by Penny Jordan
‘I am not going to go to the hospital. I will die here in my house, not in some institution, where everyone will know who I am, what I have done,’ Aldo said.
‘Signor Vialli—’ Alex’s voice deepened with professional authority ‘—performing a pleural drainage here would be too risky. For one thing there’s the risk of infection, and secondly there’s the possibility of me pricking the lung and causing a pneumothorax—puncturing the lung, I mean. If that were to happen, you could be worse off. We could go to the hospital now and do it without anyone but the night staff knowing about it. The procedure is relatively simple and will give you a few weeks’ relief.’
‘Papà, surely it’s worth letting Alex try to help you,’ Amelia pleaded.
Aldo let out a broken sigh. ‘Very well…I will have the procedure done…but I do not want to stay in hospital.’
‘That shouldn’t be necessary if all goes well,’ Alex said and helped the ill man from the chair, taking most of his weight on his arm.
Amelia sent him a grateful glance as they made their way out to Alex’s car, her father’s coughing increasing with every shuffling step he took.
The drive down to the Free Hospital was mostly silent. Alex tried once or twice to make conversation with Signor Vialli, but it was obvious both breathing and talking caused him too much discomfort.
Their arrival at the hospital was met with some slight surprise on the part of the night staff nurse on duty, but once Alex explained what he intended to do she organised the equipment for him and led him to one of the treatment bays and drew the curtains around them.
Amelia helped her father into a sitting position on the bed at Alex’s direction and supported his leaning-forward position by holding his shoulders.
Alex pulled on a pair of sterile gloves after washing and drying his hands, and, using the swabs from the disposable dressing tray, cleaned an area on the right side of Aldo’s chest, his ribs clearly obvious because of marked weight loss.
‘I’m going to put in some local anaesthetic so it doesn’t hurt too much,’ Alex explained.
He injected ten milligrams of one per cent xylocaine with adrenaline into the area for the pleural tap. Then, taking a fourteen gauge IV canula, to the end of which he attached a three-way tap and a twenty-mil syringe, Alex punctured the right pleural space just lateral to the tip of the right scapula, and aspirated 20ml of blood-stained pleural fluid. He then withdrew the IV needle, leaving the plastic canula in the pleural cavity, and aspirated the pleural effusion 20ml at a time, discarding each aspirate by using the three-way tap, into the stainless steel container the nurse had provided.
‘You may feel like coughing as the fluid comes out, Signor Vialli. Try to suppress coughing as much as possible, just do little coughs if you have to, and try to keep as still as possible while I remove the fluid,’ Alex said.
For Amelia, it seemed as though the fluid would never end; so far Alex had removed two litres of blood-stained effusion. But at about three litres, the pleural cavity was drained, and Alex removed the needle, taping a dressing over the puncture site.
‘How does that feel? Can you breathe any easier?’ Alex asked.
Aldo took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. This time there was no hacking cough.
‘This is much better, Dr Hunter. I can breathe freely again. How long will this last?’ Aldo asked.
‘I can’t really say,’ Alex said. ‘The fluid may come back very quickly, and you’ll be thirsty and have to drink. Or it may accumulate very slowly, maybe over a few weeks. When much of the fluid comes back, I can drain it off again.’
‘Do you think there will be any problems from the tap, Alex, infection or a pneumothorax?’ Amelia asked, moving just out of her father’s hearing.
Alex moved back to listen to Aldo’s chest again with his stethoscope. ‘The air entry is much better, and there isn’t clinical evidence of a pneumothorax. I’ll give him some sample packs of amoxicillin. He should start those now, and we’ll get some more from the pharmacy tomorrow.’
‘Thank you, Dr Hunter,’ Aldo said as Amelia helped him to his feet once more.
‘No problem.’ Alex smiled. ‘Let’s get you home and into bed.’
Once her father was settled back at the cottage Amelia walked out with Alex to his car to see him off.
‘Your father should really be in hospital,’ he said as he drew her closer. ‘He’s in a bad way and it’s only going to get worse.’
‘I know.’ She let out a tiny sigh and looked up at him. ‘Thank you for what you did for him tonight.’
‘I didn’t do much.’
‘You did more than you realise,’ she said. ‘Apart from relieving the pressure in his chest, you listened to his reasons for doing what he did without judgement and yet you of all people should be angry. He took your childhood away and exchanged it for another.’
‘Maybe, but who’s to say the one I got in exchange wasn’t as good? I don’t have a single bad memory of my childhood, that’s more than what most people can say these days. It might have been a completely different story living a royal life. Who knows? I might have become horrendously overindulged and totally obnoxious.’
She smiled at his self-effacing humour. ‘I can’t imagine you ever being any such thing.’
He lifted her hand to his face and pressed a soft kiss to her palm, his eyes still locked to hers. ‘You didn’t like me the first time you met me, though, did you?’
‘I didn’t know you the first time I met you.’
‘And you do now?’ he asked after a protracted silence.
‘I know you’re a very special person….’
He narrowed his eyes at her playfully. ‘If you mention the P word again I won’t be answerable to the consequences. As far as I’m concerned I’m still Alex Hunter. Even if someone hands me a pedigree several centuries long I will still always feel like Alex Hunter, no one else.’
‘But you’ll have to face it soon,’ she said with a troubled frown.
‘Not yet.’ He pulled her closer, his hands settling on her hips. ‘Let’s just be two ordinary people for a little while longer.’
‘But the king should be told.’
‘He will be told, but not right now. He’s not well, for a start, and the shock of it could trigger a heart attack. I’d like to see him come through the procedure first. And anyway, I still have work to do at the Free Hospital. Can you imagine what would happen to that if I suddenly put my hand up for the throne? I came here to be a cardiac surgeon, not a prince. Once my work is completed I will have to face the issues surrounding my parentage, but until that time I’d rather just be me.’
She gave him a shadowed smile. ‘I have spent most of my life wishing I was someone else. When I was a little girl I used to dream of being rescued out of poverty. I would imagine someone coming up here and informing me I had been mistakenly swapped at birth and that I no longer had to play with dolls made out of paper and sticks but real ones, ones that looked like the princess I felt I was really meant to be.’
His eyes were very dark as they held hers. ‘I know what’s happened might seem like a fairy tale to others, but let me tell you it’s not. I guess I’m trying to keep my head by looking at this from a clinical distance. Although I met the king and some of my supposed siblings earlier this evening they felt like strangers to me. They still feel like strangers.’
‘You have the same blood running in your veins.’
‘Genetics is only a fraction of the equation,’ he said. ‘The nurture of a child is far more of an indicator than DNA profiles. I can’t explain it any other way but I feel like the son of Clara and Giles Hunter. I always have, even though I’ve always been aware of being adopted.’
‘I’m sure your adoptive parents will want you to do what’s right for you. They will not be thinking of themselves but of what is best for you.’
He gave her a crooked smile. ‘Like you, huh?’
She held his gaze, even though her heart felt as if
it were being squeezed. ‘What I want doesn’t come into it at all.’
He frowned at her tone. ‘What is it you want, Amelia?’
She looked up into his face, her eyes shining with moisture. ‘I want you to be who you are called to be. It’s your life and only you can make that choice.’
‘For now this is my choice.’ His voice was gravel rough and deep as his mouth came down towards hers. ‘To be with you.’
But for how long? Amelia thought sadly as she lost herself in his kiss. It was too easy to forget about tomorrow when the heat and fire of the moment blazed so blindingly today.
Alex lifted his mouth from hers a few breathless minutes later. ‘Have dinner with me tomorrow night,’ he said. ‘Bring some casual clothes and bathers with you to work so you can change at my house. We’ll go on a sunset picnic to one of the beaches away from all the crowds. I don’t want people staring at us.’
‘I’m not sure…’ She hesitated. ‘My father—’
‘Will want you to spend time with me,’ he assured her. ‘After all, he owes me, right? If I want to take his daughter out, then what can he say?’
‘Good point,’ she said with a smile.
He grazed his knuckles over her cheek. ‘You see what dastardly means I have to resort to in order to get you to come out with me? I’ve never had to work quite so hard before. You are doing serious and very likely irreversible damage to my fragile male ego.’
‘I don’t think your ego has ever been in any sort of danger.’
He gave her a quick grin. ‘No, you’re right. Not while you keep looking at me with those big hazel eyes of yours.’ He dropped a swift kiss to the end of her nose. ‘Till tomorrow, little elf.’
‘Till tomorrow,’ she echoed softly as she watched the fiery red glare of his tail-lights disappear into the darkness of the night.
CHAPTER TWELVE
AMELIA couldn’t wait for her shift to be over the next day. She checked her watch for the tenth time in as many minutes, scoring yet another speculative look from Lucia.
‘You seem very impatient to be out of here,’ the nurse observed. ‘Could it be that you have something special planned for this evening?’
‘No…no, nothing special.’
Lucia smiled knowingly. ‘I don’t think Dr Hunter would like to hear you describe your date with him as “nothing special”.’
Amelia stared at her. ‘He told you about that?’
‘Not in as many words,’ Lucia said. ‘I just put two and two together. I saw the way he looked at you every time he was on the ward today. I met him in the canteen and asked him how he was enjoying the island and whether he’d been to any of the beaches. He said he was taking a friend this evening for a sunset picnic.’
‘So you immediately thought that friend was me?’
Lucia’s smile widened. ‘It was a good guess, I thought, and, judging by the colour of your cheeks—spot on.’
Amelia considered denying it just for the sake of it, but she knew Lucia well enough to know she wouldn’t be fooled.
‘You went to the palace with him last night, didn’t you?’ Lucia said.
‘How do you find out all this stuff?’
Lucia grinned. ‘I have connections.’
‘Well, tell your connections to mind their own business,’ Amelia said. ‘I don’t want the whole island talking about one casual date.’
‘Two if you count the other night, which, young lady, I am quite peeved that you didn’t tell me about.’ She leaned closer and added, ‘Did he kiss you?’
Amelia frowned. ‘I’m not going to answer that.’
‘No, you don’t need to as your face just did it for you,’ Lucia said with another cheeky grin.
Amelia sent her a reproving glance. ‘Don’t go ordering the invitations and caterers. He’s only on the island for a month.’
‘So who’s counting the days?’
‘I’m just being realistic,’ Amelia said. ‘Besides, he comes from a totally different world. We have hardly anything in common.’
‘He’s a man—you’re a woman. That’s all that matters,’ Lucia said. ‘You of all people deserve to have a little fling. Who cares how long it lasts?’
I care, Amelia thought as she reached for her bag. I care too much.
Alex watched as she came towards him in the hospital car park, her small bag in one hand and a worried frown disturbing the elfin perfection of her face.
He eased himself away from the car and took her bag, smiling down at her. ‘Hi.’
She looked up at him with a nervous smile. ‘Hi.’
‘Are you OK?’
She moistened her mouth. ‘Yes.’
‘Hey—’ he pushed up her chin ‘—I’m just Alex tonight. Got that?’
She gave him a rueful look. ‘Yes, and I’m a princess,’ she said.He laughed. ‘Yeah, that’s right. You are.’
‘Alex…’
‘Stop worrying about it,’ he said as he helped her into the car. ‘I’ve got it all under control.’
She waited until he was behind the driver’s wheel before speaking. ‘Have you found out anything yet?’
He started the engine and backed out of the space, swinging a quick glance her way as he drove out of the hospital grounds. ‘I have someone working on it as we speak. But just for tonight let’s forget all about it, OK?’
‘If that’s what you’d prefer.’
He sent her a warm smile that momentarily suppressed the dark shadows she’d seen in his eyes. ‘It’s what I prefer,’ he said.
Amelia sat in silence as he drove the short distance to his cottage, her senses on high alert. She could smell the sexy musk of his body intermingled with the lingering fragrance of his citrus aftershave, and her skin began to prickle all over at the thought of feeling his kiss, his touch and his intimate caresses.
How would it feel to have his arms around her, his skin on her skin, his body within hers again?
She knew their relationship was being conducted on borrowed time, but the sense of urgency only heightened her attraction to him and she wondered if he felt it too.
She sneaked a look at him as he drove, his long-fingered hands steady on the wheel, his face showing nothing of the inner turmoil he surely must be going through.
Alex caught her looking at him. ‘I hope you’re not having second thoughts.’
‘About what?’
‘About us.’
She looked down at her hands. ‘This is temporary, Alex. You and I both know that.’
‘You’re putting up obstacles that don’t need to be there.’
‘But they are there,’ she insisted. ‘Pretending they’re not isn’t going to make them go away.’
His jaw tightened. ‘I don’t want to talk about it tonight, remember? Tonight we’re just a man and a woman who are attracted to each other.’
‘I’m not denying that, but I think we both should be realistic.’
‘You’re being fatalistic, not realistic,’ he said.
‘I’m trying to protect myself from hurt.’
He let out a deep sigh and reached for her hand, bringing it up to his mouth to press a soft kiss to her fingertips. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, Amelia.’
‘You won’t be able to avoid it.’
He met her troubled gaze. ‘I will do everything in my power to avoid it. Trust me.’
Could she risk her heart another time? She had spent the last eleven years regretting the one and only time she had let her guard slip.
‘Trust me?’ he said again.
She gave him a tremulous smile. ‘I know I’m going to regret this, but I do trust you.’
‘Good girl,’ he said. ‘Now we’re getting somewhere.’
Amelia used the bathroom to change out of her uniform while Alex organised the picnic and within a few minutes they were on their way to a beach at the far end of Santa Fiera where the sandy shore was less frequented by tourists.
‘How about a swim first?’ Alex suggested once he
’d laid a blanket on the sand and anchored it with the picnic basket.
‘You go. I’ll sit here and watch for a while,’ Amelia said.
Alex could sense her self-consciousness. In spite of the evening’s warmth she was dressed in a shapeless cotton shift that looked at least three sizes too big. He could also see the thick straps of the dark one-piece bathing costume she was wearing, its unflattering lines suggesting she hadn’t been to the beach in a very long time.
He wondered if he’d done the right thing in bringing her here, but he’d figured that at least on a picnic she hadn’t had to worry about dressing up. Besides, he wanted time with her away from other people and their increasingly speculative stares.
He still couldn’t get his head around the circumstances surrounding his infancy. At first he had hoped it was all a mistake but the investigations he’d set in motion so far had led him to suspect the opposite. The legal people he’d engaged to work on it had already come across one or two discrepancies in the paperwork regarding his adoption and had hinted that there could be even more. He couldn’t bear the thought of informing his parents of what he’d discovered. He knew it would hurt them immeasurably to find they had inadvertently adopted a child who had had parents who had loved him and desperately longed for his return.
Alex felt as if he was in limbo; he couldn’t go back and neither could he go forward until he knew for sure what was expected of him. But for the time being he had a responsibility to get the king through his surgery; that was a main priority—everything else would have to wait.
He had even shelved his earlier concerns about Amelia’s family connections, unable to accept her as anything other than a young woman who was learning how to live again after a bitter let-down, not unlike his own. He had found it hard to become involved with anyone since his break-up with Sarah and instead had thrown himself into work as a distraction. The hurt he had felt about her affair with another man had niggled at him for so long and yet when he was with Amelia he completely forgot about it.
