think I am old enough to work wherever I choose without the approval of my father or brothers.’ She closed the bag with a little snap and added, ‘Besides, my father is not likely to live much longer.’
‘How is he?’
She let out a tiny sigh. ‘Going downhill every day but he refuses to admit it. He won’t go to the hospital and will not allow anyone to visit. Anyway, what doctor would travel all that way to see him only to be turned away? I do what I can but I fear it will not be long before he is beyond help.’
‘Can you not convince your brothers to help you?’
‘They help me when they can but they have struggles of their own. It is not exactly easy being a Vialli on the island of Niroli. Everyone has such long memories.’
‘It was a terrible time on the island back then,’ Signora Gravano said, her expression clouding. ‘You are lucky you were not yet born. There was such hatred and violence, so much bloodshed.’
‘I know…’ Amelia released another sigh. ‘My father’s never really got over it.’
‘There are many who believe he deserved to die as well,’ Signora Gravano said with gravitas.
Amelia didn’t respond, but she felt her blood chill just as it did every time she thought about the incident that had changed her family for ever.
‘I must not keep you,’ Signora Gravano said with a fond smile. ‘You are a good girl, Amelia. Your mother would be very proud of you.’
Amelia bent down and gave the old woman a gentle hug. ‘Thank you.’
‘Why don’t you leave your skirt with me to mend,’ Signora Gravano offered as Amelia straightened once more. ‘You can borrow something of my daughter’s. She still has things in the wardrobe for when she visits.’
‘I don’t want to put you to any bother.’
‘It is no bother,’ she insisted. ‘You are much smaller than her but it will see you home without embarrassment. You never know who you might meet and what would they think of you looking like a gypsy?’
A few minutes later Amelia looked down at the huge sack of a dress she had borrowed and wondered how she was going to walk the distance back to the Free Hospital in the stifling heat. Her brother Rico had yet again borrowed her car and had agreed to meet her back at the hospital once she had seen the last of the community patients.
She kept her head well down as she hurried past the visiting doctor’s cottage, sure she could feel that dark, mocking gaze following her even though there was no sign of anyone about.
A flashy-looking sports car turned the corner and she stepped onto the grass verge to avoid its dust, but instead of going past it came to a halt beside her.
‘Hey there, little pixie.’ The man she had met earlier grinned at her through the open window. ‘I see you’ve changed into something a little more comfortable.’
Amelia tightened her spine, her eyes flashing with sparks of ire. ‘I believe you are the Australian doctor we have been expecting,’ she said. ‘What a pity you didn’t think to introduce yourself properly when you had the chance.’
He turned off the engine and unfolded his long length from the car to come to stand in front of her. ‘You didn’t tell me your name so I didn’t see why I should reveal mine,’ he said with a teasing glint in his eyes. ‘Fair’s fair. It’s my very first day on the island. A guy can never be too careful these days. For all I know you could be a dangerous criminal.’
She stared at him for a moment, wondering if he had heard the rumours about her family, her heart starting to clang like a heavy bell in her chest.
‘You’re not…'he bent slightly to peer deeply into her eyes ‘…are you?’
She took a little step backwards, almost tripping over the hem of the borrowed dress. ‘W-what?’
‘A dangerous criminal.’
‘I—I told you before—I’m a…a nurse.’
His eyes flicked to her outfit before returning to her face. ‘A plain-clothes nurse it seems. Are you on some sort of undercover operation?’
‘I don’t wear a uniform when I do my home visits,’ she said. ‘The patients feel less threatened that way.’
‘Do you work at the Free Hospital as well?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Which ward?’
She looked as if she had just bitten into a lemon as she answered, ‘The cardiac ward.’
‘Well, so we’ll be work buddies, eh?’ His dark eyes danced with merriment.
‘It looks like it,’ she said coldly.
He smiled down at her. ‘So are you going to tell me your name or am I going to have to address you as Nurse Pixie for the rest of my stay?’
‘Amelia Vialli,’ she mumbled, but didn’t offer him her hand.
‘Alex Hunter,’ he said and, reaching for her hand, held it in the huge warmth of his. ‘How do you do?’
Amelia tugged at her hand but he didn’t release it. She gave him a pointed glare but he just laughed. ‘You can hardly rip half your arm off, now can you?’
‘Are all Australians this rude or have you taken a special course in offending people?’ she asked, wrenching her hand from his and rubbing at it with exaggeration. ‘No doubt you passed it with flying colours.’
‘And are all Niroli natives so unfriendly or is it just you?’ he returned.
She scowled at him darkly. ‘I am not being unfriendly.’
He grinned again. ‘I’d hate to see you being hostile.’
‘Excuse me,’ she said and made to brush past. ‘I have someone waiting for me.’
He stalled her with a hand on her arm. ‘Would you like a lift?’
She sent him a haughty look as she brushed off his arm as if it were a particularly nasty insect. ‘I don’t think so.’
He raised his dark brows. ‘You’re going to walk all that way in that dress?’
She gave her head a defiant little toss. ‘Yes.’
‘What are you doing—moonlighting as a street sweeper or something?’
She rolled her eyes and swung away, and, picking up the voluminous skirt of her borrowed outfit, began to walk purposefully towards town, the fabric swishing around her ankles making her look like a small, angry black cloud.
Alex stood watching her, a little smile playing about his mouth. ‘How cute is that?’ he said out loud.
A light breeze carried the sweet fragrance of orange blossom and he closed his eyes and drew
