in a crumpled heap on the hard ground.

  Chapter 12

  It was nearly a week later before Dani heard the full story.

  In between times, she had been aware of a succession of hazy events. There had been a rushed journey to hospital, sirens blaring, and she heard Christian’s voice crying, “Don’t die, Dani.”

  Somehow, she knew she was in Alex’s arms and he was murmuring, “I love you, Dani. Stay with us! Stay with us!”

  She couldn’t think where he thought she might be going. She wasn’t going to leave them … not ever!

  A high stretcher-trolley was awaiting their arrival at the hospital but all she remembered were the bright lights overhead that flashed with rhythmic precision as the stretcher was propelled swiftly along what seemed like endless corridors.

  The next she knew, she was lying in bed. Alex’s face was looking down at her and he was smiling. His face kept going in and out of focus and she wondered how he did that.

  “You crazy, mad girl!” he said, his tone belying his words. “You could have been killed!”

  “He wanted Christian,” she managed to whisper through dry lips. “I couldn’t let him.”

  Alex took hold of her hand. A pain, deep in her shoulder, made her wince but she was glad he didn’t let go.

  “I thought I was losing both of you,” Alex said softly. “I’d have had nothing left to live for.”

  She tried to speak … to tell she loved him … but no sound came.

  Alex smiled and said, “And I love you,” so she knew he must have read her lips.

  A while later, Alex was holding Christian up so that he could see her, his face white and anxious.

  “Are you all right, Dani?” he asked.

  She smiled at him. “Yes, love. I’m fine.”

  “That’s good! Those nasty clowns have gone now. Papa says they won’t come back.”

  Dani nodded. She was tired and wanted to sleep.

  Another time, Lys was there, her face streaked with tears but when Dani asked what the matter was, Lys just said, “Nothing. Just get better for us. Grand-père sends his love.”

  And then her parents were there, her mother tearful but smiling bravely and her father looking a little strained but managing a hearty smile.

  “You should be on holiday,” she reproved them quietly, but glad, all the same, that they were there.

  Each day was better than the last and, when at last she was able to sit propped up on pillows so that she could see her visitors properly, she asked, “Is someone going to tell me what it was all about?”

  They were all there, all the ones who mattered, and she glanced round them all … but her eyes finally rested on Alex. He was seated by her side, holding her hand and stroking it gently. He nodded.

  “It was all tied up with my work,” he began. “I wasn’t able to tell you what I did because I am an undercover police agent. Our main current job was to investigate a series of bank raids and other daring thefts in various large house and châteaux … and we knew that Lys’s boyfriend, Xavier Monsigny, was related to one of the suspects … his brother, Henri.”

  Dani nodded. She looked at Lys.

  “You told me Xavier thought he had had something to do with the theft of his paintings, didn’t you? Had he?”

  Lys nodded but it was Alex who continued.

  “Yes … and one of the paintings had come to light when someone approached a known collector of Xavier’s work. He knew about its theft and he told the man he was interested but needed to think about it and arrange to have the painting verified. He then got in touch with us and we arranged to be present when they brought it to his château. We needed Xavier there to identify it…”

  “That’s where he had gone, when he went missing,” Lys put in. “You know, when he didn’t come to the opening of the windmill.”

  Dani nodded but turned her eyes back to Alex, who was continuing his tale.

  “However, things went slightly wrong when Henri himself turned up with the painting. He, of course, recognised his brother immediately and realised that something had gone amiss. He grabbed hold of Xavier, using him as a body-shield. They had more men than we had anticipated because, it transpired, they were using the painting as a way to get inside the château in order to rob it, not just to sell the painting. In the ensuing
gun battle, two policemen were injured and Henri and three others, with Xavier as hostage, managed to hole themselves up in a wing of the château. Two others, who weren’t involved in the gun battle, got away and kidnapped you and Christian, hoping that we would immediately call off the siege in return for his safety. He was a wily customer, Henri Monsigny, and, knowing I was heading the investigation, had already discovered where Christian and I were living.”

  “Was?” Dani queried, picking up on the past tense of the verb.

  “Yes. Unfortunately, he was killed in the final assault.” Alex glanced over to where Xavier was standing with his arm around Lys.

  Lys smiled ruefully.

  “And I was watching it on television in the Tabac in Le Château … and thought it was Xavier who had been killed … and I’m ashamed to admit, I made a spectacle of myself by fainting on their floor!”

  “Oh! I’m sorry about your brother, Xavier,” Dani said sadly.

  Xavier shrugged.

  “Yes. It is sad. But that was the life he lived … drugs, guns, robbery with violence. It was evident that it would all catch up with him one day. I’m just sorry it had to be the way it was. I was there, you see. He fired at the police, using me as a shield. I, too, am lucky to be alive.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking of the incident and Dani noticed that Lys clung to him more closely, as if afraid that even now he might be taken from her.

  “But how did you find out where we were?” Dani asked Alex. “I thought we were miles from anywhere and that no-one knew where we were. I didn’t have my mobile phone and I had no chance to leave a message or anything to leave any clues.”

  “Madame Toussaint heard the commotion, so it wasn’t very long before we knew you had been taken. They used their mobile phones to each other and to contact us, so we were able to get a fix on your position … and as soon as it was all over at the château we closed in. We hadn’t been there long when one of the men came outside. He was so startled when we fired a warning shot, he didn’t put up any resistance … then we moved in closer. We were hampered by not know exactly where you were in the cottage, so we didn’t dare start shooting. Then, we heard you yell something and heard a shot … and Christian screamed. We knew it was then or never, so we barged in, with everyone under orders to hold their fire. Your captor panicked ... and I thought, for a moment, that he’d killed you. I thought I’d lost you. I couldn’t have borne that.”

  “He wanted to use Christian as a shield … or a bargaining point. I couldn’t let that happen. He would have been petrified,” Dani said quietly, “… and you’ve lost enough. I didn’t even think about any danger to myself. There wasn’t time.”

  Christian had climbed unnoticed onto Dani’s bed and he now cuddled into her.

  “If Papa really had lost you, I’d have found again!” he told her. “I want you to live with us always and be my new mama, then we’ll never lose you. Will you do that?”

  Everyone laughed and Alex stood up and swung Christian off the bed.

  “I’ll do my own proposing, young man!” he laughed.

  “But you will, won’t you, Dani?” Christian insisted.

  Dani looked from father to son. They were both looking at her expectantly … and so was everyone else!

  She knew she should make Christian wait for his answer … but there was no doubt in her heart what it would be! She already loved him as dearly as if he were her own!

  “Yes, I will, Christian,” she smiled.

  She looked at Alex’s beaming face and smiled happily at him. He sat on the edge of her bed with Christian on his knee and leaned forward to kiss her lips.

  “Cradle-snatcher!” he teased. “Proposed to by a four-year-old … and accepting with no trace of coyness! Shameful!”

  Dani glanced around at everyone else, happy to see the delight in their eyes.

  “It’s more shameful than you think!” she said in mock outrage. “I’ve heard no mention of marriage yet! I’ll save my coyness for when you propose!”

  Alex’s eyes gleamed.

  “That will be later … when we’re on our own!” he promised.

  “Don’t forget to let us know your answer,” Lys challenged them. “We want to know if is to be two or three weddings to look forward to.”

  “Three?” Dani queried.

  Lys laughed.

  “Grand-père and madame Giraud have decided to tie the knot, too. After being her lodger for all these weeks, he knows when he’s on to a good thing! The way to a man’s heart and all that! And they’ve decided to live in the patisserie and make the windmill cottage into a museum and run the business together. What do you say to that?”

  “Wonderful!”

  Love was spinning in the air with the windmill’s sails and her heart was reluctant no more.

  She held out her hands to her friends.

  “Wonderful!” she repeated. “Absolutely wonderful!”

  The End

  About The Author

  As a child, Karen (née Mitchell) lived in Lancashire at the Beehive area in between Horwich and Bolton and attended Chorley New Road infant and junior schools (1947-1953) and Rivington and Blackrod Grammar School (1953-1960)—and enjoys attending the annual Old Rivingtonians’ Reunion weekend each October.

  An important part of Karen’s life is being a Christian. As well as playing an active part in her local church, Karen is a member of Aglow International, a network of caring Christian women from all denominations of the Christian faith.

  After spending 3 years training to be an Infant Teacher at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk, she taught in Liverpool for 3 years, where she met David, her husband-to-be.

  Once married, they moved to Rainford, near St. Helens in merseyside. After raising 3 children, Karen resumed her teaching career, teaching at Cross Pit Lane County Primary in Rainford, Derbyshire Hill County Primary in St. Helens and Billinge Chapel End County Primary in Billinge—until she took early retirement in 1994. With her children now young adults, Karen began to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a published author.

  She joined St. Helens Writers’ Circle, eventually becoming editor of their annual Anthology for a number of years. She also joined the New Writers Scheme run by the Romantic Novelists Association and it was after this that her first novella was published in 2000 by D. C. Thomson (My Weekly Pocket Novels). Over thirty more followed: a variety of contemporary and historical novellas, which are set in such diverse places as Horwich and Bolton, Rainford, Wales, Devon, France and Malaysia—places where she has lived or visited on holiday.

  All Karen’s novellas have been published in Large Print by F. A. Thorpe for sale to libraries in U.K. and America. Titles below.

  Up-dates can be found at www.karenabbott.blogspot.com

  Author’s Books

  Titles first published by D.C Thomson in My Weekly Pocket Novels

  Also by F. A. Thorpe in The Linford Romance Series (Large Print)

  Look out for them as e-books

  Contemporary novellas set as ebooks

  (Ile D’Oleron series)

  A Taste Of Happiness

  Just A Summer Romance/Her Reluctant Heart

  Summer Island /A Matter Of Trust /A Heart Divided - (WW2 - prequel to 2 above)

  Outrageous Deception

  To Face The Past

  Look out for:-

  (Set in Horwich/Bolton)

  Red Rose Girl

  Love Is Blind

  Designs For Love

  The Heart Knows No Bounds

  (Set in Rainford)

  A Divided Inheritance

  A Change Of Heart

  (Set in Malaysia)

  Afraid To Love

  To Capture A Heart

  Illusions Of Love

  Other contemporary settings

  A Time To Forgive

  Love Conquers All

  When True Love Wins

  Danger Comes Calling

  Faith For The Future

  A Love W
orth Waiting For

  Historical novellas

  (Suffragette era - set in Horwich)

  Rising To The Call

  An Unsuitable Alliance

  (Regency period)

  The Turning Tide

  A French Masquerade

  Dangerous Intrigue

  Elusive Love

  The Farrington Fortune

  A Bride For Lord Mountjoy

  The New Lord Westlake

  Hold Onto Your Dream

  Titles of full-length novels published by Robert Hale Limited

  A Most Rebellious Debutante (Regency) (available as eboook from autumn 2012)

  A Father For Daisy (Set in Horwich in 1898 - Late Victorian)

  Take Hold Of Tomorrow (Set in Horwich in Edwardian times)