can’t fly out tonight. Mamma, I have responsibilities here.’
‘You have responsibilities to your family, Melinda,’ Viviana said, her voice like cut glass.
‘I can’t just drop everything and leave George to sort out my patients and my surgery tomorrow. It’s not fair. We need time to sort out a locum for me.’
‘Locum?’ There was a shocked pause. ‘You mean, you are actually planning to go back again?’
‘Of course. It’s my job. My vocation, Mamma.’ Not to mention the fact the man she loved and was going to marry lived here in Cornwall. Though now was most definitely not the time to tell her mother about that.
‘While you were the middle child, we were prepared to let you play.’
Play? A degree in veterinary sciences meant long hours and hard work. Years and years of study and exams. She twisted her hair again, and the sharp pain made her pause instead of saying something she knew she’d regret. She’d let that ‘play’ comment slide. For now. ‘Nothing has changed.’
‘Raffi is dead. You are the eldest now. Which means that you have responsibilities and duties here, Melinda. You are the next in line to the throne, and you need to come back to Contarini for good.’
‘I’ll come back for Raffi’s funeral and to see you, Papà and Serena. But I’m not promising any more than that.’
‘Why must you be so difficult? So headstrong?’ Viviana demanded.
Headstrong? Melinda nearly laughed. She wasn’t the one who drove fast cars and fast boats and fast planes, who went through money as if a fresh supply could be printed every day, or whose champagne bill was legendary. She was the one who’d always been quiet, bookish, who’d spent her time in the stables and the kennels. Raffi was the headstrong one and Serena was the one who wore pretty dresses and had beautiful manners and charmed people. Melinda was the odd one out, and everyone knew it. A very square peg whose corners just couldn’t be rubbed off to make her fit the role they wanted her to take.
A role she didn’t want.
A role she’d never wanted.
‘Mamma, I am too tired to argue. I can’t fly out tonight. I’ll talk to George, then I’ll catch a flight from here to London tomorrow and from London to…’ She thought rapidly. Palermo was nearer to Contarini, but Naples was probably a little more discreet. ‘To Napoli. I’ll text you to let you know my flight times, d’accordo?’
‘Then we will see you tomorrow.’
And that was it. The line went dead. No ‘I love you’. No warmth or affection. Just as it had always been when she had been growing up—her parents had always been too busy and their duty had come first.
Maybe, she thought, if Viviana and Alessandro Fortesque had spent more time with their children, Raffi would have learned to control his impulses.
Gritting her teeth, she dialled her boss’s number. She knew the burly vet would be understanding, but she still hated the fact that she was letting him down.
‘George? I’m sorry to bother you on your night off.’ She took a deep breath. ‘My mother just called. I need to go home for a few days.’
‘Something’s wrong?’
‘My brother…died. In a car crash.’ It felt weird, saying it. And she felt cold, so cold. She really needed Dragan. Needed to feel his arms round her.
‘Oh, love, I’m so sorry. Of course you have to go. Look, I can cover for you tonight. Go now. Don’t worry about a thing.’
Dear George. She could have hugged him. ‘I can’t get a flight until tomorrow anyway. I’ll still do tonight on call. But if I could leave first thing in the morning—and I’ll write down a list of my patients and what have you—that’d be…’ She swallowed hard. ‘That’d be really appreciated.’
‘Are you on your own? Do you want me to come over, or do you want to come over to us?’
George, his wife and four children lived in a sprawling old farmhouse just outside Penhally. At the Smiths’, you could always be sure of a warm welcome, a cat to curl on your lap in the big farmhouse kitchen and a dog to sit by your feet.
‘No, no. I’ll be fine. I’m, um…Dragan is keeping me company this evening. I’m hoping I don’t get another callout because I have Cassidy here.’
‘Violet’s parrot? Why?’
‘I think he ate some chocolate and his system’s reacting to it.’
‘Chocolate’s poisonous to parrots—as well as to dogs,’ George said.
‘Essatamente. So he needs nursing here in a heated cage for a few days. I’ve given him the electrolyte powders tonight, but he’ll need them twice a day and a gradual return to his normal diet.’
‘Leave me your treatment plan and I’ll ask Sally to come in early tomorrow and take over,’ George said.
Melinda was happy that the practice nurse would follow the treatment plan exactly. And she was so experienced that she’d probably seen a few sick parrots in her time: Melinda often thought Sally knew as much as the vets did. ‘George, thank you so much. I really hate it that I’m letting you down. And if I’m not back by Saturday—’
‘Then young Tina Chamberlain can shadow me for the morning. She might like to come and see what we do with the livestock, so she sees the other side of the practice and not just the small-animal work,’ George finished. ‘I’ll clear it with Lizzie first. Don’t worry about a thing. Just ring me if you need me or there’s anything I can do, all right? And we’ll see you when we see you.’
‘Thank you, George.’
She’d just put the phone down when the doorbell rang.
Dragan.
She went down to meet him and unlock the door; he followed her back up the stairs to her small kitchen, carrying two wrapped parcels. ‘Sorry I was so long. There was a queue, and then I had to wait for fresh chips. But at least they’re really hot,’ he said with a smile. And then he frowned, taking in her expression. ‘What’s wrong, Melinda? Cassidy’s worse?’
‘No.’ She dragged in a breath. ‘My mother called. My brother…’ She rubbed a hand over her face. She still couldn’t quite believe it. ‘He died yesterday after a car accident.’
‘Oh, Melinda.’ He put the fish and chips on the worktop and held her close. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘I have to go back.’
‘Of course you do. How are you getting there?’
‘I haven’t booked a flight yet. But I’ll take the first one I can get tomorrow from Newquay to Gatwick, and then Gatwick to Naples.’
Dragan could remember the feeling. The black hole inside when he realised he’d lost his entire family. That he was the only one
