He'll Come Through - Chapter 1 - The fairytale is over

1 - The Fairytale is over

A little taster chapter of my next story. Hope you all enjoy. 

Comments on end of last still to come!!

Lilah was looking out the window at the dry flat landscape watching the miles of sparsely inhabited countryside fly by. The coach was fortunately air conditioned, and she knew that you could almost fry an egg on the stone walls she passed it was so hot. The journey would take over an hour and they’d been travelling for maybe ten minutes.

She had purposely chosen a seat behind the driver, she liked to orientate herself with the surroundings, be aware of what was happening. From behind her shades she watched a young couple trying to juggle their baby across the aisle. There were, she knew another twelve people on the vehicle.  All had got on at various stops in the City, all were heading like her to the airport.

Glancing back out of the glass she could see a car on the horizon, another deserted road driving to another deserted village. She marvelled at the extent of this country, the isolation, the independence of these wonderful people. Occasionally the road narrowed to pass what was described as a village, but less than a dozen homes really only classed as a hamlet.  Young children waved at the shiny new bus, their bare feet used to the ridiculous temperatures already, animals as wild as the children chasing after the bus.

As the bus slowed to negotiate a particularly difficult S bend, she noticed the driver curse, a small four door red car was jostling to overtake the coach and was being driven by an idiot who was obviously in a rush. The coach driver pulled over slightly as the road straightened and she could see him curse again as the car passed, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The vehicle whizzed past them, veering all over the road in its haste. Less than a mile later they passed through another village, both vehicles slowing to adhere to the speed enforcements, that civilisation brought to the dusty road. Passing another group of eight houses, the driver started to accelerate again when the red sporty car, still close in front of them, swung across the road, stopping at a right angle to the road, completely blocking their path. Lilah felt her heart start to pound as she saw four heavily masked men emerge with what she could only guess where machine guns stand and face the bus.

The driver was cursing far more strongly as he took in the vision ahead, and shaking his head he braked hard.

Lilah was suddenly terrified. In all the time she’d been here in this still documented as unstable country she’d not encountered any real danger, any real threats. Suddenly her heart was pounding sweat covering her brow. She was worried, very worried. She’d been in North Africa for three months, working as a nanny for a wealthy American, a man who’d won her over the first moment she’d met him, and his sweet little girl. Her parents had always been nervous of her taking on a job like this so far from home, but the moment she met first Gavin and then Maria herself she’d been hooked.

Gavin was a huge dark haired American and was the head of security for an International charity, he’d overwhelmed her with stories of his beautiful house in a safe and protected community. Gavin was busy in so many capacities, both in the country, but also travelling abroad.  Since he’d lost his wife a year earlier, he’d struggled to manage his daughter. She’d been in boarding school but hated it, so he’d called in a nanny to care for her and home school her whilst he decided what to do. He spent his time between the other African nations...wherever the work took him, and he needed someone reliable to both school and care for Maria.

Lilah had qualified as a primary school teacher the previous year, and after a lengthy holiday and a lack of motivation to kick start her career she snapped up the opportunity to top up her tan, spend time with a cute little girl, and decide what she wanted to do with her life. 

But it had all come crashing down earlier that day. Gavin’s parents had taken Maria for a week to Greece, a holiday home they’d rented to be near their granddaughter, so she had some time to herself, she was sunning by the pool slathered in high factor suntan lotion when the mobile Gavin had bought her had rung.

                “Lilah? Some things have cropped up; you need to leave the house.”  She normally loved his deep drawling chocolate laden voice, but today it was laced with tension.

                “What’s happening?”

He sighed, “nothing much, a few security issues. I want you away from the house. Just for a little while. I’m not saying you’re not safe, but I’m not there to support you, so I’d rather you be somewhere else.”

Within an hour a courier had brought her a month’s salary and a plane ticket leaving that day. But he hadn’t organised her transport out of there. The taxi’s were usually wild, taking corners on two wheels and overtaking where there was clearly NO room....So here she was on a coach...being held up at gunpoint. Was this to do with Gavin? Was this her fault?

The driver stood in the aisle and looked down the bus, fear and worry etching another ten years onto his face.

                “Please, do as they say. There have been four things like this in one week, other buses...if you listen no one will be hurt.”

Lilah glanced around the bus. The young family opposite her were terrified, the mother trying to silence the young baby, they were obviously North African, and their fear for themselves made her even more ill-at-ease. At the rear of the bus were five boys together who looked like they were back-packing, European of some denomination, acting full of bravado, but the tell tale signs of anxiety were clear to see. Two elderly couples were sat a few rows back, hugging each other as though this was the end of the road, as were the middle aged couple saw behind her.

She swallowed a lump in her throat, she was absolutely terrified, she’d not been prepared for anything like this. Ironically Gavin had explained that this was part of his job, preparing volunteers, charity workers, teaching them how to deal with conflict or situations that may lead to torture, kidnap. And whilst she’d been sat in the luxury villa she’d almost laughed, she was so far from that. Now she rued that decision. 

Sensing movement to her right, she looked up just as a very tall and broad shouldered man with a poorly groomed thatch of dark hair slipped into the seat next to her. With wide eyes she stared up at him, a question breaking through the fear she knew was evident there.

                “Quinn,” he whispered in a deep British voice, “you’re a blonde haired woman in Africa, you’ll fair better if they think you’re with me.”

At that moment the first of the armed and masked men jumped up the steps of the coach, “everybody off!” He shouted, then repeated it in what she presumed was French and Arabic. Quinn nudged her and she stood, followed the young couple and their ironically now sleeping baby out into the sun. The unrelenting sun.

As they stood in a group the four men pacing around them, Lilah leaned involuntarily closer to the stranger. He placed an arm around her, stooping to whisper in her ear, “Quinn Southland, 29 and your boyfriend of six months.”

Not turning to look at him she nodded, it made sense to be with him, to have him shield her, though why he’d bother to potentially put himself at risk she had no idea. “Lilah, short for Delilah,” she sighed, “hippy parents, Dawson. 26.”

                “Well Delilah, I presume a nice girl like you has never been in a situation like this, I know what I’m doing, so if you want to come through this, then I suggest you follow my lead!”

Finale!

So it's over all! would love to hear your opinion, even if it's only two or three words!

Too cheesy? Hope not, think these two needed a nice happy ending with no messing, they've had enough of that!

New story will be started hopefully by weekend. I am away Friday/Sat so if it's not up by Thurs eve it May be Sunday!

Thanks SO much for all the reads, comments I have enjoyed this SO much!

Starting Over - The end

THE END

Ellen smiled. Jan looked terrified, but she wanted, no she NEEDED this from him, his mother was the bonus, but either way she needed to know that he was serious about this.

As he looked from her to his mother Jan sighed, he’d been stitched up good and proper, and he could almost believe his mother was in on this, the way she the corners of her mouth had lifted into a smirk, her eyes laughing. His eyes searched between the two of them before he looked at Ellen.

                “Really?”

She nodded, “if you want to!”

He sighed then dropped to the floor on to one knee, reaching for the velvet jewellery box, he flicked in open to reveal the most beautiful diamond ring Ellen had ever seen. She was so stunned that she barely noticed the words coming out of Jan’s mouth.

                “Ellen Reynolds, I have been besotted with you since the moment I set eyes on you, I can’t live without you. So will you please put me out of my misery and make me the happiest man alive and marry me?”

                “You chose that for me?” she was still mesmerised by the ring.

                “Of course. You didn’t peep at it all day?” When she shook her head he coughed deliberately and stared at her, “everyone is watching, and waiting for an answer!”

She glanced around the restaurant from his mother’s expectant face to the twenty or so faces at the nearby tables watching intently. Wrinkling her eyebrows she looked back to Jan, “what?”

He shook his head, “I’m on one knee here, will you marry me?”

Suddenly the enormity of the moment hit her like a speeding train and she met his eyes once more, biting her lip nervously. Once she saw the anxiety, the stress, the fear in his eyes, she finally realised this meant as much to him as it did to her.

                “You mean it? You don’t really fancy my sisters?” He shook his head. “Or just because of the baby?”

As he shook his head his mother spluttered, “Baby?”

He raised a hand to silence her, his eyes never leaving Ellen’s, “no because I love you, and can’t see my life without you in it. Now please make a decision, this is killing my knee!”

“There’s only one answer Jan, you know that!” As the word ‘yes’ left her lips he jumped to his feet and pulled her into the arms. The whoops and cheers all disappeared into the background as he kissed her and she melted into his arms.

Ellen had paid for the trauma she’d inflicted on Jan daily over the last three months, but now as she stood here looking at herself in the floor to ceiling mirror, she knew that every joke, every gibe had been worth it. She’d made him prove himself to her, not because she doubted him, but she doubted her own judgement. Her frayed confidence, her belief in herself had all been restored, so that now as she stood in her floor length ivory gown, her hair coiffed, her makeup immaculate, she KNEW that she had no doubts about him, that he loved her, was as devoted as she deserved and that they shared an equal future. She never thought about Richard, hadn’t for months, but at that moment, the last few seconds before she joined her waiting father to enter the marquee that adorned the lawn of Jan’s house, no, she corrected herself, THEIR house, she did think of him for a moment. Or rather she sighed with relief that she’d found him with Rebecca. How different could her future have been?

With a sigh, and a smile to herself, she turned to the door, and stepped out into the hallway, to take her father’s arm.

Jan stood at the far end of the marquee, seventy very select guests flanked the aisle that she faced, and spotting him she grinned, he looked so handsome, his dinner suit as impeccably tailored as every suit he owned...and there were a lot! He’d re-grown the longer hair he’d in Spain at her request, and as she looked down the aisle at him, she was reminded of the carefree man she’d met seven months earlier. They’d both come so far since then, some days she barely recognised herself as the insecure put upon dumped fiancée who’d arrived in that hotel back in May. But then Jan wasn’t the same man either, and she didn’t know which side of him she loved more, the man she’d fallen in love with, the successful business man, the considerate lover, or the doting father to be. Though these days they were all so merged that she couldn’t separate them any longer.

Instinctively she placed a hand over her swollen stomach, and at that second his eyes left hers and followed her hand.  Then with an appreciative smile, his eyes returned to hers. She remembered in all the romance novels she’d ever read, the sultry hero ‘undressed the damsel with his eyes,’ she’d never believed that ‘look’ existed, until that very second. As she started her journey towards Jan, he devoured her, penetrated her, owned her with his eyes, and she had no complaints.

The service was all a blur; she remembered murmuring ‘I do’, her father smiling at her, her mother crying. Then Jan kissed her and took over her senses. Since then they’d talked, greeted, been photographed until she felt like royalty. Now her tired legs and burgeoning body needed a rest. She was trapped by Marta, Jan’s eldest sister, the matriarch that his gentle and elegant mother could never be. The rest of the family found her annoying, and pitied her husband Hubert, but Ellen loved her, she’d been instrumental in making her feel at home in Brussels.

                “Are you ok? You look tired.”

                “Long day!” Ellen offered, “Thanks for all your help!”

Marta nodded scanning the room, “where’s that brother of mine?”

                “Is someone using my name in vain?” a warm voice intercepted the conversation as two arms snaked around Ellen’s waist, hands settling possessively over their baby bump. Dropping in volume he whispered at her ear, “you look as bored as me. I think our wedding stopped being our wedding about four hours ago. I‘ve got a car waiting, packed with some things....”

She nodded apologetically to Marta who merely smiled approving, then turned in the embrace to Jan, her husband.

                “I thought we weren’t getting away...something about being too busy and me being too pregnant?”  She leaned back in his arms looking up at him.

                “Firstly, you could never be TOO pregnant, I am falling in love with you more each day...” he paused to kiss her gently, “secondly, a man is entitled to have a few secrets!”

                “You think?”

He nodded, “Remember I promised you a cruise around the Balearics, when we were sat looking out at those azure seas?”

She grinned, “Such a nice day! Such a nice memory!”

Swinging her in his arms he waltzed her towards the door, “well that was my vision for a honeymoon...until we got married in December.”  As she giggled he hugged her closer, “so I’ve booked us business class to New York, then a week in a five star spa on Central Park. We can shop, sightsee and create new New York memories, without Rebecca in them, but we can also chill and sleep and be pampered.”

She smiled, it sounded divine, but she was exhausted, all she really wanted was to curl up in that huge bed upstairs. Seeing the uncertainty in her eyes he couldn’t restrain his laugh anymore, “aren’t you glad we don’t leave until tomorrow? Tonight we are staying at a special hotel a few miles away that’s quiet and relaxing....and they’ll bring us anything we want to our room, we don’t have to move until....oooh four o’clock tomorrow afternoon!”

                “Shouldn’t we say goodbye?” she asked as he gestured to the car that was waiting, the engine ticking over.

                “I think everyone is enjoying themselves, and will have no doubt where we’ll be!”

Ellen stopped at the car door and asked, “And that is?”

Jan chuckled, “falling from stupidly to ridiculously in love! And who can object to that?”

Last Chapter approaching!

Next chapter will be last! :( Boo or :) yeah? I never know!

Anyway, have a couple of ideas for nest story, some stronger than others! May ask for a few selection choices at some point! 

Thanks all, so pleased with the success of this first blog! Await with baited breath your thoughts on Chapter 26 and finale!!

MZ

Starting Over - Chapter Twenty Six - taking back the control

Chapter 26 - Taking back the control

Ellen looked down at the box, dreading to see what it contained. Nausea washed over her, Jan was hurt, and that surprised her. Had she done that? Used him? She picked up the box but refused to open it. She’d sworn that she’d never consider marriage again, not after Richard, now this. She turned the box in her fingers looking at the plush velvet the small silver catch that held it closed.

One man had asked her to marry him because it was convenient, now she had the same scenario again. She felt like Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger, she too wanted ‘bells and banjos’ to know this was love, romance, hearts and flowers, not convenience, a hot Steve McQueen and a baby just wasn’t enough. Where was the professing of undying love, the hearts and flowers, the ‘I can’t live without you!’?

Sighing she walked back into the house. She could hear Jan coming down the stairs; he was wearing jeans and a thick sweater.

                “Jan. I didn’t mean to hurt you....”

He looked at her, saw the box in her fingers and then lifted his eyes back to hers, “I’m not good enough. I never have been. That’s the truth isn’t it?”

She shook her head, “of course not, I have loved you for so long Jan....it’s just....”

                “Just what? I don’t understand you. I want to marry you; I want this to be forever Ellen.”

She was silent, staring at him, waiting for something, anything that made this more that a sense of duty, more than an obligation to their baby. She wanted Steve McQueen and his bells and his banjo...that expression that this was his first choice, not his last.

                “SO will you marry me?”

She could barely speak as the tears welled at the resentment in his voice, the anger, the pain.  

                “No.” She could barely believe she’d said the word, “I’m not a mother Jan, I’m a woman first, and I’ve almost married a man for the wrong reason once, I’m not doing it again.”

He was across the kitchen from her, his face dropped, “and THAT’s what it all comes down to. That bastard sucked you in, spat you out and now it’s all poor Ellen! You know me; you KNOW I’m not like that! Hell Ellen, I’ve said I was wrong, I should’ve said and done things differently in Spain, I was hiding from myself, but never from you. But this...” he gestured around them, then at the ring. “Do you honestly think that I would make a snap decision based on you being pregnant? The man who ignored family obligations and stresses for a year to ease his own guilt? No way Ellen. I came to England to find you with that ring, BEFORE the baby, BEFORE any obligation. Because I realised that life without you wasn’t a life I wanted! I just thought that the woman I fell in love with had more trust and more compassion than to throw it all back in my face!” He slapped a wad of cash on the work surface and grimaced, “more than enough for a flight and a taxi to the airport, I’ll get Louis to contact you about child support.”

Before she could respond he was out the door down to the garage and as she pulled herself together to chase after him, she heard the roar of the powerful motorbike he kept in the garage and with a wheel spin she could tell the bike was moving. Rushing to the veranda she called after him, tears pouring down her face but with his helmet and the loud engine he would never hear her.

Ellen slumped onto the sofa. How had she got it so wrong? She was so busy being wronged that she hadn’t seen the change of direction, hadn’t even questioned why he’d come back in the first place. And now she’d driven him away, the only man she’d ever TRULY envisaged spending the rest of her life with.

She glanced up to the kitchen, the wad of cash glaring at her like a child poking its tongue out, gloating, and goading her.  Standing up in anger she hit the pile with a gripped fist, Euro notes fluttering down like ironic confetti as she cried a little bit more.

Ellen suddenly looked up she could control her own destiny, couldn’t she?  How could she find him?  Her only thought was Louis, there was a family meet planned, so if she could convince Louis to talk to Jan.....but she didn’t know his number.

Suddenly she thought of her phone, checking she had reception, she logged on to Google and typed his name in. Up popped details of a legal firm in Brussels. So she dialled, using Jan’s house phone.

After a little questioning, she was finally put through to Louis.

                “Ellen?” he came on the phone shock evident in his voice. “I couldn’t work out who you were for a second. How are you?  Are you still joining Jan at the dinner tonight?”

She sighed, how much did you tell the brother? Everything, she realised, if she wanted to get her man. So she did!

She had an afternoon to herself to pamper, primp herself for the evening. So she headed to a salon recommended by Louis’ secretary. The family were meeting in a well revered restaurant in the centre of the City. Their mother was visiting from Liege; apparently she loved trips staying in her favourite hotel...despite offers from her children to stay with them. The family were arriving at eight, but Louis had arranged to meet Jan at seven.

Hence Ellen was sat at the table, a secluded area overlooking the small garden. She’d never been so anxious in her life, despite all that had happened in the last few months. She honestly believed that this was the defining moment of her life. If she walked out of here sans Jan, then her and her baby had a difficult life ahead. But together....she knew it could work. Now that she knew that he loved her. How ridiculous that she’d let one word or the lack of it influence her so greatly.

                “Ellen?”

The single word from that slightly accented voice dragged her from her reverie like a bolt of lightning. Suddenly she was a gibbering wreck, “I....um.....”

He slipped into a seat opposite her, “I’m sitting because it’s too expensive a place to make a scene...”

She gulped fighting a breakdown, “as if I’m here to make a scene. You say I don’t know you, but to think I’m here to prolong your discomfort!” She dropped her head, those damned tears.

                “Ok, so why are you here?” He rested his chin on his upturned hands, elbows braced on the table.

“Why do you think? I KNOW I was wrong to judge you as I did, but I also think you need to look at the bigger picture. I lay my heart on my sleeve in Majorca; I told you I wanted more than a holiday fling. You chose what you wanted and I walked away. I’d had my heartbroken twice in a few months...” she put up a hand, “and before you protest, I didn’t love Richard, I know that now, but losing my best friend....” She took a deep breath, “I was emotionally charged, damaged, fragile, whatever. But I took a chance on you and it fell apart. But I left banking the memories and trying not to fall apart. I was moving on, I really was.....then you were there.....and it was all about you saying your bit, explaining why you were such a dick....” he looked down for  a second, “but at no point did you say you’d been wrong, that you wanted anything more...”

She reached for her drink and glugged some cold water, finally getting some much needed lubrication to her Sahara dry mouth, “and you knew I needed a commitment, all you said was you knew you had to wake up, stop running away.”

                “Then there was the test...”

She nodded, “I didn’t know, and I didn’t plan it!”

Nodding too he assured her, “I know that, it’s probably the only thing I’ve been sure of the last few months.” He reached across the table and took her hands in his, “are you saying that you can see a life with me? That we can be a family?”

She sighed, this time in relief, “As long as you love me.....US, then I’ll gladly do anything. I promise!”

Jan grinned, “That’s all I’ve wanted to hear Ellen, I swear. I know I’m an emotional cripple, but that’s only because I was still grieving for my best mate...” he laughed out loud. “Who’d have thought? We’re both the same!! Both sad at losing our friendships, and because of that almost chasing the other away.”

Ellen looked at him for a long moment, loving the sparkle in his eyes, the optimism in his smile, the promise in his words. “Jan, we’ve both been bloody stupid, twice....though the slight accident had made me happier than I can’t tell you when...”

                “You have no idea!” Pulling his phone out of his pocket he touched the screen a few times as he walked around the table to sit beside her, then he turned it to show her a photo of a room laden with bags, clothes, cuddly toys, all to suit a newborn baby.

                “Have you been getting carried away?”

He nodded, “I’ve been keeping it all in my office, I can’t wait! I love you Ellen!”

She felt a loan tear roll down her cheek, “and I’ve waited months to hear that, so what about this....” she placed the velvet box into his hand. His eyes darkened, a veil of confusion crossing momentarily, then he lifted an eyebrow in question, a grin crossing his until that moment serious face.

                “Ah Jan! So this is the woman I’ve been hearing all about. Ellen is it? I believe I owe you a thank you for making my son wake up and smell the coffee!”

They both turned startled by the intrusion, and Ellen took in the elegant older lady stood in front of them.

Jan slipped an arm around her shoulder as he looked up at her mother, “Mother, this is Ellen, Ellen Patricia Zeigler, my mother.”

Ellen smiled sweetly at the older woman, shaking her extended hand, “pleased to meet you Mrs Zeigler, you have impeccable timing, your son was just about to ask me something.”

                “I’m intrigued!” mumbled his mother, “and please call me Patricia.”

Both women turned to look at Jan and he turned as pale as the white heavy linen tablecloth.

Almost there

Well it's been a long winding road, but this story of Ellen and Jan is almost at an end! Over 4000 views, and a real surge of views of earlier chapters, so I'm presuming new readers have arrived today! Please offer a few words! Comments make my day! And a happy MZ is a creative MZ!

Samaira T - I know, both SO unfuriating, think a case of heads banging together is needed!

Mal K - Oh yes he's pigheaded, but then she's not being easy either....

JBL - you never ramble! SO interesting that they both have valid reasons for acting the way they do, and you readers are split over this....which is great!

Iriejam - aren't all men?? And sorry, a slight delay with chap 25!

nessa - At last someone on Jan's side, I mean she'd got no reason to be so defensive;) And yep all this hassle isn't good for a pregnant lady....hope they both sort it out!

So this is posted just after chapter 25.....if you like peeps....please comment!!!

Thanks for reading!

MZ