Summer Seaside Wedding

by Abigail Gordon

  He sensed that Amelie was on edge and as they entered the house he took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze that was meant to say, ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to marry you in any case,’ but only ended up being what it was—a squeeze.

  CHAPTER NINE

  LISETTE and Charles Benoir were more or less what he’d expected them to be. Early fifties, smartly dressed, and very much in control of the situation, which was more than could be said of their daughter. Amelie’s cheeks were flushed because where to some families there would be nothing strange in them turning up unexpectedly, clearly it was not the case with hers.

  They were cordial enough when she introduced him to them and only by the flicker of an eyelid did either of them show surprise at the vision he presented.

  It seemed that as Amelie hadn’t been able to say exactly when she would be able to visit them in London, they had driven to Devon to seek her out and do some sightseeing at the same time.

  She was clearly amazed that they’d made the effort and even more so when they’d graciously agreed to his suggestion that the four of them should join those still partying at Glades Manor—as long as their friends would have no objection, Charles Benoir stipulated.

  ‘You have obviously shown some sense for once in coming to this place,’ he said, addressing his daughter stiffly, with as good a command of the English language as hers.

  Leo saw her mother flinch, watched the colour drain from Amelie’s face, and in that moment all the loving protective tenderness he felt for her overwhelmed him. He’d felt the same way about Delphine. It had been there alongside the sexual chemistry, and now the kind fates were giving him a second chance to experience the wonder of that kind of love.

  Maybe when Amelie understood the source of his caution she would forgive his behaviour. He hoped so. And as for the grumpy old guy who had just embarrassed her, he would take her away from that kind of thing if she would let him. ‘What is your function in the community?’ was Charles’s next question.

  ‘I am a partner in the village medical practice where your daughter is on loan to us at the moment,’ he replied, and added, with a special smile in her direction, ‘We will not be wanting her to leave us when the six months are up as Amelie is a very able member of the medical profession.’

  ‘Ah! I see,’ was the comment that greeted that information, and Leo wondered exactly what it was that Charles saw. But he was more interested in what Amelie had to say, and for the present she was saying nothing. The shock of finding her parents in Bluebell Cove and her father’s sour manner were rendering her speechless.

  It was always she who’d had to travel to them, so what had changed? She could tell they approved of Leo, his looks, his easy manner and the clothes he’d worn for the christening.

  They must be wondering what part he played in her life, if any, and she thought wryly that she didn’t know the answer to that herself. The only thing she was sure of was that she loved him and didn’t know how to handle it.

  The newcomers were made most welcome by Phoebe and Harry and when Amelie heard them ask her parents how long they were intending to stay, she was relieved to hear that it would be for just a couple of days before they headed off to Cornwall.

  It was good to see them after a long absence, but she didn’t want them butting into this precious thing she had with Leo. One-sided it might be, but it was still very important.

  When Leo was about to leave them in the early evening she went out to the car with him and he said in a low voice, ‘What do you think has brought this on, coming all the way from London to see you?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ was the answer, ‘but there will be a reason and it won’t be because they were desperate to see me.’

  ‘Don’t say that,’ he chided. ‘None of us can choose our parents. Their manner may come from the kind of job they do. I felt sorry for your mother. She would seem not to have the same steel in her heart as your father. I take it that he rules the roost.’

  ‘Yes, he does.’ With pleading in her glance she went on, ‘I wish you didn’t have to go.’

  ‘I can’t intrude any longer into your reunion with them in spite of how flat it might be. Did you ask Harry if you could have the next two days off while they are here? I don’t mind and I’m sure he won’t.’

  ‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘My parents have always put their job first, so I intend to do the same. I will be with them in the evenings, and during the day they intend to explore the coast and countryside.’

  He was frowning. ‘You can be quite inflexible when you want to be, Amelie.’

  ‘Is that a reminder of when we were both fresh from the shower on the night we pulled Freddie from the sea?’

  ‘It might be.’

  ‘You don’t understand, do you?’ she said wearily. ‘For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt unwanted, first by my parents and later by Antoine. Then I met you and everything was wonderful, until that night in the woods when I wanted us to make love and you rejected me. So is it surprising that I am not going to want to make that mistake again? If that seems inflexible, fine!’

  She’d glanced over her shoulder a couple of times to make sure that Lisette and Charles hadn’t been within earshot while she’d been opening her heart to him, but before he could reply to what she’d just said, she told him hurriedly, ‘My parents must be thinking this is a long goodbye. I must go.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ he agreed, reluctant to leave her after she’d explained her feelings so achingly and with such honesty. He said, ‘It’s been another day of mixed emotions, and it isn’t over yet. So I’ll leave you to catch up with what has been happening in your parents’ lives, Amelie.’ He smiled quizzically. ‘Something tells me that you won’t be in a hurry to tell them what has been happening in yours.’ And with one last lingering look at the face that was still flushed and apprehensive, he pointed his car towards the apartments.

  She wanted to run after him, throw herself into his arms, and, whether he wanted to hear it or not, tell him how he had changed her life, that she could endure anything her father had to say as long as he, Leo, was by her side, but that wasn’t going to happen because they were waiting for her, seated in the back garden, watching a glorious sunset.

  When she brought out a tray of drinks and joined them she had the strangest feeling of disquiet. Her father cleared his throat and said, ‘We have sought you out because there is something that you have to be told.’

  She thought, Here it comes, the reason they are here.

  ‘Your mother and I are getting divorced,’ he said without preamble, and she felt her jaw go slack.

  ‘Why?’ she gasped, and he actually managed a smile.

  ‘Maybe we have seen too much of each other, working together as we have for so long,’ he said, with a glance at her mother. ‘We have both met other people and when the divorce comes through will be spending the rest of our lives with them.’

  ‘You will be welcome to visit, of course,’ her mother said hurriedly.

  Amelie thought, Leo, where are you? Come and tell me I’m dreaming this. I’m on the outside of things again, the afterthought again.

  Yet did she want him to come and see her like this, taken aback, distressed to be told that her parents’ marriage was over? She’d seen little enough of them before, so what would it be like now?

  She’d asked if they required separate bedrooms and when they’d said no, they would be fine, she couldn’t believe it was happening, her parents about to divorce sleeping in the second-largest bedroom of the house where Ethan had told her she must feel free to have someone stay with her if she needed company. That her first house guests would be them had been the last thing she could have imagined.

  When they’d gone up to bed she decided she had to get out of the house for a while to calm down. Letting herself out quietly, she began to walk to the place she loved best.

  It wasn’t yet midnight, there were still a few folks around, but when she reached the headland it wa
s deserted and the Balfours’ house was in darkness, which left her a solitary figure staring out to sea.

  Leo had seen her come out of the house. He hadn’t been able to settle after returning to the apartment and had stood gazing out of the window for a long time, wishing he hadn’t left her so soon on this strange day of highs and lows.

  When he saw that she was on the move he set off to follow her. There was no way he was going to let her go out into the night alone, especially in the direction of the headland and the beach, which were her favourite places, as they were his, but not at this time of night.

  The purchase of Four Winds House was going through. In the last week he’d had it surveyed and paid a holding deposit, and though Keith wasn’t going to get his wish before he went on his cruise, the sale would be well along the way by the time he came back.

  When she heard a step behind her Amelie turned quickly. There had been no one around when she’d arrived and when she saw Leo standing there she couldn’t believe it.

  ‘What are you doing out here?’ he asked gently. ‘Is something wrong, Amelie?’

  ‘Yes,’ she sobbed. ‘Didn’t I tell you there would be a reason for my parents’ visit? They’re getting divorced and it’s all so cold-blooded. Both of them are going to marry someone else. Knowing what they’re like, I’m surprised they even bothered to tell me.’

  ‘Whew!’ he exclaimed. ‘Was it on the cards?’

  ‘Not that I knew of,’ she told him between sobs, and when he tried to take her in his arms to comfort her she moved away and said chokingly, ‘How do we know it would work out for us if you ever wanted me enough to marry me? I don’t want to be hurt again.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be,’ he assured her gently, with his new resolve firmly in place, but it was not the time or place to tell her about Delphine.

  He held out his arms again but she wouldn’t let him hold her close and, still sobbing, she said, ‘How can I be sure? Half the time you don’t want me near you, and the rest of the time you are everything I’ve ever dreamt of, so how do I cope with that sort of situation? Please, go away, Leo. I want to be alone.’

  ‘All right,’ he agreed grimly, ‘but I’m not moving until you start making tracks for home. I shall be following you at a distance until I’ve seen you safely inside.’

  ‘Please yourself,’ she said wearily. ‘Do whatever you think best, but leave me alone.’

  He did as she’d asked once he’d seen her back where she belonged.

  Back in the apartment, he was remembering that night at the airport when he’d gone to meet her and how he’d been disappointed and amazed that the odd-looking creature drifting sleepily towards him in the arrivals lounge was the young French doctor they were taking on at the surgery for six months.

  They’d come a long way since then, but not as far as he wanted them to. Patience was still the name of the game, and after what Amelie had said about them back there on the headland, he might need plenty of it. In the meantime, he was going to do what she’d asked him to do, leave her alone for a while, and then when he felt she was ready he would tell her about Delphine, how at last he was ready to let her memory be a sweet and distant thing instead of a constant reminder of pain and grief.

  After a sleepless night Amelie was up and about before her parents came down for the breakfast she’d prepared, and leaving them to clear away afterwards she was at the surgery in good time for Monday morning’s overflow from the weekend.

  When she and Leo met up again he was coming out of the staff kitchen with a mug of tea in his hand, and when she would have stopped to apologise for the way she’d told him to go the night before he didn’t give her the chance. As the words trembled on her lips he wished her a brief good morning and disappeared into his consulting room, shutting the door behind him.

  So much for that, he thought as he drank the tea. But how long was he going to be able to keep it up?

  When a young guy who looked like a student presented himself in front of him in the late morning he looked far from well and was anxious to explain why he was there.

  ‘I’ve been to a few late-night parties with my college friends over the last week,’ he said, ‘and I think I might have picked up some sort of virus. My throat is raw, I keep feeling faint, and I’ve got a rash.’

  ‘Any aversion to bright lights?’ was Leo’s first question. The young man shook his head. ‘Show me the rash, then.’ And in keeping with the patient having no problem with a bright light, he concluded that it was not the dreaded red rash of meningitis.

  ‘Does it itch?’ was the next thing he wanted to know.

  ‘Yes, a lot,’ was the answer to that, and as Leo examined it more closely he saw that there were red raised areas on the skin and where the patient had scratched them they’d turned to blisters.

  ‘What have you been taking at these parties?’ he questioned.

  ‘If you mean drugs…nothing,’ was the reply. ‘My parents would go ballistic if I ever did that.’

  ‘I was not referring to anything in particular,’ he told him. ‘Just trying to get a picture of what has caused this. Have you been on, or near a farm at all?’

  ‘Er, yes. The parents of one of my mates have a farm. I was at a party there last week.’

  ‘Did you handle any live stock on the farm?’

  ‘I was around some cows that didn’t look too lively.’

  ‘Did you touch any of them?’

  ‘I might have done, but why are you asking me all this?’

  ‘It is possible that you might have contracted anthrax from the cattle. I’m going to take some blood samples and send them to the laboratory for a fast result.

  ‘In the meantime, I’ll give you something for your throat, which is very inflamed. Then go home, tell your parents what I’ve said, and that you have to rest until the results come through.

  ‘There are two kinds of anthrax infection—cutaneous anthrax that affects the skin and is reasonably easy to cure, and pulmonary anthrax that affects the lungs and is much more serious. In your case, I would think from my experience of the illness that it is the less serious of the two.

  ‘We will soon know if I’m right, and if I am the authorities will need the name of the farmer and the address of the farm as it will have to be inspected to see if the infection came from the animals themselves or from the land on which they were grazing, where it could have lain dormant for many years.

  ‘I’ll be in touch as soon as I have any news from the path lab. If it is what I suspect, we’ll take it from there.’

  By that time the youth was looking decidedly nervous, having got the picture of how rare anthrax infection was in humans and how serious it could be, and he went to do what he’d been told to do…rest, which was the only good thing about it. It gave him a very good reason for lying on top of his bed for hours on end, watching television.

  For Amelie it was a morning of the usual things—a young pregnant woman with unpleasant morning sickness, a patient recently diagnosed with diabetes and suffering from the side-effects of the medication he’d been prescribed, which called for a change of plan, and an elderly woman who’d forgotten to take her blood-pressure medication with her on holiday and was desperate for reassurance that it wasn’t out of control.

  All of which she had given her full attention, but when one of the receptionists came round with elevenses and she had a few moments to herself, the flaws in her family life came flooding back and with them the memory of how she’d let Leo see how unsure she was of the future. She needed security like she needed to breathe.

  She was deeply in love with him but wasn’t sure of his reactions sometimes. And her parents, enjoying the delights of Devon, with Cornwall to come, would appear to have not given a second’s thought to how she would react to their news.

  Why she felt so upset about that she didn’t know as she rarely saw them in any case, but the truth of the matter was that they’d spoilt it, taken away the wonderful feeling of security that had
been hers ever since she’d come to Bluebell Cove and met Leo.

  The vicar’s wife had been in earlier, selling tickets for a hoe down on the coming Saturday night, and on impulse Amelie had bought one, without knowing what she was going to do with it as she wasn’t in the mood for socialising.

  Yet she could feel her batteries beginning to recharge after the upset of the night before. She was coming out of the slough of despondency. Her parents’ insensitivity was not going to spoil her life any more, she told herself.

  They were due back in the village from their stay in Cornwall early on Saturday evening and after a brief stop were driving back to London. So once they’d gone she was going to go to the hoe down.

  It would be on her own as Leo had already demonstrated that he’d taken her demand to leave her alone seriously. So it would not be a night of nights or anything of that kind, but it would be better than staying in and moping.

  In the days leading up to Saturday the young student with the rash had it diagnosed as the anthrax bacterium of the cutaneous type, which was treatable with penicillin. So he was still at home, resting and taking the medication, with Leo keeping a firm watch on his progress.

  The hay-fever sufferers were paying the penalty of heavy pollen counts and the added problem of harvest reaping, which meant that theirs was a continuous presence in the waiting room. But for the rest of the population of Bluebell Cove there was a general air of well-being.

  As the weekend drew near and still in a more positive frame of mind, Amelie was debating whether to buy tight jeans and a check shirt to wear for the hoe down. Having seen something along those lines in the window of the boutique, she decided to brave the cold stare of Leo’s friend Georgina and go to try them on in her lunch hour.

  The owner wasn’t there, she was relieved to see. A young, brown-haired girl was serving and as she moved along the rails of fashionable clothes her enthusiasm was waning because it would normally have been Leo that she was out to please. But in the present state of affairs she didn’t even know if he would be there.