A Sanctuary for Elle by Anna Jane Page B

an option.  She remembered the phone call they had had.  E l le had still been in Australia and she had called her Grandmother to catch up.  They had spoken of old times and Elle had reminisced about her times at Sanctuary.  She had spoken of her homesickness.  She had spoken of her need to settle and find a home. Had this been what had changed her grandmother's mind?  Was she about to sell when Elle had come and changed everything.  What a confusing mess.  Elle urged herself to the sofa and lay down.  She gathered herself into a ball and once again cried.  Everyth i ng was just so confusing.  She didn't know what to think.  Mark had seemed like a breath of fresh air in the landslide, a genuine, kind and passionate man who was just what a woman needed in her time of need.  He seemed to explain the situation so calmly, so honestly.  Had it been like he had said?  Elle wasn't sure.  What did she really know of Mark anyway?  She knew him intimately, for sure but how could she know if what he said was true when she had not had time to know the man's character well.
    Mark was deflated.  He had worked himself up to come and speak to Elle and it had changed nothing.  Elle was still angry, still upset.  How would he get her to speak to him again?  He couldn't bear the thought that this would be it.  No, he had to keep on pursuin g her.  He would make her understand that his intentions had been good and honourable.  He would try and make her see things from his perspective.  Those moments they had spent together in the landslide had been life-changing for him.  He felt an attractio n that he had never experienced before.  The thought of never touching her, kissing her, holding her again was unthinkable.  He had never wanted a woman before like he wanted Elle.  He had never had the desire to pursue a woman before like he wanted to now.   Mark felt that he had enjoyed the company of plenty of women in his time but this feeling was new to him.  He just couldn't let it lie.  He didn't want Elle to think badly of him, didn't want her to believe he was a bad person, a bad man. 
    Mark climbed into his car with a heavy heart and reluctantly reversed back down the gravel path.  This was not the end of this relationship he decided though, he would show her somehow that he cared, that he was worth bothering with.  It couldn't end like this.  Not when the thought of never holding her again filled him with despair.
     
    Chapter 7
     
    Elle spent her first week settling into her Grandmother's house.  She forced herself to sort the possessions that covered the house.  She used the spare room for ev erything he wanted to keep and sorted clothes and ornaments for various local charities.  She found mementoes from childhood which she pored over, reliving the experiences that she had gained from here time  here as a child.  In one cupboard she found loa d s and loads of albums.  Reams and reams of photos depicted Elle at various stages of growth.  She had come here as a girl, small and thin.  As she flicked through the pages, a young woman began to emerge, beautiful and innocent, face always smiling happil y to the camera.  Elle came across the older albums, the ones of her mother and father, herself as a baby.  She looked through them as she had when she was young, trying to remember them, trying to remember their voices, their smell.  She didn't recall muc h of that time though, she had been so young when she had lost them both.  They were pictures really, memories were lost in youth and she only vaguely remembered occasions depicted in the photos. 
    Elle felt sad.  It dawned on her heavily that she alone.  S he had no family left at all.  She didn't have any friends here.  She didn't have a man to love, a child to care for, anyone in fact.  She closed the album she had been leafing through and went out to the back garden.  She walked down to the oak tree at t h e bottom of the garden and sat