They walked back up the hill towards the car. Theo clung to his father’s back with his arms and legs as he was piggybacked, still holding the branch he’d found. It wasn’t easy to keep up with Julien’s long strides, but Ellie could understand why he was in a hurry. Was Theo afraid of thunderstorms, like Pascal? She wanted to get home herself and make sure her little dog had been okay on his own all afternoon.

  But even that underlying sense of urgency couldn’t prevent her stopping, so fast she almost lost her balance, outside a window she hadn’t noticed on the way down to the church.

  ‘Oh, look!’ she exclaimed.

  Julien was several steps ahead of her, but he turned and, when he saw Ellie’s face, he came back.

  ‘Oh là là… It’s the painting you liked.’

  It was.

  It was the big painting that she had fallen so instantly in love with when she’d seen it at the first summer market she’d been to in Vence. The one with the chapel-esque stone building. The one with the mountains as an indistinct background to the brightness of red and white flowers in the grass and stones in the foreground, made even more stunning by the impasto technique of layering the paint – probably with a knife or just fingers – to give it both a three-dimensional effect and the suggestion of movement, as if a breeze were blowing across the meadow.

  There was a link here that felt important: that this artist, whose work touched her heart so much, might come from the same village that the unknown side of her family might have lived in.

  ‘Is this where he works, do you think?’

  Julien looked at the sign hanging over the door. ‘It’s a gallery rather than a workshop, so it may just be in here for sale. Have you changed your mind about buying it?’

  Ellie shook her head. Reluctantly. Because if this painting wasn’t way out of any price range she could afford, it should be.

  ‘Why don’t I ask?’ Julien suggested, as if he’d read her thoughts. ‘Or there might be a smaller version in the gallery?’

  So they went inside, but the other paintings on display were clearly by very different artists. Julien spoke, at some length, to the woman behind the counter.

  ‘I don’t think the artist wants to sell the painting,’ he told Ellie. ‘He’s asking over a thousand euros.’

  ‘Someone will buy it,’ Ellie said. ‘And he deserves to be paid that much.’ She led the way to the door, knowing that she’d held them up long enough.

  ‘Apparently no one knows his real name,’ Julien said as he stopped outside the gallery to pick Theo up again. ‘He lived on the streets for a long time but now he lives in an old stable on a farm. Nobody sees him during the winter, and that’s when he does his paintings. And then he comes out in summer and takes them to the market to earn money for more paints and food. People call him l’ermite.’

  ‘The hermit?’

  ‘Oui. The ’ermit.’

  Sometimes Julien’s accent was just too gorgeous. So cute it made him as adorable as his son. Ellie heard herself sigh, which was a sound of pure happiness.

  ‘That’s a good story,’ she said quickly, in case Julien guessed the real reason she sounded so happy. ‘Maybe he was living on the streets because he felt lost, and now he’s found where he needs to be and he’s doing what he loves.’ Ellie took one last glance behind her at the painting. Had that been, unknowingly, why she’d felt such a connection to this artwork? Because she had been lost herself but lucky enough to have come to what might be the only part of the world that could have made it possible to find herself again?

  The storm was much closer as they followed the mountain road towards the canyon that had been carved out by the Vésubie river. Gigantic fluffy clouds were filling the sky, intermittently blocking out the sun, giving them a shockingly bright halo around an inky blackness in their centres that made them look like bottomless holes.

  The first flash of lightning came as they went through one of the tunnels in the gorge. When Theo cried out in fright, Ellie put her hand though the gap between the front seats of the car so that he could hold onto it when the crash of thunder followed only seconds later, but he was clutching the tree branch which he had insisted he had to take home with him, so she just rubbed his arm instead.

  The storm was right on top of them. Fat raindrops hit the windscreen a minute later with such ferocity that Julien had to put the wipers on a frantic speed. When the rain changed to hail after another blinding flash of light and a crack of thunder that she could feel in her bones, Ellie was as frightened as Theo.

  ‘We need to find somewhere to pull over.’ Julien’s voice was calm but grim. ‘I don’t like this.’

  With the river down a steep bank on their left and a sheer rock wall on their right, there was nowhere to pull over, but Julien was driving very carefully as he went into the next bend. It didn’t matter how careful he was being, however, when he found himself facing a large vehicle that was passing a small peloton of cyclists huddled together as they battled the elements.

  They were only moments away from a head-on collision with the truck. In the space of a heartbeat, Ellie could feel the impossible choice Julien was having to make. Should he swerve towards the cliff and collide with the cyclists? Take the chance that the truck was also going so slowly a collision might be the safest option? Or should he pull the wheel the other way and hope that the low concrete wall would be enough to prevent them going over the bank?

  Ellie also felt the moment that the concrete wall gave way as the screech of the car’s hubcaps on the hard surface competed with another rumble of thunder. The car tipped so far she was sure they were about to roll, but then it hit the bank and somehow stayed upright but gathered speed on the steep slope.

  The scream of pure terror from Theo as they hurtled towards the river was a sound she was never ever going to forget. But worse was to come. The crunch of hitting the huge boulders in the river was so jarring, Ellie was convinced this was the last thing she would ever be aware of.

  Except it wasn’t.

  That shrill scream of a small child had been cut off as if a switch had been flicked.

  Despite the roar of rushing water around them, another crack of thunder, and the horrific gunshot sounds of airbags deploying, the silence from the back seat of Julien’s car was deafening.

  20

  ‘Are you hurt?’ Julien’s voice snapped the silence like the crack of a whip.

  ‘I… don’t think so…’

  How could she know? Ellie couldn’t identify any immediate pain but she could barely catch a coherent thought. And Julien wasn’t listening now, anyway. He had unclipped his safety belt and was twisting in his seat to see into the back of the car.

  ‘Theo? Theo…? Oh, mon Dieu…’

  The note of horror in Julien’s voice made Ellie’s blood run cold. She twisted herself to try and see what he was seeing, but was it her movement that made the car shift and scrape as it moved against the boulders? No… Julien was trying to wrench open the driver’s door, but it was clearly jammed.

  ‘Ne bouge pas, Theo, Ne bouge pas…’

  There were people outside the car now. Some were the Lycra-clad cyclists. A burly man – the truck driver, perhaps? – was shouting into a phone. Julien was shouting as well. Ellie couldn’t understand a word, but someone was picking up a small rock. Julien turned and held out his arms to shield her as the rock was used to smash the window of the driver’s seat and then clear the shattered glass until he could put his arms through the frame for people to pull him from the vehicle.

  Ellie unclipped her own safety belt as she felt the first lap of icy water around her feet, and a new terror dug its claws into her. She had to get to Theo. Maybe she could fit through the gap between the front seats and release him from his safety belts to pass him out through the empty window frame in the front?

  She turned.

  And then she froze.

  Theo wasn’t unconscious, as she’d thought he would be when that scream had been so abruptly terminated. He was staring back at her, his little face as white as a sheet and his eyes wide and terrified. He was as frozen as she was, and she could see what had made Julien’s voice so frighteningly raw.

  Theo was still holding that branch he’d wanted to bring home with him. The glossy, green leaves looked exactly as they had when he’d picked it up to dip into the gargouille. The other end – the jagged, sharp end where the branch had broken from the tree – was nowhere to be seen.

  Because it was inside Theo. The shocking jolt against rocks that had stopped the car’s momentum so suddenly must have turned the branch into the spear that was now lodged in his stomach.

  ‘It’s okay, darling. We’ll get you out. We’re going to look after you and make it all better.’

  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 her Maman…

  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.

  Theo was quiet and pale and not even attempting to move, which was a good thing, but it was also a warning sign for Julien that he could already be in serious trouble from internal bleeding. Children were so good at compensating for blood loss by increasing their heart and breathing rate, but they could crash fast, too. The way Theo’s eyes were drifting shut, like they did when he was on the point of falling asleep, sent a chill down Julien’s spine.

  He caught a glimpse of Ellie as the back doors of an ambulance opened and uniformed medics came towards him carrying their packs of gear. She was standing, watching. A blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a frightened face that was almost as pale as Theo’s.

  And then he forgot all about her.

  With Theo on the stretcher minutes later and word, via the police officers on scene, that the helicopter had landed further up the road and the crew was awaiting transfer of the patient, the work to make sure he was stable enough to travel kicked up a gear.

  There were rushed introductions and a rapid collection of information about the condition of their patient and what exactly had happened in the accident. All while Julien maintained the stability of the branch. He wasn’t going to let it go, he told the medical team. He was a paediatrician himself. He knew what he was doing.

  The SAMU doctor put his hand on Julien’s shoulder as he spoke. Did he want him to change his mind?

  ‘Non.’ There was no way Julien could let anyone take over this responsibility. He could do this, no matter how difficult it might be. He prepared to focus absolutely on his task as they got ready to roll the stretcher towards the ambulance and then drive to meet the helicopter. But something was interfering with his concentration.

  ‘Ellie…’

  She was still standing there, watching him. And she was close enough to hear him utter her name. She came even closer until a police officer put an arm out to stop her getting too near the stretcher.

  ‘Non,’ he barked. ‘Arrêtez là.’

  Julien told him who Ellie was. That she’d been in the car with him. He asked for someone to make sure she got home to Tourrettes-sur-Loup.

  The officer nodded. He could arrange that.

  ‘Ellie ne parle pas beaucoup français,’ Julien added.

  ‘No problem,’ the officer said, in English. ‘I’ll stay with her.’

  Julien moved only his eyes to catch Ellie’s attention. ‘I’m going to the hospital with Theo,’ he told her. ‘This policeman will see that you get home safely. If you’re sure you’re not hurt?’

  Ellie’s eyes were huge and still so very frightened. She looked down at Theo and then back to Julien.

  ‘I’m not hurt.’ She shook her head for emphasis. ‘But could I come with you anyway? With Theo?’

  The stretcher was starting to move and Julien had to move with it. He tightened his fingers around the doughnut dressing that was providing another level of support so that the stick remained stable. He had to stay with his son. He had to summon the courage to face any upcoming decisions and be strong for Theo, and he knew that things could get a lot worse before there was any chance of them getting better.

  There was no time to explain that he was part of a fight for Theo’s life. That it felt like a fight for his own life as well and there was nothing Ellie could do to make that any easier, however much she might want to. That it would be better for her not to be there if the worst happened. He couldn’t begin to try and put that into words.

  All he could do was shake his head.

  ‘You can go home, Ellie,’ he said, his gaze already shifting back to Theo. ‘We don’t need you…’

  21

  Julien didn’t want her to go with them.

  Ellie totally understood that his focus was on Theo to the exclusion of anything or anyone else. Nobody would have the time or inclination to translate what was being said or done. She would only be in the way.

  Theo had his father with him. Julien was with his precious son.

  They had each other to cling to as their world was tipping upside down.

  She understood that neither of them needed her, but that only made her feel more frightened.