by Beth Abbott
“Hell, no!” She breathed, her feet nevertheless taking her towards the path to the cottage.
She knocked quietly. There were lights on, so someone would be home, right?
When the door opened, Ellen was shocked that it was not her father behind the door, but a dark haired woman in her mid to late thirties.
“Can I help you?” She asked politely.
“Umm, yes, umm…” Ellen’s words were stuck in her throat.
“Hello.” Luke smiled at the woman. “We’re looking for David?”
The woman’s smile vanished, and she paled slightly. She looked to be about to brush them off, when Ellen heard a man’s voice.
“Who is it darling?”
Ellen nearly passed out as the door swung further open, and her father stood there, wearing a ridiculous Rudolph sweater and a beaming smile.
Dad!
He looked different though. Apart from the stupid sweater, he had on snug jeans, and his hair was cut differently, in a younger style.
Almost as if he had thrown away the stuffy London suit and tie he used to wear, and was sporting a more casual look.
He definitely looked younger and fitter than the last time she’d seen him.
“Emma?” He said, obviously shocked by her sudden appearance.
“Dad.” Ellen tried to smile, but failed miserably. He’d made no attempt to touch her, so she wasn’t entirely sure he was happy to see her.
In her dreams, he’d always opened the door and swept her up in an excited bear hug. Yeah, this was so not that!
When the silence became uncomfortable, the woman looked at Ellen’s father, and sighed.
“You’d better come in.” She said to Ellen and Luke, opening the door wider. “You can’t just stand on the doorstep.”
Wow, Ellen thought!
Whatever happened to ‘We’ll keep a welcome in the hillsides’? Ok, so they weren’t technically on a hillside, or in a vale for that matter. But this wasn’t the warm Welsh welcome she’d always received on previous visits.
They were led into a cosy living room, where Ellen got the biggest shock of her life.
Sitting in the middle of the carpet, playing with a couple of dolls and a toy pony, was a little girl of about two or maybe two and a half.
She muttered something in Welsh which Ellen didn’t understand.
“Say hello nicely.” The woman instructed in English, obviously reminding the girl to speak English.
“Hullo.” She smiled up at them. “I’m Katie, and this is Smudge! I dropped him in the mud and he got all dirty.” She held out the toy pony to show them.
The little girl got up off the carpet and toddled over to Ellen’s dad, climbing up into his lap, happily sharing ‘Smudge’ with him.
Ellen couldn’t breathe.
This was worse than every nightmare scenario she’d ever come up with.
She’d always feared he’d found another woman who had replaced her in his heart. She’d never dreamed that he’d replaced her with another daughter!
“Why are you here Emma?” Her father asked quietly, obviously trying not to alarm Katie.
“What?” Ellen tried to clear her thoughts.
“Why have you come here?” Her father repeated. “We agreed to stay away from each other. It was safest.”
Ellen cast a glance at the woman.
“Bethan knows everything.” Her dad said quietly. “I’ve told her all about my past.”
“Does she know about me?” Ellen asked, the words choking her.
“Of course, she does!” Her father’s voice was sharper now. “I never kept you a secret from her.”
“No!” Ellen couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice. “You just kept them a secret from me.”
Bethan rose, scooping up Katie from her father’s lap.
“Come on Katie-bear!” She smiled at her daughter. “Let’s go make some tea for everyone.”
She gave Ellen a look before she left the room, as if warning her against upsetting her father. Yeah! As if…!
“You haven’t answered my question Emma.” Her father said. “Why have you come here now, upsetting the applecart and putting all our lives at risk?”
Ellen couldn’t contain her anger now. How bloody dare he!
“First of all, DAD…!” She spat out. “It’s Ellen now, not Emma! Remember? Emma’s gone. She died!”
Luke squeezed her hand, and she realised that he’d never let go of it.
“And where you get off moaning about bloody apple carts is beyond me!” Ellen took a deep breath. “While you’ve been shacked up here playing happy families with your new woman and my replacement, I’ve been working my ass off, waitressing in a restaurant six days a week, living completely isolated and alone, worrying about every knock on the door of my shitty little flat!”
David at least had the decency to blush.
“Do you have any idea what it’s been like for me, dad?” She cried. “Do you? Apart from the few people I work with, I’ve had no contact with anyone for three and a half years. Do you know what that’s even like?”
David stood, and for a second, she thought he was going to tell her off for swearing. Or tell her to get out. Thank God he thought better of it, or she probably would have hit him with something!
Instead, he turned to Luke with a sneer.
“Well, you’re obviously not alone now, are you?” He said pointedly.
“Don’t you bloody dare!” Ellen breathed hard. “I’ve known Luke exactly one month. And do you know how we met?”
Ellen paused and looked at Luke.
“He came looking for me! Traced me from the phone calls you made to that mobile phone you gave me.”
David’s nervous gaze landed on Luke.
“He came looking for answers, dad. Answers as to how and why his brother died!” Ellen felt tears at the back of her eyes. She didn’t want to cry now.
“You remember Luke’s brother, don’t you, dad?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Casey? The undercover policeman? The hero who died saving your God-damned life?”
There was a gasp from the door, as Bethan stood there with a tea-tray in her hands.
“There are two other cars outside, with men in them!” She said to Ellen’s father.
“They’re with us.” Luke said, reassuring her. “Protection, if you like.”
David looked between Ellen and Luke.
“What exactly is it you want?” He sighed.
“I want you to tell Luke and his friends everything you know about George Drayton and his illegal activities. I want you to turn over all your evidence, and I want you to testify, so that Luke’s family can get justice for Casey’s murder, and Georgie will get sent down for good, for all the bad things he’s done.” Ellen stopped for breath.
“And I want my life back! I don’t want to be a brown eyed brunette who dresses like a bag lady anymore. That’s not me! I don’t want to be afraid of my own shadow. I want a mobile phone and a proper job where I can use my education. I want a boyfriend I can go out in public with during daylight!” She glanced at Luke.
“And I want to be able to register with a doctor, so the next time I get sick, or break my foot, I can go to the hospital and get proper treatment, instead of living on painkillers for months, and packing it with ice every time I get home from a ten-hour shift at the restaurant!”
The tears had escaped now, and were pouring down Ellen’s cheeks.
Her dad blew out a breath, but made no move to comfort her.
“Emma…” He began.
“It’s Ellen now!” Ellen shouted. “It’s fucking Ellen!”
She slumped back with a sob, feeling the warmth of Luke’s body as he pulled her in for a hug.
“Mr Lansing.” Luke began. “I respect that you’re Ellen’s father, and that you sent her away for her own good. But you don’t have the first clue what she’s been through.”
Luke stared at her father.
“From what I can see, when Ellen fled north,
you retreated down here to an area you knew well, where you obviously already had friends. It’s apparent that within months you and Bethan had gotten together, and whilst it can’t have been easy staying off the grid, at least you had each other, and then, little Katie.” Luke nodded towards the kitchen.
“As Ellen so succinctly put it, you’ve been playing happy families.” Luke leaned down and kissed the top of Ellen’s head.
“Ellen, on the other hand, fled north to a small town in the Midlands. She knew nobody, had no possessions, no clothes and nowhere to live… She basically had enough money for her first month’s rent and the clothes on her back. She’s had to work incredibly hard just to stay alive, if you can call it a life.” Luke paused, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him.
“Apart from me, and I’m really just a Johnny-come-lately, your daughter has a total of three friends, two of them are her bosses, and the third friend, Suzy, is a fellow waitress. If it wasn’t for Suzy, Ellen wouldn’t have had any contact with another living being outside of her workplace for three and a half years.”
Luke looked back at David Lansing.
“Do you have any idea how badly that can destroy a person’s soul?”
He waited for some acknowledgement, but David just looked at his hands.
“Your daughter is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, sir! She’s intelligent and funny, crazy and caring, with a heart the size of Wales! And she’s withering away in hiding.” Luke shook his head.
“It’s time for you to man the hell up, grow some fucking balls, and set her free!”
Ellen glanced at her father, and the look of shock on his face was almost funny. She doubted anyone had ever spoken to him so bluntly in his life!
“Emm…Ellen, it’s not that simple, you know that…” He stuttered.
“Yeah, it is that bloody simple!” Ellen sniffed. “You hand over the evidence to the police, tell them what you know, and testify. Three easy steps.”
“Or are you afraid that you’ll be implicated?” Luke asked. “I’m pretty sure they’ll cut you a deal.”
“I can’t!” David shook his head. “There’s not just you to think about you know.”
Luke was fit to burst.
“It seems to me you haven’t done much thinking about Ellen for what…at least the last three years? Two ninety second phone calls a year? Less than the price of a birthday card. When is that going to change, huh?” He demanded.
Ellen’s heart swelled for the man who was fighting her corner now. It gave her so much strength to know she wasn’t alone any more.
“He’s right!” Bethan’s small voice was unexpected.
“We’ve been fine here these last few years, being so remote. But only because I’ve been lucky enough to have a job to support us. What if I were to lose my job? We’d have to move to the town, and how would you remain anonymous then?”
She paused to look at Ellen.
“Katie will go to school in a few years, then high school, then beyond. How will we ever know if she’s safe with those monsters still out there?”
Bethan sat down beside David on the sofa and took his hand.
“I never stopped you from contacting Ellen, but that was because you had this notion in your head that it was too dangerous to have more frequent contact. If I had been a better person, a better mother, I would have made you contact her more. Maybe pushed you to have proper contact occasionally.” She shook her head.
“But I was wrong. I was trying to keep you to myself, keep you focused on Katie, on our daughter.” She looked up at Ellen. “I realise now how selfish I’ve been. I’m so sorry!”
More tears poured down Ellen’s face.
“I’ve made it too easy for you to deny what happened.” Bethan continued talking to David. “To leave all those horrible things in the past. But the truth is they’ll never stay in the past. Not as long as those men are out there. We’ll never be safe. Ellen and Katie will never be safe. It’s only a matter of time until they find us. I’ve always known that.”
David stared at Bethan, and Ellen could see that he was realising that she was giving him little choice in the matter, but also that she was giving him permission at the same time.
He looked over at Ellen, then Luke.
“You know if they find us, they’ll kill us all, right?” He said gruffly.
“Then we make damned sure they can’t find you.” Luke said with certainty.
David nodded, and sank back into the seat cushions.
“I guess I don’t have much choice then.” He sighed, grasping Bethan’s hand.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll go and get my friends.” Luke stood up. “Apart from the fact that they’re freezing their asses off out there, we’ll need them to plan our next actions.”
“I’ll go put the kettle on again.” Bethan headed for the kitchen.
With the others out of the room, Ellen sat with her father in an uncomfortable silence.
“So, how have you been?” David began, uncomfortably.
Ellen looked at him, incredulously.
“Really, dad?” She gasped. “After three and a half years, that’s the best you’ve got?”
David blushed again.
“I’m sorry. Emm…. Ellen…” He started again.
“Look, save the ‘I’m sorry’ bit, all right?” Ellen snapped. “You may need that line for Katie one of these days. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it more than I do right now. God! I don’t know what I expected when I came down here, but….it definitely wasn’t this!” Ellen blew out a breath.
“It’s been a bit of a shock, I’ll admit. All around!” David sighed.
A shock? Ellen thought. He considered the appearance of his long lost daughter after three and a half years, a shock? Whoop-de-do!
Couldn’t he have said a ‘nice surprise’?
The front door banged open again and Luke came back in carrying her bag, with JT, Matt and Danny close behind him.
Matt made a beeline for her, obviously having being given the abridged version of the story so far by Luke.
He pulled her in for a full-on bear hug. It was the only way Matt knew how to hug, Ellen thought, her lips twitching.
“Are you good, sugar?” He whispered in her ear. “Cos you know Suzy left me strict instructions to beat the ass of anyone who even comes close to hurting you!”
“Even Luke?” Ellen giggled.
“Especially Luke!” Matt grinned at her and kissed her forehead before releasing her.
Her father stared on, perplexed.
“Matt is the husband of Ellen’s best friend, Suzy.” Luke explained. “He’s here looking out for her too.”
“We all are.” JT interrupted.
Turning to Ellen’s father, JT held out his hand. “Jon Thornton, former Captain, 1st Anglian and Kent Regiment, at your service.”
“Danny Simons, former Staff Sergeant, what he said!” Danny waved hello.
“And Matt, makes four…” Luke added dryly.
“Shall we talk strategy?”
The men seated themselves around the dining table, and went through the evidence that David held against George that made him such a threat.
Ellen curled up on the sofa, not paying much attention to what was going on. Once or twice she thought Bethan had wanted to say something, but had changed her mind.
Eventually they sat in silence.
When Bethan brought Katie back into the room, she didn’t seem in the slightest bit bothered about having four hulking men sitting at the table. She just carried on playing with her dolls and her pony.
Occasionally she’d hold out a doll to Ellen to show her something, but for the most part she played happily on the rug.
Ellen thought Katie looked very much as she’d seen pictures of herself at that age.
The only difference was that instead of Ellen’s bright blue eyes, Katie’s were almost golden, like melted caramel. Obviously, those she’d inherited from her mothe
r.
By the time the men had finished talking and plotting for the evening, it was well on the way to midnight.
“Do you have anywhere to sleep tonight?” Bethan asked.
“We have rooms booked at a hotel in Swansea.” JT replied.
“It’s way too late for you to drive all the way back there!” Beth exclaimed. “We have a spare bedroom with a double bed. There is the sofa and chairs down here you can put together….”
JT smiled. “Ellen and Luke can take the room upstairs, and the three of us can bunk down here on the floor. We have our sleeping bags and packs in the cars.”
“If you’re sure that will be comfortable enough?” Beth asked, uncertainly.
“It’ll be fine.” Danny reassured her.
David looked as though he was going to protest at Ellen and Luke spending the night together, but then to Ellen’s relief, he changed his mind.
Yeah, the whole ‘I am your father and my word is law’ argument was pretty much moot these days.
Ellen said goodnight to the room generally, and followed Bethan upstairs, Luke following behind her carrying her bag.
The room she gave them was small but comfortable, and Ellen thanked her before Bethan closed the door and headed toward her own bedroom.
Ellen turned to Luke, her face a mask of pain and hurt.
She didn’t speak, just walked into his outstretched arms and clung to his shirt while her quiet sobs filled the room.
Without ever entirely letting go of her, Luke managed to remove most of their clothes before climbing into bed.
He wrapped her tight and let her draw strength from the comfort and warmth of his body.
When she finally drifted off to sleep, her heart was heavy with the knowledge that the father she’d thought she’d known was gone, and the man that was in his place would never be just ‘her’ dad ever again.
Chapter 42 - Ellen
When Ellen woke, it took her a few seconds to remember where she was.
Luke was still wrapped around her as they lay spooned together, and his lips gently nuzzled her neck.
“Hey.” She wriggled in closer to him. “What time is it?”
“Still early, not even light yet.” Luke murmured.
As his hand moved up to play with her breasts, Ellen groaned. “Luke we can’t. My father…!”
