child.
For once in his life he was helpless, and he wanted to howl his despair and frustration.
He turned quickly as the doctor reappeared.
‘Will she see me?’ he asked sharply.
‘She did not refuse,’ the doctor said cautiously. ‘In fact she said nothing.’ His eyes were suddenly kinder. ‘I think I’m justified in taking silence as consent.’
Vincente followed him along two corridors, shocked to discover that he was frightened. He had no idea how to face her, what to say to her.
In the event his fears were wasted. When the doctor finally led him into a corner room a nurse rose, saying, ‘She fell asleep again as soon as you left, Doctor.’
‘What are those things she’s attached to?’ Vincente demanded.
‘This one is a blood transfusion,’ the doctor explained, ‘and the other is a saline drip. They’ll help to keep her strength up.’
‘And the baby?’
He checked the machines. ‘The signs are good.’
‘Let me stay with her,’ Vincente said. ‘I’ll call if anything happens.’
‘All right, but let her sleep while she needs to.’
When they had gone Vincente sat down beside the bed, his eyes fixed on Elise. Had she really fallen asleep, or was she merely pretending, in order to avoid him?
Gently he touch her hand with the back of his fingers. She didn’t flinch away as he’d dreaded, and that told him that she really was unconscious.
He wondered at himself. She had said things to him, torturing him for her own satisfaction in a way that should make him hate her, except that he knew she’d been acting out of self-defence. That was how she saw him now-as a threat to be faced down. And it was all his own fault.
She stirred and muttered, twisting her head on the pillow so that he gained a clearer view of her face. He thought she would open her eyes, but she didn’t. Moving very gently, he ventured to take her hand, carefully avoiding all the tubes to which she was attached.
‘Elise,’ he murmured, ‘I’m here.’
A terrible stillness fell over her, as though this was the worst thing that he could have said. She wanted nothing to do with him. She’d made that very plain.
‘Can you hear me?’ he asked gently.
‘Yes.’ Her whisper seemed to come from a great distance.
‘I came as soon as I heard what happened to you.’
Silence. He couldn’t tell if she was still with him.
‘I wanted to say I was sorry,’ he said, leaning closer to her. ‘I said terrible things that I didn’t mean. Elise- please believe that I’m sorry.’
Then she opened her eyes, but his heart sank as he saw no yielding in them.
‘Sorry,’ she echoed. ‘I said I was sorry…to Angelo…the day after I arrived here. I went to the Trevi Fountain… we were there together once. I threw in a coin and made a wish that I’d come back to Rome…and I did, didn’t I?’
He dropped his head into his hands.
‘I wanted to be with him for ever…but then he died. I didn’t know he’d died like that, and it was my fault…’
‘It wasn’t,’ he groaned.
‘It was. I wrote to him when I got back to England, telling him what had happened, that I still loved him and always would. I could never forget how he stood under the window, screaming as he saw me in Ben’s arms. I thought if he knew the truth-that I hadn’t really betrayed him-he could endure it better.’
‘I don’t think it ever arrived,’ Vincente said.
‘Of course not. I found it among Ben’s things after he died. I don’t know how he stole it, but he managed somehow. But if Angelo died that same night…’
‘He wouldn’t have got it.’
‘So he never knew that I was sorry, that I always loved him and didn’t betray him in my heart. He’ll never know that.’
Elise fell silent, as though speaking had exhausted her.
‘The doctor tells me that we’re going to have a child,’ he said at last.
She looked at him. ‘We?’
‘You’re pregnant. He says he told you.’
‘Yes-but I thought it was just a bad dream.’
He shook his head, unable to speak.
If only, Vincente thought, she would say something else. Surely she understood that this made a difference.
‘I’m glad about it,’ he said at last, ‘if you are.’
She made no reply.
‘I think we should marry as soon as possible,’ he persisted.
She stared at him as though he was insane.
‘Us? Marry?’ She began to shake with feeble laughter.
‘For pity’s sake, don’t do that,’ he said harshly.
‘Oh, heavens! And I thought you didn’t have a sense of humour.
‘We could put the past behind us-’
‘You can never put the past behind you. I know that now, and so should you. The only way we’ll ever know peace is apart. And peace is all I care about. It feels like the most important thing in the world.’
‘More important than love?’
Then he wished he hadn’t said that, because she gave him a look of such bitter scorn that his heart nearly shrivelled inside him.
‘You know nothing of love,’ she said huskily. ‘You only know about acquiring things and making people dance to your tune. Whatever you want, you must have, including revenge. Someone should have stood up to you long ago.’
‘But you did,’ he reminded her. ‘You’re the only person who didn’t do what I wanted.’
‘And I never will. Go away. Leave now and don’t come back.’
‘I can’t leave you and our child.’
‘I don’t ever want to see you again. It’s nothing to you whether I have a child or not.’
‘Don’t do this.’
She was going to reply but suddenly everything became foggy. His face came and went in her consciousness, leaving only his horrified expression and the appalled note in his voice as he called for help.
Then the room was full of people, connecting her to new apparatus, checking, taking readings, talking to each other in urgent voices. Fear seized her as she thought of her baby. Whatever she’d told him, she couldn’t bear to lose it.
She could just make him out, several feet away by the window. He should be here with her, giving her strength to save their child. But it was she who’d set him at a distance, and now he could only stand there and watch as she lost the baby and the last link between them was cut.
When Elise opened her eyes it was night and Vincente was in the same position by the window, as though held frozen by a curse.
‘Is it over?’ she asked hoarsely.
At last he came closer and sat by the bed, straining to hear her.
‘The baby-it’s gone?’
‘No,’ he said at once. ‘They gave you another blood transfusion and things started to get better. Our baby’s alive, and it’s going to stay that way. From now on I’m going to look after you and make sure you’re both all right. Don’t argue with me. We’re going to be married, and that’s final.’
‘All right.’ The words were little more than a breath, so soft that he wasn’t sure that he’d heard her.
