Page 56 of Falling for Provence

‘It was this river that caused the damage with the flooding here after such torrential rain. It wasn’t long after I was married, so I wasn’t here, but there were pictures on the news of houses being washed into the river as the banks collapsed. Sometimes with people still inside…’ Julien cleared his throat as if the memory was overwhelming.

‘It must have been terrifying,’ Ellie said. She could feel herself trying – and failing – to push away an image of Julien and his new bride on their honeymoon before it could spark a pang of envy. ‘And so awful to be a long way away and feel helpless.’

‘Sometimes it feels like it only happened yesterday.’ Julien seemed intently focused on the road ahead of them. ‘But it was before Theo was born. And there’s been so much done to repair the damage, but there are always reminders when I drive this road. There will always be the scars on the land in this area.’

‘And for the people,’ Ellie agreed quietly. ‘Life can leave so many scars.’ She wanted Julien to know that she understood – and shared – the loss he had to live with for the rest of his life. ‘Sometimes,’ she added softly, ‘it can be the scars you can’t see that are the hardest to heal.’

Julien’s gaze only left the road for a fraction of a moment. Just long enough to make contact with Ellie’s and for the connection between them to become that tiny bit stronger.

For her to know that Julien could see her own invisible scars. He could feel them.

And he cared.

If they never saw each other again after she left at the end of summer, Ellie knew that, as much as he could, Julien loved her, even if he didn’t recognise it – or chose to acknowledge it – himself.

It was enough.

Because it had to be.

Julien parked his car outside his grandmother’s house.

‘I’ll only be a moment,’ he said. ‘If I take you in, we’ll have to make it a visit and that won’t leave enough time to get to the wolf park.’

Ellie nodded but she could feel the chill of an undercurrent that told her they weren’t close enough for her to be meeting his family. That perhaps this was the reason she hadn’t seen him while Laura had been visiting.

She could feel herself being watched from the windows of the small house as Julien disappeared inside to fetch his son, and the chill intensified enough to give her a shiver.

But then he reappeared and Theo was running towards the car. He climbed inside and gave her a folded piece of paper before Julien fastened his seat belt.

‘Theo’s drawn a picture for you,’ he explained. ‘He said that’s what he does when he’s with you.’

Knowing that Theo not only remembered the night she’d looked after him but had wanted to repeat the connection that had come from drawing pictures together made any lingering chill evaporate instantly.

‘For me?’ she asked. ‘Merci, Theo.’ Ellie unfolded the paper and admired the image, which seemed to have quite distinctive ears and teeth on a round ball with stick legs. ‘C’est magnifique,’ she told him. ‘Is it a wolf?’

‘C’est un loup?’ Julien translated when his son looked blank.

‘Non…’ Theo’s face lit up in the biggest smile Ellie had ever seen from this rather solemn little boy. ‘C’est Pascal…’

Julien pointed out the turning to the village of Saint-Martin-Vésubie as they passed it to get to the wolf park, high in the mountain forests towards the Italian border. Ellie turned her head as if she was trying to get a better glimpse of the village.

‘Stopping on the way home will be much better,’ he told her. ‘There’s a falconry show at two o’clock and it’s a favourite for Theo. He loves the owls most of all. I’m sorry; I know seeing the town is the real reason you wanted to come today, so I hope you don’t mind waiting a little longer.’

Ellie shook her head. ‘I love owls, too,’ she said. ‘I can’t wait to see them.’

There was something about her smile that made Julien think she was only being polite, and she seemed quieter than usual as she bent her head to scroll on her phone. Was it because of Theo in the back of the car? Had she overestimated her strength in coping with the reminder of having lost something so precious?

The reason for her scrolling became obvious, however, as he pulled into a car park beside the chalet that sold tickets to the park. She had been using her translation app to find out whatowlwas in French.

‘J’aime les hiboux,’ she said as Julien lifted Theo out of his car seat.

‘Moi aussi,’ he shouted. ‘Dépêche-toi, papa. Allons-y!’

‘He’s telling us to hurry up,’ Julien told her. He held out his hand to his son. ‘Come on, then.’

He purchased their tickets, and then they had a short walk through the forest to reach the bridge that formed the entrance to the park. He knew the old wood and stone buildings on the other side provided audiovisual presentations that depicted thehistory of wolves and their interactions with humans, but those were in French and he didn’t want Ellie to feel excluded. Besides, he could see people gathering to sit on the bank around the large, grassed area where the falconry show would take place very soon. He turned it that direction, but Ellie wasn’t watching and kept going straight ahead.

‘Ellie!’ Theo called. ‘Viens avec nous. Par ici.’He held his hand out to make the invitation obvious.

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