Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,12

gowns and masks. As they did so, David Lorenzo was wheeled off for a CT scan before surgery could commence. The scan revealed nothing too sinister and it turned out to be a very quick routine operation, all over in less than half an hour. In deference to Bruno Lucy let him do most of the work while she kept a weather eye on his progress. She was pleased to see that he was very thorough and painstaking and his stitching was as good as she had ever seen. As the patient was wheeled away to a room to recover, she peeled off her mask and gloves and dropped them into the sack. As she was taking off her gown, she glanced across at Bruno, pleased to see the smile back on his face.

‘That was brilliant, Lucy. Thank you so much. As it turned out, it was no big deal, but I’m really grateful you were here to hold my hand. I’m sorry I spoiled your afternoon.’

‘You’re very welcome. Congratulations on your surgical skill – very impressive. And you didn’t spoil anything for me. If I’d stayed at the wedding, I’d probably just have been standing in a corner drinking too much Prosecco.’ She caught his eye. ‘Listen, as far as the whole gunshot thing’s concerned, back home in the UK we’d have to inform the police. I don’t know if the same applies here and I don’t want to know, all right? All I would say is I think you should keep an eye on Mr Lorenzo. He says it was an accident, but there was something about him, something in his eyes, that worries me. Can you tell me what you’ve been treating him for?’

Bruno nodded. ‘Two things: widespread damage to the torn cruciate ligaments in his left knee, and serious depression.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘The two are linked. We’ve operated on the ligament twice in an attempt to resolve the problem which wasn’t helped by a previous unsuccessful operation done in Paris almost three years ago, but with only limited success. It looks like his career’s over. That’s why he’s depressed.’

Lucy nodded as she vaguely began to remember hearing something about this while she was in Africa. For a top-level sportsman to find himself invalided out of his chosen sport while still at the peak of his career must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Little wonder he was suffering from depression.

‘Thanks, Bruno, and you have my word none of this will go any further. But just keep an eye on him, would you? And I think it’d be a very good idea if you told his housekeeper to lose the gun.’

Chapter 4

Back at the wedding the first thing Lucy did was to hurry across to apologise to Daniela for having had to run off. On the way back in Virginia’s car – thankfully at a more sedate pace – they had concocted a story involving a very demanding British patient who had insisted upon speaking to a doctor in his own language. Daniela gave her a big smile and told her not to worry and the story appeared to be accepted by everybody. Pietro even did his unsuccessful best to wheedle the name of the fictitious patient out of her.

Amazingly, they only missed the antipasti. All in all, their excursion to the clinic had only taken little over an hour and Lucy was able to take up her place at table number six just in time for the panzanella. This typical Tuscan dish had always been one of her favourites and she helped herself with relish. Served straight from the fridge, this was an aromatic mix of dry Tuscan bread, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, red onions and basil, all mixed together with extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar.

She found herself sitting at table along with what she first thought to be four strangers, but she soon found she did after all know two of them. The couple who looked vaguely familiar turned out to have been part of their gang way back in her teenage years, when they had spent the summers splashing about in the little stream down in the valley. They were soon reminiscing and the girl, Annarosa, told Lucy something surprising.

‘I’ll tell you something about Bruno. I bet you didn’t know he was head over heels in love with you back then, did you?’

‘Bruno in love with me? I had no idea.’ Lucy grinned at them. ‘Pity he didn’t say