Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,84

How’s the bump?’

‘I’m doing well. To be honest, I just want to get on with it now and have the baby.’

‘Still no idea if it’s a boy or a girl?’ Pietro and Daniela had decided they didn’t want to know.

‘No. Just so long as it’s healthy. That’s all that counts. By the way, you know that next week’s the Palio, don’t you?’

‘How could I forget? The local news has been full of it for days. This one’s the Palio dell’Assunta, seeing as it’s August, isn’t it? In this heat I’m happy to give it a miss. Now that I’m going to be a permanent resident here, there’ll be other opportunities to see it again. Are you going?’

‘I don’t think so. I’m feeling less and less sociable, and the idea of standing up for several hours in a crowded room really doesn’t appeal at all. The paper organises a party every year and I could get invites for you and David if you’d like to go along. It’s in an apartment overlooking the square and the view’s great.’

‘Thanks, but no thanks. I remember Tommy telling me about that. I’d rather not meet him again because I might feel tempted to tip him out of the window.’

That evening at work, she met up with her friend Ahmed again, but there was no smile on his face tonight. She was quick to ask why. It soon transpired that his new girlfriend, Rahel, had a big problem.

‘She’s sick and she needs medical help, but it’s not easy to get.’

‘Can’t she just go along to the hospital in Siena?’

Ahmed shook his head morosely. ‘The problem is she’s an undocumented migrant. She has no right of residence in Italy and the authorities have been clamping down. I would hope they’d treat her at the hospital, but she might then find herself in trouble with the authorities as a result.’

Lucy made a quick decision. ‘I’ll take a look at her, Ahmed. What about after we finish our shift tomorrow morning? We could go together in my car.’

Ahmed’s girlfriend was living in a squat in the less salubrious part of the outskirts of town, not the sort of area the multitude of visitors to Siena ever saw. While Lucy parked between a burnt-out van and an old car with no wheels, resting on bricks, Ahmed climbed out and went across to a couple of men squatting in the early morning sunshine and spoke to them for a minute before returning.

‘It’s all right, Lucy. They’ll keep an eye on your car. Would you like to come with me?’

Lucy nodded. No doubt, without these unofficial guards, she would have returned to find her Fiat also minus its wheels.

He led her up three flights of concrete stairs and into an open plan area that had probably started life as an office or factory space. Now, from the plaster falling off the ceiling and walls, and graffiti all over what was left, it was clearly earmarked for demolition. It was warm and sticky in there and it smelt of drains – or, rather, the lack of them. There were probably five or six little clusters of people up there, huddled together with their meagre possessions. Rahel was in the far corner along with a couple of older people and she was curled up in a ball, wrapped in a thick blanket in spite of the heat.

Ahmed knelt down beside her and whispered softly in her ear. Lucy saw her stir and look up, her bloodshot eyes full of gratitude.

‘Thank you, doctor.’ Her voice was very weak, but she even managed to summon a little smile.

Lucy gave her a thorough examination and very quickly diagnosed appendicitis. Rahel needed to have the offending organ removed as soon as possible to avoid the risk of peritonitis, which would be a far more serious matter. She reached for her phone but then remembered that Bruno and Virginia were away. Gritting her teeth, she called the clinic and asked to be put through to the director, Professor Gualtieri Della Torre, Virginia’s father.

‘Good morning, Professor Gualtieri. It’s Lucy Young.’

‘Good morning, Doctor Young. How can I help?’

Rapidly, she outlined the situation, explaining that in her opinion an urgent operation was needed. ‘I could take her to the main hospital where I’m sure they’d treat her, but Ahmed’s terrified that the authorities might subsequently have her arrested and maybe even deported. I honestly don’t know if that would be the case, but they’re both dead scared. Might there be a