He struggled to climb out of the cave. It was too dark and he couldn’t find any handholds. He’d already tried using his legs, but they were useless stumps of broken, bleeding flesh and bone. He let out a strangled yell as he reached out blindly, fighting to get away from the horrible image, and he suddenly clasped onto something small and warm. It gripped his hand back and pulled him to safety.
“James? It’s okay? You’re here with us. Nothing can hurt you now.”
Crystal’s terrified voice reached him. He opened his eyes slowly. She sat beside the bed, her eyes red rimmed, her nose shiny and swollen, and her lips chapped and dry. For a moment he thought he was back at the hospital the day Adam had died. A frown creased his brow as he looked beyond the woman. Several people were gathered behind her, all staring down at him.
“What’s going on?” His own lips felt dry and he ran his tongue over them. He wriggled to sit up but a wave of pain shot through his legs and he winced and gave up trying as he glanced back to Crystal.
“You passed out while we were chasing the chickens. Geraldine says that she thinks you pulled your hamstring when you tripped over, but something else happened too. You were screaming as if you were in terrible pain. Half scared me to death.” She pressed her free hand to her chest.
James rolled his head as he recalled what happened in the garden.
“Bloody birds. I only fell over because I thought I was going to step on one. I thought I broke both my legs. It felt just as though they cracked in half. Total agony. I looked down and thought I saw my own bones.” Sweat beaded on his brow and a cool hand wiped it away, but the pain in his legs was still there.
Crystal shook her head.
“Must have just been suggestive of what happened. Your legs are fine apart from your hamstring. Jules has been to take a look and confirmed it. You know he’s trained in sports injuries. You must have just fallen awkwardly and caught a nerve along with your hamstring.”
James clenched his teeth together and shifted himself up in the bed. It didn’t feel as though he’d just fallen awkwardly. It felt as though someone was sawing through his shinbones with no anaesthetic even now. He breathed through the pain, but it barely eased.
“It’s got to be something more. This is unbearable. I’ve done something to my shins. Must have caught them when I went down. My toes feel stiff too. I can’t move them properly.”
Crystal frowned and looked away and then glanced worriedly over her shoulder at David. He took a step forward and stared hard at his friend before looking curiously at his wife.
“Are you sure he didn’t hit his head?”
Geraldine nodded.
“I saw it ‘appen. ‘e sort of just lay down as though ‘e was going to sleep. There was nothing to ‘it ‘is ‘ead on apart from strawberry plants and I ‘ave ‘ad a good feel around ‘is scalp too. There are no other cuts or injuries.”
David turned back towards the bed. He wiped his hand over his face before speaking.
“You know that you’re at the château, right? And you know what day it is?” He waited until James nodded before continuing. “And you know all of us here?” He waved his hand at those standing behind him.
James winced again as he rolled his eyes.
“Yes, you twerp. I’m not an idiot. I’m just in a lot of pain. I know where I am, what day it is, and I know who you all are.”
David was silent for a beat and then he spoke again.
“And you know that your legs have been amputated below your knees. You have no shins or feet.”
A momentary look of confusion passed over James’ face. He lifted his head from the pillow and looked down the bed. His eyes locked on where the lumps in the covers ended. He forced himself to keep calm as he slowly drew the sheet back over the bed. His legs finished in two smooth stumps just below his knees. One of the stumps appeared to be longer than the other. The screaming pain shooting up his legs began at his feet...the feet that were clearly not there. He looked back up at his friend and saw sympathy in the man’s expression. He opened his mouth to speak but no words formed. Nothing formed. He couldn’t think let alone speak. His vision wavered and narrowed into a pinpoint of light and then everything went black again.
The next time he woke his legs still throbbed, but his head was clear. If his eyes had been open, he would have rolled them at himself. He was about to raise his eyelids when he heard some whispering. A thick French accent that he didn’t recognize came from the other side the room. The man spoke quietly but despite his body no longer being whole, there wasn’t a thing wrong with James’ hearing. He listened intently to every word.
“He has had some sort of trauma. The fall triggered it. Jolted something in his memory banks. It’s not uncommon even after all these years. It’s a form of post traumatic stress disorder and can happen at any time. You say he had a very long sleep just before this happened and that he hadn’t eaten properly for a few days. He is a big man, lots of muscle mass, lots to keep going. He needs a lot of food. I suspect he had a sudden drop in blood pressure that caused him to pass out.”
David answered just as quietly.
“But he didn’t remember that he’d had his legs amputated. He had the operation three or four years ago. God! Time passes so quickly, it might be longer, but having your legs chopped off is a pretty drastic thing to forget.” Agitation threaded through his tones.
The heavy accent came back again.
“But it’s not amnesia. You said he recalled everyone clearly and he knew exactly where he was. He remembered chasing the chickens. It’s a temporary blip in his head, probably something to do with the phantom limb syndrome. It can be an absolute bitch, I am told, by your very own guests on the occasions I have had to treat them, and it can affect sufferers differently at different times. You must know that from your own experience.” There was a short pause while David mumbled something James couldn’t hear. The unknown voice started up again. “I’m sure he’ll be fine with plenty of rest and relaxation. I wouldn’t let anything worry him though. We don’t want it to get worse. No stress at all for the next few days. And no excitement either. I know what you lot get up to with that zip-wire.” There was some exasperated tsking before the man carried on. “Call me if anything suggests that he is deteriorating. I don’t think he should sleep alone either. If he wakes and is confused he might fall out of the bed and really hurt himself.”
Crystal’s voice reached him.
“I’ll stay with him. I’ve known him forever. If he wakes and is confused, he’ll know it’s me regardless of where he thinks he is.” No one argued with her.
The door opened and closed a few seconds later and then David spoke again.
“I’ll send you up something to eat, and something for James if he wakes. Just press the intercom if you need anything while I’m gone. One of us will come immediately.” The door clicked and the room fell quiet again.
A muffled sob split the silence. He opened his eyes. She stood by the door, her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking as she cried.
“Crystal? Hey, what’s the matter?” His tongue felt thick inside his mouth.
Her head shot up and she walked quickly toward the bed, dashing the backs of her hands beneath her eyes. A quivering smile twitched her swollen lips.
“Hey, yourself. I was so worried. How are you feeling?” She hiccoughed back another sob.
James avoided her watery blue gaze as he pushed himself upright in the bed, grabbed the pillow beside him, and shoved it behind his shoulders.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a fuss. I was feeling lightheaded before I set off into the garden. You can blame David for it. The greedy devil had eaten my trout from last night and I hadn’t had time to eat anything else. But you don’t need to worry about my diet or me going barmy. I know I don’t have legs or feet.” He gave a self-deprecating shrug.
Crystal sat down on the edge of the bed.
“It wasn’t your eating habits that had me worried. Wh
atever that doctor says, I know you’re as strong as an ox. It would have taken more than a couple of days with no food to make you keel over through lack of nutrition. It was when you woke up that threw me. You were so lucid at first but you became so confused, like you really didn’t know about your legs.” A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek.
James lifted his hand and brushed it away with a gentle fingertip.
“Don’t cry, Crystal. It has happened before. Visions like that aren’t unusual. I’m surprised I’ve not had more. Do you remember? I told you that I had carpet burns on my backside not that long ago. I wasn’t lying about it.”
She nodded.
“I remember. On the day of dad’s funeral. But I didn’t know how serious it was and I wasn’t aware that they can happen when you are still awake. You sounded as though you were joking, making light of it. It was terrifying seeing it happen for real.”
James paused before speaking again. He didn’t want to admit that it was terrifying for him too.
“Look, it’s just something I have to live with. It doesn’t happen that often and probably wouldn’t occur at all if I didn’t get the pain. It’s that which is scrambling my brain occasionally, nothing else. The hallucination thing, like when I think I’ve still got all my limbs generally only happens when I’m waking up or dropping off to sleep.”
Crystal let out a sigh.
“I wish you had told me before. I thought you were having some kind of breakdown or seizure. I don’t think I could bear it if anything happened to you, especially not right after dad going.”
James shook his head.
“Nothing is going to happen to me, well, nothing except me bursting my bladder. Would you mind pulling the wheelchair over?” He waited until Crystal had pushed it beside the bed before he swivelled round beneath the sheets, and after a quick check that he was decent, he hoisted himself into the chair. “I’m going to shower too. I feel like I’ve been sweating in that bed all day.”
Crystal let out a quiet laugh.
“You have. It’s nearly eight o’clock in the evening.” She smiled at his surprised glance out of the window. It was still light, the sun still glistening through the trees. “Only ten hours in one go this time, and that was without a massage.” She let out another laugh as his mouth fell open. “Go on, go to the loo before you pee yourself. I’ll change your sheets while you shower. And I’ll buzz down to tell everyone that you’re in the land of the living again. Just leave the bathroom door open an inch and yell if you feel the slightest bit faint. Hopefully David will have sent you something to eat by the time you’re done.” She reached into the linen cupboard that every bedroom in the hotel had. Night-sweats were something nearly all the guests suffered from at one time or another.
James was about to tell her not to worry about the food when his stomach let out an enormous growl. He glanced towards the sparkling sunlight again.
“Yeah, okay. Thanks, but I don’t expect you to change my linen. I’m perfectly capable...” He lifted his chin as she interrupted him.
“I know you can do it yourself, but I don’t mind doing it this time. Just go and have your shower.”
James looked down at his hands and spoke before he could change his mind.
“Okay, but just this time...Look, Crystal, I don’t want to go back to bed again, but I don’t want to go downstairs either. I’m wide awake now and I don’t think I could stand all the fuss that lot are probably going to make. Can you ask Patrick to send up some extra dishes and then stay and eat by the window with me? It’s a too beautiful an evening to waste and I’d like the company,” he added as the last of the sunshine cast beams of light over the table and chairs situated in front of the tall windows.
She glanced at James who had lifted his face again. He stared at her intently, a strange look in his dark grey eyes. She put the clean sheets on the bedside chair and gave a shy smile.
“Okay, that would be nice. Thank you.”
James pushed his plate away from him and leaned back to rub his stomach.
“Boy, that man knows how to cook. We’ll have to take some recipes home with us. I don’t think I’m going to enjoy my own shepherd’s pie ever again. Sort of tastes bland in comparison.”
Crystal nodded and stacked her own plate on top of his. She moved them over to a side table and switched on the lamp in the corner. The subdued lighting cast shadows about the room but highlighted the opulence.
“Everything is bland in comparison to the château. This place is almost magical. It’s as though life has a whole different colour and flavour.” She ran her fingertip down the stem of her sparkling lead crystal glass.
James looked about the lavish room. The rich drapes that surrounded the canopied bed sparkled with threads of gold, the silk lined walls gave an intimate warmth to the room, the natural stone bathroom would rival anything in a king’s palace. All of the furnishings hid heat sensitive panels or easily pressed buttons, to change the lighting, the height of the bed, the angle of a chair, even the heat of an overhead hairdryer mounted on the wall beside the dressing table mirror. Anything and everything that would make a disabled person’s life easy and convenient was included. No expense had been spared or detail forgotten. He vowed that there was nowhere like the place in the whole world. He nodded at Crystal.
“Ellen thought of everything, and anything she hadn’t we came up with in a brainstorming visit when she was still renovating the place. It was a brilliant week. Joe, Gemma, and Paul had all been injured within a few months of one another. David and I were already getting back to normal though I was still on my crutches back then. Your dad came with us too. We strapped his wheelchair to a raft we made and sent him off down the river on it to find a suitable spot to house the canoe school. Ended up stranded by the lock just before town and had to be rescued by the locals. It was hilarious.” He laughed at the memory.
Crystal laughed with him.
“He told us about it. He loved this place even though he only visited a couple of times after that first week. Emily and I were at school then and it was difficult to find the time. And then mum became ill. After she died it was all about the insurance claim. I wish he hadn’t spent so much time over that. Emily and I didn’t know about his shares portfolio. It’s not like we needed another million pounds. I wish he’d forgotten about the money and come to enjoy this place more. He was exactly the sort of person who deserved it.” She sighed deeply.
James moved his wheelchair back from the table. He’d not bothered with his prosthetics after his shower. Crystal had already seen far too much for him to worry about appearances now.
“I suppose it was the principal of the thing. Your parents had paid the premiums in good faith. The insurance company owed them. Adam would never give up on a thing like that.” He frowned suddenly. “And that’s another thing I haven’t considered. It was a joint life policy. I didn’t think to check but I bet he’d continued it on his own life too. I bet you anything that there’s another million waiting to be paid out to you two. I wonder where the paperwork is? Did you see anything in his office?” A determined expression covered his features.
Crystal shook her head before she reached out a hand as he looked as though he was about to wheel his chair towards the phone on the bedside table.
“Stop! Don’t you dare try and find out about it now. It’s almost ten at night. Any insurance company would have closed hours ago, there’s nothing you can do about it, and the doctor said that you were to avoid stress and excitement. We can investigate further another day, when you’re fully recovered.”
James huffed out a breath, but he relaxed back in the chair again.
“I am fully recovered, and I am not stressed or excited. I just want you girls to get what’s rightfully yours. I want you to have all the opportunities you can and money certainly helps with that. Did you hear about Ellen’s plans for the stables and barn?”
Crystal nodded eagerly.
�
�As soon as I came back from the rehab centre. Sounds exciting. She and David have an appointment with the Maire later in the week. Ellen thinks it will have to go to a full public meeting but I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t go for it if it brings more people to the area.”
James poured a glass of sparkling water and took a sip.
“I’m not sure that twelve units are going to revive a whole area, but it’s an added attraction if Ellen can fill them. The buildings are going to take a lot of money to renovate though, and I’m not sure people will want to take a chance on it. Setting up a business isn’t easy, especially not around here.”
Crystal kept her eyes on the table as she fiddled with her napkin and then smoothed it flat on the table in front of her.
“But it might work if the initial strain was lifted. If an investor could be found to help with the set up costs, to be paid back as the businesses grew, maybe craftspeople could be enticed into giving it a try. They would have to have a solid business plan to present, but the money could be paid back over several years with an interest rate to rival the banks.” Her blue eyes glowed with enthusiasm.
James sat quietly for a long moment, watching her carefully.
“I know these small towns in France. They’re quiet backwaters that most young people have already moved out of. You might never get your money back. You think that’s a good investment?”
Crystal shrugged.
“A long term one, certainly, but what would it matter? It’s not as though it’s going to cost a fortune anyway and besides, who says it wouldn’t take off. With the château right on their doorstep, the places will have a sitting duck market without doing another thing. Added to the château guests, when the self catering apartments and the river cottages are let out Ellen tells me that there are upwards of a hundred people a week staying here. They aren’t all disabled men who only want to go racing down that flipping zip-wire or charging about a muddy forest. There are plenty of wives and children who like more than that, and they’re not all penniless. Dad certainly wasn’t, and you’re not either. I know that Ellen and David make the place free for everyone who needs it, but did you know that they get some pretty hefty donations from the guests who can afford it as well. The hotel is more a convenience thing, a luxury that they could never expect anywhere else without a lot of embarrassment and messing about. At the moment anyone who fancies a bit of shopping has to take a half hour’s drive to anywhere with more than a bakery and a coffee bar. Something where those people could buy individual and exquisite souvenirs and gifts would be a fabulous addition to this area.”
Scarred Surrender (Scarred Series Book 6) Page 9
