Chapter Eight

Nina's mouth hung open as she looked between the two men, suddenly the similarities were so obvious, except that Mansell looked pale, whereas his grandson looked flushed, angry...but she was pleased to see concerned too. The younger man was still glaring daggers of hate in her direction and she wasn't about to take that blame, if there was fault here it was his for not doing right by his own family.

Seeing him grimace at her, she squared up to him, "calm down, or I will chuck you out, I don't care who you are."

That made Mansell chuckle out loud as he patted her on her shoulder, but Theo's fury seemed to move up a notch or five, "can you get out of my way?" He snarled through gritted teeth.

Her own anger was equally raised and she shook her head, "NO. You burst in here, all angry and shouting. Who do you think you are, and did no one teach you manners?"

That made his nostrils flare, eyes widen in contempt, his glare bullish in every feature, but he didn't scare her, "I am the man who has been searching desperately for the man that you have abducted; now..." he grabbed her upper arms in both his hands, "GET out of my way!"

With that he physically manhandled her out of his path and then ignoring her squeals of protest, walked up to Mansell, "what the hell are you playing at old man?" She was glad to hear his anger had reduced when he spoke to his grandfather, "I've been worried bloody sick..."

Theo was more than relieved to see that his grandfather looked well. He'd not had an idea of what he was walking into, but to find the old man stood laughing at him was infuriating. He glanced to his right, he'd not really registered the woman he'd just shifted out of the way...he didn't want to think about how he felt about her...words failed him, he had no idea what was fuelling her need to help Mansell, but he had a good idea. He'd deal with her when he'd finished with his grandfather. And that would be one hell of a dressing down. After all he wasn't a child, he should be aware of the consequences of his actions.

"Don't you dare move me...push me aside. And don't you dare insinuate that I have dragged Mansell over here. How dare you!"

Suddenly the woman he was glancing at from the side of his eyes had deposited herself between him and his grandfather. Hands on hips, he was tempted to laugh at her, she was five foot three at most, dark unruly short hair, dressed in an old scruffy hoodie, soaking wet patches over her shoulders and breasts, she was also barefoot...bare legged from the bottom of the hoodie...mid thigh. Did she even have anything on under the hoodie? He almost asked her, but bit his tongue. She was curvy, curvier than he liked, and tiny...dark, and the way she was sparking in his direction he immediately responded without a second thought, "calm down Pocket Rocket, I'll get to you once I've sorted my grandfather out."

If she'd turned green in an Incredible Hulk fashion then he wouldn't have been surprised, her passionate anger was palpable, then he spotted her blue eyes flashing angrily, and he was ensnared, intrigued by her...which meant he missed the hand that lashed out and slapped him flat across the face.

Reaching for his stinging cheek, wishing he could massage his more severely bruised ego as easily, he glowered at her, "as you're a female, I'll ignore that." Then he looked back to his grandfather who had the audacity to stand there laughing at them. Shaking his head in frustration, he asked, "can we talk Granddad?"

Mansell smiled then looked at Nina, "It's ok, you can trust him not to hurt me."

She glared between them both for a long poignant moment, and then gave a curt nod, "I'll just be upstairs."

Both men watched her depart before Theo turned back to the older man, "what the hell is going on?"

"None of you could bring me. I asked...she could. It's important."

Theo ran his fingers through his hair, "you said you wanted to come to France, but Dan's in the US, I'm up to my eyes..."

His grandfather turned away from him a second after spitting out the words, "which is why Nina brought me!"

He shook his head as he spat out her name, "Nina." There was animosity in the word, "you never said HOW important this was."

Mansell moved away from him into the lounge, and Theo watched him lower himself into a chair, then he finally replied, "you never asked. I have never been back to France, not since the time I came here as a young soldier."

Theo felt shock, his eyes widening, nausea clawing at his throat, "you were here on D-Day?" Suddenly things were starting to make sense. "You never said!"

Mansell gave a knowing sigh, "again, you never asked."

That gave him food for thought, the old man was right, he was far too preoccupied with his own life that he'd never even asked him about the past, he should have known that this wasn't a whim, an empty request. He didn't want to be here, he NEEDED to, and his family had let him down. Again. Theo tried desperately to find something to say, words that could make up for the despicable way he'd treated him, but was failing badly.

When he finally met Mansell's eyes, he smiled sadly, "look Theo, we've had a strange relationship...you came into my life as a teenager, there's been a lot of standoff, a lot of self protection...on both sides."

Theo gulped; he wasn't ready to contemplate losing what little family he had, "I thought we'd got past that. We're good aren't we?"

Mansell laughed reaching out to lay a hand over his, "we are. I think that things have become good between us. I look forward to seeing you every time you visit. And I LOVE my great granddaughter...that's not what I meant. I mean that we didn't have your childhood together, maybe that would have been the time that my past life would have come out. But it's not something I discussed really, not for a long time. And we've had a lot of hiding, a lot of half truths, and a lot of self protection. It's natural, ours was a late start."

Theo felt dreadful, he realised that they may not have shared the painful parts of their past, either side, but sitting here in a small house in Normandy, it was more than obvious that it was so important to his grandfather, that his ignorance was almost painful.

He felt the choke of emotion in his throat as he looked pleadingly at Mansell, "will you tell me? About what happened?"

Mansell smiled, "you want to know?"

Theo nodded, "of course...when you asked to come here...I didn't know it was so important to you. I really would have done better, if I'd known."

"I'm not always as honest and open as I could be."

Sighing Theo ran his fingers through his hair, "and maybe I'm not as receptive. I get that."

Mansell hauled himself to his feet then entered the adjacent kitchen, "beer?"

Theo nodded enthusiastically, jumping up to follow him, "I need something."

Nina had showered, washed her hair three times and was now dressed in her favourite t-shirt, a red "Vamos España" number that she bought in Madrid during a previous World Cup, and a pair of shorts, after all, it wasn't cold. She could hear voices travelling up the stairs from the two men talking and had tried to delayed her descent to where they were in the hope that the younger man, the 'grandson' disappeared, but it was no use. She was going to have to front up to Mansell and the man she'd just physically assaulted. She rolled her eyes for a moment, hardly able to believe she'd done that...not that he didn't deserve it, the cheeky...

Shaking her head, she ruffled out her hair; it was still damp from the shower but she wasn't about to spend an hour drying and styling it, she wasn't trying to impress anyone so tough. Taking a deep breath, she made for the stairs. The voices got louder as she got approached. Mansell was talking, in the lounge, he sounded relaxed, so she let out the breath of concern that she was holding, but the other man wasn't happy.

"But you never SAID how important this is...I mean you said 'I want to go to France'. Nothing else. You didn't tell me all this, about your brother...if you had I would have changed my mind. I would have tried to do this."

Mansell sighed, "but you were quick to brush off my request immediately, there was no chance, no reasoning."

She heard the grandson huff, "we would have worked it out, I'm just stunned that you ask a stranger to bring you here...like some unloved bloody loner."

She was about to burst in and protest when Mansell stepped up, "Nina has been amazing; she dropped everything when I asked her to bring me here."

Giving an almost childish sounding whoop, his voice was loaded with sarcasm, "I bet she did, free bloody holiday, free loading..."

As Mansell made to protest, after all Nina had paid in fact for everything so far, she stepped into the room, this was a battle she wanted to finish, not the octogenarian who she'd escorted, "I'm not free loading...for your information. But your grandfather had a real desire to be here, and I made that possible. Too little too late from you. If I were you I'd be looking in the mirror rather than trying to throw your guilt on to me."

Mansell again tried to speak, but again, she silenced him with her eyes, let him think the bloody worst, she wasn't about to spell the minor details out to him, instead, she marched past them into the kitchen and was cracking open a small bottle of beer when Mansell appeared behind her.

"I promised you dinner." His voice was gentle, apologetic. They had plans; he hadn't forgotten that he wanted to treat her.

She gave him a smile, "You need to spend time with your grandson. I've got a pizza in the fridge, and I've got some work to do. You two head out, I'll see you in the morning for our full day?" The thought of an intimate meal for three repulsed her, but tomorrow was another day and they had an ex-love to find.

"I don't want to abandon you..."

He protested, but she wasn't about to spend more time with the evil and rude grandson, "Mansell, I'm twenty eight years old, I hardly need babysitting. Now go, have some food, talk to your grandson, tell him how you feel, but don't go too easy on him, ok?"

Giving a nod he was chuckling as he walked away.

Theo had stayed in the spare room, when he'd travelled to France luckily he'd grabbed a bag with a change of clothes in it, and he was able to shower and dress in something fresh before encountering the new day. The whole evening that had passed seemed surreal. The conversation with his grandfather, hearing his history, the past, his brother, his own encounter. He groaned, then there was Hélène, the love lost. Suddenly Theo was starting to realise how important and life changing these events had been. And it also helped unravel more of the enigma that was his grandfather; it explained a lot - his attitudes, his behaviours, and his avoidance to mention both the past and family. Mansell rarely talked about his son, Theo's won father, and he definitely never talked about his grandmother, Mansell's own wife. He'd thought it was strange, but then there was the distance and animosity that both acknowledged had sat between them. Now he could see that is was a defensive action, his way of protecting his own fragile heart. Could he have been any less worthy a grandson? Could he feel any more of a bastard?

Yes, because you were hard on the girl too.

He dismissed that thought quickly, there was no way he was apologising to her, or changing his opinion of her, women like her - he knew her type. Who the hell gave up their week to take an elderly man on a road trip if they didn't have some ulterior motive? His grandfather had money, he was a well known name in the world of manufacturing, he'd run several huge factories in the south and had developed negotiations with China back in the sixties and seventies, way before a huge influx of manufacturing headed out that way. He was by no way a multimillionaire, but he had money, and as he got older that made him vulnerable. Mansell being exploited, that was his concern.

Barefoot in jeans and a t-shirt, he made for the kitchen and ogled the coffee machine in the corner greedily; he couldn't function in the morning without at least one mug of coffee. Fortunately there was a bag of French ground coffee next to the machine, and within moments the aroma was filling the room and his day was looking a hell of a lot brighter.

As he waited, he pulled out his phone and checked his messages. But there was no reception. Which was a HUGE problem. Before he'd driven out to France he'd asked Tony, his friend and legal eagle to keep a constant check on Melody for him, because whilst he was there sorting out his grandfather, he was leaving his equally vulnerable daughter at the mercy of her uncaring vindictive mother. Who knew what that could mean.

He'd promised Mansell that he'd stay, that he'd go to this meeting today with the sister of the woman his grandfather had fallen in love with all those years ago. But he needed phone reception too. That was a must.

The back door opening pulled him from his reverie, and he came face to face with the woman who'd slapped him the previous day, he may have been a bastard to her, but he hadn't deserved the crack across the cheek. She was wearing a faded old t-shirt and shorts, and trainers that had seen better days, and she was flushed and sweaty, leaning against the doorframe for a moment as she caught her breath.

"Been running," she mumbled as she finally managed to cross the room and reach for the fridge pulling out a bottle of water then draining it completely.

Theo was still looking at her, he couldn't help the contempt that he felt for her, she was interfering in his family for what reason? He could only think of one, and he wasn't about to let her rip off his grandfather of what he had left. He was studying her intently when she finally looked up and met his eyes.

"What?" her question was filled with animosity.

He stayed where he was, hips resting against the work surface, and shrugged, "just trying to work out what your game is."

Theo watched the anger slide over her at that, "really? You think I have an agenda? In reality you should be grateful that I'm helping him. I'm here helping a man...YOUR grandfather realise a dream. You couldn't be bothered to bring him yourself, now you have the audacity to speak to me as though I am the enemy. Instead you're resentful. You are the most obnoxious man I have ever met. You should appreciate Mansell for the gent that he is, but you don't, so don't take the guilt out on me."

With that she stormed out of the room.

No amount of hot water would calm her down, Nina was furious. Today she'd planned to drive Mansell to meet Ines the sister of Hélène, which was fine...but now they had that angry bastard in tow and it was a deal she was ready to welsh on. He made her blood boil, she hated him. In fact, if he was staying, if he was about to be a part of this, then she could step back leave them to it, couldn't she? She wasn't about to be exposed to more animosity from a man who clearly was feeling that he hadn't done enough.

After her shower she dressed, she'd not brought anything smart with her, not that she normally wore smart, but there was something about this grandson that made her defensive, instead she pulled on a pair of shorts, a layered vest and her Converse. She never wore make up, and she rarely tamed her hair, it was naturally spiky and she'd never worried. But his words, 'pocket rocket' came to mind and she hated that it hurt. She was short, five four, and she was too big for her frame, Lilah convinced her she was admirably curvaceous, but she didn't see it that way, and now this man had brought those insecurities to the surface along with SO much more.

She took a deep breath, she'd had worse, she'd been through more. She wasn't about to let this man destabilise her psyche that was for sure. No man could do that to her again.