‘I was about to say I’m sorry I made such a fuss earlier – when I got the phone call, I mean.’
Luc slapped the steering wheel. ‘Oh, don’t say that! You did not make a fuss. It was a dreadful shock, and you reacted completely normally. He’s your son, for Christ’s sake.’ He paused a second before continuing. ‘Let me tell you something. When Emma was six, she was invited to a fancy dress party. She was going as a fairy in one of those frilly frocks. You might not believe it now, but Emma was a very girly little girl. Anyway, just before I was about to take her to the party, she went out into the garden with her wand and the next thing I knew, I looked through the kitchen window and saw she was lying unconscious on the grass.’
‘Oh, my God, what did you do?’
‘Rushed her like a madman to A&E – it’s a miracle I didn’t kill us both driving so fast – where I had an absolutefit insisting she was seen by a doctor immediately despite the fact that the only thing upsetting her by that stage was her hysterical father.’
I smothered a grin.
‘Quite,’ said Luc, seeing it. ‘It transpired she’d been spinning round and round in her fairy frock and had simply made herself so dizzy she’d fallen over.’
‘Oh dear.’
‘Oh dear, indeed. Emma wouldn’t speak to me for the rest of the day because she’d missed the party.’
I forbore to ask where his wife was at the time.
‘So, no problem, okay? I actually thought you behaved very well, considering.’
‘Thank you. But listen.’ I hesitated again. ‘I’m afraid I still want to go. I still want to see Carl.’
‘Of course you do.’ He released the handbrake.
‘No, wait, you don’t understand. I can go on my own. There’s no great urgency now so, please, if you don’t mind kindly dropping me at the nearest train station, I’ll get there on my own. Then you can go back home.’
He considered me a moment, thoughtfully scratching his nose. ‘Railway station,’ he said. ‘It’s called a railway station, not a train station.’
I looked blankly at him. ‘What?’
‘No, forget it,’ he sighed, ‘I’m the one who should apologise. Just me being Professor Picky – as usual. Even at a time of crisis.’ He put the car in gear and, as we pulled away, threw me a quick glance. ‘I am driving you to Milan, Alix,’ he said slowly and distinctly. ‘So, sit back, relax and, as the Americans say, enjoy the ride.’
I hesitated a second. ‘Is there any way I can stop you?’
‘Nope. However, if you could get the name and address of the hospital, that would be a help. Milan is, as you yourself have wisely remarked, quite big.’
‘Is it really?’
‘It’s the second largest city in Italy.’
‘Hey, Mum! I was unconscious for, like,forever!’
‘So I gather,’ I said, speaking briskly to ward off the threat of more tears. Carl looked so much younger and smaller in the hospital bed. ‘Please don’t make a habit of it.’
***
We had arrived at the hospital at around five in the afternoon, the main part of the journey on the motorway going fine but the traffic when we hit the outskirts of Milan absolutely diabolical. We’d also stopped for an hour at a service station just north of the turn-off for Genoa when Luc had said he needed fuel.
‘Fuel for me,’ he explained apologetically. ‘I didn’t have any breakfast, and I don’t want to risk fainting on you.’
The queue in the cafeteria stretching for miles, we bought sandwiches in the shop, a couple of coffees and took them back to the car. I didn’t really fancy eating anything, the recurring thought of what might have been with Carl making my stomach still churn like a washing machine. But I knew I had to be sensible and, in fact, after forcingdown a few mouthfuls of a surprisingly pleasant ham and cheese panini, my innards started to settle down and I felt revived.
‘Have you ever fainted?’ I asked Luc.
‘Embarrassingly, I have.’ He brushed crumbs from his shirt front. ‘But not since school, you’ll be relieved to hear. However, I went to a boarding school where they thought it good for discipline to make us do a sort of parade ground military assembly every morning before breakfast.’ He grunted. ‘I hit the deck virtually every time.’
‘How horrible for you,’ I said, but adding reprovingly, ‘but you really shouldn’t go without breakfast, you know.’
‘Yes, Miss,’ he said meekly.
