The Daisy Chain

the long version

When Robert Ashton returns to Gascony, that remote corner of France where he had spent several months in hiding from the Germans during World War II, it is with very mixed feelings: gratitude towards the French farming family who had saved his life - and a yearning to see their daughter Jeanne, mingled with a fear of what he will find. For the legacy of the Occupation still haunts that beautiful part of the country, and its people have never welcomed foreigners. Moving in to a derelict old house near the village where he had once hidden, together with his daughter Daisy (named for the farmer's wife who had helped him during that distant, harrowing time), the Ashtons encounter outright hostility - and guarded curiosity - from some of their neighbours. It will take several months before the wounds begin to heal, helped in part by the friendships forged between those members of the younger generation, Daisy, and the handsome son of the Darroze family, Daniel, for whom the war is, thankfully, ancient history...