for Molly, and she would give him every bit of help that she could. ‘She became sleepy about half an hour after we boarded the gondola. At first I thought it was because she found the ride soothing. I was day-dreaming too…’ Nell stopped abruptly. Help was one thing, sharing her personal impressions with this man was something else.
‘And before that?’
‘Nothing. She was fine.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Of course I’m sure. Will you give her to me?’
‘No. You might drop her.’
‘Drop her?’ Was he mad? ‘I can assure you, I won’t!’
‘You look light-headed to me.’
‘Is that in your professional opinion?’
Ignoring the sarcasm, he leaned out again, and so far this time, Nell grabbed him by the sleeve.
He looked down at her hand on his arm and she quickly drew it back.
‘Will you please try to calm down?’
‘How do you expect me to be calm when you take chances with my daughter—when you stand there saying nothing, explaining nothing?’ Nell shook her head. She would never get through to him. As far as Dr Barbaro was concerned, she was the unavoidable encumbrance that came with each of his patients—their relative or friend.
Digging in her pocket, she found her phone. Relief flooded through her; she could do something now. She could ring the emergency services—take over. And the number was…?
Why hadn’t she thought to ask at the hotel about the local emergency number? Because an emergency was the last thing you thought about on holiday…because all it took was one ray of sunshine and your brain shut down.
‘What are you doing?’ Luca Barbaro said sharply.
She ignored him and kept on punching numbers. ‘I’m ringing our hotel.’
‘Why?’
‘To ask them for the number of the emergency services.’
‘I’m perfectly capable of handling this. It’s too late for them to do anything, and you’ll just complicate everything. It will be quicker if we wait.’
‘For how long?’ she almost shouted.
‘You’d make better use of your time if you could remember something.’
Their voices were rising over Molly’s head, Nell realised, clamping her mouth shut. Did he think she was being deliberately obstructive?
‘Where did you start your day?’ he demanded.
She thought back to St Mark’s Square: grandeur and scale beyond imagining. Pigeons wheeling over their heads like dull grey streamers. The cafés, the crowds. Molly eating ice cream, pasta…She blenched. ‘Molly doesn’t have food poisoning, does she?’
He frowned, but didn’t answer.
‘Don’t you know?’
‘I’m sorry, I’m not prepared to confirm or deny anything until I’m certain.’
He was sorry? She doubted that somehow. ‘You must be able to tell me something.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t.’
She gritted her teeth. ‘How far away are we from the hospital?’
‘Not too far.’
‘Then why don’t we walk?’ she said with exasperation.
‘Not too far by boat,’ he clarified.
Nell felt as if she was tearing up inside with frustration. She wanted to do something. Most of all, she wanted the ground to open up and swallow him, leaving Molly safe and well in her pushchair. With an angry sound she raked her hair.
‘If this is getting too much for you, I could always help you down to that ledge and you could sit down.’
Too much for her? Sit down? She couldn’t believe he was pointing to a seat cut into the rock beside the steps rubbed smooth by countless weary travellers—as if she could relax like them. ‘I’m not tired!’ She ignored his outstretched hand. The last thing she wanted to do was sit down. No, not the last thing. That had to be taking his hand. She had no intention of touching any part of him.
The black-gold gaze lingered on her face. ‘Worrying will only sap your energy.’
‘Thanks for the advice.’ Nell raked her hair again until it stood in even angrier spikes. ‘Why don’t you save the platitudes, and give my daughter back to me?’
‘Bad temper won’t help either…’
He was looking at her hair. Let him look. It perfectly mirrored her feelings. Doubtless Barbaro preferred his women to have long, silky tresses he could wind around his fist…
A siren blasted and Nell exhaled with relief. At last something was happening.
The launch painted in orange and white had Ambulanza emblazoned along the side and across the front. Moving steadily towards them, it finally slowed beside the steps.
‘Be careful when you climb on board,’ Luca Barbaro advised. ‘Leave Molly’s pushchair to one of the men. We haven’t time to deal with a second emergency.’
And then he was gone—with Molly. When she went to follow, one of the paramedics got in her way. Nell panicked, the past mocking her, reminding how they had kept her away from Jake. But then Barbaro stuck his head out of the cabin to see where she was and shouted something in Italian. She didn’t wait to work out what it was. The man moved out of the way, and she hurried on board.
The fear that she would be separated from Molly was so real Nell had to ram the past back in its box and lock it up again. She had to tell herself that this wasn’t a replay of Jake’s accident, but something entirely different, and that she had to keep a clear head if she was going to stay on top of this new nightmare.
As she ducked her head to enter the cabin she could see Luca Barbaro was already treating Molly. He was clearly in his element, moving purposefully, calmly. The men knew him and watched him confidently. Their attitude relaxed her a little.
‘Sit here, please.’ Without taking his attention from Molly, Barbaro directed her to a bench seat on the opposite side of the cabin. As far away from Molly as possible.
He’d shifted up a gear, sloughing off all the irritation she’d sensed on shore. He was delivering instructions into his phone now, as well as to the men on board, and she didn’t need to understand the language to know who was in charge, or to gather that this was a full-blown emergency and there was no time to lose.
The creeping cold that had started down her spine spread to Nell’s shoulders as she sat watching. She didn’t even know that she was shivering until Luca Barbaro turned in the middle of attending to Molly and murmured something to one of the paramedics. Then
