Free Scarred Beginnings by Jackie Williams Page B

Portsmouth.
    It took only moments for his car to be cleared through border control. He’d already sent nearly everything he wanted over to the château. He didn’t have that many belongings anyway and his car was virtually empty. Being in the Army taught you to travel light in all forms of life.
    He was looking forward to choosing his own colour scheme for his rooms, something he’d never had the chance to do before. Ellen had fixed him up a temporary room on the guest floor while they decorated and they were hoping to have his top floor suite finished by Christmas.
    The last few months couldn’t have passed quickly enough for him. Once his decision had been made, he wanted to act upon it but he couldn’t help the nerves that gripped his stomach. He knew that he might have thought twice about leaving the services if a certain beautiful French woman hadn’t been at the château to tempt him beyond all normal reason.
    He breathed in deeply, his whole body thrilling at the thought of seeing her.
    He pulled up into the queue of cars waiting to be guided onto the ferry and turned off the engine. He wound down his window and listened to the weather report for the crossing. Nothing too serious, not that he expected to be seasick but it was nice to know how wavy it may be. He was fine on solid ground but he wasn’t too sure about walking on a rolling boat. The crossing during the summer had been more than calm. He had barely known that he was on water but the winter was a different thing altogether. The Channel could be exceedingly rough. He didn’t want to make an idiot of himself by falling flat on his face. He glanced out of the window and caught the eye of a fellow passenger in the car next to him. The man stared for a few seconds more and then suddenly turned away to tell his friends about the freak next door. David could see the other passengers craning their necks to take a look at his ruined face. He rewound the window up hoping that the tinted glass would give him some privacy as doubt suddenly clouded his vision and fear twisted in his gut.
    What if Geraldine was just humouring him? What if she was laughing behind his back? Or even worse, what if she felt sorry for him! God! The thought that she was flirting with him out of pity didn’t bear thinking about. He gulped back the lump that suddenly seemed to block his throat and wiped his hand across his brow as beads of perspiration formed.
    Their online flirting had been outrageous but emails and texts were hardly the same thing as being face to face. She may well have wiped the fact that he had no legs and not much of a face to speak of, from her mind.
    He had to know how she felt. He had to know now. His hands shook on the steering wheel. He couldn’t imagine how he would handle it if she rejected him. His heart staggered in his chest and nearly tore in two at the mere thought. If it really happened he wasn’t sure that he’d survive it.
    He put his hand in his pocket ready to pull out his phone to call her. There was still time to go back. Richards wouldn’t have sent in the papers yet. There was still time to get his old job back.
    A dock worker suddenly appeared at the front of the queue of cars and began beckoning the travellers through to board the ferry. David let go of the phone, closed his eyes for one last brief second and sent a quick prayer up to heaven.
    He set his jaw with grim determination. He was being completely ridiculous, his fears irrational. He’d faced far more frightening things during his ten years in the army with barely a flicker of an eyelid. He’d be like a nervous school boy if he didn’t get a grip on himself. He had to work with Geraldine regardless of his feelings for her and whatever happened he couldn’t let Ellen down now. Ellen had employed the woman to be their live in nurse, someone they could rely on to be on hand for any problems that may arise and given the injuries their prospective clients had sustained there were