“OnDownton Abbey,Sybil died from it,” I whispered, my voice trembling.
Raffaelo grabbed my hand and held onto it. “This is the 21stcentury. That was in – what – the 1800s?”
“The early 1900s.”
“Okay, well, your situation isverydifferent. I haven’t seen the show – was she in a hospital?”
“No,” I whispered. “Her father followed the advice of a doctor and didn’t move her from their house.”
“Well, there you have it,” he said reassuringly. “If she’d been in a hospital, they would have been able to treat her – even back then – and she would have been fine. I’m assuming she had seizures – is that right?”
“Yes.”
“That was eclampsia. You don’t have eclampsia, you havepreeclampsia. It’s the difference between being diabetic and pre-diabetic. You just need to be careful and see your doctor for monitoring. Plus, like I said, if she’d been in a hospital, she would have been fine, even in 1900 or whatever year it was.”
“We’re an hour away from Florence,” I whispered. “What if – ”
“If your doctor thinks it’s necessary, he’ll probably want you to have a C-section,” Raffaelo interrupted gently. “Maybe a month early, at most, which will be fine for the baby. They’ll be monitoring both of you closely, long before you ever have to worry about it.You’re going to be fine.And your baby is going to be fine.”
I sniffled. “OnDownton Abbey,the baby lived, at least.”
“Andyou’regoing to live to see your great-grandchildren get married,” Raffaelo said.
I laughed and cried all at once.
“You’re going to be fine,” Raffaelo said. “Trust me.”
I nodded, tears blurring my vision. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he said, and smiled, then patted my hand. “Okay.”
When Adriano came to get Raffaelo a few minutes later, I told him ‘thank you’ again.
“You’re welcome,” he said warmly. “Remember what I said: everything’s going to be fine. I promise.”
I nodded and smiled.
Adriano looked at me curiously. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“…okay,” he said, unconvinced. “Dario wants to see you in the parlor.”
Thatwas unusual.
The parlor was the place where my husband did business – like the meeting he’d had this morning with his brothers, Lars, and a couple of my sisters-in-law.
I rarely went into the parlor. I still had an uneasy relationship with it, seeing as it was the first place I’d been taken when I was brought here to the mansion.
Against my will, I might add.
It was where I’d seen Lars after he killed the man in my father’s café…
And where Niccolo had first applied his brand of devious manipulation against me.
I’d since come to know both men as wonderful people –
But I still had bad associations with the room where it had all happened.
