‘Anna...’
‘I suspect it’s true,’ she said. ‘But more fool you. I didn’t have riches. And how did you know Yanni wouldn’t have twelve little Yannis before he died.’
‘I was stunned,’ he told her. ‘I didn’t know what to think.’
‘And you were being noble as well as dumb.’ She sighed. ‘And, honestly, I concede. If you’d stuck around I might have sobbed and clung and done any number of the dumb things adolescents do when they’re crazily in love. So maybe what you did was reasonable. Anyway, Leo, I’ve been thinking and I’ve decided... I forgive you.’
‘You forgive me,’ he said faintly, and she managed to dredge up a grin. And suddenly it was a real one.
It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining on her face. The setting was fantastic. She’d just had a truly excellent glass of limoncello and a gorgeous guy was showing her around the island.
So get on with it, she told herself. Get on with your life.
‘I know, nobility is my middle name,’ she told him, and chuckled. ‘So, moving on. I have decided to stay here.’
‘With Martin?’
Where had that come from? She was trying not to get personal, or trying to put personal behind her and here he was, heading right back to where she least wanted to be. To her love life.
But why not be honest? If she was to stay here...
She’d have her dogs. She’d have her amazing apartment. She needed to do something about Victoir but surely she could manage that. And moving on...there might be any number of gorgeous guys on this island.
Leo would be a colleague and maybe a friend. He could ask, she decided, but she needed to set boundaries.
‘That’s none of your business, and you know it isn’t,’ she told him. ‘Okay, putting all our cards on the table, Martin is actually now my ex-boyfriend. He’s also my lawyer. But that’s the last time you ask such a personal question, Leo Aretino. If I’m to stay here for the next twenty years I need to make a life for myself. I think I’ve decided that I can even have a very good time if I try hard enough. Right now, Victoir’s intensely interested in my love life and so, it seems, are you. Neither of you have the right. I don’t think Victoir and I can ever be friends—in fact, I’m sure of it—but you and I need to be colleagues and if we try very hard I suspect we can be friends, too. So for now I’m nobly forgetting that you ever jilted me and I’m moving on. Are you prepared to move on, too?’
‘I guess...’ He seemed totally disconcerted.
‘Then that’s noble of both of us.’ She rose and smiled down at him. ‘Or sensible. Speaking of sensible, Dino’s limoncello was surely an aperitif, meant to be served before lunch. And I’m hungry. Do we need to head back to town to eat?’
‘There’s a small taverna around the next headland.’
‘Excellent,’ she said, and she smiled her very widest smile. Goading him to smile with her. ‘Let’s move on, then, shall we? Let’s start being sensible from this moment on.’
* * *
Everything she’d said was totally, absolutely sensible. She’d pretty much summarised what had happened between them. She knew his reasons. She’d decided not to hold it against him.
They could move ahead as colleagues and as friends, Leo thought, which was surely the very best of outcomes, so why did things still seem out of kilter?
The taverna he’d taken her to was one of his favourite places. Sofia made the best pasta on the island and Giuseppe surely caught the best calamari. Four small tables sat under their olive trees, looking out over the rickety jetty where Giuseppe tied his boat, and there were two tables inside if you were ever crazy enough not to want the view. They wanted the view and today they were the only customers. The menu was one dish, pasta with seafood, but the restricted menu was not a problem.
‘Oh, my...’ Anna was holding a sliver of squid for inspection before dispatching it forthwith. ‘I’ve never eaten anything so good. Tell me I’ve died and gone to heaven.’
‘It’s not all hardship in this place,’ he agreed. ‘Pasta, olives, tomatoes, seafood...what’s not to love?’
‘The chef back at the castle seems to cook out of tins,’ she said, sighing her pleasure. ‘I was thinking twenty years in this place could be torture, but there’s this! Hey, I’m a Castlavaran. Surely I can command Sofia to come to my castle and cook for me.’
She’d spoken in Tovahnan. Giuseppe and Sofia had been watching them from the doorway. Three of their children, about twelve, ten and eight, had been running races down to the jetty and back.
As they heard what Anna said they stilled as one, turning to stare at her in consternation.
And Anna stared back, from one to the other. Her face lost all its colour as she realised what they were thinking.
‘No! Oh, no, I was joking.’ She rose and crossed to where Sofia was standing, so shocked she’d started shaking.
This was why things were still out of kilter, Leo thought. A friend and colleague? She was, but she was still the Castlavaran.
Leo had introduced her to the little family as they’d arrived and they’d reacted with awe. Now he saw Sofia try to back away in fear as Anna approached.
But Anna would have none of it. She held out her hands, grasping Sofia’s workworn hands in hers and holding them tight.
‘Sofia, that was a joke and a stupid one at that. I won’t command anything.’
‘You can take away our house,’ Sofia said, sounding desperate.
‘I can’t.’
‘You can take away anything you please on this island,’ Leo told her. ‘It is...yours to command.’
‘I won’t command anything.’
‘It’ll take time to prove that to the islanders.’
She looked back at him, dismayed. ‘How?’
‘It’ll take time, that’s all,’ he said.
‘Time. Twenty years?’
‘I guess that’s what you’re committing.’
‘I guess I am.’ She turned back to Sofia. ‘Sofia, please believe me when I say I’m threatening nothing. I may be your landlord but I have no intention of interfering with your lives. I’d like...if possible...to help Dr Leo to build a medical clinic to help all the island, and in time...given trust, maybe I could be a friend?’
But Sofia gave a small, scared smile and retreated. She almost scuttled backward.
The children followed and Giuseppe stood blocking the doorway, arms crossed, an islander in defence mode.
‘Help,’ Anna said to Leo, distressed beyond measure.
‘It’s okay,’ he said, rising and coming to her aid. He put his arm around her waist, as protective a gesture as Giuseppe’s. ‘Don’t take it personally. You are...’
‘I know, a Castlavaran.’ She sighed. ‘Okay, Leo, I know I am. But I will make a difference. But twenty years... Wow, Leo...’ And then she grimaced and pulled herself away from him.
‘Please, Giuseppe, reassure Sofia that the last thing I want is to take her away from this taverna, from you and your children and this magic place. And you know the reason? I intend to come back here once a week for the next twenty years, maybe even more, and sit under your olive trees and eat your pasta and calamari. If that’s okay with you.’
‘You will come?’ Giuseppe said cautiously. ‘With Dr Aretino?’
‘Mostly without,’ Anna said, suddenly brisk. ‘I intend to enjoy myself on this island, but it’s starting to dawn on me... I may have to enjoy myself alone.’
She headed back to the table and sat and helped herself to another tentacle. Firmly, as if the action was a vow.
Leo was left looking at Giuseppe. The older man stared at Anna and then shrugged. It’s in the lap of the gods, his body language said, and Leo could only agree.
He managed a smile and turned back to watch the woman he’d once loved...
Still loved...<
br />
Twenty years?
It was, indeed, in the lap of the gods.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Six months later
SHE WAS ON the beach. It was nine at night. She’d spent the day immersed in plans, in building, in the general chaos of transforming an ancient castle into a modern medical facility. The noise of jackhammers, of carpenters, of architects talking at her, had given her a thumping headache.
This would be the architect ringing, she thought, or one of the builders. It seemed the entire island was determined to get this hospital up and running, and if it needed communication at midnight then so be it.
The last six months had passed in a whirlwind of activity. There’d been an intense meeting with the trustees in Milan, who’d turned out to be astonishingly enthusiastic.
‘There’s been little we could do from the sidelines over the years. But if you really do want to help Tovahna...’
She really did. They explained the legal intricacies and she’d struggled to understand, but she thought she had it sorted now.
She’d pensioned Victoir off. He might be repulsive but he’d kept her cousin and her uncle happy. In his place Martin had helped her appoint a good financial team. He and Jennifer had come and stayed for a week. Together they’d helped her understand the financial jargon and they’d helped her face down Victoir. There was something comforting about standing beside a competent lawyer. The alternative would have been to use Leo and she’d made a conscious decision to Not Need Leo.
Her dogs had arrived with Martin and Jennifer, and with them had come a sense of home. She’d explored the island with them. She’d met islander after islander. She’d tasted more home-made grappa and limoncello than was good for her. She hadn’t quite dived into the dating scene—as if she could when every islander regarded her in awe—but she’d enjoyed herself.
She still felt an outsider but she’d accepted her lot. The islanders remained wary but she was doing things that made her happy.
And Leo? She scarcely saw him. He made time to be at the planning meetings, but those meetings consisted of architects, hospital planners, builders, suppliers. As soon as they left, so did he.
He had pressures of his own, she knew. Carla told her his mother was fading, and the island’s medical need was still oppressive. Until the castle hospital was up and running the trustees couldn’t justify her employing medical staff, and she could hardly help herself when there was so much to do here. She was working desperately to get essentials sorted. Some of it was in place but not nearly enough.
And now...her phone was ringing. Drat. She was so over building details.
She was walking in the shallows, kicking up a spray of water with her bare toes, watching her dogs romp ahead of her. The night was almost moonless but at some stage the security-conscious Victoir had had floodlights installed, so the beach was an island of light, backdropped by the castle.
The phone rang out—and then started again.
She sighed and tugged her phone from her back pocket, holding it up so she could see the caller ID.
Leo.
Her heart gave a stupid, crazy lurch.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, get a grip. It’d be about planning...something. She hit receive and put on her most efficient voice.
‘Hold, will you, Leo? I need to call the dogs. Boris, Daisy, here, guys, home time.’
The dogs wheeled back to her, lanky springer spaniels, glorying in their evening run but equally delighted to be heading back to share their mistress’s bed.
That bed was far too big.
Don’t go there.
‘What can I do for you, Leo?’ She started up the steps of the sea wall, her dogs at her heels. She had her voice under control, nicely efficient.
‘Anna, I need your help. Two fishing trawlers hit in the harbour mouth. Idiots running without lights. I’m guessing bulbs blown and they saved money by not replacing them, both banking on others to have lights. One of the fuel tanks exploded. Reports of multiple burns. I know your theatre’s not ready but I know it’s close. First report is six injured crew. I’m on board a boat now, heading out to meet them. Anna, our emergency room is tiny. We can’t cope with more than two. We need you as a doctor but we also need space. I haven’t been in it for weeks but...hell, Anna, how close are you?’
Six months ago, when she’d returned from negotiating with the trustees, Leo had rejected her offer to help at the hospital. ‘Anna, a new hospital is central to the well-being of the entire island. If you can bear being away from medicine for a few months...’
He was right, it had been sensible, so she’d spent six months tied up in bureaucracy. She’d seen not one patient.
But tonight Leo was asking for help.
And she could help.
‘Everything’s ready to go,’ she told him, feeling the familiar surge of adrenalin that medical emergencies produced. ‘The surroundings look like a bomb site, but our casualty section’s pretty much ready to receive. Equipment’s been arriving over the last couple of weeks. We can fit eight in our reception area.’
There was a pause as he took that in. She could hear the sounds of emergency through the phone. She could hear the engine of the boat he was on, the sound of the wind in the background, people shouting. This beach was around the headland from the harbour so she could see nothing, but she imagined him on the deck heading toward flames, gearing up for disaster.
She wanted to be with him. She wanted...
What she wanted was immaterial. It was what she could give that mattered. She thought of the cramped emergency room he usually worked in and she thought of multiple burn casualties. She thought of the alternative.
‘You saw it two weeks ago when the painting was done,’ she said. ‘But we’ve gone further. When the equipment orders came through I decided it was dumb leaving it in storage until the whole project was completed. Everything’s unpacked. I’ve had the place cleaned, sterilised. Two theatres are ready to go. I don’t have drugs yet, but I imagine they’d be easy to transport from your hospital. I have eight cubicles ready.’
Burn victims needed to be treated fast. There’d be blistering, heat welding fingers to fingers or, worse, shock, hypothermia, heart failure. After severe burns these would be more than possibilities. Without swift, competent treatment, death was a probability, disfigurement certain. They’d need evacuation—no small hospital had the facilities to care for major burns victims long term—but initial stabilisation was imperative.
‘You can bring them to the jetty under the castle wall,’ she said while Leo thought through implications. ‘Is Carla at the hospital?’
‘Bruno’s there, organising receiving. Carla and Freya are on their way in.’
‘They could come straight here. How many inpatients do you have over there?’
‘Seven but none risky.’ There was another silence and she could almost hear the cogs working. ‘I’ll take you at your word, then. Eight reception cubicles. Surgical equipment?’
‘Everything but drugs.’
And the decision was made. ‘I’ve already put out a call for all available staff. I’ll have Bruno redirect them to you. I’ll leave one nurse at the hospital. It’s a risk but a smaller one than trying to cram burns victims into a place geared for four at the most. Bruno can bring the drugs now.’ She heard a shout in the background and then another, fainter, in response. ‘I’ll leave reception to you, Anna. We’re reaching the scene now.’
‘You don’t want me to get on a boat and come out?’
‘You’re better there. We’re only ten minutes from the castle. The boats can bring them straight in. I’ll do emergency resus, but everything else will be sent to you. Bless you.’
‘Bless you back again,’ she said, and she couldn’t quite keep her voice steady. She was imagining two boats colliding in the dark, fire, spilled fuel, major injurie
s. As a family doctor she’d had no experience of the kind of accident Leo was facing. She had the training, though, and so did Leo.
They were both going to need it.
* * *
The scene facing Leo was appalling.
Debris was scattered on the water, pieces of still-burning timber. The boat was already a charred hull. The other was a wreck.
He knew these boats, and their crews. World Cup football was being screened tonight at the town hall. The skippers would have been trying to get into port before the game started.
Entering harbour without riding lights? What a way to save money.
The local guardia boat was already on scene, as were a couple of other boats, local fishermen who’d also have been on their way into harbour. There were two dinghies on the water, being rowed. You didn’t start a motor with this amount of spilled and burning fuel. He saw fishermen hauling someone aboard. A body? Any hope that the initial call might have overstated the seriousness of the situation disappeared.
‘Doc...’ Pietro, head of the island’s guardia, called to him across the water. ‘We have two on board here, in a mess. There are four on board the Marika, maybe less injured but I can’t say for sure. Another’s being pulled in now but it looks like we’ve lost him. One unaccounted for.’
‘Send the Marika straight in,’ he called. With patients on two boats he couldn’t even assess in the time it’d take to them back to the castle. ‘Take them to the castle jetty.’
‘The castle...’
‘Dr Raymond is waiting.’
‘The Castlavaran?’ Despite the urgency of the situation he heard disbelief. Angelo, the dour skipper of the Marika, was calling to him in incredulity. ‘We need you to treat them. Or Carla. Why would we take them to the castle?’
There’d been disbelief at the concept of what Anna was doing. Islanders were taking wages for their work, as generations of Tovahnans had been taking wages, but there’d been little trust.
‘It’ll turn out to be just for the wealthy; just wait and see.’
Leo had heard the mutterings.
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