Scarred Horizon (Scarred Series Book 4)

by Jackie Williams

  John moved back out into the corridor.

  “Miss Ellen sounds like an angel. I can’t believe she would do this much for anyone.”

  Amy began walking to the next room. She ushered Mick forwards with his key and waited for the next exclamations of amazement to die down.

  “You’ll meet Ellen, her brother David and the rest of the team later and then you will see exactly where her motivation came from. She’s a lovely young woman and David is a complete scream. Never a dull moment with him around. Ellen’s husband Patrick I think you must already know.”

  “Only by repute. Our CO was really impressed by his record.” Mick stood in the middle of his room and stared up at the heavily decorated ceiling. “Beats looking up at a canvas roof I can tell you,” he turned to the men gathered by the door again. “Right, you lot. Get rid of your kit. We’re going down to the pool. If these rooms are anything to go by I think we’re all going to be in for a real treat.”

  Amy laughed as the other two men practically sprinted down the hallway to their rooms. She called after them.

  “Don’t get too carried away in pool area. Dinner is at seven don’t forget and I promise you that you won’t want to miss it.”

  Peter stuck his head out of his door way.

  “No way, Miss Amy. We won’t be late. Are you going to have some fun and come swimming with us?” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at her.

  She let out a laugh as she shook her head at his cheek.

  “No, I’m just changing my shoes and then I’m going down to help Ellen set up the dining room. See you later fellas.” She gave a wave of her hand as she turned back along the corridor towards the stairs.

  Joe grabbed Paul by the shoulder and spun him around before he could shrug him off.

  “What the fuck…” Paul wrenched himself from Joe’s grasp but Joe spoke before he could add anything else.

  “That’s what you should be answering mate. What the hell did you do that to Amy for? You were downright rude. She’s our guest, not part of the staff and you had her showing those four guys up to their rooms like she was some kind of servant,” his voice held none of its usual jovial tone.

  Paul pulled his shoulders back and spoke stiffly.

  “I was not rude. I introduced her like that because I couldn’t think of anything else quickly. She’s not my babysitter and I am not going to tell the whole world that she’s here to file a report on me to the British court system. I thought I was very polite considering she has no position here at all and she offered to take the guys upstairs. She said she was going up anyway.” He made to turn back to the scullery but Joe moved in closer and caught Paul by the shirt front.

  “You miserable fucker! Amy’s gone out of her way to help you. She’s the only thing standing between you and the prison gates and you go and treat her like that. What the hell has got into you? You don’t treat any woman like that let alone one who’s worked her arse off to save your sorry skin. How dare you tell her to show those guys upstairs without going with her. You just turned your back and stalked off. She never met them or probably anyone like them before in her life. You’re lucky she didn’t bite your head off and make you look a complete fool. As it is you made yourself look like a jealous idiot.”

  Paul lifted his chin and brushed Joe’s hands from his shirt front.

  “I did not and I wasn’t jealous. She came and interfered so I just let her get on with it. If she doesn’t like it then she can complain but I don’t really see why she should. Those guys seemed to like her well enough, I’m sure that they will all be polite,” he ground his teeth together in barely contained fury and tried to move back but Joe moved with him. He could feel his angry breath on his face.

  Joe threw up his hands.

  “She didn’t interfere, you great idiot. She was just walking across the hall. She would have looked rude if she had ignored us and the men. You were the one who looked like a berk, actually you are a berk. I want you to go back there and apologize.”

  Paul stepped back and spun away from Joe.

  “No. I have nothing to apologize for. I’m not going grovelling to her. She’ll be fine. I’ll say something later if she’s upset but I doubt she will be. That John will keep her smiling I’m sure. I could feel the heat coming from her when he said all that rot about her nursing his bloody feet. As if we care who treats us when we’re nearly dead. I thought these Marines were meant to be clever. He sounded like a complete dolt,” he stopped as he heard Joe draw in a deep breath.

  “You know, I’d thump you for that if you weren’t blind. How can you be so bloody dense?” Joe moved to walk past but Paul suddenly turned on him.

  “Don’t you let my blindness stop you starting a fight! You want to take a swing at me then you do it. I can look after myself.” He lowered his shoulders as he turned in Joe’s direction.

  Joe held his temper in check.

  “I never said you couldn’t look after yourself. I said that you were rude to Amy and now you have been rude about a fellow serviceman. Look, it’s fine if you can’t admit it but I’m telling you that your attitude stinks. Are you going to be like this to her every time a guy passes a compliment? Because if you are then I don’t think I want to stick around you.”

  Paul’s eyebrows shot up.

  “My attitude! What the hell are you talking about? I wasn’t the one who asked her to come over here. I don’t need her, I certainly don’t want her here and she doesn’t want to be here either. She’s just going to do that damned report and then go home. She’s only going to be around a couple more weeks and then she’ll be gone.” He ignored the sudden harsh contraction of his chest as he said those words and carried on. “It scarcely even matters if she feels I was rude to her, I’m never going to have to see her again. In fact I would rather I never saw her again. She’s making my life a bloody misery.” He might have said more but there was a sudden stifled gasp from behind him and he felt Joe move past quickly.

  “Amy, sorry, you weren’t meant to hear that.” Joe sounded positively mortified.

  Amy swallowed quickly and choked back the tears that had sprung into her eyes. She lifted her chin proudly though the effect was lost on Paul who stood looking as though he wanted the ground beneath his feet to open up and eat him.

  “I gathered that, but you needn’t worry Paul. After we spoke the other day, I thought we saw eye to eye on this matter but I was mistaken, clearly. I’ll stay right out of your way from now on. Joe, would you mind asking Ellen if she would send me something to eat in my room later. I have a headache coming on and I’d rather not have to sit making small talk tonight.”

  Joe nodded.

  “Of course Amy but you don’t have to stay in your room on this idiot’s account,” he jerked his thumb back over his shoulder. “Besides those Marines sounded as though they might like your company even if some other people don’t.” He gave her an encouraging smile.

  She tried to smile back but her lips felt as if they were made out of stone.

  “Yes, maybe you’re right and it would be unfair of me to ask for special treatment when there are so many of us. Yes, I will come down Joe but please make sure that I am not seated by this ignoramus. I don’t think I could stand to have him near me and not attempt to shove his massive, stubborn head right up his holier than thou backside!” Her tone had risen as she spoke and by her last words she was almost shouting. She spun around again and marched back through the scullery door.

  There was a deafening silence as she left and Joe turned back to Paul who was now standing facing the wall, banging his forehead on the cold stone.

  “Oh hell!” He groaned despondently. “I didn’t mean any of that and I certainly didn’t mean for her to hear it. That was your fault for forcing an argument. She’ll never speak to me again. How the hell am I going to make it back up with her?” He brought his hand to his face and covered his eyes as he rubbed his forehead with his fingertips.

  Joe breathed out slowly and then si
ghed deeply as he saw his friend’s torment.

  “Why don’t you just go ahead and tell her that you like her? It would save a load of time. All this beating about the bush is daft. I know that from my own experience with Lucy. I nearly lost her because I was such an idiot…” He was silent for a few moments as he remembered the massive fight there had once been in the château dining room. David and Patrick had been beyond incensed on his behalf and Lucy had punched her own boss in the face. It had taken them almost two days to clear the mess but by then Lucy had disappeared back to England leaving herself open to the abuse of her employer, and Joe had spent the next six weeks feeling as though his heart had been ripped from his body. He stared at his friend’s unhappy demeanour. “Look, I’m sure Amy really likes you so why don’t you just go for it and ask her out, it’ll make all our lives a lot easier.”

  Paul shook his head miserably.

  “You’re living in cloud cuckoo land mate. Why on earth would she want to go out with anyone like me? I’m just a useless blind bloke with a criminal record and she’s just my social worker… or she would be if she still had a job. Shit! What a bloody mess and all because I hit a bloke. The whole situation is a bloody shambles.”

  Joe looked at his friend quizzically.

  “What do you mean, if she still had a job? I thought she was the manager in her office.”

  Paul shrugged and looked even more desolate.

  “She lost her job. There was a mix up with the emails she sent or the paper work, anyway someone high up thought that she had just deserted her post when she came over here with me. They brought in some new manager so at the moment she doesn’t have any job to go back too.”

  Joe groaned aloud.

  “And you went and said all of that when she could hear you. Well done mate. Really well-timed. You really will be lucky if she ever talks to you again.”

  Paul shifted uncomfortably. He lifted his head and pulled in a deep breath.

  “I know,” he said quietly, “and it will be entirely my own stupid fault if she doesn’t. I really know how to fuck things up big time.” He sighed despondently and turned towards the kitchen door. Joe just stood there staring at the stubborn fool’s back as Paul wandered listlessly into the kitchen and let out a loud curse when he walked straight into the corner of the table.

  Chapter Nine

  John lay back and groaned as he stretched out on the wooden bench. Mick shoved his leg and pushed it out of his way as he sat down in the hot steam.

  “What a week! All that ivy for a start. I don’t think I ever saw so much. It took up nearly the whole of the front yard by the time we had pulled it from the walls. And the inside! I would never have believed there was that much garbage in the place and what with tearing down those walls too,” Mick sighed as he stretched his arms above his head and flexed his shoulders and then dropped his hands to his thighs. He rubbed the skin over the end of what was left of his legs and then reached for the massage oil.

  Peter spoke up from somewhere in depths of the fog.

  “I am so out of condition. I thought I had been training enough but this has wiped me out. All those stairs. Four floors of the dratted things. Even chucking the stuff out of the chutes isn’t helping much. The place is vast.”

  Caleb reached forwards and poured some more water over the hot coals. Clouds of steam wafted in the air as the rocks hissed.

  “It’s going to be great when it’s done though. Did you see the finished plans? Those suites are going to be perfect. That Jean-Paul guy and his team start the rebuild tomorrow. I really want to stay and see this finished. I don’t think I’m going to qualify to come back for treatment.” He took the oil from Mick and rubbed it into the puckered skin beneath his elbow.

  John grunted.

  “No, pity in some ways. This whole set up is so neat. I never saw such opulence or attention to detail. Amy said she’s going to help Patrick’s wife choose the furnishings next week. I wonder what colour scheme they are going for?” There were some low sniggers at his remarks. “What? I never said anything to laugh about.”

  Caleb laughed even louder.

  “No, sure you didn’t. Like you were ever interested in interior design before you knew that Miss Amy was involved.”

  John sighed into the hot air.

  “Okay, you got me. She’s a beauty alright and I really like her but she never even glances in my direction. She just moons over Paul all the time and he’s never shown the slightest interest in her. He turns away anytime she’s in the room and he ignores her completely at dinner. It makes me so mad. The man is so downright rude to her that he doesn’t deserve her admiration,” he sounded thoroughly miserable.

  Peter spoke up.

  “You can’t help where your heart lies John, but you should know that Paul is as in love with her as she is with him even if he’s not prepared to admit it. He’s showing all the classic symptoms. Avoidance being the main one. He’s being an idiot but there nothing we can do about it.”

  John swivelled his leg across the bench and sat up straight.

  “Well, he’s the reason we’re all over here. I wonder if we can trust his judgement in any of this if he doesn’t even know something as simple as when he’s in love.”

  Mick laughed aloud.

  “Of course we can trust the man. He’s been decorated up to his non-functioning eyeballs and you don’t earn medals like that for sitting on your ass moping over a woman. It’s easy for you to say for him to admit stuff, John. You come from Texas where men have hearts as wide as the horizon. You don’t mind revealing your feelings, but most of us guys would rather walk over those hot coals over there than admit to a woman that we actually like them let alone love them.”

  Caleb shoved the big man in his shoulder.

  “So little Johnny has fallen for the pretty nurse. Aww, that is so cute.”

  John shoved Caleb back and nearly sent him flying into the hot coals.

  “Shut up you idiots. I am not in love with her, but I do like her. If that guy wasn’t around I might even stand a chance.”

  Mick sat up straight.

  “Forget it John. We’re here to do a job and then get out. It’ll all be over in a few weeks. Enjoy the luxury and keep your mind on the mission. You can sort out your love life another time.”

  Paul stood outside the steam room doors and fumed. He wanted to strangle John the big hearted Texan. He knew that he was being ridiculous but his heart had dropped into his stomach when he had overheard the man mention liking Amy. He pulled in a sharp breath when he heard them discussing his judgement and turned away from the cabin quickly. This was intolerable. They were questioning his good sense and acumen for the task before them. He ground his teeth as he walked away, wishing he had never decided to come down to relax in the steam room.

  The last week had been non-stop activity and all of them were physically exhausted. The château was huge and even though the work was more cosmetic than anything else there was still a vast amount to do.

  He purposely kept himself away from Amy. The evening after he had insulted her so badly had been a complete disaster. He wanted to apologize but just couldn’t pluck up the courage to go to her. He hated himself for his cowardice. She was just one tiny woman, he’d faced armed warlords three times her size. She was no one to be scared of at all but the evening had ended in yet another early night for him as he ground his teeth and wanted to beat the life out of the Americans as they chatted so easily to Amy. When she had laughed aloud for the fifth time at the jokes John was telling her he had given up fighting his anger and sidled off to bed before he did anything stupid. He couldn’t bear to be anywhere near them.

  He had gone to his room and fought the bile that rose to his throat at the thought of John or any other man anywhere near his Amy.

  His Amy.

  Shit!

  His heart clenched tighter than it had done before but this time it felt as though the gripping sensation would never release. His whole body began
to shake with the overwhelming heat that suddenly engulfed his body. He didn’t even remember when or how it had happened but he knew that he wanted her. He wanted her with a desperation that was so great that he had to stay away from her. If he didn’t keep his distance he knew that it was only time before he made the biggest fool of himself and he just couldn’t let that happen.

  He knew that she would reject him. Apart from how badly he had treated her there was his cursed blindness to take into consideration too. Whatever he said to others and however invincible he acted, he knew that it would be a huge stumbling block. He would be dependent on some form of help for forever and not many women would be prepared to take that on board.

  He stalked away from the steam room around the poolside to the gym and pushed the automatic door button, listening for the beep that told him the door was open wide enough for him to pass through without knocking his shoulders.

  He had received as many bruises in one week as he could ever remember and he didn’t think he could take any more. He didn’t know when he had become so careless. He rubbed his thigh as he walked across to the weights bench. The bruise from the corner of the table was a daily reminder of his carelessness and another reason to stay out of Amy’s way. She was a distraction he couldn’t afford.

  He checked the bar at the rear of the bench press machine and then ran his fingers up the weights attached. He adjusted the notch two more markers and fastened the safety catch before moving to the front of the machine and sitting down heavily.

  He lay back and reached up, pulling the bar down slowly and releasing it while holding the tension of the weights. He repeated the movement several times before he reached out again and flicked a switch at the side of the machine. This time he had to lift the bar rather than pulling it towards him. He grunted under the strain of straightening his arms and then he slowly let the bar back down.