1 #6
At noon, she comes back down with two fresh bottles.
Sarah quickly drinks three-quarters of the cereal bottle and part of the water bottle.
Louane returns at one o'clock to change her diaper; Sarah has produced her first small dropping along with a good stream of urine.
She is fitted with a clean diaper, and Louane leaves her to rest.
At 4:00 PM, there is another bottle, and at 6:00 PM, Louane brings Sarah out for another milking session.
The cow quickly realizes where Louane is taking her and is not at all enthusiastic about the idea.
Louane has to make liberal use of her stick to guide Sarah to the milking stall and get her inside.
Once she has secured the cow's neck and front legs, she unzips her outfit and frees the udder, which still bears faint suction marks from the milking cups.
Louane starts the machine and attaches the cups to the cow's udder before setting the timer for thirty minutes.
By the end of the milking, Sarah seems exhausted—most likely from the tension.
Shortly before 7:00 PM, Sarah changes her diaper, then gives her the final bottle of the day along with a serving of chicken kibble in her stall's feed trough.
She bids her cow goodnight, secures the door with both latches, and heads back upstairs to wait for Gwendal and have dinner with him.
On the morning of the third day, the first drops of milk beaded in the reservoir attached to the milking machine suctioning Sarah’s udder.
Production was still low—150 ml—but this was the very first of the new batch.
Louane proudly filled a jar with this initial milk and placed it in the dedicated refrigerator in the milking parlor.
She texted Gwendal to share the news. He replied with a heart emoji, and the couple opened a good bottle of cider at lunch to celebrate.
Louane: "Everything is working well; I’ve found my rhythm with Sarah, and the feed suits this new breed—whether it’s the grain bottles or the chicken kibble. The milking machine is running perfectly; it’s all going smoothly. If we don’t increase the herd,
I’m going to be frustrated that the milk I collect from others exceeds the output of my own farm."
Gwendal understood the point and agreed to let Louane bring in a second cow.
Lo?c had been asked to scout for prospects, though he had to look outside his direct clientele at the sailing school to avoid arousing suspicion.
The gendarmerie had conducted a neighborhood inquiry regarding the worrying disappearance of a British tourist, but so far, there were no leads.
Lo?c, who knew everyone in the area, had recently chatted with a friend who worked a seasonal job at a campsite.
Erwan—with whom he was sharing a beer after the day’s sailing lessons—confided that while the work was interesting and most clients were pleasant, there were always a few difficult customers in the mix.
In this particular case, there was a young Danish woman who kept summoning him to her mobile home for the slightest thing to fix minor issues.
Erwan: "She can’t even enter the Wi-Fi code correctly to connect; she’s a total nightmare." Erwan is clearly fed up with this customer, as he continues:
Erwan: "The Danish woman is pretty cute; if she weren't such a pain, I’d have tried to hit on her during my many visits to her mobile home. It’s odd that she came alone—she strikes me as the type whose boyfriend dumped her at the last minute before the vacation."
Lo?c nods; he has likely found a good candidate for Gwendal and Louane’s farm—a situation to watch.
Over the next few days, he discreetly locates the Danish woman’s mobile home without asking Erwan, so as not to draw attention.
He spots her for the first time the very next day; she is a regular sight at the campsite, which also houses seasonal sailing instructors whom Lo?c visits frequently.
He knows the place like the back of his hand, as well as the couple who own it.
The following day, he stops by the reception building and greets Anna?g, the owner, with a kiss on the cheek, then heads into the back office to say hello to her husband, Pierre.
While chatting with him, Lo?c glances at the large whiteboard hanging on the wall behind Pierre’s desk.
He sees from the main chart that mobile home 44—the Dane’s—is booked for two weeks and that the tenant is changing on Saturday for a new, three-week rental.
It is already Tuesday; he will have to act fast to figure out the right way to secure this young Danish woman.
Lo?c checks flight options to Denmark for Saturday.
There is only one direct flight departing from Nantes Atlantique Airport.
Getting there offers several possibilities—bus or train—but in either case, she won't be alone, given it is peak tourist season.
He needs to act before she leaves. The next morning, Lo?c has a coffee in the sailing school’s common room before his morning students arrive.
He glances casually at the duty roster and notices a foreign-sounding name—Alma Pedersen—on the jet ski reservation board.
It sounds Danish, so he calls over the colleague in charge of rentals.
Lo?c: "Do you ever rent jet skis to tourists without a guide?"