Scarred Survival (Scarred Series Book 5)

by Jackie Williams

  Aaron raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed.

  “A true hero then. I don’t think I ever saw him before.”

  Gemma shrugged.

  “He must have mixed you up with someone else. Unusual for him, he’s pretty good with faces.”

  Aaron grinned at her.

  “Obviously not mine though ‘cos although I may be temporarily grounded, I’m certainly not dead yet.”

  Gemma looked the man up and down. She could see the pulse throbbing in his throat, could feel the gentle heat radiating from his muscular body.

  “Dead? No, not even close.” She glanced at his hand. “Looks as though it was really painful. You’ve had a lot of grafts.”

  Aaron bit back a grimace.

  “It was agony at the time but I was more worried about the flexibility in it. If your tendons get screwed you can’t do any detailed manipulative stuff with your fingers. Would be as useless as not having a hand.”

  Gemma nodded in understanding, but suddenly felt self conscious about her own arm. She slowly drew it back behind her. Aaron reached forwards and caught hold of her mechanical elbow. He pulled gently.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean that you were useless. That would clearly be ridiculous seeing as you probably saved my life not even an hour ago.” He paused as he heard Gemma take a shuddering breath in before he tugged her prosthetic arm back in to view. “You don’t have to hide it Gemma. I didn’t mean to offend you, but I’ve seen what happens if hands aren’t treated carefully. It ends up like a dead, stiffened flipper or, if the tendons shorten, it’s like an immovable claw. I’d rather have had a prosthetic limb if it had meant that. Luckily for me the surgeons were really careful. I have nearly full movement in it or will have when the grafts have healed properly. If this experimental treatment doesn’t work then I’ll need another one over my palm, but I’m still hopeful.” He looked at his gloved palm. His tone was soft, his voice deep with some hidden emotion.

  She nodded and relaxed slightly. He let go of her quickly and she covered the awkward moment.

  “At one time I thought of getting a latex covered arm. They’re pretty good though the movement isn’t as precise as these.” She indicated her robotic looking limb. “I used to have a cover for when I was out in polite company, but it doesn’t make much difference. It still looks like a fake arm. I’d rather be able to use the thing properly and everyone know that it was false immediately than to listen to them whispering while they try and guess. I know that it’s not very attractive, but it works so well. The detail in all the movement is incredible.” She pinched the thumb and forefinger while watching all the tiny parts move. “Incredible and strangely beautiful isn’t it?”

  Aaron stared down at her. He wasn’t looking at her hand.

  “Absolutely. Definitely beautiful.” His voice was barely above a whisper as his gaze wandered from her face to her body. He cleared his throat. “But you shouldn’t worry anyway, you’re a stunning woman; no one will take notice of your hand when they can look at your lovely face.”

  She glanced up quickly. Was he mocking her recent efforts? She stared into his eyes trying to read his expression, but then looked away, the intensity of his gaze too much for her to take. She gave herself a mental shake.

  “Huh! Your eyes must have been affected by whatever happened to you. I look like crap.” She moved quickly before he could say anything else to her and she shouldered her way out of the kitchen. Compliments and flattery were one thing. Downright lies she just couldn’t handle.

  Chapter Three

  “Gah! Stop! Stop! Shit, just give me a moment, will you.” Gemma hauled in some deep breaths as she lay back on the therapy bed and willed the pain into submission.

  Delphine shook her head and grinned as Ellen shrieked with laugher.

  “Who would have thought that you of all people, was a baby. It’s only a leg wax. This will teach you to leave it so long another time.”

  Gemma mopped the sweat from her brow.

  “Feels like I’m being slathered in boiling oil before you skin me alive! I don’t even know why I’m getting it done. It’s not as though I ever show my legs to anyone. I should have stuck to shaving them once a week.”

  Ellen laughed some more.

  “Once a week? Come off it! We all know that you haven’t done these in months, probably since your sister’s wedding...six months ago was it? And now that you have an incentive, I hear that all those baggy trouser, t-shirt combinations are all going to be changed soon. Joe was telling me...”

  Gemma sat bolt upright, all pain instantly forgotten.

  “Joe? Joe was he telling you what? Whatever he says, he’s lying about it. If he’s started a book on me for any reason what-so-ever, I’m going to kill him.”

  Ellen laughed even louder.

  “Relax. He was just mucking about. Paul had mentioned about you getting closer to that pilot guy, getting him to open up and Joe was pondering on the methods of torture that you might use on the poor man. He was lamenting the fact that you couldn’t use Paul’s robotic eyes to scare the life out of him anymore. Plucking out the glass ones doesn’t give anywhere near the same effect as those ones with all the wiring, apparently. You know that he plays that video of Lucy’s ex boss scrambling against the cupboards to all the new guests? I swear you looked as though you were going to eat Paul’s eyeball when you pulled it out. I nearly wet myself every time when that Freeman guy faints.” Ellen shook her head and wiped a tear from her eye as she reminded Gemma of the part she played in bringing Joe and Lucy together. She gathered herself and took a breath before continuing. “Joe noticed you had plucked your eyebrows and wondered if you were using an opposite angle. He’s betting that you are going to try your powers of seduction on Aaron instead of torture and it seems that he might have been right.”

  Gemma glowered at her friend.

  “Cheeky sod! So this is the way he thanks me for saving his love life way back then. Having a pampering session is long overdue. It has nothing to do with Aaron.” She blushed furiously as she lied and then she lay back on the therapy bed and sighed as she realized what Ellen had said. “Good God, Joe noticed my eyebrows? Bloody hell! I have let things go. It’s so humiliating. Even you think I couldn’t seduce someone. Delphine, do you do manicures and make-up lessons and the like? I’ve no idea where to even start.” She looked at Ellen again, held out her hand and fluttered her chipped nails. “Do I get a discount?”

  Ellen’s jaw dropped as she caught sight of Gemma’s broken, flaking nails. Even Delphine sniggered this time as Ellen wiped more tears of laughter.

  “You know you can have all your treatments for free. I’ll take before and after pictures for publicity.” She dodged the ball of wax and hair covered cotton that Gemma threw towards her. “Let Delphine finish your legs and then we’ll take a look at everything else. Your hair looks great by the way. Looks much healthier without the split ends. Alain did a great job.”

  Gemma groaned again and tried to relax as she awaited more of the torture.

  “Don’t remind me. This overhaul is long overdue. I haven’t dated in so long that I have forgotten to bother...not that I’m about to start dating anyone anytime soon,” she added quickly as she saw Ellen about to pounce. “I just wish I wasn’t having it all done at once. I’m going to be in agony by the time I get back home. I can’t believe it’s going to take a whole day to get me resembling a woman again. I blame the guys. I’m around them so much I actually feel like one most of the time. I even dress like them. The last time I wore a frock was at my sister’s wedding. I don’t think I even own a skirt.”

  Ellen nodded thoughtfully.

  “Well, that’s all going to change. You should see all the stuff Geraldine is giving you to sort through. She’s gone up a size since having Luc and she just can’t shift it. Not that she needs to of course, she’s absolutely gorgeous exactly as she is, but you are going to be the beneficiary of those six extra pounds. She hasn’t even worn some of the outfi
ts yet and I confess that I am furiously jealous. I’m way too short to wear any of Geraldine’s glamorous clothes.”

  Gemma was still deciding whether to protest, but she had long been envious of all the gorgeous clothes David’s beautiful French wife Geraldine could wear. The woman had a natural grace that was easy for her, but extremely difficult for anyone else to emulate. Gemma only hoped that she looked half as good in a few of the outfits. She slumped back down on the bed and groaned in dismay.

  “But where on earth am I going to wear that lot. I don’t go anywhere but the château. Geraldine might look like a Goddess and be able to milk a goat while wearing Versace, but I can’t. I’d look like a right idiot prancing about wearing that lot back at the centre.”

  Ellen waved her hand in dismissal.

  “That’s just where you are wrong. Paul and Amy had a brilliant idea just the other day. From tonight onward you are all going to be dressing for dinner. It doesn’t have to be flashy, but turning up in work gear just isn’t on. The guys would change out of their uniforms if they were at home and so should you. This is the perfect opportunity for you to show off your new ‘lady like’ persona.”

  Gemma would have protested but Delphine had stuck another cotton strip to her waxed leg. She had to grit her teeth to hold back the scream of pain as it and another layer of hair was ripped back off again. Delphine bent close to inspect her work, plucked a couple of stray hairs using her tweezers and then she lifted Gemma’s leg up onto her shoulder.

  “What the hell?” Gemma slapped her hands over the gusset of her knickers and tried to lower her leg, but Delphine had her ankle in a vice like grip. Before she could protest further the beautician slapped Gemma’s hand out of the way and hot wax was smeared over her bikini line. The therapist smiled down at her, placed a cotton strip on the warm wax and then tore the material off again.

  Gemma held her breath and counted to fifty before she could even think about opening her mouth to speak again while the evil French beautician smeared another dollop of wax on the opposite side of her crotch. When she could actually breathe some several minutes later she eyed Ellen carefully and spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Are you sure that this place wasn’t a former torture chamber and you lot are re-enacting it here. There is no way any woman should have to go through all this. Who’s going to look up my fanny anyway?” She narrowed her eyes at Delphine. “I thought French women kept all their body hair. How come you know about this kind of treatment?”

  Delphine giggled.

  “It iz a complet’ myth. Ze French ‘ave been getting rid of body ‘air for far longer zan ze British. I think we invented waxing to remove unwanted ‘air.”

  Gemma glared at her.

  “Well, go invent some other way of removing it then. Preferably without the pain. This is bloody agony.”

  “A little smarting now, but it will all be worth it when you are silky smooth.” Ellen chipped in gleefully.

  Gemma failed to see how as Delphine grinned demonically and slapped on yet another spatula of burning torture.

  “Smarting? You are having a laugh! I am not flashing my knickers to all and sundry just so they can see I’m hairless down there. Jeez, Ellen.” She gripped the sheet beneath her and gasped as another section of her body was whisked naked. “I only asked about a haircut and a few sessions to sort out my eyebrows. I didn’t think I was going to be subject to the tortures of the Inquisition.”

  Ellen laughed again.

  “I can’t believe that you, the hardest, most invincible woman in the British Army, are moaning about a little beauty treatment that most women go through as a matter of course. What would all your old service colleagues be saying if they could see you now? Unbelievable!” She sighed deeply and shook her head.

  Gemma snorted.

  “I’m not hard. Just practical. You have to be tough to go through all sorts of crap in the army. Some of the men don’t really think women should be there even now. It’s nothing to do with our capabilities, just some out of date macho pride. We’re not allowed on the front line as it is; it’s all just backstage stuff still unless we get caught up in something unexpected. Any sign of weakness and I would have been laughed out of the regiment. It’s ridiculous as we rarely have to fight hand to hand so actual strength doesn’t come into it, but I can shoot with as much accuracy as anyone. Being hairless around your...your bits,” she waved her hand in the general direction of her nether regions, “hardly seems important when faced with enemy fire, but I tell you what...I bet the guys couldn’t stand this. They would all be weeping to their mothers for mercy.”

  Ellen tapped her lip with her fingertip.

  “I wonder what the men would do really? Grin and bear it with manly pride or howl in pain? I wonder if I can set something up as a challenge. Maybe make some money out of it for the hotel charity. I could get the whole town involved...The women pay to see their man waxed...or something like that. The men would have to do it just to prove their masculinity. I’m going to run it by Geraldine,” she said excitedly.

  Gemma sighed in relief as Delphine began to gently rub oil into her skin.

  “Where is Geraldine anyway? I thought she might be around here today. I haven’t seen Luc in a couple of weeks and he’s at that stage where babies change so much.”

  Ellen’s brows pulled together.

  “She was upstairs. She and David are a bit caught up with Robbie. He heard them talking about his next school. You know that their system is different to England. He goes up to the Lycee next year so they have to start looking now, but Robbie is putting his foot down. He wants to stay near home but Geraldine insists that the best school is near Brest. It’s well over an hour away so he’d have to board. David is adamant that Robbie needs the best education and Robbie says he’ll run away from home before he sets foot in the place if it means he has to leave his family...It’s been getting a little heated.”

  Gemma sighed.

  “Well, I’m on Robbie’s side. I would have hated to leave my family when I was nine. That’s just so young. Have they looked at any other options? Robbie’s a bright kid. He would do well anywhere.”

  Ellen shook her head.

  “There just aren’t the choices here that we have at home. Brittany is right out on a limb. Robbie already says that he wants to be an army doctor and the only place suitable is in Brest apparently. It’s not helping that my brother keeps on disappearing whenever he has a free moment. He and Geraldine haven’t had any time to discuss it all properly. Geraldine thinks he’s trying to avoid the situation, but going off on some private jaunt isn’t going to help matters. I asked Patrick to speak to him about it, you know, man to man rather than a woman getting involved, but he’s not interested either at the moment. He’s spending hours on the computer with something that’s bothering him and I just can’t get through to him how important this thing with Robbie is.”

  Gemma shook her head.

  “Jeez, the kid’s not even into double figures. He could change his mind a hundred times about his future career between now and adulthood. He’s only just getting to know his new baby brother, who he adores. No wonder he doesn’t want to leave home. Must be a nightmare for him.”

  Ellen suddenly looked downcast.

  “Yes, it must be. I worry about Rose, Fran, Anna and Luc too.” She looked wistful as she mentioned her own three year old daughter and David and Joe’s other children. “The local primary schools have been wonderful and I know that they are young yet but the time seems to fly by. It’s the next stage that’s the problem and it’s not even the schools’ fault. I suspect all of them have their strengths. It’s probably the exact same thing that happens in England, but here the schools are so much further apart. It’s the distance to get there that’s so annoying, not the schools.”

  Gemma laughed.

  “When you say it like that it sounds as though you could set up your own school. It won’t be long before Amy and Paul start a family. You’ll all end u
p like the Swiss Family Robinson or the Brady Bunch.”

  Ellen laughed with her.

  “Yes, well...I’ll mention that to Geraldine when Robbie is sobbing his heart out about leaving them next year and see what she says, but whatever happens, I swear that my brother is up to something. It has to be to do with Robbie. He’s being all secretive and furtive. He went off for hours three times last week, but has refused to say exactly what for. I hope that he’s not sussing out schools and making any decisions behind Geraldine’s back.” She turned towards the door as some deep laughter and huge splashes echoed around the pool complex just outside. Gemma’s eyes widened in horror. Some of the guests at the hotel had lived through the most terrible injuries; to be discovered howling in pain at a mere leg wax would be humiliating beyond endurance.

  “Oh no! You don’t think they heard all my caterwauling do you? I’ll never live it down.”

  Delphine grinned demonically.

  “If zay say anything to you, just let me know. I would love to get my handz on their fabulous hairy chests.” She waved a waxy spatula about and Ellen doubled over as she tried to contain her laughter.

  Gemma high fived the beautician’s free hand.

  “Now that I would pay to see. You can put Joe top of your list, though maybe you had best ask Lucy if she minds first. I notice that she’s very partial to her husband’s body. They’ve been married for nearly three years and the woman can still barely keep her hands off him. I bet she’s been in decline this week with him working with me at Roscoff.”

  Ellen gulped and fanned her flushed face before she could speak.

  “Well, if you are only threatening chest hair that lets Patrick out. He hasn’t got any and doing only one leg hardly seems fair if the others have both done. I wonder if you could teach me how to do it Delphine; he has plenty of body hair elsewhere.” She waggled her eyebrows as she grinned.