He’d had a bath, eaten some of the breakfast Georgie had ordered for him and then spent the entire day in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, unaware of the minutes and hours passing by.
In a weird way it had been pleasurable. Now, as he heard their voices outside the room, he felt a deep sense of contentment.
His bedroom door was half open and he was looking at it when Georgie pushed it open.
‘You’ve been out all day.’ He looked at his watch and was startled at the time. ‘It’s nearly six-thirty!’
‘Dad!’ Flora ran up behind Georgie, squeezed past her and came to a screeching stop as she remembered the mantra that she should keep a bit of distance or risk getting ill on her holiday.
‘Good day, little flower?’
He smiled and listened as Flora embarked on an excited description of everything they had done. The breakfast they had eaten.
‘Elsa fromFrozenwas there!’
The rides they had been on. ‘Magic Kingdom’samazing, Dad! We took a boat and saw so much stuff! And…and…and…tell Dad about that ride, Georgie! The one where you said you were scared!’
Flora’s cheeks were flushed, her normally neat hair was dishevelled and she was wearing a motley assortment of colourful patterned clothes, bright cartoon-character top with flowered leggings and sparkly trainers, which was unlike the more formal designer clothing she usually wore whenever he came to collect her for days out.
This wasn’t the serious little girl he would take to expensive restaurants or on expensive shopping trips.
For the first time, she could have been any other six-year-old, overexcited, hopping from foot to foot, waving her hands in a flurry of childish pleasure at the day she’d had.
And looking up to Georgie just enough for Alessandro to sense a bond being formed.
A bond he had specifically not wanted to encourage.
‘Have you eaten?’ he asked, and was bombarded by details of the burger she’d had in the restaurant.I had waffles for dessert, Dad, and they were shaped like Mickey Mouse!
‘How are you feeling, Alessandro?’
Alessandro looked at Georgie and shrugged. His eyes dipped to register how comfortably Flora was holding her hand.
‘I haven’t moved from bed except to eat the breakfast you ordered and have that bath.’
Was he feeling sorry for himself? Surely not!
He scowled. ‘Flora, darling, you must be exhausted after your long day. I expected that you would be back after lunch in accordance—’ he looked at Georgie, smiling and affectionate although the affectionate smile was pointed ‘—with the routine we previously discussed.’
‘I know.’ Her voice was rueful and sympathetic. ‘But sometimes routines get tossed out of the window when circumstances change. Have you taken some more tablets? What time?’
‘Of course I’ve taken more tablets,’ Alessandro said irritably. ‘Time? No idea.’
He looked at her from under his lashes. If Flora was pink-cheeked and dishevelled, then so was Georgie.
They both looked overexcited.
Had he ever seen Flora like that? Certainly never when she’d been with him and no one could say that he didn’t treat her to the best that money could buy, including a day out at a toy store with the promise that she could have anything she wanted.
‘I’ll settle Flora,’ Georgie was saying now although she’d stiffened, reading his expression and correctly interpreting it. ‘I can order up some more stuff for you to eat if you let me know what you’d like.’
He nodded curtly but was now wide awake and alert to her returning to his room.
He felt strangely out of sorts, as though he’d lost control of the reins of his life.
Was it because he still felt ill? Because germs that he had successfully managed to keep at bay for thirty-odd years, bar one or two childhood infections, had decided to make up for lost time?
She was forty-five minutes and by the time she pushed open the bedroom door, she’d showered and changed into some loose grey culottes that fell softly to her calves and a white vest that showed off her slim arms and small breasts.
