It all happened so fast! Gideon Langford suggested to Ellena that, to gain guardianship of baby Violette, she should marry him. It took Ellena a fewseconds to get over her shock - just one of many since Violette's parents went missing on vacation... There was no time to waste! Gideon reckoned they needed a marriage certificate within days, otherwise their claim to Violette would be in jeopardy. For the sake of her tiny niece, Ellena became Mrs.Gideon Langford...
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ELLENA stared at the television screen in stunned horror, her brain numbed by what the newscaster had just announced-an avalanche in the Austrian Alps. An avalanche in the very area where Justine was spending a skiing holiday with her boyfriend Kit!
Ellena didn't seem able to think as the newscaster carried on solemnly about tons of snow, rocks and boulders, and no chance of anyone surviving such circumstance! Having done with that piece of news, he went on to the next item.
Though still disbelieving, she was starting to recover sufficiently from her initial shock to tell herself that she was panicking unnecessarily. Only that morning she had received an `our hotel'-type of picture postcard from her sister... But-that must have been posted days ago!
Hurriedly Ellena found the card, feverishly scanning it and looking to see if by any chance there was a printed hotel telephone number. 1here was! In next to no time she was busy dialing. If she could just speak to Justine...
The line was engaged. For a half-hour the line was engaged. Ellena accepted that she was not the only anxious relative wanting to get through, though the waiting was unsustainable.
Perhaps Justine was trying to get through to her. She would know that Ellena would be anxious. She put her phone down. It did not ring.
All lines were probably swamped anyway. Perhaps Kit had managed to get through to his family. He had two brothers; the middle one, Russell, and his wife, Pamela, were looking after their baby while Justine and Kit were away.
Ellena was enormously thankful that she'd insisted on having Russell's address in Hertfordshire and phone number before Justine left. Ellena had never met any of Kit's family, but-interfering though it might be, or perhaps because she was so used to looking out for Justine-she had already phoned once to see if baby Violette was settled without her mother. Pamela, Russell's wife, had been more than a shade frosty, she recalled. But Ellena cared not for Pamela Langford's frostiness just now and, finding the number, she dialled.
'Hello, Russell. Ellena Spencer-J-Justine's sister.' Striving to keep calm, she announced herself-and hesitated, suddenly realising that if he had not had a telephone call from Kit, nor had he been watching the news, she was going to have to break the news to him herself.
But, `Bad do,' he replied, and she knew that he was aware of the avalanche.
'You haven't heard anything from Kit? He hasn't phoned or anything?' she questioned urgently.
'We had a card from him this morning, but that's all.'
'Oh,' Ellena cried faintly, starting to feel a shade frantic. 'I've tried to phone the hotel, but I can't get through.'
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