He held up a hand and began to speak. Luke interrupted in quick German. ‘Sprechen sie Englisch. Sie ist eine familie und Englisch.’
‘The lady, she’s your…’
‘My godmother. I’m staying with her. There is no other family. Her name is Amelie,’ Mina added the last a little fiercely.
‘Your godmother has had a heart attack. She will recover, but we need to insert a stent to enlarge an artery bringing blood to the heart. It’s a simple procedure. We shall do it tomorrow.’
‘Is she conscious?’
He shook his head. ‘Not yet. She’s going into a room on her own, and will be monitored overnight.’
‘Can I… we see her?’
‘Yes, once she has been settled. Half an hour.’
‘She’s not going to die?’
The doctor, his eyes glinting behind his glasses, gave her a stern look. ‘Not if I can help it.’ Then he gave her a grave smile. ‘Modern medicine means that her condition will not be so serious once we have done the procedure. Until then we will be watching her very carefully. But it will be important for her to avoid stress and anxiety.’
‘Let’s hope the woman will see some sense now and let other people help her,’ Johannes grumbled as soon as the doctor left. ‘I’ve been telling her.’
Mina smiled at him. ‘If you know what’s best for you, I wouldn’t tell her you told her so. It might not endear you to her.’
His mouth shut abruptly and for a second his moustache bristled, before he regarded her with a steady glance. ‘Perhaps not.’
‘Amelie doesn’t like being told what to do.’
‘Well, she might have to learn to put up with it,’ he said, folding his arms and looking recalcitrant, clearly a man who didn’t like being told what to do either.
‘Perhaps you need to tell her why it’s so important to you,’ said Mina, trying to suppress a smile.
He glowered at her. ‘Hmmph.’
Mina rolled her eyes. ‘The two of you are as bad as one another. I think you need to tell her how you feel.’
She almost felt sorry for him as he coloured. ‘Hmph.’
‘In words of more than one grunt,’ she teased.
‘I’ve tried to show her.’
‘Maybe she thinks you’re being neighbourly.’
‘Foolish woman.’
‘Hearts and flowers,’ interrupted Luke, suddenly appearing a little more lifelike. ‘A romantic gesture.’ For a while he’d been looking like some kind of graveyard effigy. ‘That’s what you need.’
It took longer than the predicted half-hour, nearer an hour and a half, before they were led through several corridors to a ward with several private rooms.
‘I’ll wait outside,’ said Luke, seeming uncharacteristically on edge.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Probably only allowed two visitors.’
Mina guessed he was right. This was actually the first time she’d ever been inside any part of a hospital apart from A&E. There’d been plenty of trips there – like the time she’d fallen out of a tree, when she’d bounced too high off the trampoline, and taken a tumble off her bike from a home-made ramp across the garden bench; she really did break her wrist that time, but the previous excursions had been false alarms. She felt now as if she should be tiptoeing, and wasn’t sure if it was alright to speak above a whisper. Glancing at Johannes, she tentatively pushed open the door.
Amelie was wired up to a beeping monitor made familiar by endless episodes ofCasualty, thanks to Hannah, who’d once thought she’d like to be a nurse, an idea scuppered by her aversion to blood and a couple of spectacular faints. Mina felt a little bit like fainting now, at the sight of her godmother lying so still. The insistent sounds, the green waves oscillating on screen. This was serious. How did someone go from being alive and well in the morning to this, silent and lifeless? Nothing in her experience had prepared her for this. The enormity of everything hit her hard. Amelie wasn’t going anywhere for a while. The chalet. The guests. Someone needed to run the place. Amelie would worry. Worry was bad for the heart. Mina stared down at her godmother making a silent resolution. Her godmother had given her so much security over the years and she knew how important the chalet and the guests were to her.
