Snatched

Part 22 - A Small Village in France

"Happy Birthday beautiful baby boy!" Odette whispered, as she leant over her sons bed. She couldn't believe that her little boy, Daniel, was two today. She'd had to change his name when she'd left America with him two years ago. If she'd kept it the same, they would have found her long ago. She knew that Logans Dad had access to the top Private Investigators, so she'd been extra careful about everything she'd done since then.

She'd decided to keep her name just the same, she thought that she'd fit in better in France with a French name. After all, she had been born in France. Although, after she'd gone to boarding school in England and then studied at Oxford, she'd not really been back.

Odette had tried to keep up her knowledge of the French language, but after being surrounded mainly by Americans for the last few years, this had fallen slightly by the wayside. That was ok though, since the village Odette lived in now was mainly made up of retired Brits, looking for a new life in France, so most of the locals spoke English anyway.

Odette liked the small village she lived in now and had made lots of friends. In fact, one of them was holding a birthday party for Daniel this afternoon. The story she'd told when she'd moved into the village was that she'd married an American man living in England and had had to flee the country with their young son, after her husband had been imprisoned for violently abusing her. Most people took pitty with this story and apart from the part about the abuse, it wasn't too far from the truth.

Daniel finally woke up around 8.30am. God! That kid could sleep for days! She'd put him to bed about 7 the night before and hadn't heard a peep from him since. For the last hour, Odette had been sat in a chair next to the bed, reading the new French book she'd bought to improve her language skills, whilst she waited for her son to wake up.

Daniel stretched his arms out above his head and rolled onto his back. She loved it when he did this. Odette got out of her chair, walked over and sat on the end of her sons bed.
'Morning sweetie' she said.
'Ma Mere!' Daniel said, as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
'You remembered!' Odette chuckled to herself. She'd been speaking to him in a mixture of French and English lately. She knew it was important that he learn the language before he started at a French school.
'Daniel, do you know what today is?' Odette asked her son.
'Tuesday?' Daniel replied. Odette smiled to herself. She'd recently been teaching him the days of the week and was glad he was getting his head around them.
'Nearly', she laughed, 'It's Wednesday! But what's even more important is that today is your birthday!'
'Ma Mere!' Daniel chuckled, as he put a hand over his mouth, 'ma mere! I two!'
'I know honey' Odette said, as she got up off of the bed, 'and you know what two year olds need? Special birthday pancakes!' She turned away and walked towards the bedroom door.
'Ma mere!' Daniel squealed, which made Odette swivel back around to face him 'I want crepes!'
'Ok crepes it is!' she replied.