‘NO!’ MARGO’S VOICE was hoarse as she stared at the blood on the ground, and then she let out a harsh, keening cry that tore at Leo’s heart. ‘No. Leo—no, no, no—’ Her voice caught and she struggled for a moment, every breath an effort as panic swamped her.
‘I have an emergency medical situation,’ he snapped into the phone. ‘I need an ambulance at the Marakaios estate immediately.’
He tossed the phone aside and reached for Margo. She was rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped around her middle, her whole body trembling.
‘Margo, breathe,’ he commanded. ‘Nice and even. It’s going to be okay.’
She took a few hitched breaths, her shoulders shaking, and then finally managed to speak. ‘Don’t lie to me, Leo,’ she said raggedly. ‘Don’t ever lie to me. It’s not going to be okay. You can’t know that.’
‘You’re bleeding,’ he acknowledged steadily, ‘but that doesn’t mean anything is wrong with the baby.’
But Margo seemed barely to hear him. She shook her head, tears streaking down her face. ‘This can’t happen,’ she whispered to herself. ‘This can’t happen. I won’t let this happen again.’
Again? Leo’s mind snagged on the word, but now was hardly the time to ask her what she meant.
‘An ambulance will be here in a few minutes. I’m going to move you so it can reach you more easily.’
Gently he scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the olive grove. He could see the blood staining her jeans and coat and his stomach roiled with fear. Margo had been right. He couldn’t know if it was going to be okay.
Soon an ambulance came screeching and wailing up the drive. Leo saw his sisters and Maria crowd onto the villa’s portico as he carried Margo towards the vehicle. A paramedic came out to help her onto a stretcher.
‘Leo!’ Xanthe cried, and he shook his head.
‘I’ll call you,’ he promised, and then climbed into the ambulance with Margo.
She looked so vulnerable, lying there on the stretcher, her eyes huge and dark in her pale face, and she scrabbled for his hand, her fingers fragile and icy in his as the paramedic took her vitals and then asked Leo what had happened.
Leo gave the details as clearly and evenly as he could; he could feel Margo clinging to his hand, her breath coming in little pants as she tried to control her panic.
Dear God, he prayed, let nothing have happened to the baby.
The next half-hour was a blur as the ambulance took them to the hospital in Amfissa, and then to an examination room in the A&E. A doctor, brisk and purposeful, came in with an ultrasound machine while Margo lay on the examination couch.
‘The first thing to do,’ the doctor said in Greek, ‘is a scan, so I can see what’s going on.’
Leo translated for Margo and she nodded frantically, still clutching his hand.
The next few minutes, as the doctor set up the machine, seemed to last for ever. Leo watched as she spread cold, clear gel on Margo’s belly and then pressed the wand against her bump. The silence that stretched on for several seconds was the worst thing he’d ever heard, and Margo gave a soft, broken little cry before turning her head away from the ultrasound screen. Tears snaked silently down her cheeks, and Leo felt the sting of tears in his own eyes.
This couldn’t be happening.
‘There it is,’ the doctor said in Greek, and Leo stared in stunned disbelief as she pointed to the screen and the tiny heartbeat, still going strong.
‘Margo—’
‘She has a partial placenta praevia,’ the doctor said, and Leo tried to listen as she explained how the placenta was covering the cervix and the fall had aggravated it, which had caused the bleeding.
He could barely take it in, however—all he could do was stare at that wonderful little pulsing assurance of life.
‘Margo...’ he said again and, touching her cheek, he turned her face to the screen.
She blinked, tears still slipping down her face, as she stared in confusion at the screen.
‘It’s okay,’ he said softly. ‘It really is okay.’
Smiling, the doctor turned up the volume, and that wonderful, whooshing, galloping sound of the baby’s heartbeat filled the room. Leo thought Margo would be relieved, that she might even smile or laugh, but as she heard the sound of the heartbeat her face crumpled and she collapsed into sobs, her shoulders shaking with their force.
Leo didn’t think past his overwhelming need to comfort her. He leaned over and put his arms around and she buried her face in his shoulder as her whole body shook and trembled.
Quietly the doctor turned the machine off and wiped the gel from Margo’s bump. ‘She should stay overnight—just for observation,’ she told Leo. ‘Tomorrow we can do another scan to see how the bleeding looks and if the placenta has moved any more.’
Leo nodded wordlessly. He’d have to process all that later; the only thing he could think about now was Margo.
Eventually she eased back from him and wiped the tears from her face, managing the wobbliest of smiles. A nurse came to transfer her to a room, and Leo called his sisters while Margo showered and changed into a hospital gown. When he came back into the room she was lying in bed, her hair brushed and her face washed, but her eyes still looked puffy and red from crying.
He sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand. ‘The doctor said you have a partial placenta praevia,’ he said. ‘To be honest, I can’t remember what that means, exactly, but I’ll arrange for a doctor who speaks English to talk to you about it.’
‘I know what it means,’ Margo said.
She sounded exhausted, emotionally spent, and Leo squeezed her fingers. ‘The important thing is the baby is okay.’
‘Yes. For now.’
She bit her lip, and Leo saw her eyes glisten with the sheen of new tears.
‘There’s no reason to be afraid, Margo—’
‘Oh, Leo, there’s every reason.’ She leaned her head back against the starchy white pillow and closed her eyes. ‘Every reason.’
‘I don’t understand...’
He thought once more of how she’d said she didn’t want this to happen again. He wanted to ask her what she’d meant, but he knew Margo was feeling too fragile now for such an emotional conversation.
‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’ he asked instead, needing to know that much.
She opened her eyes and shook her head. ‘Nothing that really matters.’
‘Then why—?’
‘I’m just so afraid.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m always so afraid. That’s why I didn’t want to have children.’
He stared at her in confusion, trying to understand what she meant. He thought of when he’d met her in that hotel bar, looking sassy and smart in a black wrap cocktail dress, her long legs encased in sheer tights, a stiletto dangling from one slim foot. She’d looked like the most fearless person he’d ever met, and she’d always seemed that way to him: breezing into hotel rooms, giving him a naughty smile, shrugging out of her dress with confidence and ease.
He’d liked that about her, had enjoyed her sense of confidence. But now he wondered. Since Margo had come back into his life he’d wondered what she’d been hiding, what secrets she had. Had that breezy confidence all been an act?
‘You don’t need to be afraid,’ he said, squeezing her fingers.
But, withdrawing her hand from his, Margo just turned away and said nothing.
Frustration bit hard but he forced himself not to demand answers or explanations. Once again he was being kept in the dark about something. It felt like another kind of rejection, because Margo obviously didn’t trust him with whatever truth she was keeping from him. But he wouldn’t press. He wouldn’t beg.
Reluctantly he eased himself off the bed. ‘Is there anything I can get you?’ he asked. ‘Something to drink or eat? Or something from the villa? Your own pyjamas or clothes?’
She was still looking away from him, her hair brushing her cheek. ‘No, thank you.’
He hated how formal she was being, even though that morning he’d decided that was just how he wanted it. Things had changed. Both their conversation in the olive grove and the terrifying events afterwards had changed him. And they’d changed Margo too—but not in a way he liked or wanted.
Everything about her, from her brittle voice to the way she wouldn’t look at him, made him think she wanted him to go. But he wasn’t going to leave her here alone, whatever she wanted, so he settled himself into a chair opposite the bed and waited.
Neither of them spoke for a very long time, and eventually Margo drifted off to sleep.
* * *
When Margo awoke the room was dark, and panic doused her in an icy wave. She struggled upright, one hand going to her middle, curving over the reassuring bump even as the remnants of the nightmare she’d been having clung to her consciousness.
‘Leo—’
‘I’m here.’
In the darkness she couldn’t see him, but she felt his hand come and close over hers. Even so she couldn’t stop shivering.
‘I had the most awful dream.’ Her voice choked and her throat closed. She’d dreamed about Annelise—something she hadn’t done in a very long time. ‘It was so terrible—’
‘It was just a dream, Margo,’ Leo said, his voice soft and steady. ‘It wasn’t real. Everything’s all right. The baby’s all right.’
She nodded and gulped, wanting, needing to believe him and yet not quite able to do so. The dream had been real once upon a time. She’d relived the worst memory she had in her nightmare, and she was so afraid of it happening again. But Leo couldn’t understand that because she hadn’t told him.
‘Don’t leave me,’ she whispered, and he squeezed her hand.
‘I won’t.’
But she needed more than just his reassurance; she craved the comfort of his touch. ‘Leo...’ she began, and then, thrusting any awkwardness aside, she blurted, ‘Would you hold me?’
Leo didn’t answer, and Margo braced herself for his refusal—because they didn’t have that kind of relationship. That kind of marriage.
Then wordlessly he rose from the chair and peeled back the covers on her bed. He kicked off his shoes and slid into the narrow bed next to her, pulled her carefully into his arms.
Margo wrapped herself around him, burying her face in his neck, breathing in the clean, comforting scent of him. She’d needed this—needed him—more than she could ever have put into words.
He didn’t say anything, just held her, one hand stroking her hair, until she felt the icy panic that had frozen her insides start to recede, the nightmare begin to fade. Her breathing evened out and her body relaxed into his embrace.
Lying there, safe in his arms, she felt a creeping sense of guilt for how much she’d kept from him. He’d been her rock since she’d fallen in the olive grove—he’d never left her, never wavered for an instant, offering her unconditional encouragement and support.
The realisation brought a lump to Margo’s throat and she pressed her face more snugly against the hollow of his neck, breathing him in more deeply...
She must have fallen asleep again, for when she woke up the pale grey light of early dawn was filtering through the curtains and Leo was still in her bed.
Margo eased back to look at him. His eyes were closed, his thick, dark lashes fanned out on his cheeks. His jaw was rough with morning stubble, which made his lips look all the more lush and mobile and eminently kissable.
He was still in his clothes from yesterday, his shirt unbuttoned at the throat, his tie tossed on a chair. Margo felt as if a fist had wrapped around her heart and squeezed.
Then the door to the room opened and a nurse wheeled a machine in. ‘Time to take your vitals,’ she said cheerfully, and Margo blinked in surprise.
‘You speak English?’
‘Yes, Kyrie Marakaios requested that someone who could speak English attend to you. Or French, he said. But no one spoke good enough French.’ She gave a little smile and a shrug, and then took out a blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around Margo’s arm.
Leo had woken up and was now easing himself to a sitting position, wincing slightly at the stiffness in his body from spending a night fully clothed on a hospital bed. His hair was rumpled and he blinked sleep out of his eyes before turning to Margo.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked quietly.
She nodded. The fear that had gripped her so tightly yesterday had now eased a little, thanks to Leo.
He rose from the bed and while the nurse took Margo’s blood pressure and temperature he left the room in search of coffee and a shave.
‘The doctor will visit in a little while, for another ultrasound,’ the nurse told her. ‘And in the meantime you can have breakfast.’
Margo nodded, and a few minutes later Leo returned with two cups—one of coffee and another of ginger tea.
‘Where on earth did you get that?’ Margo asked as he handed her the cup.
‘I make sure to always have some on me. Just in case.’
‘You’re so thoughtful,’ she said, almost wonderingly.
Leo laughed ruefully. ‘Don’t sound so surprised!’
‘I am surprised,’ she admitted. ‘There haven’t...there haven’t been that many people in my life who have been thoughtful.’
Leo frowned and Margo looked away. She wasn’t ready to tell him any more than that, but she could tell he had questions. Questions he wanted answers to.
Before he could ask anything the door opened again, and a smiling woman brought in a breakfast tray.
After breakfast the doctor came with the ultrasound machine, and they both silently held their breath as she set it up—until the image of their baby came onto the screen, still kicking up a storm.
‘Oh, I can feel that!’ Margo exclaimed, one hand pressed to her bump. ‘I hadn’t felt anything since I fell, but I felt that.’
‘This little one doesn’t like being poked,’ said the doctor, who also spoke English, with a smile. ‘Everything looks fine. You’ll have your twenty-week scan in a few days, and we’ll check on the placenta praevia then.’ Smiling, the woman put the machine away and Margo pulled down her shirt. ‘You’re free to go.’
It wasn’t until she was dressed and they were back in the car, heading towards the estate, that Leo turned to her, his expression serious.
‘Margo, we need to talk...’
Her body went tense and she turned to stare blindly out of the window.
‘What are you not telling me?’ Leo asked, his voice quiet but insistent. ‘Because there’s something.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It does matter. It matters because in the hospital you were terrified—’
‘Of course I was!’ She turned to look at him. ‘Leo, I was afraid I was losing my baby.’
‘Our baby,’ he corrected quietly, and Margo bit her lip. ‘Don’t shut me out, Margo.’
She turned back to the window without replying, and they drove in silence all the way back to the Marakaios estate.