Page 60 of Falling for Provence

Ellie heard the words coming out of her mouth and knew that she couldn’t possibly know that anything she was saying was true. She knew that Theo wouldn’t even understand what she was saying, but surely he would hear the comfort she was trying to give him?

The love…?

It was in that horrible moment that Ellie realised she had done the one thing she’d tried so hard to protect herself from.She had fallen in love with Theo Rousseau as much as she had fallen in love with his father. This small, solemn boy had captured her heart – probably from the moment she’d first held him in her arms to save him from what she’d believed was a serious risk from dangerous donkeys. From the moment he’d opened his eyes and called herMaman…

She had been able to keep it safely below a conscious admission, however. Even when he’d climbed up onto the couch beside her on the night she’d been looking after him and she’d felt that curly-topped head against her arm get heavier and heavier as he’d fallen asleep.

Even when he’d taken hold of her hand at the wolf park and it had felt like those small fingers had been holding her heart as much as her hand.

There was no hiding from it now.

She loved Theo.

And he was hurt.

Badly hurt.

Was she about to face losing another child?

No… she couldn’t let that happen, if there was anything at all she could do to prevent it, even if it meant losing her own life.

Ellie tried to push herself into the gap between the seats, but the car was rocking now. There were so many people around the outside of the vehicle. Were they attempting to lift it over the boulders that were preventing the doors from opening? Ellie turned back. She hadn’t been thinking clearly. Maybe she could open the door on her side of the car? And then open the back door?

But people were reaching in through the window where the glass had been smashed. Shouting at her with what were clearly instructions to get close enough to the window so that they could pull her out.

The water was almost up to her knees.

And the back door of the car was opening with a screech of metal against rock. It was Julien who was climbing into the back and reaching to release the safety belt holding the car seat in place.

A man had his head and shoulders through the driver’s window space now. He grabbed hold of Ellie’s arm and pulled.

‘Vite, vite… il n’y a pas le temps…’

Ellie let herself be pulled. When her own head and shoulders were through the gap she could use her feet to push against the seat and make it easier for her rescuers. She saw Julien backing out of the rear door with the car seat in his arms and, when the people who’d been supporting the car chassis let go, she saw the vehicle turn and get caught by a current strong enough to lift it away from the boulder that had jammed the driver’s door. It turned further and sank on the passenger side as water filled the interior, and then it got swept into the deepest part of the river, with only the roof visible as it moved downstream.

More people had gathered to help and there were cars blocking the road in both directions. The storm had blown past with the same speed with which it had arrived, and Ellie could hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance. At the same time she saw people looking up and pointing. She could hear the sound of an approaching helicopter.

Ellie looked back at the hunched figure of Julien beside the car seat that was now safely on the tarmac of the road.

Expert help was almost here.

But was it going to be too late?

The scene was crowded already, but Julien could hear the sirens getting louder, advertising the arrival of the people he really needed around him.

He was aware that Ellie was somewhere behind him, amongst the people who were trying to help. He had seen her being pulled from the car and helped to safety. He was also aware that being unable to understand what was being said to her might be adding to a terrifying experience, but there was nothing he could do to help her.

His son was the only thing that mattered in this moment.

Julien could hear the approaching helicopter and wondered where it would land. The flashing lights of a police car could be seen further up the canyon road, already controlling oncoming traffic, and an ambulance was edging past to get closer to the scene.

Thank God for that.

He would have expert assistance and,more importantly, the equipment that would be needed to keep Theo alive until they could get him to a hospital.

Into an operating theatre where they could remove the stick that had penetrated that small abdomen.

They couldn’t move it yet. For all he knew, without the technology of something like a CT scan, the piece of wood inside his son might be the only thing protecting him from a catastrophic haemorrhage – from a ruptured artery or a laceration to his liver or spleen – which meant that his priority was to ensure that this impaled foreign object wasn’t bumped or moved in any way. Julien had one hand around the base of the stick, where it protruded from Theo’s tee shirt, and was using his other to shield the leafy end from an accidental nudge.

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