how awful it had been for her to be rejected by everyone around her and isolated from the normal life of a child.
At Lupi’s age he and Mario had been inseparable, tearing around trying to outdo each other with more and more impressive deeds. He had been younger by a year but he’d never let that get between him and Mario and their hijinks. Poor Lupi had known none of that. She’d never been allowed to mix with other children.
‘Indeed,’ he said. ‘She can’t talk and has a very poor nutritional state because chewing and swallowing are so difficult with the bilateral cleft.’
Katya nodded. If Lupi had grown up somewhere with decent access to a good health-care system, she would probably have had several operations by now and had many specialties involved. Orthodontists, speech therapists, ENT surgeons, paediatricians, dieticians.
‘Are you going to repair the nasal deformity in this operation as well?’ Katya asked.
He nodded as he accepted his next instrument from the scrub nurse standing next to him. ‘There are differing opinions on whether this should be done as a staged repair but Lupi’s situation is very different,’ he said. ‘For a start, she’s a lot older. Most children having this repair would be under a year old. And follow-up could be a problem. So I’ll do both now. It may be that she’ll need another operation in a few years’ time as she grows and her facial structures mature but, as I say, follow-up could be a problem.’
Ben worked on the nasal defect, knowing he had to maintain symmetry and secure primary muscle union. He wanted to get the best outcome possible for Lupi, given everything she’d been through, but he was finding concentrating difficult with Katya standing a metre away.
He realised how much he’d missed being in the same theatre with her. It had only been a few months but he was looking forward to when she could scrub in with him in a few days. While she was close now, she could be closer and he wanted to be rubbing shoulders with her again.
Returning to Italy had put a very abrupt end to the thing that had been happening between them. Oh, sure, Katya would have denied it but there had been a tension between them right from the beginning. He half suspected that was why she’d been so prickly, so feisty. Because deep down she’d also known something had been happening and it had scared her to death.
‘Nearly done,’ Ben said, asking for a suture.
Katya watched Ben’s fingers as he operated, and allowed his deep husky tones to flow over her. He was concentrating, pulling the incised edges of the cleft together, preparing for closure. She studied his style and compared him to Gill Remy, the surgeon she had worked closely with at MedSurg.
Gill’s fingers had been deft, his style understated and methodical. Ben’s was different again. He was more flamboyant, his style entertaining. His movements were a little more exaggerated, his handiwork punctuated with an added flourish and touch of theatre.
It didn’t affect his competency, she realised. It was more a reflection of his personality. Gill was a born surgeon, his skill and expertise defining him. Ben was a born count playing at being a surgeon. A rich man mixing it with the peasants and enjoying the freedom both worlds gave him. His style was... expressive, a bit like a conductor of a symphony orchestra, and Katya enjoyed watching him work.
The operation took an hour and Katya was amazed, as she always was, that time could pass so quickly when you were totally engrossed. Ben’s handiwork was very impressive. The suture line dominating Lupi’s now complete lip was obviously very prominent but Katya knew it would eventually fade to a ghostly white and the little girl that had been formerly shunned as a cursed child could now live a normal life.
And Ben had given that to her. For nothing. And if that wasn’t true father material — then what the hell was?
CHAPTER THREE
ON FRIDAY morning, Katya finished breakfast a little earlier so she could stop by Lupi’s room on her way to work. It was Lupi’s last day and she wanted to pop in and say goodbye to the little girl who had won all of their hearts with her big brown eyes and beautiful new smile. Katya stopped abruptly at the door as she realised she’d been beaten to it.
Ben was speaking to her in Italian, their heads almost touching as they bent over