“I couldn’t because my problem involves you, Maman ... and Jean-Luc.”
“Jean-Luc?”
“I’ve met this guy, you’d like him. He’s the leader of our team: handsome, charming, a bit moody but good fun once you get to know him.”
“So where’s the problem?” asked the Prof.
“I’m in love with him and he says he’s in love with me but you’ve been ill, Maman, and he’s in France, miles away. If we live together or get married, it will have to be in France because that is where his life’s work is – with the wolves.”
“And you’re concerned about leaving me here on my own, is that it?” asked Yvonne, laying her hand on Sylvie’s arm. “Would you hesitate if it wasn’t for me?”
“I’m so torn up about it, I don’t know any more.”
“You love him? You want to live with him?” asked the Prof.
“Yes, I do but I’m anxious about Yvonne.”
Sylvie noticed her mother and the Prof giving each looks of complicity, as if they were savouring a secret.
Her mother gave the Prof a little nod. “Chérie, the Prof and I have something to tell you. The Prof has asked me to marry him. You must know we have been friends for a long, long time and our friendship has grown into love.”
The Prof reached out his hand for Yvonne’s. “Sylvie, I am going to look after your mother for as long as I can and she is going to look after me. You are free to love your Jean-Luc and live in France. If Yvonne ever needs you in the future, we all know you would do your best but once you make a commitment to Jean-Luc, your first loyalty is to him. Does that help you make your decision, my child?”
Sylvie jumped up from her chair and ran round the table to give first her mother and then the Prof, a hug and a kiss.
“You are the most wonderful people. I know what I have to do now – go back to France as soon as I’m sure you are on the mend. I just hope Jean-Luc will forgive me for ignoring all his attempts to reach me.”
“I know he will, chérie. He has been driving the Prof mad with phone calls about you.”
“And you didn’t say anything to me?”
“We thought it best not to. He said you weren’t answering his emails and we thought that knowing he was phoning us about you would only put pressure on you. It was so obvious you felt guilty about not being here when I was taken ill that we thought you needed time to work things out.”
“Your mother had the idea that once she was out of hospital and you could see she was going to be all right, you would stop feeling guilty and we could talk to you.”
“As you have. And Jean-Luc?”
The Prof smiled. “He’s been waiting for us to let him know when you would be ready to see him again. He never doubted you would but agreed to wait until Yvonne was home.”
Sylvie jumped up from her chair. “I must go and phone him then ... now!”
Yvonne put out her hand to stop her. “Chérie, sit down again. You can’t phone him, he’s already in the air on his way here.”
“But you said he was going to wait until you had spoken to him.”
“When the Prof told him a couple of days ago that I would be leaving hospital today he said he couldn’t wait any longer. He was sure you loved him and said he would catch the first plane that would get him here after I was home.”
The Prof chuckled and leaned over to tip up Sylvie’s chin. “Your mouth’s hanging open, m’dear.”
Sylvie looked from one to the other. “Well, you have taken my breath away. What time will his flight get in?”
“You can get a good night’s sleep and look beautiful for him tomorrow. He won’t be arriving until nine-thirty.”
Jean-Luc had continued to call Sylvie’s house every night but he didn’t feel quite as desperate as before. His daily calls to the Professor kept him up to date with Sylvie’s mother’s progress and with Sylvie herself. At last, the Professor had told him that Mrs. Latour would be home within twenty-four hours and that was Jean-Luc’s cue to get the first flights he could to Clarksville, Mississippi.
Now here he was on the final leg of what had been a trying journey with stopovers in both London Heathrow and Charlotte-Douglas. Although the Professor had told him that he and Sylvie’s mother would speak to Sylvie to sound out her feelings about him, he had been too impatient to wait in Nice for the call. He wasn’t sure whether Sylvie would be pleased to see him or not but he was prepared to risk her rejection. He would rather that than spend the rest of his life ruing the fact that he had not acted when he could have done.
As the plane came into land, he wondered whether the Professor had sent anyone to meet him but thought it unlikely as the Prof had made sure to give him the address of Sylvie’s house. Having already been through immigration at Charlotte and carrying only a cabin bag, he was soon through the business end of the airport and striding out onto the main concourse. He scanned the crowd waiting for incoming passengers but didn’t see his name on any of the placards. It had to be a taxi or the airport bus. He chose the bus and followed the signs out onto the parking area where a steady drizzle was falling. He was jetlagged and hungry. His guts clenched as the bus drew up. He went to mount the steps and hesitated half in half out. Was he doing the right thing or should he turn tail and catch the first plane back to Nice?
He felt a sharp tug on his jacket and turned round in annoyance. “Merde!”
It was his beloved Sylvie. Looking a little rushed and anxious but still as beautiful as he remembered her.
He dropped his bag on the ground and swept her up in the air, nearly falling over as the impatient travelers behind him in the queue pushed him aside in their hurry to climb onto the bus.
“Let me down, my love,” Sylvie cried out as he spun round, laughing loudly with joyful relief.
She was here. She had come to meet him. She must love him still.
As Jean-Luc lowered her gently to the ground, Sylvie flung her arms around him, around her precious Jean-Luc who had traveled all that way just to see if she loved him. She tipped her face up for a kiss. He needed no prompting and bent to show her how much he loved her. Arm in arm they walked across to Sylvie’s car, both of them talking at once until they halted and kissed again.
“God, how I’ve missed you, mon amour. You are coming home to France with me?”
“As soon as my mother is signed off by her doctor, my love. I wouldn’t miss helping you with your wolves for the world.”
*****
Author’s Note
You may be curious to know whether the facts related in this story are true or not. I did the research for this book in spring/early summer of 2013. All the facts about the wolves in France are correct as at that time, with the exception of the name of the project and the details of the Number Three and Number Six wolf packs. The French government’s project for the wolves is le Plan Loup not ‘le Projet Loup’ and that is the term you should use if you want to Google for more information. Although the poisoning of the wolves does go on, what happened to the Number Three and Six packs in the story is the product of my imagination and has been exaggerated to heighten the dramatic tension. It is true, however, that at the time of writing, there had been only four radio collars fitted with the mixed success outlined in this book.
While I was uploading this book to Kindle, two wolves were shot illegally in the French Alps. That brings to ten the number of illegal killings this year - up to 30 September, 2013: one by poison and nine by shooting. There was an authorized shooting of one wolf last weekend in the Savoy.
I have changed the place names for the purposes of the story with the exception of well-known towns and cities such as Nice, Paris, Bordeaux and Pomerol. If you would like to search for the places in the story, I give here the real names of the places upon which I based my fictional version. The most important of all is the National Park itself. This is le Parc National du Mercantour and not ‘le Parc de l’Alcantour’. There is an extensive website for this park in both French and English
with many photos. ‘Le vallée des Miracles’ is actually le Vallée des Merveilles, ‘Mt Bégo’ is Mt Tégo, ‘Mt Givré’ is Mt Gélas and the towns of ‘La Brigue’ and ‘Bende’ are La Sigue and Tende.
Jean-Luc’s uncle, Raoul : If you would like to read the story of Joyce and Raoul, it is available on Amazon Kindle: “First Time at Forty”, Number 1 in the Coup de Foudre series about the du Lamond family:
Amazon Reviews - If you enjoyed reading my book, please consider leaving a review.
www.AmandaSandton.com
Facebook.com/AmandaSandton.Author
[email protected]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 : St. Xavier’s, Clarksville, Mississippi
2 : Sylvie’s Last Ditch Attempt
3 : Moving On
4 : Le Projet Loup, the Wolf Project
5 : Familiarization
6 : Kaya
7 : Unintentional Eavesdropping
8 : Dr Petit’s Veterinary Clinic
9 : Getting to know each other
10 : A Visit to Wolf Pack Number Three
11 : All’s well, or is it?
12 : Return to Wolf Pack Number Three
13 : Inclement Weather
14 : Life is awkward
15 : Pomerol, the du Lamond family home
16 : Meeting the Family
17 : Dinner and Midnight Mass
18 : La Saint-Sylvestre, New Year’s Eve
19 : Caught
20 : Visit to Wolf Pack Number Six
21 : Snowbound again
22 : Jean-Luc makes a Discovery
23 : Breaking Camp
24 : Working on the Forensics
25 : Making Progress
26 : Sylvie flies Home
27 : Loyalties and Commitment
Author’s Note
Table of Contents
1 : St. Xavier’s, Clarksville, Mississippi
2 : Sylvie’s Last Ditch Attempt
3 : Moving On
4 : Le Projet Loup, the Wolf Project
5 : Familiarization
6 : Kaya
7 : Unintentional Eavesdropping
8 : Dr Petit’s Veterinary Clinic
9 : Getting to know each other
10 : A Visit to Wolf Pack Number Three
11 : All’s well, or is it?
12 : Return to Wolf Pack Number Three
13 : Inclement Weather
14 : Life is awkward
15 : Pomerol, the du Lamond family home
16 : Meeting the Family
17 : Dinner and Midnight Mass
18 : La Saint-Sylvestre, New Year’s Eve
19 : Caught
20 : Visit to Wolf Pack Number Six
21 : Snowbound again
22 : Jean-Luc makes a Discovery
23 : Breaking Camp
24 : Working on the Forensics
25 : Making Progress
26 : Sylvie flies Home
27 : Loyalties and Commitment
Author’s Note
Waking the Wolf (Coup de Foudre) Page 21