The Proud Italian Read online

  ‘Hi…’ Abbie offered a smile. ‘You okay?’

  ‘I’m fine.’ Rafael smiled back. Another polite smile. ‘And you? That chair in Ella’s room can’t be that comfortable to sleep in.’

  ‘I’m used to it. I’ve been sleeping in one of those chairs for so long now that a bed will probably feel weird.’

  And there it was again. A slap in the face. A reminder of where she’d been for the last three months. An echo of the awkward moment last night when Rafael had asked if she would come home to sleep and she’d said that changing something that big in Ella’s routine was out of the question just yet.

  ‘How is she this morning?’

  ‘Good. She ate a little stewed apple and porridge for breakfast. It’s great that she already knows so many of the nurses on the ward. She’s got Melanie today and I don’t think she even noticed me leaving to come here.’

  ‘I’ll get up and see her as soon as we’ve finished here. I…wasn’t sure whether to disturb your early-morning routine.’

  Keeping his distance? Abbie stifled a sigh. ‘She’s your daughter, Rafe. You can spend as much time with her as you want.’

  His nod was almost curt. He reached for a pile of notes and slid them along the counter. ‘Here are your patients for this morning.’

  It wasn’t rocket science to see that her pile was much smaller than his. Or that the names on the list had been divided far more equally. Abbie raised her eyebrows. Rafael shrugged.

  ‘I’ve added some cases to my list. It’s your first morning back, Abbie. I wanted to make things a little easier for you.’

  Abbie stared at him. ‘If I didn’t think I could cope, I wouldn’t be here.’

  The words came out a little more vehemently than she’d intended but it was bad enough feeling nervous about her own performance. She didn’t need other people doubting her abilities.

  He mirrored her raised eyebrows and gave another one of those subtle shrugs that was part of what kept people so aware of his birthplace. As you wish, it said. It’s of no importance to me.

  Except it had been of importance or he wouldn’t have done it. And it was a generous gesture when he probably had too much to do today anyway. Maybe she should compromise. Abbie scanned the list rapidly.

  ‘I’d like to keep this little girl.’ She tapped the list. ‘Grade-three microtia. That’s one of my favourite things to do.’

  Rafael knew that. He’d been in Theatre with her more than once as she’d tackled the delicate surgery to create an ear from the birth deformity that had left nothing more than a peanut-shaped blob as an outer ear. Life-changing surgery for a child who was being teased at school, and this little girl was seven years old.

  ‘And this one…’ She pulled another set of notes from the pile. ‘Seven-month-old ready for repair of his cleft lip and palate. Oh…it’s Angus. I remember us seeing him for his first consultation. That’s another one I’d love to do…’

  Her voice trailed away. The sometimes massive surgery needed to correct this kind of birth defect was a procedure that both she and Rafael were known to be exceptionally good at. Together. Rafael’s skill at shifting bones and moulding features in conjunction with her ability to join tiny blood vessels and nerves and then suture to leave almost invisible scars had made them a team that people came from all over the country to consult via the Hunter Clinic.

  Would she want to do it by herself?

  ‘Maybe I’ll leave this one for you.’ Abbie couldn’t bring herself to look up at Rafael. ‘I’ll take Harriet back, though. I’ve been wondering how those burn scars are settling. She must be due for her next surgery.’

  Rafael simply nodded, took the first set of notes from his pile and headed to the first consulting room. Abbie took her first set and went past his door to Room 3. Separate lists. Separate rooms. Separate operating theatres even? Was this how it was going to be from now on?

  Even when they’d seen different patients in the past, they’d always been popping into each other’s rooms to get a second opinion or simply brainstorm a case. This felt wrong but it was also a relief. Perhaps they needed time to get used to working together again. Or maybe they actually needed to find out if they could work together when their personal lives were in such disarray. Being too close too soon could well mean that it would never happen.

  There was no reason why they couldn’t define some professional boundaries and make it work. Was there?

  Apparently there was. The message Abbie got later that day, asking her to attend a meeting at the Hunter Clinic, had all the undertones of a ‘Please explain.’

  ‘Urgent message, Mr de Luca.’

  ‘What is it, Nicole?’ The expression on the young woman’s face suggested that his secretary was anxious. She was right behind him as he kept moving into his office.

  ‘A meeting at the Hunter Clinic at five p.m. With Leo and Ethan Hunter. In Leo’s office. Gwen said she’s checked your calendar and you’re available, so…’

  The sentence was left hanging but Nicole might as well have finished it. The unsaid words were that no excuses would be acceptable short of the direst emergency.

  ‘Did she say what it was about?’

  ‘No. Shall I order a cab for you?’

  ‘I suppose you’ll have to,’ Rafael growled. He didn’t have any consultations booked at the exclusive Hunter Clinic that he could think of so he had no idea why it was suddenly so important to meet with the Hunter brothers this afternoon, and if he did have a space on his calendar, he’d much rather be spending that time with Ella.

  Now he’d barely have time to eat the sandwich he’d just bought on the run for a late lunch. He dropped the plastic triangular package on his desk, along with the other purchase he’d made in the gift shop beside the café.

  ‘Oh, what’s that?’ Nicole’s face lit up with a wide smile. ‘It’s gorgeous.’ She reached out to pick up the huge teddy bear that was wearing a sparkly pink tutu and had pink ballet shoes on its feet. She hugged the bear. ‘I love it. It’s so soft and squishy. And huge. It must be just as big as Ella is now.’

  ‘Almost.’ It wasn’t really a baby’s toy either, but his Fiorella was growing up, wasn’t she?

  ‘I heard she was back. And that she’s doing well. That’s wonderful, isn’t it?’

  ‘It certainly is.’

  Nicole put the bear down with some reluctance. ‘She’ll want to be a dancer when she grows up after she sees this. Look at those cute ballet shoes. Oh… I would have loved something like this when I was a little girl.’

  A little girl. Not a baby any more. Yes… He had been shocked by how much Ella had changed since he’d last seen her. It was mainly due to such an improvement in her condition but three months was a long time in a baby’s life. She had more teeth and her smile looked different. Her hands were so much cleverer and her baby babble was beginning to have the inflections of real speech. She could stand up and even walk if someone held her hands. She’d barely been able to sit unaided when he’d last seen her.

  He’d missed so much and that added another painful layer to the guilt he already felt at having left Abbie to cope alone in New York.

  Rafael tried to shake his swift train of thought. ‘Order the taxi for four-thirty,’ he instructed Nicole, picking up the bear and depositing it in a corner of the office. ‘I don’t want to get stuck in rush-hour traffic. Anything else urgent I should know about?’

  ‘ No.’

  ‘Good. I’ll get on with my clinic notes, then.’

  Except that the pink bear sitting in the corner kept catching his peripheral vision. Making him think of Ella.

  And of Abbie.

  Would she forgive him for leaving her to cope alone in New York like that? For sending her away with the threat that their marriage was finished? It wasn’t the time to push too hard right now. Not when she was exhausted and trying to get settled back into being in London. When she not only had Ella to care for but she was starting work again as well. He wanted to hel
p but between Abbie and the wonderful staff on the paediatric oncology ward there was nothing he could do there. It hadn’t gone down very well when he’d tried to lighten Abbie’s workload at the outpatient clinic this morning either.

  And she didn’t seem to be making any effort to close the distance between them. She hadn’t even followed him into the room when he’d rushed in to see Ella yesterday, and ever since then it had felt like she was enclosed in a bubble. There but not there.

  It was frustrating.

  So was fighting London traffic to get to the Hunter Clinic by 5:00 p.m. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he could have gone home after this meeting because home was in Primrose Hill, about halfway between the Lighthouse and Harley Street, where the Hunter Clinic was located. But he had to get back to the Lighthouse as soon as he could because he still had patients to see, including Anoosheh. Apparently she was running a slight temperature and there was concern about potential infection. His entire day had run a little behind schedule thanks to taking on extra outpatients to ease the load on Abbie this morning.

  Rafael desperately wanted to spend time with Ella, too. As long as possible. He wanted to give her the bear and see if it made her smile. If it didn’t, he would have to go looking for something else. What did make her smile these days? What did she like best of all to eat? What songs did she like to have sung to her?

  There was so much he needed to find out.

  And home wasn’t really home any more, anyway, was it? It hadn’t been, from the moment Abbie had walked away from that final, dreadful row, when he’d told her that if she took Ella to New York, their marriage was over.

  Oh, her clothes still hung in the wardrobe and her books were still in the bookshelves. It was still the same gorgeous period-conversion apartment that they’d both fallen in love with and purchased in the week before their wedding. It still had the same fabulous view towards the Regent’s Canal and the bonus of the private courtyard garden that boasted a tree.

  A tree they’d put a baby’s swing in to celebrate the six-month mark of Abbie’s pregnancy. A swing that had never been used. It had collected leaves in autumn and been filled with snow in the winter. Now it just hung there, too bright for a garden that had yet to blossom for spring. A cruel reminder of what could have been.

  All these things taunted Rafael now so he spent as little time as possible in the apartment. He couldn’t stay there if their marriage was truly over. Maybe Abbie would want to live there with Ella. So that she could use the swing…

  ‘This is fine.’ Rafael rapped on the glass partition to alert the cab driver. ‘I can walk from here.’

  Giving the driver a generous tip, Rafael took his briefcase and umbrella and strode down Harley Street, his long coat flapping. He should button it up to protect his suit because the leaden sky looked as if it could open at any moment but he was in too much of a hurry. The usual reverence the old buildings in this street instilled was gone, too. He didn’t even glance at any of the brass plaques that advertised the famous medical people who had once worked in these fabulous old buildings.

  The facade of the Hunter Clinic, at 200 Harley Street, blended seamlessly with its historic neighbours but the interior made it look more like an exclusive hotel than a clinic. The heels of his Italian shoes tapped on a polished marble floor as Rafael marched through the huge reception area, past the inviting white sofas bathed in soft light from the table lamps beside them.

  Only Helen, the senior receptionist, was on duty at the moment. In her late forties, Helen was always immaculately groomed and conveyed just the sort of welcome the clinic wanted. Capable, calm and compassionate. Weren’t those words in the clinic’s mission statement somewhere?

  ‘Mr de Luca.’ Helen’s smile held no disapproval of the fact that he was nearly ten minutes late. ‘How lovely that you could make it. They’re all ready for you in Leo’s office.’

  Leo’s office? They were all ready for him?

  What the hell was going on here?

  Leo was the older of the two brothers—sons of the celebrated plastic surgeon, James Hunter. Rafael had never delved too deeply into the scandal that had surrounded James’s death. He only knew that it was through the tireless efforts of Leo that the clinic had survived and the cloud had been lifted from the Hunter name. He also knew that a huge rift had appeared between the brothers when Ethan had joined the army and left Leo to fight alone to save the clinic, but that was in the past, wasn’t it?

  Ethan was back. And Leo had finally settled for one woman.

  These were happier times for the Hunter brothers. So why weren’t they looking happy right now?

  And what, in nome di dio, was Abbie doing here?

  She looked pale. Frightened, almost. Rafael hadn’t seen her look like this since that terrible time when they had been waiting for the first results to find out what was wrong with their tiny baby. What had Leo and Ethan said or done to make her look like this now?

  How dared they?

  The need to protect Abbie was sudden and fierce. Rafael dropped his briefcase and umbrella on the nearest chair but he didn’t sit down. He didn’t take his coat off. Instead, he stepped behind Abbie’s chair and gripped the back of the seat.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he snapped.

  Had they fired her? Because she couldn’t give the kind of focussed dedication to her job that she’d been known for before she’d become a mother?

  Before she’d become his wife?

  Surely not. Everyone here at the clinic, especially these brothers, had done all they could to support the de Luca family through the crisis. They’d given Abbie unlimited paid leave. Helped enormously with the logistical details and appalling expenses that Ella’s treatment in the States had engendered.

  He shouldn’t have let them be so involved. This was his family.

  He would look after them.

  No matter if Abbie had been fired. He could support them. All of them. He would protect them. With his life, if necessary.

  The Hunter brothers exchanged a glance. It was Leo who spoke.

  ‘Sit down, Rafael. Take your coat off for a minute. This won’t take long.’

  ‘I do not want to sit down.’ The anger was building rapidly. ‘I want to know what you’ve said to my wife to make her look so upset.’

  He heard Abbie’s sharp intake of breath at his tone. Or was it the way he’d referred to her as his ‘wife’—as if she were some kind of possession?

  Rafael closed his eyes and took a deep, inward breath as he deliberately dialled down his anger. Whatever was going on, becoming too passionate about it would only make things worse. Hadn’t he learned that lesson already?

  Towering over everybody else in this room wasn’t going to help anything either.

  Opening his eyes again, Rafael inclined his head in acquiescence that something clearly needed to be dealt with and he moved to lower his body into the empty seat beside Abbie.

  He took a sideways glance at her, still concerned by how pale she looked, but Abbie was staring down at her hands. He wanted her to look at him so that he could send her a silent message that everything would be all right. He would deal with whatever it was that had prompted their summons into this office.

  There was a beat of silence in the room and then Ethan cleared his throat.

  ‘We asked you both to come in this afternoon,’ he said into the silence, ‘because an issue has been brought to our attention that we thought needed urgent resolution. A complaint has been made—’

  ‘Che cosa?’ Rafael’s gaze jerked to meet Ethan’s. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘It’s not a complaint, exactly.’ Leo flicked an unreadable glance at his brother. ‘I would phrase it more as an expression of disappointment that a client feels strongly enough about to bring it to our attention.’

  ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Rafael snapped. ‘Is someone unhappy with my work? And why is Abbie here?’ The speed of his speech was increasing. So was the v
olume. ‘Nobody could have complained about her work because she hasn’t even been in the country for three months.’ Rafael shook his head in frustration and tried to calm down again. ‘Or is that what this “disappointment” is about? The fact that we have had to deal with a family crisis that has disrupted our ability to work?’

  Again the brothers exchanged a meaningful glance.

  ‘You could say that,’ Leo said. ‘Sort of.’

  ‘Spit it out, man,’ Rafael growled. ‘I’m hoping to have enough time after my work to visit my daughter before she’s asleep for the night.’

  ‘Of course.’ Leo turned to smile at Abbie. ‘And can I just say again how wonderful it is to have you and Ella back? Especially when you’ve come back with such a great result.’

  ‘Thanks, Leo.’ Abbie’s nod was stiff. She caught Rafael’s gaze briefly then and he could see that she was just as mystified as he was by the reason for this meeting.

  Ethan took his cue from Leo’s nod. He looked directly at Rafael, who had the strange impression that a game of ‘good cop, bad cop’ was going on here. And Ethan had been designated ‘bad cop.’

  ‘I believe you saw the MacDonald family at your outpatient clinic this morning? With their seven-month-old son, Angus, who’s now ready for admission for repair of his bilateral cleft lip and palate?’

  ‘That is correct.’ Rafael frowned. What on earth had the MacDonalds found to complain about? ‘They seemed perfectly happy to know how well the stretching and reshaping of the tissues has been with the taping and use of the retainer. He’s a good candidate for a single initial surgery to repair the defects in both his lip and palate.’

  ‘He’ll still need further surgery for cosmetic improvements, though.’ It was Abbie who spoke.

  It was Abbie who’d first seen Angus back when the newborn had been brought down from Scotland by his distressed parents. She’d immediately called Rafael to share the consultation and reassure them that they would be able to achieve an almost perfect result for their son.