The following day she had a long lie-in to help get her ready for night duty starting that evening. David had gone off at the crack of dawn for his early flight and she had been left with time to reflect on the whirlwind that had carried her away in the past forty-eight hours. Suddenly her whole life had changed for the better. She now had a wonderful man in her life – albeit maybe just temporarily – and a permanent smile on her face. Compared to those final days in Mabenta, this really was a dream come true. Her escape to Tuscany had turned into something far, far better than she could ever have imagined.
That afternoon she met up with Daniela for tea before going to the clinic to start her night shift. When she passed on her amazing news, Daniela beamed.
‘I’ve been feeling awful about the fact that it was my newspaper, and my colleague, who revealed your tennis player’s whereabouts. I’m just delighted it’s worked out so well for him and for you. Tommy’s been avoiding me since the article came out and he knows I’m going to give him a real telling-off. Even if we’re journalists, we need some sense of morality.’
Lucy patted her hand. ‘Don’t waste your breath, Danni. Even David says it needed to happen so he could get on with his life.’
‘Are you seeing him tonight?’
‘No, he’s on his way to Boston for a few days. He went off this morning. I’m going to be working nights until Saturday and then he’ll be back and I’ll see him again. And once he’s back, I’d really like to have you and Pietro round for dinner one night so you can meet him. Anyway, how are you? 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 free hour of theatre time today and a bed for two or three nights at the clinic? I’d be happy to do the operation and I’ll also pay for her stay there. I’m sure I could persuade an anaesthetist and a nurse to help out.’ He didn’t respond immediately, so she hurried on. ‘The thing is, she’s the girlfriend of one of our staff members. I don’t suppose…’
There was the briefest of pauses before he replied. ‘After what you did for Mr Lorenzo, we owe you, and Ahmed’s always been a dedicated member of staff. Fine. Bring her here.’ She exhaled in relief.
‘Thank you so much, Professore.’
‘That’s okay and, Doctor Young, there’s no need for you to pay.’ There was a gentle note to his voice. ‘Tell Ahmed we’re glad to help.’
‘Thank you so very much.’ Lucy reflected that he really was a good man.
Together with Ahmed, she helped Rahel down the stairs and they laid her in a foetal position on the back seat of the little car which, fortunately, still had its wheels. Back at the clinic she found that Professor Gualtieri had already put things in motion and they were able to wheel Rahel straight down to the operating theatre. The operation was very straightforward and a complete success and at the end Lucy went out to give the waiting Ahmed the good news. He was grateful, but she made it clear where thanks were due.
‘All I did was a routine operation. It was Professor Gualtieri who authorised everything and who’s paying for it.’ She gave him a hug as she saw tears of joy running down his cheeks. ‘You and I have a good boss, Ahmed. We’re lucky to work here.’ She realised she meant it.
It was midday by the time she got home and she went straight to bed, setting the alarm for seven o’clock so she would be able to take a shower and eat something before hurrying back to work. In spite of feeling tired after so long on her feet, she also felt elated. After months here in Siena looking after the privileged few, it had felt good to do something for the less fortunate. Importantly, it underlined what a fine man Professor Gualtieri was. Whatever reservations she might have been having about private medicine, she knew she was proud to work for a man like him.
She was woken just after six o’clock that evening by her phone. As she reached lazily for it, she was delighted to see it was a call from David in the States. Her tiredness disappeared in a flash and she sat upright.
‘David, hi. It’s so good to hear from you.’ And it was. ‘How was your journey and how’s everything?’
‘It’s great to hear your voice too, Lucy.’ He went on to tell her that he had had his first meeting with his ‘legal people’ and he hoped everything was going to be concluded by the end of the week. Apparently most of the groundwork had already been done by his wife’s lawyers in the hope of a speedy conclusion. As the end of the week was little more than two days’ away, Lucy crossed her fingers that he was right.
‘And are you going to be meeting up with your wife?’
‘Friday afternoon, I believe. We both need to sign some papers.’
Lucy found herself yet again wondering what reaction his wife might have when she saw him. Might she find she still loved him and want to get back together with him? If so, Lucy wondered where that would leave her. Still, she told herself, there was nothing she could do about it, so she just had to hope for the best, although it was an uncomfortable feeling.
They chatted for almost half an hour before, reluctantly, she told him she had to get ready for work. Before ringing off, he came up with an invitation.
‘My sponsors – who, I’m pleased to say, are sticking with me – have invited me to a Palio party next Wednesday. I wonder if you’d like to come. We can watch the race from above the crowds.’
‘That sounds great, but it’s not the party organised by the local newspaper, is it? I’ve already turned down an invitation to that as I really don’t want to bump into Tommy… you know, the guy who ratted you out.’
He assured her it was a totally different party and she said yes, willingly. In fact, she didn’t really mind where she was going to be as long as wherever that was she would be by David’s side.
Back at the clinic later that evening, she found Rahel sitting up in bed and looking much better. Lucy sat and chatted to her for some time, listening with rapt attention to her first-hand account of the arduous journey she had had to undertake to get away from the war zone with her elderly parents. They came from the ten percent of Syrians who were Christians and things had been getting increasingly tough for them in their home town of Aleppo by the time they left. Lucy was also fascinated to learn that Rahel had been a trainee nurse.
Rahel told Lucy her plan was to try to enrol in a course here in Italy so she could finish her nursing studies and make enough to look after her parents. The problem was that almost all the precious money she and her family had, had been used to pay the extortionate fee the people-smugglers had charged to cram them onto a frighteningly overloaded inflatable for the crossing to Europe. In consequence, she had had to take any job she could find until she could save enough money to let her carry on with her plan. Lucy knew it was going to be an uphill battle and urged her to waste no time in applying for asylum. She also offered to act as a referee if necessary. In the meantime Ahmed had managed to find modest accommodation for her and her parents which was much better than the squat.
Lucy thought about the Syrian woman a lot during the final days of the week and when it was time for Rahel to be discharged on Friday morning, she pressed several hundred euros into her hands. Brushing away her protests, she told her to consider it a loan that she could repay once she was a qualified nurse with a full-time job.