Both families had been visiting the area for many years, having bought property here in the eighties. The children had found many others of their own age, of which the Fortiers and Royers were but two families among many.
That first year that Keira had appeared, Charles was a University student, studying to become an architect. Just like Keira, Adelise was still at school, but thought the older boy was the best thing on two legs. She had thought that he might find her equally as attractive, but out of nowhere came the English girl and her Hobiecat.
To be fair, although Charles had obviously found the English girl attractive and spent far too much time with her, the girl herself did not appear to be that interested in Charles. On those occasions when the young people had all congregated together, the English girl had been very much side-lined as her French wasn’t very fluent. However, she picked up the language so quickly that Adelise suspected that Keira had been pretending to not understand so as to get Charles to pay her more attention.
Adelise was not to know that Keira had only been a girl for a matter of a few weeks, so was still fumbling her way through life. She was only just beginning to appreciate what her torc could do for her, so was experiencing a steep learning curve with both her new gender and what resided around her neck. To have a very good-looking boy interested in her was flattering, but also somewhat frightening. She liked the attentive Charles, but was a little wary of what signals she was sending him. As a result, she tried to play it cool, which was taken by the French boy as playing hard to get, and made him all the more interested.
Nothing very much occurred that first year, but the following year saw Keira return with two friends; an Irish girl called Shannon, who chased every boy capable of walking and stringing a sentence together; and a very shy but pretty English girl called Connie.
Adelise noticed that something had happened to Keira in the intervening period. Gone was the rather shy and uncertain girl who spoke the language poorly. Instead, she returned looking like a million dollars and full of confidence. It was as if she had grown up three years in the intervening twelve months. She was now totally fluent in French and appeared to know exactly how to wrap poor Charles around her little finger, or any male, if it came to it.
Adelise’s brother Armand was now a student in Lyons with a girlfriend. This fact did not deter the irrepressible Shannon, who targeted the poor boy and almost traumatised him in the process.
As far as Charles was concerned, his smile arrived on the day he first saw Keira, and he was with her as much as was humanly possible. To Adelise’s disgust, Keira was no longer reluctant to accept his advances, and gave him sufficient encouragement to make sure that he was entirely blind to any other girls specifically Adelise.
It was a relief to all, perhaps with the exception of Charles, when the English girls went home at the end of their two weeks. Adelise hoped that Charles would lose interest in Keira before the next holiday, but she feared that he wouldn’t. Her other hope would be for the English girl to meet someone in England and therefore not be interested in Charles.
Neither happened.
For a start, when the English girls returned, it was a week earlier in the season, as Connie and Keira had now left school, and Shannon was on the break after her first year at university. They also arrived without Keira’s father and new step-mother. Stephanie and Graham were in the Caribbean on their honeymoon. They had handed over the keys to the Crouesty apartment without hesitation and the instructions to ‘leave the place standing.’
Adelise did not arrive until a week after the others. As she walked through the port on that first evening to return to the old haunts and favourite cafe from the previous years, she was dismayed to see Charles sitting next to Keira with his arm draped in a proprietary fashion across her shoulders.
Keira looked even more attractive, having already acquired a gorgeous tan from the hours spent sailing and basking on the beach. She was dressed in a stunning sundress that made her look more like a catwalk model than ever.
Armand was pleased to see that Shannon was draped over a large young man wearing a Welsh Rugby shirt.
He actually turned out to be a New Zealander called Matthew who was doing Europe and had been working in a bar in Crouesty when he happened to fall for Shannon, mainly because of what she could do with an empty bottle of beer. (Actually, the empty bit was optional, but nobody wanted to drink it afterwards).
The girls were as friendly as ever, which made Adelise even more cross. The problem was that Keira was a nice girl and it wasn’t as if the French girl had managed to stake a claim on Charles in the first place.
Everything changed on that day.
It was a lovely sunny day, very much like all the days of this particular summer. The marina was busier than usual, as there was a competition running over the weekend, so there were many guest boats fighting the regulars for the already crowded berths.
They were pulling their hair out at the Capitainerie, as was usual in the summer weeks. There were far more boats than there were berths, so many owners were frustrated at the lack of somewhere to keep their boat. Many would stock up their boat and sail into the Gulf to find a berth in one of the many inlets or moorings that were scattered around the islands and mainland towns.
Adelise and her family would often spend several days (and nights) on their boat, depending on the weather. Her parents discovered that teenage girls are not always the best crew, particularly when sailing interferes with their social lives. Armand was a clone of their father, so adored sailing, and, as long as Shannon was otherwise engaged, he could take or leave social interaction for the most part.
However, due to the crowds, her father decided to undertake an ‘expedition’. On this occasion, he decided to head out for a day’s sailing to return up the Rivière d’Auray to a berth he had pre-booked at the picturesque village of Auray for the weekend. That way, they’d avoid the crowds in Port du Crouesty, and be certain of a berth when they returned on Monday.
This estuary was tidal, so he had to time it right. Too late and he’d never get up to estuary, so they’d have to stay where they found themselves, and if they were stuck in the mud, they could incur a fine by the river authorities, or even sustain damage to the hull.
Because they left quite early, Adelise did not witness the near disaster, but only heard of it later, on her return.
The weather was unpredictable in this region. Even if the sun was shining, the sea could be rough, and the wind treacherous. The coastline was notoriously rocky and there were hidden reefs to catch the lazy or unwary. One could not venture too close to the shore, so it was always a good idea to follow the buoys and charts, no matter how familiar one thought one was of these waters.
When Adelise returned, she found all her friends talking about it. She also discovered a morose Charles sitting in a sulk by himself.
“What’s up with Charles?” she asked one of the others.
“Oh, the English girl told him his fortune, I think.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think he was a little over-protective towards Keira, so she told him that holiday romances were all right, but not for him to get too steamy and serious, as she wasn’t that interested. He’s been sitting there ever since.”
“How was he over protective?”
“I’m not sure, but it was something to do with the rescue.”
“What rescue?”
“Of course, you’ve been away, haven’t you?”