Alisha: A dark Romance Ch. 03

She gave me a hopeful look, before saying to them. "Julia and I are hoping he'll let us stay with him, so you need to start planning how to sort out our security."

Crap, she was trying to turn my life upside down, and I wasn't sure I wanted that heartache again.

"No, you need to stop this, I agreed to take you as far as Beziers so that we could talk and that's all," I said. "You've not given me any good reasons why I should put my life on hold to suit you, the woman who ripped my life apart in pursuit of her own goals, and you need to understand I live either on Never, or in my cottage. There's no room for hordes of bloody security."

Ali sobbed, and suddenly I could see the 17-year-old girl from our first meeting. The confident woman of a few moments ago was gone, the nervous girl was back.

"Please, Ben, don't send us away. Julia needs to get to know her father. It may be too late for me, but don't punish your daughter because of how I treated you. I've loved you ever since that first time we met, I may have had a brief wobble, but even then I never stopped loving you."

I snorted, a brief wobble was an interesting way of describing the past 13 years.

A small hand took hold of mine and squeezed hard. "Mom's been telling me stories about you ever since I can remember; I want to find out how true they are. Please, can we stay with you?"

Shit, shit, I felt like a turd. Ali was still the most beautiful woman I'd ever known. Deep down, as much as I'd tried to bury it over the years, I'd never stopped loving her. Erasing all evidence of her from after I'd walked away had been my only defense, and I had a daughter about who I knew absolutely nothing.

"You've got five minutes to sort these two out, then the Never is gone," I told Ali. I stepped back on board closely followed by Julia. Alwyn had wisely retreated to the safety of the wheelhouse as soon as Ali had started shouting.

"I miss the diesel in these situations," I admitted to Alwyn. "Starting that damn noisy thing was a great way to ensure everyone knew you were just about to leave, now nothing." I silently flicked the electric drive master switch from standby, to on, just to prove my point.

Alwyn laughed and reached across me and pressed the switch that started the auxiliary diesel generator. With a low rumble, the generator started, and a haze of exhaust wafted across the towpath.

"That'll get her attention," he said with a smile. "Ben, I'll move my stuff into the single cabin, you're going to need the guest cabin for Ali and Julia."

"Christ, not you, too!"

He laughed and said, "I might be a lot younger than you, but even I know when I'm fucked; you just need to give in gracefully."

Ali stepped on board; the two bodyguards were already cycling down the towpath in the direction of the town of Beziers.

"Can we stay?" she asked.

"For the moment," I replied. "Alwyn's going to give you and Julia the large guest cabin. It's the one up forward."

"We're still married," Ali pointed out. "I could share with you."

"I may regret saying this, but I don't think that's a good idea at the moment," I said. "You are pushing this too fast, and I'm not sure I trust you anymore. Tell me, what's going to happen when your next big contract shows up?"

"I never need to work again, Ben; there is only one next big thing in my future, and that's me regaining your trust and us becoming a family again."

I gave a resigned shrug which Ali seemed to take as my acceptance. Alwyn, assisted by my new junior crew girl, had untied us from the trees, and we recommenced our journey.

We eased out of the lock into the harbor basin at Beziers. Simone, the harbor captain, was standing outside her office and gave me a smile and a wave.

She called over, "Pull in over there, please, Ben." She pointed to a suitable space about 50 meters up from her office. I acknowledged her with a wave.

It only took Alwyn and I a few minutes to safely moor the boat alongside the harbor wall. The 'Never Again' is too long to moor stern in like the Noddy boats that hemmed her in on both sides. We took up the space that four hire boats could use, and from the looks I'd got from the crew on one or two of them they'd been asked to move from this prime spot to make way for us. Simone had walked down and was there to take the lines. I gave her the €25 mooring fee and said I'd see her later.

I was getting the gangplank secured when I felt a presence behind me.

"Where do you want these," said a deep voice.

Turning, I saw Jamal and a pretty blond woman in her mid-twenties, standing by three expensive looking suitcases.

"Personally I'd prefer if they were going back at the hotel, but," and I shrugged. "Ali and Julia's bags can go in the cabin up front."

"And mine?" the woman asked.

"Who the hell are you?"

"This is Sandy, she's my assistant as well as one of my best friends," Ali said as she stepped off the boat to stand beside me.

"I'm not running a bloody hotel. There's no room, and I sure as hell don't want your friendly assistant on my boat. Let me make it plain to you. NO bodyguards and NO assistants or whatever she is, just you and Julia."

Jamal took two of the bags, one in each hand and said, "Forward cabin, you said?"

I nodded and asked Alwyn to show him. I made a shooing gesture to Sandy. "There's no room at the inn; you need to take your bag and go back to whichever hotel you came from."

"But Al," was as far as Sandy got before Ali interrupted her.

"You can't stay on board, Sandy; there are only three bedrooms," Ali said. "I'm sharing with Julia and Alwyn and Ben have the other two."

"But there's so much we have to sort out Al. There's the Paris fashion week coming up soon, and you've still not decided which of the shows you're going to do."

"I'm not going to do any of them this year. I want to spend the time making Ben fall in love with me again, and he has a daughter he didn't know he had.

"Come with me," Jamal said to Sandy as he reappeared. "You can stay with us." He took her bag and led her over to one of the larger 14-meter hire boats moored next to 'Never.' I had to admire his solution to the problem of keeping an eye on his charges. No one was going to notice one more hire boat amongst many.

We moved to the sun deck where Alwyn had been raising the canopy. Jamal reappeared on the harbor wall a few moments later. I waved him over, and after a nod from Ali, he sat down.

He said, "She's not happy, and do you know how much it cost for us to hire that bloody thing."

I couldn't help it; I started laughing. "I'm surprised you found one."

"There's a group of American tourists who are going to be sadly disappointed tomorrow morning," he said dryly.

He turned to Ali, "We do have a problem, though. The office spotted that some woman posted some pictures of you on the boat. The only thing in our favor is that she tagged them as 'met a woman who could be Ali Mac's twin, wasn't though.' But you can bet your bottom dollar some paparazzi will hear about it and want to check it out."

Ali looked annoyed. "Damn it; I don't want anyone to know I'm here. Ben, you said you have a secluded cottage nearby. Can we go there tonight?"

Christ, less than a day and she was already giving me orders again. "You can if you want," I replied. "I'll give you the address and the keys, but I've got a boat I need to get to Carcassonne, and I can't leave her here; it's the peak tourist season."

Ali looked worried, "I'm not sure you understand how awkward this could be for Julia and me. Half the paparazzi in Europe could be here soon. I dropped out of a well-publicized event to come here, and the speculation is rife! I only stopped to pick up Julia before flying over to see if it was you. I've managed to keep Julia out of the limelight, and I don't want it to happen now."

"I understand, but I still don't see the problem, you can stay at the cottage or a hotel if you prefer. Alwyn and I will take the boat, and we can all meet up in a couple of days,"

Jamal seemed pleased at my suggestion but Ali looked annoyed, and Julia horrified.

"Can I stay with Daddy, the paps won't bother me if I'm with my daddy, and most of them don't know what I look like anyway. Please."

"I can't leave you with a stranger," Ali said. Both Julia and I gave her a surprised look at her words.

I said, "Whose fault is it that I'm a stranger to my daughter?" Julia hugged me, and I rested a hand on her back."

Ali turned to Jamal, "Plan B."

He gave her a puzzled look, "What the hell is Plan B."

"I don't know; just I've always wanted to say that to you. We're staying on the boat, you better plan accordingly."

"And when we get to Carcassonne?" Jamal asked me.

"We go a couple of kilometers past the town and then stop at a private mooring next to the cottage. The property is set back about 50 meters from the canal on a small rise surrounded by vineyards."

"Access?"

"One small dirt track with restricted access, and the canal of course!"

"Why is it restricted?"

"Because the land and the cottage used to belong to a friend of mine who owns the rest of the surrounding land. The only way in is across his property."

"Is it registered in your name?"

"No, I have my reasons as to why not. The cottage is called 'The Wanderer's Rest.' It's registered to a holiday home letting company; one I'm a silent partner in."

"We can work with that," Jamal said. "It's just going to be the day of the canal it takes us to get there that worries me."

Alwyn snorted, and I shook my head. "It'll take us at least two days if we're lucky, more likely three. It's the peak vacation season, and it'll take forever to get through the locks. We'll be lucky to make ten kilometers tomorrow."

I pointed along the full harbor basin, "There's a lock at the far end, followed by a narrow viaduct over the river, then there's the staircase locks, all seven of them."

"We'll deal with it!"

Alwyn and I glanced at each other and just managed to keep the smiles off our faces. Immovable object meets irresistible force was my first thought. Obviously, Jamal hadn't met the lock-keepers in charge of the staircase locks.

Then something Ali had said a little earlier triggered a question. "What did you mean when you said, come and see if it was me?"

Julia answered, "I found you. Mummy has all these photos of you all over the place. You look a lot younger of course. My friend Siobhan posted some photos of her family eating at a restaurant in Agde a few days ago. There were a couple of you sitting on the deck of your boat; you were moored next to the restaurant. Siobhan thought you looked hunky and took a few close-ups of you. The name of the boat was in one of the pictures."

I remembered the evening; we'd just put Never back into the water that afternoon. I had moored up a few hundred meters downstream waiting for Alwyn to arrive the next day. I'd been sitting on the deck enjoying a good bottle of wine and some local olives. I don't remember seeing anyone photographing me or the boat, but then tourists often took photos of the boat, so I doubt if I would have.

"She sent me the link, and I knew it was you," Ali said. "I've been looking for you ever since you left. I knew you were still alive; you'd send our parents and families, cards and presents for their birthdays and Christmas, but never from the same place."

"Yeah, the joy of the internet, it makes staying anonymous a lot easier, then stabs you in the back when you least expect it."

"Ben, you don't know how I missed you. I didn't know what to do those first few weeks; I wouldn't leave the flat just in case I missed a call from you. Then I discovered I was pregnant and I did what every daughter does, I went home to my mother. I was able to keep on working for a few months, but then I had to stop as I was having a few problems, high blood pressure and such."

I gave her a worried look, "Were you okay?"

Ali smiled, "I got over it with bed rest and our two mothers mollycoddling me, and we had the most beautiful baby girl. Nobody knew where you were and..."

She hesitated and then said. "Oh fuck, your mate from school, what was his name. Paul, no Peter, that was it. He moved near here after his wife died, didn't he; that's where you were. I never made the connection."

There had been something about the way she said her last statement that made me wonder if it was news to her. I shook off my suspicions. "Yeah, I bought the cottage and the land from him a few years ago. He and his new wife Sophie put me up for a good part of that first year before I found a place to live nearby."

"Do you know how many times I've been in the south of France? So close, yet so far away."

My phone rang, startling all of us. I answered it and had a brief conversation finishing up with, "I'll check with the others, but I guess eight o'clock."

"Alwyn and I had planned to have dinner at the restaurant owned by Simone's husband this evening," I told them. "She's the harbor captain, and they are good friends of mine. She wanted to know if I'm bringing any guests."

Ali and Julia looked at Jamal, and that pissed me off. "I'm not asking, Jamal," I said. "I'm asking my wife and daughter if they would like to go to dinner with Alwyn and me. I don't expect that I have to ask your bloody bodyguard's approval. Either you do, or you don't."

"Ben, its Jamal job to keep us safe, so of course we check with him."

"Then fuck it, don't come. Alwyn and I can go on our own. I'm not putting Jaap and Simone out by swamping his restaurant with security goons. You want to be part of my life again, and that means not disrupting it at every turn."

Silence greeted my words, finally broken by Jamal. "I know that this is difficult for you to understand, but Ali receives several threats a day. Okay, I accept most are empty ones, but some have been serious, enough that she keeps a team of six of us on permanent standby."

"And are there any threats at the moment?"

"Nothing I'm really worried about!"

"So?" I left the question hanging out there.

Jamal sighed, "Are you inviting Sandy?"

"I guess so; it's up to Ali, she's her friend."

"What if I get one of my younger, more presentable guys to pose as her boyfriend? I'll have a backup team we can keep well out of sight. The only thing I won't compromise on is we drive you there."

"Sure, but personally I'm walking, it's just over there." I pointed back towards the harbor office and the restaurant beside it.

Julia sniggered and then said, "Come on, Mum, I want to get changed, and I just know you'll hog the bathroom." They both stood up.

"I'll tell Sandy to get ready," Jamal offered and walked off to the other boat.

Suddenly there was just Alwyn, and me left.

"Are you going to tell them it's very casual?" Alwyn asked

"Nope, in fact, I think I'll change into my formal shorts and a posh T-shirt."

"You mean the ones without the paint stains?"

"Cheeky bastard."

As we spoke, I watched as the two bodyguards I'd met earlier got off the other boat and casually strolled in the direction of the restaurant. The woman, Janice, gave me a casual wave and I returned it.

"Seriously, Ben, are you married to Ali Mac? I had a poster of her on my bedroom wall."

"No, I'm married to Alisha McMichael. Ali Mac is a media creation, and I'm not sure I like what it's turned her into."

"What happened to the pair of you?"

"Ali started to believe the crap her agent and a few other interested parties were feeding her. I guess she'd decided her career would be better off without me."

"Ah, and you didn't know about Julia?"

"Not a clue; mind you, I've actively avoided reading or listening to anything related to her for years."

"I wondered about that. The magazines did report that Ali had a daughter, but there were never any photos of her."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We both went down to wash and change. I resisted wearing shorts and settled on a comfy pair of stylish but old jeans and a soft cotton shirt.

We'd both made our way back on deck before Sandy, and her escort arrived. Sandy hesitated on the end of the gangplank and said, "Can I come on board."

I nodded, she came up to the deck and gratefully accepted a glass of wine from Alwyn. Her companion introduced himself as Raf. He spoke with an American accent and was in his late 20's. He wasn't tall, around 5'10", but solidly built and his handshake hinted at his strength.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Sandy said. "I was worried about Al. I've never seen her drop everything in the middle of an assignment before. I was holding her phone, and she got a text from Julia. Anyone else and I would have waited to the end of the shoot, but not a message from Julia! She read it, opened up a link and started crying. I thought something had happened to her daughter or parents. What I saw on her phone was a photo of you. Five minutes later, we were in a car on our way to the airport."

"Is she going to be okay over walking out mid-shoot?

"God, yes. It was only a commercial for her new perfume; we can finish it whenever."

"A commercial, she has a perfume!"

Sandy gave me a surprised look, "Of course, Al's a global brand. Makeup, perfume, her clothing line. Where have you been?"

"Here, carefully avoiding anything that would remind me of what Alisha had become."

"We all knew that she's been looking for you for years, and while you've been hiding here all that time I didn't realize you'd become a hermit. What have you been doing?"

"A good question," Ali said. I hadn't noticed her appear and her words startled me. She was wearing a dress designed to tug at my heartstrings, a white version of the dress she'd worn to the opening night of my one-man-show all those years ago. Her long legs needed no stockings to enhance their beauty.

I swallowed and glanced at my watch; it was almost eight. "Are we all ready? You and I can swap war stories over dinner."

The restaurant was set back from the corner of the road, a few paces past the harbor captain's building. The walk there only took five minutes. Simone and her husband Jaap live with their two children in the flat above the restaurant. There is a large tree shaded terrace in front, and Simone was waiting there for us. I'd called her back and told her that there would be six of us and we needed some privacy. The table she'd chosen for us was set back from the others in a quiet corner.

Jaap is Dutch; he'd been working as a chef on a hotel barge when he met Simone. Love at first sight, was his description, Simone just smiles fondly. That was seven years ago. I met them a few months later at a barbecue at Pete's. Sophie and Simone were old school friends, and we were soon good friends. Alwyn is Jaap's nephew, and when he wasn't helping me he helped Jaap out in the restaurant during his university's summer break.

When they decided to open the restaurant, I wanted to help them. I proposed buying the building and loaning them the money they needed at a zero interest rate. The deal was that I'd be an equal partner and let them buy me out as and when they could afford it. I got my first payment a year after the restaurant opened and now I only own a quarter of the restaurant.

Simone greeted me with a hug and a kiss. "Thank god you're here, someone wouldn't go to bed until she saw her uncle Ben."

"Where is she?" I called out, and Emily, Simone's four-year-old daughter came flying out of the back room and into my arms. I picked her up and swung her around.

"Uncle Ben, I saw your boat but Mummy wouldn't let come and see you." Her eyes went wide as she saw the people with me. "Alwyn," she cried out and struggled out of my arms to hug him.