Dory's Avengers by Alison Jack Page B

sorry.’
    For once not picking up on the hated diminutive of his name, Gideon carried on with his story.
    â€˜When I was released from hospital I was allowed to carry on training the young gymnasts in Newcastle, but all the while I had a Sponsor Group heavy in attendance. Foster had the temerity to tell me it was for my own safety; we didn't want me to get another beating, now, did we? Elliot became the only person I could trust.’
    â€˜What about your family?’ asked Louis, realising as he spoke the words that Gideon had never made any mention of his parents in all the years he'd been Louis's mentor. Gideon's face darkened alarmingly with anger, and for a moment Louis thought the older man was going to yell at him to get out.
    â€˜My parents had their heads totally turned by the Sponsors,’ Gideon replied. ‘I was their only child, yet they chose loyalty to their Sponsors above their son. They disowned me, and I haven't seen them for over twenty years. Not even when this happened,’ he finished, gesturing towards his irreparably broken legs.
    Louis and Gideon were silent for a little while; Gideon preparing himself for the next part of his narrative, Louisdigesting that which he had already heard. When Gideon continued, his first words took Louis totally by surprise.
    â€˜Your eyes are exactly the same shade of blue as your mother's,’ he said.
    â€˜I didn't know you'd spent any time looking into me mam's eyes!’ replied Louis quickly, humour masking shock.
    â€˜Nicola Brown was one of the first young gymnasts to come to me for training when I stopped performing and started mentoring. She was immensely talented, and it's no surprise that her son is equally talented. She was also a very bright girl, and shared my immediate distrust of the Sponsors from the moment the Scheme first took off.’
    â€˜What happened then? Did she compete? I never even knew she was a gymnast!’ Thinking of his mother's vague allusions to ‘that Giddy bloke’ a few days previously, Louis realised he didn't even know Nicola and Gideon had ever met.
    â€˜That's because you only ever knew her after she met Lysander. Obviously,’ Gideon said, laughing a little. Louis would have had trouble knowing his mother before she'd met his father! ‘Lysander totally turned her head. I've never seen anyone fall so completely in love with someone so wrong.’
    â€˜I think me dad loves me mam too,’ said Louis, remembering his parents wrapped in their own world on Saturday night.
    â€˜That's as may be, Louis, but your father's first loyalties lie with the St Benedict Scheme. Nicola had to change her views very radically, at least to the outside world, and that meant no more contact with an old troublemaker like me. You wouldn't even know that we'd ever met nowadays, so completely does she blank me. Anyway, that's not really relevant to the sorry tale I need to tell you, young man, so if you'd give me a chance to speak without interruption I shall continue.
    â€˜David Foster's visits became more and more frequent after my beating, especially as he became aware that I'd struck up a close friendship with Elliot Farrell. Ell was a constant thorn in the Sponsorship Scheme's side as he refused point blank to accept Sports Sponsorship, and was very vocal about not wanting the St Benedict Scheme to govern his life. He told me many times how worried his sister was about his very public denouncement of the Scheme, but however many times Isabelle pleaded with Ell to go with the flow, and however much he loved his sister, he was just too stubborn. It's a trait his daughter has inherited.’
    Louis gulped nervously at the idea of Abi falling foul of the Sponsors.
    â€˜It may amaze you that the Sponsors didn't deal with Elliot quickly and severely,’ continued Gideon. ‘The truth is that they didn't dare. You see, from a very early age Elliot Farrell was widely considered to be the best