Writer's Notebook

I hesitate to say this - touch wood, cross my fingers and all the rest of it - but our honeymoon has just finished so we know nothing of the concepts of jealousy and neglect, other than what we see around us. But I'm afraid we do see a lot around us. When we got back to Gensdouce after our honeymoon, we were thrown straight into the deep-end. Having had no contact with the outside world, we had no idea how our little village's one and only celebrity had once again hit the news. Reports of Violette's breakup with her film-producing husband had made the front pages of all the major newspapers but the first we heard was when I phoned up Thérèse to announce our return to the living. She asked us both to come round straight away and to use the back entrance. The reason soon became obvious as the front door besieged by waiting journalists hoping for who knows what. Thérèse saw us coming and opened the gate. But neither iof us were prepared for what we saw inside.

Violette was propped up on a bedrest sleeping. Her two arms in a sling and bruises all over her face.

"That's just what you can see, the rest is worse," whispered Thérèse ushering us back outside.

"Who on earth did that to her."

Thérèse pointed to the newspaper where the whole story sat emblazoned across the front page.

"She caught him with his secretary and walked out. Unfortunately, he found out where she was , downed a bottle of whisky and came to finish her off."

"But what's she doing here? She should be in hospital."

"She refuses to go near one. She doesn't want to press charges. Says he never meant to do her any real harm. She phoned her mother and she came to us for help. Guillaume drove down up to Nice to fetch her. Who knows how the press managed to find out she was here. They turned up yesterday morning."

"But what are you going to do?"

"Once she's ready for it, we'll try and get her out into a private clinic; one where they don't ask questions. Until then she stays here."

"But we can't let him get away with this. She's got to press charges."

"She's far too exhausted to discuss anything like that. Right now all she needs is rest and loving care. As soon as possible we'll get her to the clinic, but until then there'll be no talk about pressing charges and no mention of her husband, okay."