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With a muttered curse Rafael flung open the door to his study. He yanked on a pair of hiking boots and headed outside, the air hot and dusty and dry, the sun beating hard on his head. She shouldn’t have been out in this heat. He didn’t even know if she’d put on sunscreen. And what about a sunhat and proper walking shoes? What if she’d tripped or fallen? His stomach clenched hard and he tasted the metallic tang of fear as he followed her path through the gate, picking up her trail through the broken ferns and grasses along the mountainside. With each step his anxiety grew and his fists clenched at his sides. He felt deep in his gut that something was wrong, that something had happened on his watch. Again.
For a second he could see his mother’s empty eyes, his sister’s wasting body. His father...
Dammit, he couldn’t keep opening the door to all that remembered pain. What was it about Allegra that brought it to the surface? He needed to lock that door tightly, so tightly, before the memories surged around him and he drowned.
He’d been walking for about fifteen minutes, calling Allegra’s name, his voice starting to grow hoarse with panic, when he saw her. She was crumpled up at the bottom of a large boulder, one leg awkwardly angled beneath her, her head lolling back. Her eyes were closed but they fluttered open as Rafael ran towards her, cradling her head in his lap as he said her name over and over again, tears of grief and self-recrimination springing to his eyes.
Her eyes fluttered open and fastened on his. ‘Next you’re going to handcuff me to my bed,’ she murmured. Her face was pale and waxy with a pearly sheen of perspiration but her tiny smile made Rafael’s heart turn over. ‘Just spare me the I-told-you-so, please.’
‘Are you hurt?’ Rafael demanded, his hands shaking as he ran them lightly over his body, looking for bruises or broken bones.
‘My ankle,’ Allegra answered on a shuddery sigh. ‘It’s not broken. At least, I don’t think it is. But I tripped on that stupid rock and went sprawling.’ She pressed one hand to her bump, her voice trembling and her face crumpling as she added, ‘I think the baby’s all right.’
Rafael’s insides felt icy as he bundled her in his arms. She felt light and precious, a treasure he wanted to cling to for ever. The mother of his child. ‘Let’s get you home,’ he said, and, scooping her up, he started back towards the villa.
* * *
The trip back to the villa was a blur; Allegra curled into Rafael, resting her cheek against the hard wall of his chest, taking comfort from the steady thud of his heart. The last hour she’d spent trapped in the woods, the trees dark and menacing all around her, her ankle throbbing, had been truly awful. She’d been afraid for their baby, afraid for herself, and she’d cringed to think of what Rafael’s reaction would be. Yet it wasn’t her freedom or lack of it she was worried about, she realised—it was Rafael. Something was driving him to act in so domineering a manner, something dark and desperate, and she feared in her impetuous folly she’d made it much worse.
To his credit, Rafael didn’t lambast her then. He treated her tenderly, carrying her through the woods, and then calling to Maria to bring cool cloths and compresses and tea as soon as they arrived back at the villa.
The doctor came and looked her over, pronouncing the baby well, the steady thud of his heart on the Doppler wonderfully reassuring. Her ankle was sprained and the doctor bound it up and then gave her strict instructions not to put any weight on it for at least a week, which would undoubtedly please Rafael.
After the doctor had gone Allegra fell asleep, grateful to retreat into oblivion for a little while. When she woke up Rafael was sitting by her bed, his head in his hands, his long fingers driven through his dark, unruly hair. The sight of him looking so exhausted, so unguarded made her heart squeeze in a way she wasn’t used to. A shaft of yearning pierced her sweetly, although what she wanted she couldn’t say. To comfort him, perhaps—but would Rafael even accept her comfort? What was between them now? What could be between them?
‘Hey.’ Her voice sounded scratchy and she licked her dry lips. She must have become a bit dehydrated out in the hot sun.
