English Rose for the Sicilian Doc

by Annie Claydon

  ‘I’ve saved the most interesting thing for last.’

  His eyes hooded lazily in an almost explicit invitation. ‘I’m already captivated. What more can you do?’

  Rose gulped, turned her back on him in case she was tempted to improvise an answer, and started to lead him away from the main excavations, along a dusty pathway. ‘This is another find we made by mistake. No one knew it was there...’

  She was shaking, blushing furiously and playing the tour guide so she could banish unwanted thoughts. Rose saw a figure up ahead of them and quickened her pace to catch up, reckoning that there was a certain degree of security in numbers.

  ‘David...’ The middle-aged man turned as she called his name. ‘I’d like you to meet Dr Matteo Di Salvo...’

  ‘Dr Di Salvo.’ The two men shook hands. ‘What’s your speciality?’

  Matteo grinned. ‘Medicine. Rose has been kind enough to show me around this evening.’

  David laughed over his own mistake and the two men began to chat, moving quickly from the necessary preliminaries of the weather and the spectacular view up here to Matteo’s questions about the site. He was interested in everything. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, reminding herself that she was just a very small part of everything that Matteo’s quick mind seemed to thrive on.

  They climbed a little, over rough, stony ground, and then reached the mouth of a cave. David handed Matteo a hard hat from a box, and chalked the number three, along with the time, on the blackboard that hung outside.

  ‘Our little safety precaution.’ David smiled at Matteo. ‘Just in case anyone meets with an accident.’

  She saw Matteo’s eyebrow quirk downwards, but he said nothing. ‘We also let the main office know when we’re coming down here.’ Under the intensity of Matteo’s gaze, the blackboard seemed a very amateurish and uncertain precaution.

  ‘Oh...yes, of course.’ David smiled. ‘Must remember to do that next time. I dare say that someone will be down to rescue you two if we don’t emerge in one piece, and I’ll just tag along.’

  ‘David...’ Rose shot him an exasperated look and he laughed, turning to Matteo.

  ‘She’s right, of course.’

  ‘Of course. I wouldn’t want to be caught ignoring the lady’s advice.’

  Even in the chill of the cave, hot flushes spread over her skin. She wished he’d stop this. But then it seemed to come quite naturally to Matteo, and perhaps it didn’t really mean anything. She switched on her torch, swinging the beam down towards the area marked out by reflective tape, which designated where it was safe to walk, then up towards the roof of the cave.

  ‘You can see here that there are deposits from fires having been lit inside here.’ Matteo looked obligingly upwards, and nodded. ‘In the scheme of things they’re probably quite recent, maybe about the same time-frame as the bullet. But if we go further back...’

  She led the way towards what looked like the back of the cave, ducking into a small passageway. Matteo followed her, gasping as he walked out into the high, stone cavern that lay beyond it.

  ‘You think this was used? In ancient times?’ He walked into the space, the beam of his torch reaching out into the darkness. It found quartz deposits to the right, and further on the small underground stream that bubbled its way into a deep pool in the corner of the cave.

  ‘We’ve found both Greek and Roman pottery in here,’ David replied. ‘And there’s some evidence that it may have been used right back into the Iron Age. It would be a very fine refuge in times of trouble and we think that people may have been coming here for centuries.’

  ‘These marks.’ Matteo turned to run his fingers lightly over the walls of the stone entranceway. ‘What are these?’

  ‘That’s one of the really interesting parts. We think they’re made with stone implements, not metal ones. It looks as if someone widened out the opening to the cave a very long time ago, probably so that it could be used. There are more caves beyond this one.’

  ‘Fascinating.’ Matteo really did seem fascinated. ‘May I have a look around?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Keep to the area inside the tape, that’s the area that has already been processed.’ Rose shone her torch onto the route that led to the next cave, marked out on each side by reflective tape. ‘If you happen to see any Roman-style jewellery scattered around, give me a shout.’

  ‘You wish.’ David chuckled, switching on one of the large lights standing on tripods around the areas where the archaeologists were currently working. ‘I’m going to do some more on that boring old pottery. You go look for buried treasure.’

  She let Matteo look around then led him through a succession of smaller caves, showing him where they’d made finds as she went. Away from the lights, his features were sharper, even more striking. And Rose couldn’t help staring at him every chance she got. His tall frame, his relaxed gait. Matteo was like a work of art standing still, but it was the way he moved that made her head swim.

  Her head really was swimming and her legs felt suddenly unsteady. Maybe there was something wrong with the air in here. Rose heard her torch clatter at her feet before she’d even realised that she’d dropped it and it went out suddenly. In the moments before the beam of Matteo’s torch swung round towards her she saw a faint glimmer of light in the far corner of the cave.

  ‘What’s that?’ She was blinded by his torch, shining straight at her. ‘Turn the light out, I can see daylight.’

  ‘Forget about that...’

  ‘No... Turn your light out.’ No one had been working in this cave and they’d thought it was the last in the series. But there was something beyond it.

  Matteo strode towards her, his fingers closing around her arm. ‘Don’t be alarmed.’ His voice was low and steady. ‘It’s a minor earthquake.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  IT FELT LIKE a very small earthquake, the kind that were common around here and which most local people took in their stride. But they were underground, which meant that its effects weren’t as keenly felt as they would be on the surface. And Matteo had no way of knowing whether this was the main shock or a foreshock.

  ‘Is it over?’ She’d held on to him for a moment, but now she stepped back.

  ‘I don’t know. We should go and find David and get out of here.’ The caves may have survived thousands of years, and probably many tremors just like this, but in Matteo’s book it was always preferable to have clear sky over your head in circumstances like these. And there was always the danger of displaced earth from the hillside blocking the entrance.

  She took one last look at the corner of the cave that had drawn her interest just a few moments ago, and gave a little huff of exasperation. Still she didn’t seem to want to move.

  ‘Pronto, bella...’ There may not have been any rocks tumbling onto their heads, but all he could think about was getting her outside and to the safest place he could find, and that stripped everything but the most obvious truths away, along with the need to speak English.

  ‘Yes... David...’ Suddenly she was on the same page as him, bending to pick up her torch and taking his hand, leading the way swiftly through the caves that led back to the large cavern where they’d left David. She let out a little cry when she saw him, lying on his side a little way away from where he’d been working, amongst the collapsed wreckage of the tripod that had supported the light he’d been working by.

  Matteo followed her over. She fell to her knees, and in the light of her torch Matteo could see a dark stain on the side of David’s head. When he bent down, the metallic smell of blood reached him.

  ‘He must have fallen and hit his head.’ Rose was clearing away the broken legs of the tripod, and as Matteo moved round to take a better look, she scooted backwards to give him some room.

  The wound on David’s head was bleeding, but that wasn’t what c
oncerned Matteo. He seemed to be having some difficulty breathing, and his eyes were squeezed shut as if he was in pain.

  ‘He has angina.’ Rose’s voice behind him.

  ‘Do you have any pain in your chest?’ David’s eyes had flickered open and Matteo tried the question in the hope that he could answer.

  ‘Yes...’

  ‘Okay, we’re going to sit you up straight.’ In common with most unforeseen emergencies, the priorities weren’t clear-cut, but a decision had to be made. Just as the cut to David’s head could wait, the need to get out and into the open air had to be balanced against the greater risk of trying to move David at the moment.

  Rose took his other side and they gently sat David up. His breathing immediately seemed to come much more easily.

  ‘Do you have medication?’

  ‘It’s in his desk drawer. I’ve seen it there.’ Rose looked up at him, biting her lip.

  He didn’t want to send Rose out through the cavern alone, but there wasn’t any choice. ‘Okay. I want you to go and get it. Be careful, and look at what’s above your head, especially at the mouth of the cave. Make sure there’s nothing coming down the hillside before you step outside. When you’ve got the medication, stay in the open and get someone to bring it back to me here.’

  Matteo spoke as calmly and clearly as he could, hoping that Rose would follow his instructions to the letter. Particularly the bit about not coming back in here.

  ‘Got it. I’ll be as quick as I can.’

  ‘Don’t be quick, be careful. We’ll wait.’

  Matteo sat on the cave floor next to David, supporting him upright against his own body. Despite what he’d said, he hoped that Rose would hurry. He kept his fingers on David’s pulse, counting off the seconds.

  Another small tremor, this one almost imperceptible.

  ‘It’s just an aftershock. Nothing to worry about.’ Matteo breathed a sigh of relief when David’s pulse hardly registered any change.

  ‘It’s the mosaic I’m worried about.’

  ‘Is your angina stable?’ Since David seemed able to talk now, Matteo concentrated on the things he needed to know. The mosaic could look after itself for the moment.

  ‘Yes. When I felt the quake I rushed out to see what was going on. Tripped over the cable on the light.’

  ‘And you felt the chest pains before or after that?’

  ‘After. I don’t get it when I’m resting. It was just the fall gave me a shock.’

  David was clearly knowledgeable about his condition and giving him the information he needed. That was a good sign and hopefully he’d be feeling a lot better soon, but Matteo still wanted the medication before he tried to move him.

  ‘My head hurts.’

  ‘You must have cut your head when you fell. It’s not too bad—we’ll deal with that when we’re outside.’

  ‘Yeah, okay. Thanks.’

  The seconds ticked by. Matteo kept talking to David, knowing that angina itself produced its own feeling of panic, and that he had to try to keep him calm.

  He looked up, hearing a noise at the entrance to the cavern. Matteo hadn’t expected much different from her, but it still brought a thrill of concern to see that Rose had decided to bring the medication herself. She hurried over to them, producing a bottle of pills from her pocket, managing to avoid looking at Matteo when she handed them over.

  ‘How are you doing?’ She knelt down next to David.

  ‘Good. Is the mosaic okay?’

  Rose took his hand. From the way that she was still a little out of breath, she must have run all the way, there and back, almost certainly not stopping to check on the mosaic.

  ‘Don’t worry. It’s fine. I dare say it’s survived enough tremors up here, so one more isn’t going to make any difference. Here, let me wipe your face.’

  She produced a bundle of paper towels from her pocket, obviously grabbed from the dispenser in the office, and broke open the bottle of water she carried, wetting a towel and carefully wiping the grime from David’s mouth. Matteo checked the dosage on the medicine bottle, tipping two tablets into his palm.

  ‘Under your tongue.’ David nodded, and put the tablets into his mouth.

  Matteo picked up a towel and the water bottle, turning his attention to the cut on David’s head. It was dribbling blood and probably needed a couple of stitches, but it didn’t look life-threatening. Rose was sitting quietly, staring at David’s hand in hers, refusing to meet his gaze.

  ‘I sent someone for the first-aid kit. Are we going to try and move soon?’ She said the words quietly, almost casually.

  ‘It’s okay. We’ll stay here for another ten minutes...’ He broke off suddenly, reaching to tip her face up towards him, and he saw an agony of fearful impatience.

  Suddenly he realised. Rose had been outside when she’d felt the second tremor. ‘Don’t worry. The second shock was an aftershock, much less than the first one. They always feel weaker underground.’

  ‘Yes...’ David tried to add his own reassurance and Matteo quieted him. He should concentrate on keeping the tablets under his tongue, where they’d be absorbed into his system more quickly.

  Rose was breathing heavily, her hand to her chest, a look of relief on her face. It must have taken a great deal of courage to come back in, thinking that the strength of the tremors was increasing.

  ‘So we’ve nothing to worry about?’

  ‘Nothing.’ That clearly wasn’t quite true, but he would have said anything to reassure her.

  She nodded and Matteo’s chest tightened as she smiled broadly. ‘Okay. I won’t be a minute.’

  When she got to her feet, Matteo noticed that she’d skinned her knee. She must have fallen over at some point, but she seemed not to notice it. He turned his attention back to David, who was looking visibly better.

  ‘You should get Rose out of here.’ David spoke softly to him. ‘I’m all right to follow you.’

  ‘Just rest for a minute. We’ll get going soon enough, and I imagine that Rose will do whatever she makes up her mind to do.’

  David nodded. ‘Yes. I imagine she will.’

  * * *

  Rose had walked to the opening between the cavern and the outer cave, and got a signal on her phone. She called Elena, who said that they hadn’t felt anything, and that the earthquake’s epicentre must be outside Palermo. William was all right. Rose promised she’d be home later, and turned back to David and Matteo.

  The second tremor had catapulted her down the steps of the cabin that David’s office was housed in, and onto her knees. She’d got up and run even harder, stopping only to tell one of her colleagues where they were and telling him to fetch the first-aid kit. She’d been afraid to go back into the cave, but the medication in her pocket seemed like the only chance of bringing them both out safely. David needed it, and she knew that Matteo would never leave him behind.

  They waited for ten minutes. Matteo kept them both talking, quiet and relaxed but never taking his attention from David. When he decided it was time for them to leave, she helped him get David to his feet and they walked slowly to the entrance of the cavern. Matteo helped him through into the outer cave and then out into the evening sunshine, where a group of concerned colleagues was waiting for them.

  He sat David down in the chair that was waiting, next to the site’s first-aid kit, and called for someone to bring a sunshade across. Then he got to work, washing the wound on his head carefully and checking that David had no other injuries.

  ‘Are you going to take him to the hospital?’ Matteo had given his car keys to one of the students, and asked him to bring his car as close as he could.

  ‘No. He’s fully recovered from the angina attack so there’s no need for him to go to the hospital on that account. He does need to rest, though, so it’s best if I
take him home and stitch the wound there.’

  ‘Thank you. I’ll phone Nina, his wife. I’ll tell her to expect us in half an hour?’

  ‘You’re coming?’ Matteo’s smile gave her the answer to that question. She wasn’t ready to leave him yet.

  ‘Of course I’m coming.’

  * * *

  He isn’t what I want.

  Rose repeated the thought aloud a few times, trying it out for size as she followed Matteo’s car down towards Palermo, and then decided that even she couldn’t lie to herself on that scale. She wanted him right down to the dust on his number plates.

  It’s a reaction. Some kind of post-emergency thing.

  That was a distinct possibility. The gorgeous, laid-back, charming Matteo was a temptation that she could resist...just. But the Matteo who’d been there when she’d needed him and had calmed her fears attracted her at a much deeper level, one that was harder to ignore.

  But marriage had taught her one thing. She was like a bull in a china shop when it came to relationships, and she shouldn’t repeat the experience. Rose twisted her mouth at the irony of it all. The better man that Matteo proved himself to be, the more she should stay away from him.

  Not right now, though.

  She wanted to see David safely back home and, anyway, staying away from Matteo didn’t mean she couldn’t see him from time to time. William liked him, and if Matteo wanted to spend some time with him, it was always good for her son to get a man’s point of view on life. Just as long as she kept the difference between a friendship and a romance very clear in her head.

  * * *

  Each time he looked in his rear-view mirror Matteo half expected to find her gone. But Rose followed him all the way to the pleasant villa that David and his wife had rented just outside Palermo.

  They ushered him inside, and Matteo set about closing the wound on David’s head with a couple of stitches from the first-aid kit he carried in his car. He somehow managed to drink the cup of instant coffee that Nina had made him, taking the taste from his mouth with a biscuit.