Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,11

had time to register that it was housed inside a charming and no doubt ancient Tuscan villa, and under other circumstances would have been delightful. As it was, she didn’t stop to admire it as they hurried up the steps and in through the main doors. Virginia disappeared through a door marked Private, while Bruno led her into the lift and down to the operating area in the basement, where a nurse was waiting for them. After scrubbing up and donning gloves, they went through into a very smart modern operating theatre.

The patient was laid out on the table and as soon as she saw him, Lucy recognised him. It was none other than former tennis world champion, David Lorenzo, from the USA. Lucy had played a lot of tennis when she was younger and she was very familiar with his triumphant career over the past decade or more, although she had rather lost track of the whole tennis scene while in the depths of Africa. He was conscious and as he saw them, he even managed to hoist himself up onto his elbows, albeit with a grimace. Recognition appeared on his face as he saw Bruno.

‘Bruno, hi. Listen, I’ve done something very stupid.’ He sounded anxious, but under control.

‘Hello, David, don’t worry. We’ll sort you out.’ Lucy was mildly surprised to find that Bruno spoke unexpectedly fluent English. So far she had only ever heard him speak Italian. ‘This is my colleague, Doctor Young. She has a lot of experience of gunshot wounds and she’s going to take a look at you.’

Lucy walked over to the table and set about examining him. There was a blood-soaked towel strapped to the left side of his chest, just below the ribcage. She asked the nurse to expose the wound and, as the bandages were being removed, she introduced herself.

‘Hi, my name’s Lucy Young. I gather you somehow managed to shoot yourself. How did you do that?’

All she got back from him was a shake of the head. ‘I dropped it. It’s complicated. It was an accident.’ His American accent had been softened by years of international travel, but was still there. His eyes suddenly focused on her. ‘Are you sure you’re old enough to be a doctor? You’re not a medical student, are you?’

Now, when you are thirty-five, it can be rather nice when somebody thinks you are ten years younger, but when you’re an experienced surgeon and your credentials are questioned, it’s a different matter. Consciously keeping her tone sweet – he had just shot himself after all – she replied.

‘Thanks for the compliment, Mr Lorenzo, but I’m older than you think and, don’t worry, I’m well qualified.’

The nurse removed the blood-soaked towel and revealed the wound. Lucy’s first reaction was one of relief. Unlike so many wounds she had seen over the years, there was just a little blood oozing from a neat hole surrounded by the trademark burns associated with a bullet wound at close range. She went over and bent lower to inspect it more fully. She reached round his side and found the exit wound reassuringly close-by. She got him to roll to one side so she could examine it more closely and she was heartened by what she saw. It looked like the work of a relatively small calibre, high-velocity bullet and it had come out leaving an exit wound that was almost as neat as the entry wound. It had gone straight through him and, with any luck, it had done so without hitting any vital organs. She glanced up to see him staring down at the wound in morbid fascination.

‘Good news, Mr Lorenzo. It looks to me as though you haven’t done yourself too much damage. I think you’ve been very lucky.’

‘Me, lucky?’

You didn’t need to be a qualified psychiatrist to hear the dejection in his voice. With all his success and all his millions, she wondered what he had to make him unhappy. Deciding to leave any consideration of his mental health to somebody else, she carried on in her most reassuring voice.

‘All we need to do now is to give you a scan to be sure there’s no serious internal damage and that it’s all clean in there and then we’ll sew you up again. You’ll be back on your feet in a day or two and as good as new in a few weeks.’

There was no answer so she and Bruno headed back to the anteroom to change into surgical