Rebecca Winters - Their New-Found Family

The operator found the number and within seconds he was put through to the directrice. When Madame Soulis came on the line he introduced himself.

“Monsieur Monbrisson! It’s an honor to talk to you. I saw you on a recent television program about the expansion of your hotels in France. It was very impressive.”

“Thank you, madame.”

“How can I help you?”

“I’m inquiring about a student who attended your school twelve years ago.”

“Twelve you say? Just a moment. I’ll bring up that year on the computer.”

“She was a friend of mine, but we lost track years ago and I don’t have her old home address. Would it be possible for you to check your information for me?”

“Bien sur. What was her name?”

“Rachel Marsden.”

“Rachel? Ah, oui. She was the lovely blond American girl who came to us in the fall. I remember her particularly because she became ill and returned to the States after only a few months.”

The revelation sent an involuntary shudder through his body. Having to think fast he said, “That explains why I couldn’t reach her.”

“Yes. We were very sorry to see her go. She was an excellent student. Here is the number and address of her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Edward Marsden. As I recall, he was an eye surgeon.”

Tris jotted down the information. “Merci, madame. You’ve been of immense help.”

“Pas de quoi, monsieur.”

When they hung up, he immediately called the international operator for New Hampshire to find out if Dr. Marsden still had the same phone number as before.

There’d been a change.

He wrote down the new number, telling the operator not to connect him. It was only seven in the morning on the East Coast. He’d give it another half hour, then call.

Before he clicked off, he asked the operator if a Rachel or an R. Marsden were listed. To his surprise there was a listing with an R. It could belong to either sex, of course. Nevertheless he took down the number before hanging up.

A certain percentage of married professional women used their maiden names for business purposes. In a few minutes he would check it out first before trying to reach her parents.

The train rounded a curve and passed through a tunnel. The darkness reminded him of that one portion of his life he couldn’t remember.

Some friends from his old hockey team had long since filled him in on the time they’d spent together in Montreal. His family and doctors had been able to account for everything that had happened to him at his training camp and the subsequent accident that had put him in the hospital in Lausanne.

It was the time in between…the time on the ship and the period before he arrived at Interlaken that had eluded him all these years. In a while it was possible he would be able to talk to the woman who’d known him well enough to call him Tris.

When the train came back out into the sunlight, he should have felt a sense of relief that before the day was done, one phone call might give him closure on his past.

Yet a new dread had attacked him since learning Rachel Marsden had returned to the States a few months after arriving at the school because she wasn’t well.

My love—I’ll never forget last night as long as I live.

That one line from her note resounded in his head, causing him to break out in a cold sweat.

“Mom? Kendra’s dad has come for us.”

“Okay, honey. Have a great day. I’ll pick you two up at the rink after hockey practice.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“I love you.”

Rachel heard the front door close.

She finished brushing her hair, then slipped on her suit jacket, not wanting to be late for work. Rachel had fixed the girls’ breakfast after their sleepover, not realizing how late it had gotten.

After a quick glance around the bedroom, she hurried downstairs to get her purse which she must have left in the kitchen. When the house phone rang, she assumed it was one of Natalie’s friends who’d just missed her. She reached for the receiver.

“Hello?”

“Is this the Marsden residence?” The deep male voice on the other end spoke with only the slightest trace of accent, yet it sounded vaguely familiar.

She stirred uneasily. “Yes?”

“I’m looking for a Rachel Marsden. Do I have the right number?”

“W-who is this?” she cried softly.

After an extended silence, “Does the name Tris mean anything to you?”

Suddenly Rachel’s legs grew weak. She started to tremble as memories came flooding back.

It was Tris.

People could age, but that was his voice, his fingerprint. Its unique timbre resonated in every particle of her body, overwhelming her. He was actually alive, speaking to her from the other end of the phone line.

“H-hello, Tris.” Trying to control her panic she said, “I guess it was too much to expect that your nephew would be able to keep his promise.”

There was another pause. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”

“Please don’t pretend you didn’t realize Alain already called me two weeks ago. H-he told me about your amnesia,” she stammered, mortified by her loss of composure.

“I’ve been away on army maneuvers. Though I’ve phoned him every night, he never mentioned that he’d been in contact with you.”

She drew in a shaky breath, trying to recover her equilibrium. “Are you saying you made the decision to call me all on your own?”

“Bien sur,” he drawled with quiet irony. When he spoke in French, it was like she’d gone back in time where everything sounded so much more intimate.

“While I was preparing for my trip, Alain rummaged through an old backpack of mine and came across a note you’d written to me on board the QE2.

“I intended to track you down, but I couldn’t do anything about it until my military stint was over for the year.”

“And now it is?” Rachel’s voice shook despite her efforts to keep it steady.

“Yes. I’m on my way back to Montreux right now and will be getting off the train in a few minutes. Alain will be waiting for me. Be assured I will have a frank discussion with him about why it was wrong to take matters into his own hands.”

“No—” she cried out.

“No, what?” he demanded with a ring of authority in his voice reminiscent of the younger Tris who’d exhibited a powerful personality even back then.

She moistened her lips nervously. “I asked him not to tell you. He promised it would be our secret. Since he kept his end of the bargain, please don’t say anything to him about it.”

“Why did you feel you had to swear him to silence?”

Her heart jammed into her ribs. “I was very touched that he loves you so much, he wanted me to help you fill in the blanks of your memory. But I told him that it should have been you who called me if you felt the need. Since you hadn’t done that, I thought it best to forget the whole thing.”

“You did an effective job of getting through to him,” he murmured, increasing her guilt. “Aside from the fact that I don’t approve of what he did, I find your reaction even more curious.”

Her eyes closed tightly. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“If we were simply two college students who enjoyed each other’s company aboard ship, I’m interested to find out why you’re so frightened, you couldn’t be open about it with my nephew.”

“Frightened?” Perspiration beaded her hairline.

“Yes. Shall I tell you about my conversation with Madame Soulis, the directrice of your school in Geneve? According to her you became ill and had to leave Grand-Chene after only a few months.”

He knew.

Rachel almost collapsed.

Tris was no ordinary man. His genius was apparent whether he was captain of his hockey team, or head of a multimillion dollar family business.